(Seriously, who let that mouse into the Octagon? Props: UFC.com)

Here’s what we know: BJ Penn and George Sotiropoulos already have dates at UFC 127 in Australia. Karo Parisyan has been fired (again), and Matt Brown will surely be let go as well after suffering his third-consecutive submission loss. (Tyson Griffin also lost his third-straight on Saturday, but will remain in the promotion, as the judges’ decision in his fight against Nik Lentz was utter horseshit.) So where do UFC 123‘s other winners and losers go from here? As usual, we have a few suggestions…

Quinton Jackson: This one’s fairly obvious, assuming that nobody really wants to see an immediate rematch between Jackson and Machida. Rampage should get the winner of Jon Jones vs. Ryan Bader at UFC 126. The winner of that fight gets a title shot. Bada-bing, bada-boom.

Lyoto Machida: Once an unstoppable force in the light-heavyweight division, it’s now been a year and a half since the Dragon has put on a dominant performance against anybody. At this point, the UFC needs to re-build Machida against a mid-level contender. Give him Matt Hamill, who deserves a step up after handling Keith Jardine and Tito Ortiz. Alternately, you could throw Machida in against Randy Couture, and see if the Natural’s gift for game-planning can carry him through against the Dragon. Of course, that matchup might not be pointless enough for Randy, so don’t get your hopes up.

(Same time tomorrow? Same time tomorrow. PicProps: UFC.com)

OK, three things: 1) Did Rampage deserve to win? Yes. 2) Was it a great fight? No. 3) After spending much of the last couple years making movies and generally acting disinterested in the fight game, did we think Jackson had it in him to beat Lyoto Machida leading up to UFC 123? No we did not, but we were wrong. Look, we’re not going to try to sell you a bill of goods that says Rampage looked outstanding out there on Saturday night. He didn’t, but he looked better than he has in some time and he implemented a solid, if unexciting game plan. Props to the much maligned Lance Gibson for cooking up a strategy (controlling the distance, punching off the break, trying to mix in some takedowns) that on this night was good enough to win two rounds against a suddenly very ordinary seeming Machida. Do we need to see them do it again? Meh … not really, so we’re glad UFC President Dana White is also opposed to the idea. Feels nice to agree with Dana for once.

BJ Penn is the real story here. Pretty much everyone on the planet said leading up to his third bout with Matt Hughes that the key for the former lightweight and welterweight champion was to come in motivated and in shape. Well, Penn proved very motivated this weekend. Crazy-eyed, mumbling-to-himself motivated. Unintelligible-after-the-fight motivated. So motivated that we had no time at all to see what kind of shape he was in after he came out of his corner like a house of fire and knocked Hughes cold in just 21 seconds. Now, if you thought Penn-Hughes III was a weird booking for Penn following his back-to-back losses to Frankie Edgar at 155-pounds, just wait to hear who Big DW says he’s got next …

(“So then I said, ‘Hey Tim, Dana told me if you beat Rizzo he might let you back in the UFC.’ Man, you should’ve seen his face. I think the poor fucker believed me.” PicProps: CombatLifestyle)

I went to Detroit once. During the summer of 1998 my band played at a bar called the Old Miami in the city’s Cass Corridor neighborhood. It was the kind of place where Vietnam veterans hung their actual purple hearts on the wall and tacked up fading snapshots of fallen fellow soldiers with the letters “KIA” scrawled above their heads in ballpoint pen. I kept expecting Dennis Hopper to wander in and say something like, “This is a heavy scene, man.” In fact, the whole town was like a living embodiment of every Bruce Springsteen song ever written. It was kind of cool, in an anthropological sort of way. Needless to say, the middle-aged ex-grunts who hung out at that bar didn’t seem to appreciate our particular brand of balls-to-the-wall, angsty hardcore music. Weird, I know.

