(Brown poses with his two primary investors in Topless Broad FC. / Photo via @IamTheImmortal)

After a poorly-timed back injury robbed him of a chance to fight Carlos Condit in December, Matt Brown will be returning to action on May 10th for UFC Fight Night 40 in Cincinnati. The UFC confirmed yesterday that Brown will headline the event against Brazilian welterweight Erick Silva, who thoroughly styled on Takenori Sato last month at UFC Fight Night 36: Machida vs. Mousasi.

Brown has put together six consecutive wins over the last two years, tying him for the fourth-longest active win streak in the UFC. While it might not be totally logical to match him up against an opponent who’s been steadily alternating between wins and losses during that same time period, you can’t really complain about a booking like this, which pretty much guarantees an insane level of action, and at least one POTN bonus being handed out.

Useless fact: Brown vs. Silva will mark the first time that Brown has competed in his home state of Ohio since his destruction of Pete Sell in March 2009, and the first time that Silva has competed outside of Brazil since his submission win against Charlie Brenneman in June 2012.

In other booking news…

(Dana White’s “I’m not the president of a massive company” pose, typically used by presidents of massive companies. / Photo via Getty.)

A few years ago, Matt Brown’s recent, sexist comments about women’s MMA wouldn’t have rocked the boat much. Some people would’ve complained, citing such infractions of decency as the reason why the UFC wasn’t where the NFL was in terms of mainstream appeal. Dana White would’ve simply responded “Fuck you, dummy” or some other dismissive, useless remark. The UFC is cool, and it’s cool because the fighters aren’t corporate, generic, and anodyne. They’re as real as it gets, as opposed to the walking-press releases that are athletes in other major sports.

For proof, look no further than motorboat-gate. Rampage Jackson acted lecherously towards a female reporter (and this wasn’t the first time he’d done such a thing). Nothing happened. When Yahoo’s Maggie Hendricks lambasted Rampage and the MMA media, Joe Rogan called her “cunty” and MMA fans thought it was the cleverest comeback since Lord Palmerston verbally thrashed his enemies in parliament.

CagePotato’s own Ben Goldstein got to the crux of the issue:

Nine out of ten UFC fans will side with Quinton Jackson and Joe Rogan every time, because Rampage and Joe are awesome, and motorboating is hilarious, and who the fuck is Maggie Hendricks anyway? Seriously, here’s another representative comment from the UG thread from member ‘Bat21?:

“shitty cunty?!?!? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!
Fuck, I’m still laughing after 5 minutes. You’re the man, Joe.”

Jesus. If this is the mindset of the average UFC fan, then good luck being taken seriously, guys.

A high-profile commentator for the NFL or NBA couldn’t get away with throwing around slurs like this in public forums. I know that the fast-and-loose quality of the UFC’s frontmen and fighters has been part of the brand’s great success to this point. But there will come a time (we hope) when MMA is so popular that guys like Rampage and Rogan will have to behave like gentlemen — so they may as well start practicing for it now.

Has this time finally come? Do UFC employees finally have to behave, as Ben Goldstein put it, like gentleman?

(Matt Brown: Knockout artist, foxy-boxing aficionado. / Photo via Getty)

On Wednesday, we gave our CagePotato Seal of Approval to Matt Brown‘s new podcast Legit Man Shit, featuring the “hilarious, borderline sexist musings” of the tough-as-nails UFC welterweight contender. As Jared wrote, “head over to the podcast’s SoundCloud page and check out episode one before Brown is inevitably stifled by his superiors like every forward-thinking philosophizer before him.”

We hope you took our advice, because Legit Man Shit #1 has been removed from the Internet. Indeed, the UFC has fed Brown the proverbial hemlock.

The quote that wound up getting Brown in trouble with his bosses was a rant about women’s MMA that featured the line, “If I’ma pay 60 dollars for a pay-per-view to watch women fight, they should at least be topless.” Soon after that quote began circulating around the MMA blogosphere, the UFC released the following statement:

“Matt Brown has apologized for the comments made on his podcast, and we have addressed the matter with him. His comments don’t reflect the views of the UFC. There’s no place for discrimination within our organization at any level. The UFC is built on principles of respect [Ed. note: LMFAO], and any statements to the contrary are not acceptable.”

The UFC is understandably touchy about its female fighters being publicly disrespected by its male fighters; featherweight Conor McGregor was previously smacked down after he released a sexually-charged tweet about Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey. And now it’s the Immortal’s turn to put out a forced apology:

(On an artistic scale, we give it 5 out of 5. On the Hessy Scale of Creepy Fan Obsession, we give it 1 out of 5. Just sayin’, it could’ve used some snow blossoms.)

