(Is that Brazilian Walnut I am standing on? Classy.) 

Called it.

As told to FightersOnly magazine by none other than Joey Beltran himself, it appears that the UFC has released “The Mexicutioner” following his first round “kickstand KO” (Props to Stak40 for coining the term) loss to Lavar Johnson at UFC on Fox 2. The loss was Beltran’s fourth in his last five outings but his first ever to come via form of (T)KO. In regards to his release, Beltran stated the following:

I am truly grateful for all the opportunities that I have received from the UFC/Zuffa. I am not sad or hurt by their decision as I know that winning is the name of the game. Posting  a 1-4 record my last 5 fights is unacceptable regardless of how entertaining the fights were. So this is the next chapter of my career, and one that I am excited for. You will definitely see my ugly face again so fans don’t worry and haters keep on hating. 

We know the Internet is a cold, harsh place, but what person claiming to be a fan of MMA would hate Joey Beltran?

(Meathead’s impartial reminder for you to get your votes in.)

Even though we were conspicuously absent from the ballot again, we’re still going to do our friends at Fighters Only Magazine a solid by reminding The Potato Nation to vote for your other favorites who were nominated for this year’s 2011 Fighters Only World MMA Awards.

For all of the readers who pine over your old dad who left you to be raised by mom and your *new* dad, even though he doesn’t write or call, you can vote for Ben Fowlkes in the MMA Journalist of the Year category.

Other than that, there are probably a few brands and names in there that you support.

With Chael Sonnen hosting the event, things could get interesting, especially when it comes time for him to do the rumored dance number with Black House.

Check out the categories and nominees after the jump.

(“If this is a telemarketer, you’re dead.”)

In our continued effort to bring our readers interesting contests with unique prizes, we’re proud to announce our next giveaway, which could very well end up being a regular feature here at CagePotato.com if we play our cards right.

Here’s the deal:

Our friends at TrauMMA Combat Apparel, an emerging MMA brand whose focus is on supporting fighters and making quality products, have hooked us up with one of their sponsored fighters, UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione, who has agreed to record the outgoing message for the contest winner’s answering machine or voicemail service.

Check out the rules after the jump.

(Chael Sonnen whips Erik Koch’s ass at UFC Undisputed 3, later denies he used cheat codes. / For more photos, visit the “Chael Sonnen, Rampage Jackson and Chuck Liddell Test Out UFC Undisputed 3” gallery on Lowkick.blitzcorner.com)

This week’s featured stories…

- BJ Penn: A Lesson in Greatness (MMA Convert)
“When last we saw BJ Penn, the Hawaiian legend was battered and bloody and seemingly adamant about his UFC 137 appearance – a hard loss to Nick Diaz that left his eye purple and swollen – being his last trip into the Octagon. Then, days later, came the post on Penn’s website, saying he would take some time off and see where it goes from there. Which leaves us with what? A former welterweight and lightweight champ on the cusp of retirement? A warrior in the waning years of his career? Or simply a fighter who needs some time to reassess his place in the sport? I’d say definitely all of the above. Which isn’t to say Penn is washed up; he is, and will always be, one the best MMA has ever seen.”

- Joe Rogan: If NASCAR’s Not a Monopoly, UFC Isn’t Either (And They Should Buy K-1) (Fight Opinion)
“The people who own K-1, they owe a lot of money, man. They want to start fights but they want to not have to pay all the fighters that they owe money to and they owe just fucking untold millions of dollars to fighters that they haven’t paid. So, they’re in a bad financial situation but it’s because they didn’t promote it correctly. If someone like the UFC came along, if Zuffa came along and picked up K-1 — they’re not interested in it, I’ve talked to them about it — but if someone like that did, if Mark Cuban did or someone with balls and a lot of money who loves the sport, God damn that’s a gold mine. It’s a God damn gold mine. Mark Cuban, go do it! You already got Michael Schiavello working for you.”