I imagine not much has changed. In a lot of ways, war-torn old Detroit is the perfect setting  for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to stage a comeback fight. Both are getting on in years and still carry an aura of unpredictable violence despite the fact that their best days are probably behind them. I don’t even know what city Machida is like. Where do they drink the most piss? Santa Barbara? Probably Santa Barbara. Anyway,  we’ll be going live at 10 p.m. Eastern. As always, be sure to hit refresh early and often to keep up with the latest happenings.

(Creepy pale guy is thinking how great he would look in a jumpsuit made from Chael’s skin.)

CagesideSeats.com has an interesting story they scooped from Yahoo! Sports MMA reporter Dave Meltzer’s paid subscription f4wonline message board that sheds some light on the Chael Sonnen PED case.

According to the story, Sonnen has been undergoing hormone replacement therapy since before his fight with Yushin Okami, which he reported to and was given clearance to fight by the California State Athletic Commission prior to the the bout. Because it is a permanent treatment  Sonnen allegedly assumed his doctor prescribed required testosterone treatment would be on file, and thus never re-reported it to the commission.

Testosterone levels can drop off for various reasons, including age, hereditary reasons or because of stress the endocrine system is due to a number of variables,  not limited to repeated weight fluctuation and dehydration caused by weight cutting.

Here’s what Meltzer had to say about the case in the latest edition of  his Wrestling Observer newsletter:

"Chael Sonnen’s hearing before the California State Athletic Commission regarding testing positive for testosterone is scheduled for 12/2 in Sacramento. Josh Barnett will also be applying to get licensed on that date. The talk was Sonnen would argue based on being medically prescribed testosterone due to a low level in his system. The issue would be whether or not he informed the commission ahead of time, because in cases like that, at least in Nevada, you have to ask for an exemption well in advance, have the commission doctors and your doctors talk and get it approved, and you still can’t have a higher than normal level in your system when being tested which requires additional lab work. Those type of exemptions being approved are rare."

CS dug a little further and came up with a conversation between Meltzer and UFC.com writer/German UFC commentator Oliver Copp on the F4WOnline messageboard

(Video courtesy AOL)

MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani caught up with Dana White following today’s UFC 123 pre-fight press conference in Auburn Hills, Michigan and the UFC president shared his thoughts on a number of topics, including whether or not he thinks Quinton Jackson is motivated for his fight with Lyoto Machida, why he had a change of heart about letting Karo Parisyan fight for his organization again, what will happen to BJ Penn if he loses his third straight fight and Roy Nelson’s contract status.

(Props: GollyIE)

UFC 123 may not feature any title fights, but it does feature four hungry ex-champions. Headliner Rampage Jackson says he’s seen it all in his long career, and he’s not expecting any surprises from Lyoto Machida. Tiki Ghosn chimes in, predictably: "It’s Karate. Karate we found out sucked years ago. I think everybody got mesmerized with [Machida's] movement. Nobody cuts him off, nobody tries to cut him off." We hear more about Rampage’s decision to move his camp closer to home in Orange County, but no real explanation for the specific presence of Lance Gibson. Coincidentally, Machida has been preparing not too far away in San Diego, at Team Nogueria Gym. He says this fight is all about who imposes their gameplan. As opposed to other fights, where gameplans don’t really matter.

After the jump: ’Countdown’ continues, with a nice history of the rivalry between Matt Hughes and BJ Penn — from Matt’s "big man on campus" prime, to the loss that threw him into a Sin City tailspin, to his rematch redemption. Hughes has now eaten up three-consecutive Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, and is looking to make Penn #4. Meanwhile, Penn is in Honolulu, with a head full of smoking needles, trying to clear his head after two upset losses to Frankie Edgar. To see the segment on Sotiropoulos vs. Lauzon, head to UFC.com.

Will "Rampage" finally pull out the "stank piss breff" joke he’s been dying to use on Machida?

Will Lyoto praise Steven Seagal for bringing back the old "Dragon?"

Has BJ Penn given up conventional training and gone back to carrying rocks under water and diving off of cliffs?

Will Matt Hughes ever be humble?

These questions and more will be answered within the hour as the UFC 123 pre-fight presser from Auburn Hills, Michigan hits the web via the UFC streaming web player after the jump.

