(via UFCNews)

Johny Hendricks will look to bounce back from his title fight loss to Robbie Lawler when he faces off against tough bastard Matt Brown at UFC 185: Pettis vs. Dos Anjos (March 14th, Dallas). The UFC announced the booking today, which comes as a bit of a surprise, considering that the original plan was to book Hendricks vs. Lawler III.

However, Brown recently found himself without an opponent when Tarec Saffiedine withdrew from their UFC Fight Night 60 bout due to a groin injury. Plus, some dudes on twitter told Dana White that they weren’t interested in seeing a Hendricks/Lawler rubber match so soon, and the idea was scrapped.

The UFC’s change of plans presents some good news and some bad news. The good news is, UFC 185 is getting stacked. Right now, it looks like this:

- Anthony Pettis vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (for UFC lightweight title)
- Johny Hendricks vs. Matt Brown (for intercontinental welterweight dip-spit king)
- Alistair Overeem vs. Roy Nelson (for PRIDE Neva Die freak-show heavyweight belt)
- Henry Cejudo vs. Chris Cariaso (for flyweight…ah screw it, you know Cejudo’s going to pull out of this one for “personal reasons“)
- Sergio Pettis’s return to flyweight against Ryan Benoit (possible FOX Sports 1 featured prelim??)

So yeah, pretty good so far. The bad news is…

(Pictured left: Matt Brown’s son reacts as Tarec Saffiedine’s son kicks a corner stool in half off-camera. Photo via Getty.)

On the heels of tough losses to Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald, respectively, it looks like top welterweight contenders Matt Brown and Tarec Saffiedine will meet when the UFC returns to Sweden for a TBA Fight Night event on January 24th. The bout, which has yet to be officially confirmed, was first reported by Swedish outlet Kimura.se this morning and appears to be legitimate.

Saffiedine has fought just twice since making the transition over to the UFC, picking up a unanimous decision win over Hyun Gyu Lim at Fight Night 34 before dropping the aforementioned fight to MacDonald in October. Brown, on the other hand, was riding a 7-fight win streak (6 finishes) prior to the Lawler bout at UFC on FOX 12 in July. As is the case with every Brown fight, expect fireworks for this one, Nation.

In other fight booking news…

(Photo via Getty)

Robbie Lawler and Matt Brown put on a show at UFC on FOX 12. It wasn’t the 5-star epic poem many were expecting, but it was still a fun, entertaining fight that made spending a night in front of the TV worth it.

But was it worth it for the fighters?

Heading into the card, media pundits discussed the potential paydays for the card’s fighters. They noted four fighters could earn six figures. Friend of CagePotato Trent Reinsmith summed up our thoughts on the issue:

Three fighters earned six figures. And only five fighters made fewer than $10,000 (this excludes “of the night” bonuses and the mythical locker room bonuses as well).

Lawler earned $210,000, the highest pay of the night. Matt Brown received $46,000.

Anthony Johnson made the easiest $106,000 of his life in a 44-second drubbing of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who took home $114,000 to act as a human punching bag–not bad!

Jorge Masvidal, too, made a pretty penny. He received $84,000 in his victory over Daron Cruickshank.

Here are the figures for the entire card (all via MMAJunkie):

(So you mean to tell me that Matt Brown missed weight, Anthony Johnson made weight, and Lil’ Nog actually showed up? No. Impossible. / Photo by Esther Lin for MMAFighting)

The UFC is in San Jose tonight with a free fight card that can only be described as “legit man [expletive].” UFC on FOX 12 kicks off at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and BG will be sticking round-by-round results after the jump; refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

On the lineup: A welterweight demolition derby between Robbie Lawler and Matt Brown that will likely produce the next welterweight title challenger, the continuing saga of Anthony “Rumble” Johnson at light-heavyweight, Clay Guida bouncing around the cage against fellow featherweight Dennis Bermudez, and this frickin’ guy.

Shoot your own thoughts in the comments section, or fling them at us on twitter. And as always, thanks for coming.

(Props: UFC on YouTube)

UFC on FOX 12 weigh-ins went down earlier today in San Jose, and no, they did not proceed without incident. Most notably, Matt Brown came in way heavy on his first attempt, tipping the scales at 172.5 pounds for his welterweight headliner against Robbie Lawler. Usually, a fighter in his position would grit his teeth and go back to the sauna for an hour. But due to a weird miscommunication, that didn’t happen. FOX Sports’s Marc Raimondi has the report:

[After missing weight], Brown was advised by a commission doctor that he should not continue to cut weight. By rule, a fighter has another hour to try to make weight. Brown thought the doctor was telling him he would not be allowed to weigh in again, according to CSAC executive officer Andy Foster.

“There’s a difference between advisement from a doctor and a directive by a doctor,” Foster told FOX Sports.

When a fighter misses weight in California, he or she must forfeit 20 percent of his or her purse, 10 percent to the commission and 10 percent to the opponent. After a discussion between the UFC and commission officials, the CSAC decided not to fine Brown.

“We were just looking after his health and safety, but I was going to let him on [the scale again],” Foster said. “I was going to give him his time. Chalk it up to miscommunication.”

(Props: UFC on YouTube)

Related: Matt Brown and Erick Silva brawl til’ they fall, and Robbie Lawler kicks Bobby Voelker’s damn head off

The fights are tomorrow, dudes. Come back to CagePotato.com at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT for our liveblog of the UFC on FOX 12 main card. Have a great weekend!

(Our friend Georgie wrote a “Hot Mess Guide” to surviving the summer, and it’s awesome, and you should all read it here.)

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(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?