- Gameplans For Surviving Fights With Movie Monsters (The Fight Nerd)
“Unless you’re UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, you do not want to be engaged in a stand up battle with a werewolf. The lycanthropic crime against nature may come out overly aggressive and afford you the ability to start dancing around and tagging him. But this thing has a gas tank to rival Clay Guida and one flurry is the difference between looking slick on your feet and a first round loss by technical mauling.”

(Maybe now that Bart’s rich, he can stop swagger-jacking KarmaAteMyCat. / Photo via MMAFighting)

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has released the official payroll from Saturday’s UFC 137 event, revealing that the participating fighters earned $1,326,000 in disclosed salaries and performance bonuses. Headliner Nick Diaz went home with the largest check — $275,000, including his Fight of the Night bonus — but the biggest winner had to be featherweight veteran Bart Palaszewski, who made more than ten times his $10,000 show-money, thanks to a win bonus, a Knockout of the Night bonus, and a 25% cut of Tyson Griffin’s purse.

The full UFC 137 payout list is below; keep in mind that the figures don’t include additional revenue from sponsorships and undisclosed “locker room” bonuses, or deductions for taxes, insurance, and license fees.

Nick Diaz: $275,000 (includes $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus; no win bonus)
def. B.J. Penn: $225,000 (includes $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Cheick Kongo: $140,000 (includes $70,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Mitrione: $10,000

(Allow us to introduce you to Nelson Roy III, the brilliant hedge fund manager who has absolutely no relation to that fighting hillbilly you saw on Saturday. / Photo via MMAJunkie.)

By Jason Moles

If you decided to play the new CagePotato drinking game this weekend, you’re probably way too hung over to think about your financial future right now. But now that the dust has settled from UFC 137, you owe it to yourself to study our insightful and highly opinionated rundown of where to direct your hypothetical MMA investments. It’s “Buy, Sell, Hold” time once again, Potato Nation…

“The Prodigy” BJ Penn – Sell

Even if Baby Jay is pulling a Jamie Varner (man I hope that’s not a euphemism) as Mr. Falvo so eloquently put it, the writing on the wall has been there for a while now even if the majority of fans didn’t bother to read it. BJ announcing his retirement Saturday night may have been a moment of weakness when his emotions got the best of him which led to a rash decision, but let me remind you (just like every other single story you read today about “The Prodigy”) that Penn has went 1-3-1 in his last five fights. The Hawaiian may fight again to collect another paycheck but there is no more money to be made as a shareholder.

Business as usual. Props: MMAFighting.com

Let’s get the obvious out of the way as soon as possible: Last night’s UFC 137 was nothing that it was supposed to be. The odds of things playing out as they were supposed to with this card were slim from the beginning, with Nick Diaz compromising the initial main event with his decision to no-show press week and GSP having to withdraw from his match with Carlos Condit. But at least we could rest assured that BJ Penn would deliver some karma to Nick Diaz in the form of a quick beating, right?

Throughout the first round of last night’s main event, it looked that way. BJ Penn’s counter striking proved too much for Diaz early on, as Penn outworked the Strikeforce champion, managing a takedown as well. But by the second round, Nick Diaz came back to take complete control of the fight. His better conditioning allowed him to keep Penn against the cage and unleash strikes at will. By the third round, BJ Penn’s defense was completely ineffective, as Nick Diaz continued to batter Penn. With his eleventh straight victory, Nick Diaz looks as ready for Georges St. Pierre as anyone has in a while. The bout also earned both men the 75k Fight of the Night honors.

Perhaps BJ Penn was just pulling a Jamie Varner last night, and announcing his retirement out of frustration. But if he wasn’t, it’s hard to argue against his decision. BJ Penn is 1-3-1 in his last five fights, with his sole victory coming over the recently retired Matt Hughes. If it wasn’t clear from his draw against Jon Fitch that he would never be a champion in the UFC again, it became pretty obvious after watching him gas out and get picked apart last night. Penn’s legacy can’t improve at this point, but it can certainly diminish with more losses to contenders in the UFC. He’s making the right move by retiring; let’s just see if he actually sticks to it.