Oh man, you thought last week’s Rumor Funhouse was grossly irresponsible? You guys have no idea what’s in store for you. Today’s installment features five warm ‘n fuzzy tales, all about the romantic bond. Four of them have been completely made up, either by us or by other people. One of them is actually legit. Can you separate the bullshit from the chicken salad? (That’s what they say down South, right?) Read on if you dare. Actually, don’t. Just move along. You’ll be a lot better off for it…

(We feel pretty comfortable saying this is the best Oasis/Green Day/Footage-of-Matt-Hughes-blasting-wild-pigs-with-a-laser-sited-crossbow mash-up on the internet today. VidProps: YouTube/LaserLyte)

Here’s a subtle hint for all you aspiring writers out there: When referring in print to people of ethnicities other than your own, it’s probably not best to preface your description of their race/nationality with the word “the.” Doing so just makes you seem like 1,000-times more racist than you might normally appear. Case-in-point: Matt Hughes’ post-UFC 121 blog, in which he admits being baffled by the UFC’s choice to promote Cain Velasquez as the “First Mexican Heavyweight Champion,” but still feels happy for “The Mexicans” that Velasquez beat Brock Lesnar last weekend. Check it out:  

“I didn’t think Brock was going to lose like he did, but I knew there was a good chance Cain could get his hand raised,” Hughes writes. “UFC kind of made a big deal about it. I really don’t know why, but I’m glad that the Mexicans have a heavyweight champion.”

Emphasis ours, of course. But, see what we mean? There’s just something about the above sentence that makes the author sound like an old man in plaid pants peering hesitantly out from behind lace curtains while he complains to his wife, “Goddamn it, Margaret. What are the blacks up to now?” Nobody is accusing Matt Hughes of knowingly being culturally insensitive. Just, you know, for future reference …

(VidProps: YouTube/FightersOnlyMagazine)

Good news and bad news for people who were worried about how BJ Penn might react after demoralizing, back-to-back losses to Frankie Edgar this year: On the positive side, Penn’s not hanging it up. In fact, he says in the above vid with Fighters Only Magazine that he’s intent on fighting even more often and actually sounds like a 22-year-old “TUF” rookie just embarking on his UFC career when he starts talking about how he’s still tweaking his training and trying to figure out what works best for him. For a dude who in times past appeared cripplingly preoccupied with his place in the history of the sport, that renewed sense of himself has to be a good thing.

So, the bad news? Well, he and Matt Hughes are cool now, which pretty much takes all the fun out of the pair’s upcoming third meeting at UFC 123. Frankly, if this fight isn’t a grudge match, then it’s not immediately clear why anyone is supposed to care about it, let alone watch.

(Loser pays for the pig roast at the afterparty.)

CagePotato has learned through a source close to the situation that discussions are underway between Matt Hughes,  BJ Penn and the UFC to set up a rubbermatch between the pair at UFC 123 on  November 20.

The event, which is scheduled for The Palace of Auburn Hills in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan will feature a main card match-up between former UFC light heavyweight champions Lyoto Machida and Quinton Jackson.

We first learned of the possible match-up last week, and although we were unable to confirm with Hughes’ or Penn’s camps as of time of writing, both men have since confirmed that they could possibly compete in November, so it seems like the tip was legit and that the bout is in fact a plausibility.

(Silva and Hughes both got the same to win and Sonnen got paid what Almeida made to take a nap)

The California State Athletic Commission today released the fighter salaries for UFC 117, which was held August 7 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.

According to CSAC, the total payroll for the event, which is said to have drawn 12,971 fans for a live gate of $1.56 million, was  $1.029 million.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, whose come from behind win over Chael Sonnen thrilled fans, topped the list with $320,000 which included his flat rate $200,000 show purse and double-fisted $60,000 Fight of the Night and $60,000 Submission of the Night bonus haul. Sonnen on the other hand made just $35,000 show money for the fight, which would have tied him for eight place with Ricardo Almeida on money earner board for the event if he hadn’t picked up the $60,000 Fight of the Night Bonus he shared with Silva.

