(This photo and all photos after it via Getty)

By Jared Jones

It’s the halfway-ish point of the year, which means that we are a mere six or so months away from handing out our annual Potato Awards in categories such as “MMA Fail of the Year”, “Media Shill of the Year”, and the always coveted “Krazy Horse Bennett Arrest of the Year.” But because you Taters have been good this year, we’re going to allow you to open one present early: Our definitive ranking of the best UFC brawls of the year, so far.

It’s been a rocky year for the UFC, to say the absolute least. Pay-per-view numbers are tanking, fan interest is waning due to market oversaturation, and even the promotion’s new video game has been plagued by (albeit hilarious) technical issues. But the great thing about the UFC/MMA in general is that all can be forgiven with a few great fights, and these 10 brawls are undoubtedly the kernels of corn hidden amongst the soggy floor-turds that the UFC has been shitting out this year.

To repeat: This list is only dedicated to the best *brawls* of the year, which implies a fight in which both participants take their fare share of licks. TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao was a one-sided beatdown, albeit a brilliant one-sided beatdown, and therefore bears no mention here. Except that I just mentioned it. God damn it.

Let’s just get to the top 10 brawls of the year, nearly all of which contain links to full fight videos for your viewing pleasure…

#10 – Kevin Souza vs Mark Eddiva: TUF Brazil 3 Finale

(Check out Souza vs. Eddiva in its entirety here.)

A classic example of two guys with more heart than brains (or defensive capabilities) leaving it all in the octagon, Kevin Souza vs. Mark Eddiva opened up the FS1 prelims for the TUF Brazil Finale in a huge way.

Watching Souza vs. Eddiva was kind of like watching two women play Tekken for the very first time, in that both fighters only seemed to understand how one button on their controllers worked — for Eddiva it was leg kicks, for Souza it was the overhand right. These two techniques were traded with absolutely zero setup for two highly entertaining rounds, earning both men a $50,000 “Fight of the Night’ bonus in an evening of otherwise unmemorable decisions and memorable-for-all-the-wrong-ways squash matches. It was Souza, however, who walked away from the fight victorious via an always rare standing TKO.

(We’d include “The Dana White 24/7 feed — all Dana White, all the time,” but that’s kind of what the UFC is already. / Photo via Getty.)

If the UFC expects us to shell out $10 every month to watch local talent and foreign-language reality shows on the Internet, they’ve got another thing coming. Here are some suggestions for new Fight Pass content that would actually make the digital streaming service worth our time and money…

1. Live footage of fighter weight cuts (i.e., “sauna-cam”/”salt bath-cam”). Who wouldn’t want to see how brutal these things can get?

2. The complete library of TUF audition tapes.

3. Dana White bench pressing and doing pull ups.

4. Any existing video of Dana’s old boxercise classes.

5. Nicco Fertitta’s football highlights.

6. Random drug tests.

7. The first season of Keeping Up With the Koschecks.

(That’s how you’re gonna beat ‘em, Butch. They keep underestimating you. / Photo via Getty)

Once again, welterweight contender Matt Brown is heading into battle as an underdog. According to BestFightOdds, the betting line for the July 26th UFC on FOX 12 main event between Brown and Robbie Lawler opened with Lawler as a strong -260 favorite and Brown as a +180 ‘dog. “The Immortal” is currently on a seven-fight win streak, and was the betting underdog in four of those fights, including his last match against Erick Silva, God knows why.

Of course, Lawler represents the toughest test of Brown’s career by far, and it’s not surprising that the oddsmakers are favoring him here. On the other hand, Brown keeps knocking people off in brilliant performances, showing no regard for these silly, arbitrary betting lines with their pluses and minuses that half of you still don’t understand. Anybody feel like dropping some cash on him?

(First Condom Depot and now Ultra Lube. This sport is turning into one big game of grab-ass, I tell ya. Photo via Getty.)

Fresh off third round TKO’s of Erick Silva and Jake Ellenberger at Fight Night 40 and UFC 173, respectively, Matt Brown and Robbie Lawler are set to do battle in what will surely go down as “The greatest brawl since Frye vs. Takayama” at UFC on FOX 12 on July 26th. The announcement was made by Dana White via Twitter earlier today, who also confirmed that the winner of Brown vs. Lawler will earn the next shot at Johny Hendricks when he returns from bicep surgery.

Suffice it to say, any MMA fan whose isn’t verging on a Scanners-esque mindsplosion trying to comprehend the awesomeness of this fight is either dead or dying. Lawler and Brown are essentially mirror images of each other — uber-violent, no-nonsense brawlers who have experienced improbable career comebacks in recent years — and their upcoming clash is all but guaranteed to deliver a “Fight of the Year” nominee and a clear cut #1 contender at 170 lbs.

Is it just me, or does the booking of Lawler vs. Brown signify the culmination of what has been an amazing couple of months for MMA?

(We’d like to formally retract that “Caribbean Jerk” comment. / Photo via @hectorlombard)

As reported on yesterday’s edition of UFC Tonight, a high-profile welterweight bout between Hector Lombard and Dong Hyun Kim is expected for an August 23rd UFC Fight Night show at the Cotai Arena in Macau, China.

Lombard is coming off a dominant decision win against Jake Shields at UFC 171 in March, which followed his first-round knockout of Nate Marquardt last October. Kim is riding a four-fight win streak, and most recently knocked out John Hathaway with a spinning back elbow at the TUF China Finale, which also took place at Macau’s Cotai Arena.