(It’s confusing, because in Strikeforce, standing elbow strikes during weigh-ins are totally legal. / Photo via CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this set, click here.)

After five years in the wilderness, Nick Diaz is finally returning to the Octagon tonight, at UFC 137 in Las Vegas. (As expected, Diaz is much, much less excited about this than we are.) His opponent is BJ Penn, a living legend and former two-division UFC champion whose future in the sport very much depends on his performance tonight.

Also on the card: Matt Mitrione and Cheick Kongo fight for a spot in the heavyweight title mix, Mirko Cro Cop and Some Fat Guy fight to save their jobs, and top ten featherweight Hatsu Hioki puts the reputation of Japan on his back.

Round-by-round results from the “Penn vs. Diaz” pay-per-view card will be piling up after the jump starting at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, courtesy of CagePotato liveblog assassin Matt Kaplan. Refresh the page every few minutes for the latest updates; as with our last UFC PPV liveblog, we’ll be including “next page” links to reduce spoilage, so click ‘em as the night goes on. Thanks for being here, and let us know how you feel in the comments section.

(Stream courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Just a friendly reminder that we will have the live stream of today’s UFC 137 pre-fight presser for you right here starting at 4:00 pm ET.

If you’re at home today or somewhere your boss won’t catch you getting shit-faced, we’ve created a little drinking game for you to enjoy it a bit more.

Check it out after the jump.

This week’s edition of UFC Ultimate Insider, unfortunately absent of our second most bangable octagon girl, attempted to end the great debate over whether Roy “Big Country” Nelson was truly trimming down for his UFC 137 bout with Mirko Cro Cop, or if he was rather trying to prove that photoshop does wonders for the figure. Well, from what we can determine, it is the former, as Nelson seems to have “beefed up” his weight training regimen in an effort to shave off some extra pounds. As Roy puts it, “I’ll be Roy 2.0, just a faster version of windows, hopefully it’s not Vista.” Zing! And even Dana White seems relatively impressed with Roy’s effort, relatively.

Also on this week’s episode, Matt Mitrione answers the fan’s questions in his segment, “Ask a Meathead,”a statistical breakdown of why B.J. Penn is  badass even by UFC standards, and we go inside the mind of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who admits to being “a complete wreck” come fight night.

-Danga 

(Video courtesy of IronForgesIron)

Our friend ZombieProphet from IronForgesIron.com always comes through with videos of shows and events we forgot about and the UFC 137 countdown show that aired last night is no exception.

Cesar Gracie has some interesting observations about BJ Penn and he refers to the former UFC lightweight and welterweight champ as “Superman,” but says that his protegee Nick Diaz is the Hawaiian scrapper’s kryptonite.

I don’t know about you guys, but this fight gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Check out part two after the jump so you can hear MMA JayT mancrush, Cheick Kongo talk about how he wasn’t out in his last fight with Pat Barry, in spite of his trainer’s assertion that he lost consciousness at least once in the bout.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/JayT 1976)

If you’ve been around these parts for a while, you may recall this dude JayT, who was making a push to become the third man on the UFC broadcast team. Well, apparently MMA’s version of Antoine Dodson realized that Zuffa wasn’t returning his calls for a reason and that his chances of becoming a legit MMA reporter were about as slim as Kenny Florian’s chances of becoming a UFC reporter, so instead “Hotsauce” decided he would head up the Tito Ortiz/Team Punishment fan club. It makes sense, when you think about it since there likely wasn’t a line-up of people wanting the gig.

Anyway, the self-proclaimed Toronto night club pioneer, who says he has “deep roots” in MMA, which, as far as we can muster means he makes his own hats and travels on his own dime to support fighters he likes, is now predicting that our old pal Cheick Kongo will one day be UFC heavyweight champion. He also has some harsh words for Matt Mitrione, who insulted Tito’s (ex?) girlfriend Jenna Jameson. We won’t spoil the surprise, but let’s just say that “Meathead” better hope that he doesn’t run into Jay-T this weekend. And Ben better hope that he doesn’t run into JT “Jiggly Titties” Warsh or “Cup ” Cheick Kongo any time soon, or else his baby-making days may be numbered, nawmsayin?