(If there’s one thing that Junior hates, it’s the Safety Dance. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.)

UFC 117 not only produced a dramatic night of fights, it also provided answers to a lot of burning questions. Here’s what we know, now that the dust has settled in Oakland. (Figuratively speaking. Obviously, there’s still a ton of dust floating around in Oakland.)

Junior Dos Santos Is Not Superhuman 
In round one, he did what we expected him to: beat Roy Nelson like a mulleted heavy-bag. But when Roy managed to survive the onslaught — massive props to Big Country, by the way — Dos Santos visibly slowed down and couldn’t inflict as much damage as he did in the opening frame. The fight didn’t bode well for JDS’s chances against the Lesnar/Velasquez winner. As we saw at UFC 116, Brock can take a brutal beating and come back for round 2 fresh as a daisy.

Matt Hughes Is Still a Threat
When Hughes suffered back-to-back losses to Georges St. Pierre (at UFC 79) and Thiago Alves (at UFC 85), it seemed that his days as a competitor were swirling down the drain. Hughes’s blanket-ish return performance against Matt Serra didn’t prove much, considering Serra’s injuries and ring rust, and his beatdown of Renzo Gracie in Abu Dhabi said more about the loser than the winner. But smashing Ricardo Almeida standing, then choking him out with a front headlock in the first round? That’s a huge feather in Hughes’s cap. This was not a "master’s division"-type fight; Almeida was a legitimate welterweight player, who was coming off his third consecutive win against Matt Brown at UFC 111. Hughes may be more interested in hunting than fighting at this point, but he’s a contender again. The question is: Which Gracie-associated fighter can he get next?

(Images courtesy of UFC and Wikipedia)

Are you noticing a pattern here? By bizarre coincidence, the top six fights at UFC 117 (August 7th, Oakland) all feature an American fighter taking on a Brazilian fighter. It’s not an official gimmick like UFC 58′s "USA vs. Canada" setup — in which the Yanks went 5-3 against the Canucks — but it’ll be an interesting theme for the night, and hopefully the UFC will make the most of it. (Sorry Chandella, but we’ve found your replacement.) I’ll go out on a limb and say Brazil takes this event in a 4-2 rout, with Fitch and Guida scoring the only wins for the home team. Your predictions?

After the jump: Joe Rogan runs down the Hughes vs. Almeida matchup, and Jon Fitch discusses his co-headlining rematch against Thiago Alves.

(Great, just one more thing for Matt Hughes to lord over his brother when he gets back to the farm. PicProps: The Junkie, obviously.)

Long before he devolved into a fighter only interested in winnable bouts against other aging “legends,” there was a time during the early 2000s when – once every four months or so – you could absolutely count on Matt Hughes to show up in the UFC and beat the ever-loving dogshit out of some hopelessly overmatched opponent. That’s called consistency, people, and it’s the kind of virtue that will one day earn you a giant glass knickknack with your face stenciled on it. For Hughes, that day was Friday, when the 36-year-old former welterweight champion was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Hughes still has a rumored bout with Ricardo Almeida scheduled for UFC 117 and admittedly, it’s a little weird that the UFC insists on putting guys into its hall of fame while they’re still active competitors with the company. Almost like Dana White is trying to tell them something …

(Props: tj.labs)

We’ve reached the mid-way point in our fighter t-shirt design contest, and the submissions are rolling in nicely; many thanks to everybody who sent in designs. To re-ignite your competitive fires, we’ve posted some of our current favorites, which continue after the jump. Please send your entries to feedback@cagepotato.com by Sunday, 5/30, at midnight ET. Voting on the finalists will begin the next day, and the top vote-getter will score that FLO TV Personal Television, with access to the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 115. So get crackin’…

(Props: Brian R.)

(Props: Stevicus. Click here for larger version.)

(Big Dog is planning to eat Matt Hughes’ country breakfast August 7.)