Though Lombard had been trying to build heat for a fight against Matt Brown, it seems that the UFC has other plans for “The Immortal” right now. What those plans are remain to be seen, although UFC president Dana White stated last night that he’d happily set up Brown vs. Nick Diaz if Diaz wanted it.

The 8/23 Fight Night show in Macau will likely be broadcast on UFC Fight Pass, and will take place the same day as a FOX Sports 1 card in Tulsa, Oklahoma, God help us.

(Erick Silva trots out everyone’s favorite cat meme prior to his main event scrap with Matt Brown. Photo via Getty)

Last weekend’s Fight Night 40 card “brought the ruckus,” to put it in scientific terms. With 7 (T)KO finishes, 8 underdog victories, and a main event brawl for the ages, the event continued to carry the momentum provided by UFC 172 and ease the worries of MMA fans who might have grown complacent with the UFC’s somewhat underwhelming product in 2014 thus far.

The figures for Fight Night 40, however, are what we’ve come to expect of a Fight Night event; only five guys cleared more than $40,000 (in disclosed salary, at least), and three poor bastards walked away with less than 10k for their troubles. I guess my cries for a $20,000 minimum payout per fight are still going unheard, despite my neighbors incessant noise complaints and threats to cut out my tongue if I don’t stop shouting off my porch.

The full list of salaries, along with our thoughtless and borderline incomprehensible analysis, is after the jump.

(Props: UFC on FOX)

In case you missed the incredible (and somewhat unsettling) three-round smash-up between Matt Brown and Erick Silva at UFC Fight Night 40 on Saturday night, watch this quick recap of the action. Two quick takeaways: 1) Brown might be the toughest sumbitch in UFC history. 2) At the 0:47 mark, you will see the closest that MMA has ever come to a double-KO via body shots. I’m glad the fight turned out with a triumphant victory for the very deserving Immortal, but damn, that would have been awesome.

After the jump: Matt Brown’s post-fight interview, and highlights from Costa Philippou and Lorenz Larkin’s one-round slugfest.

(Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

Watching MMA comes at a cost. Not $60 for a PPV. Not $10 every month for Fight Pass. Not even the hours you spend watching low-level fighters on prelims learn their craft so you can watch the main card. No, being a fan of this sport comes at a human cost. Real people are putting their permanent health on the line for…money? A pittance? For our entertainment? For the tired notion of glory?

Each fighter has their own motivation for stepping into the cage, but most fans generally watch MMA for the entertainment value; if something about MMA didn’t entertain or excite them, they wouldn’t watch.

And how can MMA fans be blamed? The kernel of Dana White‘s blowhard persuasions about fighting being “in our blood” is true. The highest level of MMA transcends “sport” as we’re used to it. There are no overweight outfielders scratching their balls between innings. There are no fines for wearing your socks the wrong height or for excessive celebration. MMA, at its best, is a phantasmagoric display of violence juxtaposed with art. It’s raw. It’s visceral. It’s a grotesque, screeching cacophony of carnage that unfolds into a single, unparalleled and strangely soothing melody. There is nothing on earth like (good) MMA. Nothing.

This is why Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva was so spectacular. As MMAFighting’s Chuck Mindenhall noted, UFC Fight Night 40′s main event reminded us why we watch MMA in a time when lackluster card after lackluster card had us questioning our fandom.

But Sunday mornings are always sober; the high has worn off. The consequences of combat are the violence junkie’s hangover.

(Matt Brown about to do the Captain Morgan pose on Erick Silva. / Photo via Getty)

Matt. F*cking. Brown.

No, really. Matt Brown. If you didn’t see his main-event fight against Erick Silva at UFC Fight Night 40, you have to. You owe it to yourself. Our words can’t really do it justice suffice it to say it was pure violence. The first round saw Silva nearly score a liver-shot KO over Brown and then submit him with a rear naked choke. But after Brown escaped the choke, he managed to reverse his fortunes. He landed some combinations that would put down a horse, but somehow Silva survived the beating throughout the latter half of the first round and the entirety of the second. Finally, in the third frame, Silva succumbed to the force of nature that was Brown. This fight was a breath of fresh, bloody air when MMA needed one.

In the co-main event, Constantinos Philippou defeated Lorenz Larkin via knockout, but not just any kind of knockout. It was a faceplant KO. Here’s the GIF. The end result of the fight doesn’t convey how competitive it was though. Both fighters had one another in danger until Larkin’s lights went off.

After the jump: Something worse than Beatus the Robot and the fight card’s complete results.

(Props: MMAJunkie)

Nine months ago, Matt Brown was poised to break into the UFC’s welterweight title picture. Then, he hurt his back, and the division blew up without him. Tonight, “The Immortal” returns to the Octagon in his home state of Ohio to fight the dangerous (but inconsistent) Brazilian scrapper Erick Silva, who is a 2-1 favorite here for some inexplicable reason. It’s a pretty damn compelling fight, actually. But there’s no way we’re gonna waste an entire Saturday night typing out play-by-play for the rest of this mess.

In this installment of “Liveblogging the Fights You Actually Care About,” CP weekend editor Matt Saccaro will be giving you live results for the Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva main event, as well as Erik Koch vs. Daron Cruickshank — barnburner alert! — and whatever else he feels like covering. Plus, quick results from the rest of the event, and our usual analysis of video game commercials and frozen pizza.

The FOX Sports 1 main card begins at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT, and we’ll start throwing down results after the jump shortly thereafter. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.