Check out more from this trainwreck, including an MMA fight challenge he issues to a member of Jersey Shore after the jump.

 
(Not yet………………………………..getting warmer…….)

UFC 137 is just around the bend, and since the lineup has made more changes than a MTV awards show host, we figured we’d lay out the current odds before something else horrible happens. So, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com, check out the sweetest lines available, along with our time tested advice below.

PPV Main Card
B.J. Penn (-115) vs. Nick Diaz (-105)
Matt Mitrione (-135) vs. Cheick Kongo (+115)
Roy Nelson (-290) vs. Mirko Filipovic (+245)
Hatsu Hioki (-330) vs. George Roop (+270)
There is no line yet available for the recently bumped up Tavares/Jacoby fight.

Spike TV Prelims
Donald Cerrone (-225) vs. Dennis Siver (+185)
Tyson Griffin (-290) vs. Bart Palaszewski (+245)

The undercard odds have yet to be released as well, but we only bet big here, so forgeddaboutit!

The Main Event:

UFC 137 is just over two weeks away, so to get your blood pumping, check out the recently released extended trailer, which features not only a look into the upcoming welterweight title fight between Georges St. Pierre and Carlos Condit, but a welterweight clash between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz and the heavyweight slug fest between Cheick Kongo and Matt Mitrione. Featuring 12 fights including Mirko Cro Cop vs. Roy Nelson, Donald Cerrone vs. Dennis Siver, and Scott Jorgensen vs. Jeff Curran, UFC 137 is looking like on hell of a card, barring any last minute injuries.

A few notes:

By CagePotato guest contributor Mike Schmitz

(Meathead says he and HD will throw down if it makes dollars and cents.)

Matt Mitrione and Pat Barry are a one-of-a-kind duo. The former training partners turned close friends are two of UFC’s most likable fighters, as goofy as can be while still possessing lethal knockout power.

They enjoy their jobs, carry a demeanor unlike most into the Octagon and definitely have fun outside of the UFC (maybe Barry more than Meathead, see Barry underwear pic).

“Pat and I really sincerely enjoy our positions,” Mitrione pointed out in an exclusive interview he did with TapouT’s Virtual Training Center on behalf of CagePotato.com recently. “We understand that it’s a job, it’s a very, very tough boat. You get in, you earn your money or you get your ass cut and we understand that so we both respect the grind, we respect the sport, but I feel that as a result of that we enjoy it.”

VidProps: WorldMartialArts/YouTube

Duke Roufus knows a thing or two about kicking. Also about punching. Oh, and knees and elbows, too.

Hmmm. Let’s start over…

Duke Roufus knows a thing or two about striking, and since his retirement from kickboxing competition, he’s passed along his knowledge to fighters from the Roufusport Martial Arts Academy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Pat Barry, Danny Downes, Matt Mitrione, Anthony Pettis (and his little bro Sergio), Alan Belcher, Ben Askren, and Eric Koch (and more) have all spent time with Duke sharpening their stand up skills, and Roufus has been credited with pushing innovation in MMA striking. Belcher’s cage-spring superman punch and Pettis’ Showtime Kick were both attributed to training with Roufus, because they apparently practice that kind of crazy stuff over there.

But we must remember the words of Mr Miyagi: “first learn stand, then learn fly.”

Watch this video of Roufus breaking down technique for Thai-style low kicks. Watch it twice, then go find a bamboo tree. Kick that bamboo tree until it falls. You’re now halfway to being a Roufusninja, and don’t leave us comments about how bamboo is technically grass. That’s bullshit. No one ever became a ninja by kicking grass; that’s clearly a moronic idea. You think Tony Jaa took a level in badass by kicking over blades of grass? Absolutely not. He kicked down trees and made friends with elephants.