According to an MMA Weekly report, a bout between former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes and Renzo Gracie disciple, Ricardo Almeida is in the works for UFC 117, August 7 in Oakland, CA.

Almeida will be looking bring a “W” and honor back to the Gracie academy while seeking revenge for Renzo and his other UFC-employed black belt, Matt Serra – both of whom were defeated by Hughes in the past year. Serra shared “Fight of the Night” honors in a unanimous decision loss with Hughes at UFC 98, while the aging Gracie was crippled with leg kicks by the Hillsborough, IL native who eventually pulled the trigger on a TKO victory in the third and final frame of their fight at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, UAE earlier this month. Hughes also holds a win over Renzo’s cousin, UFC legend Royce Gracie.

(The Diaz brothers discuss competing with class, the delusion that MMA is a sport, and give the definitive answer on who would win in a fight between them. Wonderful stuff from Fight Magazine.)

– Manny Gamburyan vows to "do genocide" on Mike Brown tomorrow night at WEC 48. (Bleacher Report)

– Ben Henderson’s dream job? Exotic food-eater. (Cagewriter)

– BJ Penn shreds Dana White in his new book. (BloodyElbow)

– Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin official for UFC 116 in July. (MMA Fighting)

– M-1 says Strikeforce is to blame for their recent negotiation delays, and Fedor is frustrated at his long layoff. (Sherdog)

– Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida in the works for August. (MMA Weekly)

– Chael Sonnen’s latest bit of anti-Silva propaganda. (Inside MMA)

– Three featherweight fights added to DREAM.14, including Joachim Hansen vs. Hiroyuki Takaya. (Nightmare of Battle)

– TUF 11 "Minority Report" member Kris McCray defends Jamie Yager and says Rich Attonito took a dive. (The Rhino Den)

– 2010 NFL Draft first-round recap. (Scores Report)

– Awesomely sexist vintage ads. (Asylum)

– The Top 29 Best Cities To Live In. (Ask Men)

– 25 Examples of Unintentional Porn. (Holy Taco)

– 8 Bands Worthy of a 3D Concert Film. (Screen Junkies)

– How to Facilitate a Threesome (Made Man)

– Ten-car smash-up at the Texas Motor Speedway. (All Left Turns)

– Jeweler defends store against thieves with samurai swords. (Nothing Toxic)

– Must-see: Variety show erupts during baseball rain-delay. (Break)

(Props: MMAFighting.com)

Weigh-ins for tomorrow’s UFC 112: Invincible event went down earlier today at Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi, with all 22 fighters successfully hitting their marks. Though there were no big surprises in the results, there were a few memorable moments in the face-offs, including Nick Osipczak going nose-to-nose with Rick Story, BJ Penn‘s death-glare on Frankie Edgar, Matt Hughes getting unanimously booed by the Abu Dhabi crowd during a brief interview, and Anderson Silva‘s confident dismissal of Demian Maia: "This is my time, this is my belt, the UFC is my house. No problem." The numbers are after the jump…

(Renzo Gracie vs. Frank Shamrock, 2/10/07)

Matt Hughes is, according to some oddsmakers, about a 5-1 favorite to beat Renzo Gracie at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Maybe that’s because of how easily Hughes smoked Royce Gracie at UFC 60, or how he managed to survive an early scare and ride out a decision win over Gracie student Matt Serra at UFC 98. Or, then again, maybe it’s just because Renzo hasn’t fought in over three years (what you see in the video above is the unsatisfying result of that outing) and is bound to have a little bit of ring rust at 43 years old. Regardless, Gracie told MMAFighting.com in a recent live chat that he thinks he’ll beat Hughes with his superior jiu-jitsu (what, you thought he was going to say punching power?), but his fight isn’t the only one on the card where he’s predicting an upset:

"I don’t want to fight at 155 just because I don’t want to fight the new champion, Frank Edgar. I believe Edgar is going to beat B.J. Penn. He has all the tools to do it."