MMA podcasts are a dime a dozen. MMAFighting has one. Sherdog has one. BloodyElbow pays a lunatic to drive around in a Ford Fiesta and rant about stuff, which is kind of the same thing. Hell, even we used to have one, until Dana White & Co. shut us down for being “too real” and “too in your face.” At least, that’s what we keep telling ourselves. But thankfully, the short list of MMA podcasts worth listening to (mainly, The Co-Main Event Podcast and The Joe Rogan Experience) is about to get a little longer, Nation.

A few days ago, UFC fighter, grizzled badass and 2014′s surefire welterweight champion, Matt Brown, announced (via the UG) that he was starting a podcast to keep himself busy while rehabbing his back. Appropriately dubbed the Legit Man Shit Podcast – not to be confused with Alpha Male Shit — and featuring Brown’s friends Jeremy Loper (radio host) and Travis “The Terror” Clark (pro fighter), the Legit Man Shit Podcast debuted on New Year’s Eve with special guest Dorian Price.

If you don’t know much about Brown and his cohorts, then prepare yourself for an hour of hilarious, borderline sexist musings such as,“If you can’t rip somebody’s face open with elbows, it is not Muay Thai” and “If I’ma pay 60 dollars for a pay-per-view to watch women fight, they should at least be topless.” Brown also shares some MMA tales from “before the sport got all pussied up” by things like “sanctions” and “rules”, so head over to the podcast’s SoundCloud page and check out episode one before Brown is inevitably stifled by his superiors like every forward-thinking philosophizer before him.

(2014: The year that Dana White buys this dog. For Bjorn Rebney. Too soon?)

When former CagePotato.com contributor Jason Moles announced his retirement in 2013, it appeared that there wouldn’t be a “Crazy Enough to be True” predictions column for 2014. Rather than let the opportunity to make outlandish assumptions about the state of our favorite sport pass us up, we’ve decided to offer our wildest ideas in the form of a CagePotato Roundtable. Read on for our picks, share yours in the comments section, and please continue to send your ideas for future CagePotato Roundtable topics to tips@cagepotato.com.

Ben Goldstein

(Mariusz Pudzianowski defends his UFC Poland Super-Heavyweight Title against honorary polack Bob Sapp. / Photo via Sherdog)

Though the UFC once laid claim to the title of fastest-growing sport, the promotion has begun to hit its ceiling in the United States. And they know it — which is why they’ve been pushing so hard for World Fucking Domination lately. After finding major success in international markets like Canada and Brazil, the UFC has been busy laying the groundwork in overseas locales as far-flung as Singapore, India, Turkey, and Poland.

The problem is, none of these upcoming markets have the talent pool available to produce a world champion in the foreseeable future. Or a top contender. Or a fighter who could credibly compete anywhere on a pay-per-view main card. That’s why I’m predicting that 2014 will see the unveiling of individual UFC titles for countries/continents. I mean, Vitor Belfort is already the middleweight champion of Brazil, right? They might as well give him a belt and make it official.

(Brown smashes up Jordan Mein at UFC on FOX 7 in April. / Photo via Getty)

By Elias Cepeda

Last week, UFC welterweight contender Matt Brown herniated two discs in his back and was forced to pull out of his scheduled fight against Carlos Condit this Saturday at UFC on Fox 9. As he explained to CagePotato, he initially hoped a cortisone shot would help him feel well enough to fight, but that didn’t pan out.

Now, he’s benched from most physical activity for a month other than his therapy exercises. The good news is that if rehab goes well, Brown could be back training full contact in two months.

“The prognosis for me is basically that for one month I’ve got nothing but rehab. There’s no bending over to pick anything up and I can’t have any impact in any shape or form. No running. Nothing like any of those types of things,” Brown says.

“After two months, assuming rehab goes well, I’ll get a second cortisone shot and should be able to go full contact again.”

If Brown does his physical therapy to a ‘T’, he says he’s told that he should be able to avoid surgery on his back. Despite being so badly hurt, Brown says that he couldn’t bring himself to pull out of the fight on his own.

“I knew in my heart I wanted to do it,” he says.

(If only the discs in Brown’s back could’ve been “immortal” too. / Photo via Getty)

We don’t want to freak you out, but curses are real. Our last five posts about UFC on FOX 9 have all been injury related. Our sixth post about the event is worst of all: Matt Brown is out of his fight with Carlos Condit due to a back injury.