As far as we know, Duke Roufus does not have an elephant friends. What he does have is this video of kicking technique, and you need to quit arguing and watch it.

[RX]

By CagePotato Guest Contributor Mike Schmitz

For over a year and a half, Matt Mitrione has been all smiles.

After debuting against Marcus Jones at the Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale on December 5, 2009, he has racked up five wins – with four knockouts – while becoming a fan-favorite along the way. Despite the football mileage on his 32-year-old once injury-riddled body, Meathead is on the rise in the world of mixed martial arts. Mitrione will finally face his first big test at UFC 137 where he’ll take on 6-foot-4, 230-pound juggernaut Cheick Kongo.

Like Meathead, Kongo is coming off of a knockout victory at UFC on Versus 4 where he pulled off one of the most stunning comebacks in UFC history by knocking out Mitrione’s training partner Pat Barry. Although both fighters won their last respective bouts and will be riding the momentum into their match-up, Mitrione isn’t nearly as experienced or tested as Kongo, which could play a factor.

(Cheick Kongo: Dangerous even when he’s counting baguettes in Le Dreamland.)

As first reported by ESPN, a heavyweight meeting between undefeated rising star Matt Mitrione and veteran striker Cheick Kongo has been slated for UFC 137: St. Pierre vs. Diaz. Both fighters are coming off of KO victories at UFC on Versus 4 on June 26th; Mitrione dominated Christian Morecraft for two rounds before ending the bout with a stunning walkoff knockout, while Kongo pulled off one of the greatest comeback wins in MMA history against Pat Barry, surviving two knockdowns before landing a Hail Mary shot that turned Barry’s light out.

Mitrione vs. Kongo is a booking that immediately made sense in the aftermath of that night. Mitrione deserves a step up from the kind of entry-level competition he’s been getting so far in his UFC career — and the fact that Mitrione and Pat Barry are training partners at Roufusport gives the Meathead/Kongo matchup a nice little revenge hook. So who takes this one: The rapidly-improving rookie, or the resilient veteran?

Seems like you should be able to predict the fight based on the shorts alone. PicProps: MMAJunkie

It happens everytime. You write off a UFC card as uninteresting and decide to paint along with Bob Ross (or whatever it is you do with your personal time), and the fighters get wind of it and take your lack of interest personally.

They get in to the Octagon and perform stupifying acts of athleticism and heartitude, Dana White gets a huge boner at the press conference, and now you have to read recaps and watch GIFs to catch up on the action. Sucks to be you, we guess.

Frankly, you need to be making better choices in your life — you cannot paint those happy little clouds and friendly little mountains like Bob Ross — no one can. Frodog himself couldn’t even paint like that; all of Bob Ross’s shows were actually produced by Industrial Light and Magic. There, the secret is out, and we can die in peace.

For those dedicated souls that tuned in, hey wow, how about that show, huh? Like you, we had some thoughts during the fights, and unlike you, we wrote some of these thoughts down during and after the fights. Come on in and let us tell you how you’re feeling right now.

All hail Zombie Prophet!

FACT: At some point tonight, someone will refer to this man as “Kongo Slice”, and consider him/herself incredibly clever for doing so. Props: MMAJunkie.com.

The UFC will be holding its fourth installment of live MMA on Versus Network tonight at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, headlined by Nate Marquardt versus Anthony “Rumble” Johnson Pat Barry versus Cheick Kongo. Eh, what are you going to do? Plus, Rick Story and Charlie Brenneman battle for welterweight contendership, Matt Brown and John Howard more than likely fight for their jobs and Matt Mitrione squares off with Christian Morecraft.

The prelims are currently happening on Facebook now, so why not check them out? We’ll be here when you get back with live updates starting at 9 PM, ET. And yes, we know you’ll be back. It’s a Sunday night, now’s not the time to start acting like you have other plans. Refresh this page every few minutes for the latest results.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

While we all wildly speculate what exactly caused Nate Marquardt to be pulled from tonight’s card and ejected from the UFC, we can likely eliminate one potential reason. As seen in the NBC Sports video above, the weight cut looked extremely smooth for Marquardt as he made his first drop down to welterweight. Incidentally, his replacement Charlie Brenneman says that he was notified Friday that he may be stepping in to take on Story.