Just in case you were wondering, Edgar is an even bigger underdog than Gracie. But hey, this is the same guy who predicted Serra’s upset win over Georges St. Pierre. That’s got to count for something, right?  Or absolutely nothing at all?

(Looking good, Matty! Photo courtesy of Tokyo Five.)

Long Island’s Matt Serra may love to crack jokes, but he wants you to know that it’s not all he’s doing as his fight with Frank Trigg at UFC 109 grows closer. In our exclusive interview, Serra gives us his thoughts on his opponent, his career in the UFC, and why he spends so much time in the barbership.

This fight comes at a time when you and Frank Trigg are both coming off losses and both in your mid-thirties. Where do you think this is going to leave you if you win or if you lose?

I don’t really know, and I don’t care. That’s up to whoever does those rankings or whatever. Technically, I’m coming off two losses. Do I feel like that? No, because I don’t even feel I lost my last fight. They offered me Frank Trigg, and I don’t look at as my chance to move up or anything like that. I see this as an entertaining fight and an exciting fight, on paper, and a good match-up. That’s basically how I look at it. I had the belt, and if my career leads back there then great. If it doesn’t, I’m looking for exciting fights.

Since you are coming off two losses, even though, as you said, the fight with Matt Hughes could have gone either way, do you worry about your job security if you lose this fight?

Our bro-4-life Ariel Helwani ran down to Renzo Gracie‘s NYC gym to ask the most affable member of Brazil’s first family of fighting why he feels the need to come back at 43 years old to fight in the UFC.  A smiling Gracie attributes it to his irrepressible love of combat, proving yet again that some guys are just born for this stuff and there’s nothing they can do about it.  Gracie refers to the chance to fight Matt Hughes at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi as "an honor," and says he’s already dropped twenty-five pounds, so now you can kind of see his abs.  Now if only he could get his wife to stop complaining about all the time he spends at the gym, he’d be golden.

If you watch this to the end, you’ll see Helwani asking Gracie to repeat one of his favorite Renzo-isms of all time.  He complies but, much like the "Planet of the Apes" remake, it lacks the fire of the original.  See what we mean after the jump.

(The best part about going to a Bentley dealership? Signing the lease agreement.)

His showdown with fellow MMA legend Renzo Gracie is still about four months away, but Matt Hughes is beginning to slowly work his way into training camp. The former UFC welterweight champ wrote on his blog that it’s not quite as easy to get into fighting shape as he gets on in years, so he’s starting early and taking it slow. As for how he’s preparing for the bout after his recent lackluster outings, Hughes seems to have figured out that as awesome as the HIT Squad and its camouflage mats might be, he needs to seek outside help from time to time.

Hughes says he’ll be doing some of his training out in Utah with Matt Pena, Demarques Johnson, and his “ground wizard,” Jeremy Horn (seen here overseeing the execution of a fat kid). Either this is a sign that Hughes is looking for any excuse to get out of changing diapers, or else he realizes that he needs a good showing against Gracie if he wants to stick around in the UFC without becoming fodder for the young bucks. Just from what he saw while kicking back and watching Spike TV, he seems like he might be a tad concerned about how the UFC will guard his legacy in the years to come:

#10: Anderson Silva vs. Chris Leben, UFC Fight Night 5 (6/28/06)

If you didn’t follow his pre-UFC career, you probably figured that Anderson Silva’s Octagon debut would be relatively competitive. Chris Leben was a dangerous brawler who had won five straight in the Octagon against solid competition, while Silva was…some sort of Brazilian from Japan, I guess? In actuality, the Spider was quickly becoming the most lethal striker in the business, and had spent the previous two years brutalizing guys like Lee Murray, Jorge Rivera, and Tony Fryklund as the middleweight champion of Cage Rage. So all that stuff the Crippler said about pressing the action against Silva, rough-neckin’ him, throwing him around, blasting him in the face, breaking his jaw, then sending him back to Japan where the competition’s a little easier? Oh my God, player. He might as well have been talking about how he was bringing the karate aspect back into jiu-jitsu — that’s how out of touch with reality he seemed, in retrospect.