The best fight left on the card after a series of injuries ravaged it is gone now. If you’re not keeping score, here’s a rundown of how injury-plagued this fight card has been:

(“I’ve been at the bottom. When I lost three in a row I thought I was cut for sure. I have no fear of that. I can look at it and say there’s worse things in life that could happen.” / Photo via Getty)

By Shawn Smith

A real-life Rocky if there ever was one, Matt Brown is not your typical MMA fighter. He didn’t wrestle in college and he doesn’t have the polished good looks that will land him on posters. He turned to mixed martial arts as a way out of a lifestyle that was killing him, and it has been anything but a smooth ride to the top of the UFC welterweight division. Three straight losses in 2010 had many, including him, questioning whether or not he was a UFC-caliber fighter.

Now with six straight wins in the UFC, Brown will get the most challenging opponent of his career. On December 14th at UFC on FOX 9, he’ll take on former title contender Carlos Condit in what is sure to be an explosive bout. We recently spoke to Matt to get his thoughts on the fight that could launch him into title contention, how MMA saved his life, his experience on TUF, what he thought about Georges St. Pierre‘s controversial win over Johny Hendricks, and so much more. Enjoy.

CAGEPOTATO.COM: What was it about mixed martial arts that drew you to the sport?

MATT BROWN: The first time I saw it was Tank Abbott way back in one of the first UFC events. That got me kind of interested. The first one that really got me was Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie in Pride. I thought “man, this is freaking amazing.” It was something I wanted to be a part of in some way.

The draw is mainly the intensity and the authenticity of the sport. The UFC says it best: It’s as real as it gets. That’s a rare thing in life and in sport.

I find it funny you say Sakuraba and Gracie because they were so grappling-based and you’re more of a knockout guy.

At that time with the knowledge I had of MMA, Royce was unstoppable. He was the epitome of a UFC fighter. He was this mysterious guy who came in and did all these things that no one had seen before. It was amazing. The fact that [his fight against Sakuraba] lasted an hour and a half, it was like watching a movie. I don’t know what it was about that fight, but even to this day it’s a pretty amazing fight to me.

(UFC lightweight Pat Healy, daring us to make a HHNNNGGGG reference in two consecutive posts. Nice try, buddy. / Photo via Getty)

UFC on Fox 9 is shaping up to be a straight-up excellent card. The latest solid matchup was just announced as Pat Healy and Jamie Varner square up opposite one another in a lightweight contest. Both men are coming off losses but, on paper, this looks like yet another exciting and evenly-matched bout for the December 14th event in Sacramento.

Varner lost his last outing against Gleison Tibau via split decision. Before that, Varner bested Melvin Guillard and before that, he lost a thrilling bout to Joe Lauzon via submission, which won Fight of the Night honors at UFC on FOX 4. Healy recently returned after a marijuana-metabolite suspension that turned his incredible UFC-debut win over Jim Miller into a no-contest, and recently lost a decision to fellow Strikeforce vet Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 165. (Yes, I had to copy and paste Khabib’s name. No, I will never remember how to spell or pronounce it.)

Joining Healy and Varner on the December 14th UFC on Fox 9 card are new lightweight champion Anthony Pettis defending his strap against Josh Thomson, and Carlos Condit and Matt Brown trying to tear each other’s hearts out in a welterweight contender showdown. Also, Court McGee and Kelvin Gastelum do battle in one of those, TUF vs. TUF type contests. Your predictions, please.

- Elias Cepeda

(You can’t really get a good look at Carlos’s face in this picture, but we imagine it looks something like this. / Photo via Getty)

Yet another potential slugfest has been added to the UFC on FOX 9 lineup. FOX Sports breaks the news that former UFC interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit will face Gritty Son-of-a-Bitch™ Matt Brown at the December 14th event.

Condit’s most recent appearance ended in a savage fourth-round TKO of Martin Kampmann, which snapped a two-fight losing streak. Meanwhile, Brown is on a six-fight win streak in the 170-pound division, with five of those wins ending by stoppage within the first two rounds.

While some Natural Born Killer fans might consider this a step backwards for Condit — who is currently listed as the #2 welterweight contender on the UFC’s official media rankings, compared to Brown all the way down at #10 — keep in mind that Condit specifically asked for this fight. “[Brown has] been on a tear, and it’d be really exciting for the fans,” Condit explained to MMAJunkie earlier this month. And so, Condit gets the fan-friendly matchup he wants, and Brown gets what he’s long been pleading for — a chance to prove that he’s an elite-level welterweight. Will he rise to the challenge?

UFC on FOX 9 will also feature the Anthony Pettis vs. Josh Thompson lightweight title fight, as well as Urijah Faber vs. Michael McDonald, Chad Mendes vs. Nik Lentz, Joe Lauzon vs. Mac Danzig, and Scott Jorgensen vs. Ian McCall. Sacramento, you really don’t deserve this much awesomeness.