Chances are, you’ve watched this clip a hundred times by now, so you know what happens next: Anderson Silva makes his name in the U.S. with one of the most flawless victories in MMA history and earns an immediate title shot against Rich Franklin, while Leben begins his slow drift out of relevance. And these days, all of Silva’s fights look like mismatches.

#9: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Zuluzinho, PRIDE Shockwave 2005 (12/31/05)

It was a classic matchup of skill vs. morbid obesity. The comically large son of legendary Brazilian scrapper Rei Zulu, Wagner da Conceicao Martins (aka "Zuluzinho") managed to build up a sizable undefeated record in vale tudo matches before joining PRIDE in 2005, where he mauled sumo wrestler Henry "Sentoryu" Miller in his debut. But things like size, pedigree, and professional record mean very little when you’re fighting Fedor Emelianenko. To the untouchable PRIDE heavyweight champion, Zuluzinho was nothing more than a giant punching bag.

In just 26 seconds, Fedor put ‘Zinho on his ass with an inhumanly fast left hook, abused him on the ground a bit, knocked him back down with a right as soon as the giant got to his feet, then went into beastmode until Zuluzinho tapped from the onslaught. This fight proved once and for all that "big and slow" is not the best combination for beating Fedor. If only Hong-Man Choi and Tim Sylvia got the message in time.

(It’s a girl! You can tell because of the bow stuck to her head!)

As much as we like to bust Matt Hughes‘ chops about being the Fox News of MMA fighters, Cage Potato would like to extend our sincere congratulations and warm wishes to him and his new baby daughter, Katelyn Mae Hughes, born this past Saturday morning.  Actually, maybe the congratulations are more for his wife, Audra Hughes, since she did all the hard work.  Matt presumably stood by the hospital bed and shouted at her that she ‘has to want it,’ until the doctors finally kicked him out of the delivery room.

We’re not going to pretend to know what it’s like to be a girl growing up in the Hughes household, but we are going to go ahead and speculate that it will probably be tough to get a date when all the boys in school are scared to go to your house and pick you up.  If that’s not bad enough, even when you ace your chemistry test you’ve got Georges St. Pierre‘s kids dropping by to say they aren’t impressed with your performance, and Matt Serra‘s kids fist-pumping in your face at the homecoming dance.  Stay strong, Katelyn. 

It should surprise no one to learn that Matt Hughes did a lot of scrapping with his twin brother Mark as a kid.  You put two country boys out on the farm with not much else to do, beating on one another is bound to become the primary source of entertainment.  But just to remove all doubt on the matter, Hughes posted this video of a Christmas morning in the Hughes household circa 1976 to his website. 

At first it’s just Mark and Matt and their older sister unwrapping presents in their pj’s, filled with all the bushy-headed amazement you might expect.  But that’s before some genius gave them various types of boxing gloves, presumably to protect their little hands from damage during the many fights that began erupting as soon as the boys learned to make fists.  The funny part is, watch how quickly a boxing match between the Hughes boys turns into a wrestling match.  It’s like they can’t help it.  Their parents don’t seem too concerned.  They don’t even step in to stop those strikes to the back of the head from Matt’s older sister.  Think of it as quality training for the hard years to come.

(This Christmas, why not give the gift that will rest on your child’s bedside table, silently judging him while he sleeps?)

Matt Hughes doesn’t want to alarm anyone, but he’s pretty sure that Strikeforce is doomed. It’s no one’s fault — other than Showtime, which is totally at fault — but we all might as well accept it, according to Country Breakfast.  Hughes updated his blog today, discussing the disappointing turn of events that led to his bro-4-life Robbie Lawler going fightless on Saturday night. Hughes makes vague reference to Showtime’s interference in the process, and seems to believe that this will be Strikeforce’s undoing, sooner rather than later. Wrote Hughes:

Last week I was in California with Robbie, Pena, and Foster, hoping they would find a replacement so Robbie could fight. It didn’t happen and I guess I’m just spoiled being with the UFC. From what I understand, Showtime really likes to stick their nose in Strikeforce’s business and because of that I don’t think that Strikeforce will be around for much longer; but enough with that.

That’s a bummer. Especially for all the fighters planning on competing on their next CBS show in April. For all we know, Strikeforce may not even be around by then. Someone better go tell Scott Coker, but be gentle. This isn’t going to be easy for him to hear.

Hughes didn’t stop with visions of Strikeforce’s coming collapse, however. He also answered critics who say that his planned scrap with Renzo Gracie in Abu Dhabi on April 10 is a pointless bout:

(See Royce?  We told you this would happen unless you started with your day with a hearty country breakfast, but you just wouldn’t listen.)

The rumors are true, says Matt Hughes.  On his official blog, also known as your go-to source for decontextualized Bible verses and pictures of dudes holding rifles, the former UFC welterweight champ says he’ll be taking on Renzo Gracie on April 10 in Abu Dhabi.  It will be Gracie’s debut in the UFC, and his first fight since he won a victory via disqualification against Frank Shamrock in February of 2007.  This must be what Hughes was hinting at when he said he needed a fight against someone his own age that he could get fired up for.

Beating up and aged and overrated Royce Gracie (he hadn’t won a meaningful fight in at least six years when he fought Hughes) is one thing, but Renzo might prove to be a little tougher.  He’s more well-rounded, has stayed more active in the sport lately, and is known to be tight with Abu Dhabi royalty.  That’s not to say that he’ll have his buddy the Sheikh fill Hughes’ locker room with scorpions before the fight, but it’s still too early to rule that possibility out entirely.

(Hughes isn’t even going to pretend to be interested in Dana White’s slides from his vacation to Disneyworld.  Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Matt Hughes may finally have a date for his next UFC bout, though he doesn’t have an official opponent just yet.  According to his blog, Hughes says he’ll likely be back in action on April 10, which would put him on the UFC 112 fight card.  He says he’ll tell fans "who and where" he’ll be fighting when it’s officially confirmed.  Renzo Gracie has been mentioned as a possible opponent for Hughes, though the Brazilian later shot down reports that the two would get it on as soon as February.  The mere fact that Hughes hasn’t publicly shot down the idea of facing Gracie, as he has with almost every other plausible suggestion offered to him, is somewhat encouraging. 

In other news via Hughes’ blog, Robbie Lawler and his wife are expecting a baby boy in February.  Hughes acknowledged that the information wasn’t "quite public, but I’ve never been that guy to keep my mouth shut."  It’s probably best he went ahead and told us.  A quick glance at Robbie Lawler’s blog reveals that he’s written a grand total of twelve entries in a year and a half, and none since July.  And here I always just assumed that Lawler’s blog would be a steady stream of You Tube clips of kittens doing cute stuff.  Guess you never really know anyone as well as you think you do.

(We haven’t seen anything look this lifeless in Hughes’ arms since the end of the second B.J. Penn fight. Hi-yo!)

Matt Hughes still hasn’t said for sure what his future in the UFC will look like, opting instead to narrow down possible matchups through the process of elimination.  But just because he hasn’t been given anybody to ground-and-pound recently doesn’t mean he’s lost his taste for blood.  Hughes posted pictures from his recent deer hunt on his blog, and also took time to congratulate HIT Squad product Brian Foster on his brutal TKO of Brock Larson:

Last Saturday was UFC 106, HIT Squad’s own Brian Foster fought a very tough Brock Larsen. I knew the match up was going to be tough, so we really put our time in with Brian at the gym. If you watch the fight, you will know that Brian did very well and almost made Brock look bad. Brock’s a great guy, I’ve trained with him a lot and I’m sure he’ll rebound from this.

Almost made him look bad is one way of putting it.  Totally owned him is another.  The dominating win for Foster was a great way to bounce back from his loss to Rick Story at UFC 103.  And as you’ll see after the jump, not only did he finish the fight in impressive fashion, he also stuck the landing on the celebratory backflip.