Perhaps the cutting of Marquardt reminded the rest of tonight’s cast just how fickle a UFC career can be, but something seemed to light a fire under the asses of several fighters at yesterday’s weigh-ins. Weigh-in results and videos of tense staredowns await you after the jump.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Rick story, blatantly holding back his true feelings regarding Nate Marquardt.

In preparation for UFC on Versus 4 this Sunday night, Ariel Helwani has been busy interviewing fighters. Since you probably have a major concerns regarding his interviews, I’ll address it now: Nobody gets slapped. For those of you still here, Nate Marquardt and Rick Story don’t exactly speak highly of each other, Christian Morecraft talks beer and Black Sabbath and John Howard talks about the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup.

For more of Ariel Helwani, be sure to check out the pre-fight and post-fight shows on Versus Network, beginning at 8 PM ET and 11:30 PM ET, respectively. You’ll get analysis from Ariel, Todd Harris and Stephan Bonnar. You’ll also get a special appearance by our favorite reader (No, not Cheick Kongo). And also watch the other videos after the jump.

(Bader beat him. K-Sos beat him. Lawlor beat him. Now he’s one of the toughest prospects in the light-heavyweight division — proving once again that shaving your head is always a good career move. Photo props to UFC.com)

Not to pee-pee on Tony Ferguson‘s parade, but winning The Ultimate Fighter is no guarantee of success in the UFC. On the other hand, getting eliminated while in the TUF house is no guarantee of failure either. In fact, some of today’s most dangerous UFC contenders are guys who entered the promotion through the reality show, but didn’t even get to fight for the glass trophy. In the wake of Saturday’s TUF 13 Finale, here’s how I’d rank the Top 10 non-finalists from The Ultimate Fighter, based on their current standing in the promotion…

#1: Gray Maynard

On TUF: Was choked out by Nate Diaz in the semi-finals of season 5.
These days: Drew with Frankie Edgar in his first lightweight title challenge in January, but will get another crack at the belt later this year. His pair of title fights against Edgar follow an eight-fight win streak in the Octagon, which included a decision win against Diaz in a rematch last year.

#2: Josh Koscheck

On TUF: Lost a split-decision to Diego Sanchez in the semi-finals of season 1.
These days: A perennial top contender in the welterweight division, Kos will be one of the front-runners for the belt if GSP ever leaves the division; until then, he’ll just have to be content with being “right up there.”

(The UFC Fighter Summit has a storybook ending. Congrats, Janitor.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- BJ Penn and Jake Shields Want to Fight Each Other (LowKick)

- Shane Carwin’s Cardio Under Microscope at UFC 131 (NBC Sports MMA)

- Rashad Evans Explains His Nightclub Altercation With Jon Jones; Insists ‘Bones’ Ducked Him (MMA Mania)

- Mac Danzig Out of Next Month’s Anticipated Clash With Donald Cerrone, Vagner Rocha to Replace (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Matt Mitrione: If Ortiz Is Still Upset After Confrontation, ‘Then We Can Scrap’ (MMA Fighting)

- Your Favorite Hooters Girl to Serve Ring Cards at ‘UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber II’ (5thRound)

- This Will Be the Strangest Seven-Second Knockout You Will See This Year (MiddleEasy)

- Mark Coleman ‘Would Drop Everything’ To Fight Herschel Walker (MMA Convert)

- Video: Hector Lombard Gets Pissed at Reporter After Bellator 44 (TheFightNerd)

- Going Medieval: MMA’s 20 Worst Beatdowns (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MrPromoMma)

If you didn’t catch the Mitrione Minute above from The MMA Hour back in March where Matt Mitrione poked fun at Jenna Jameson, watch it so the video you’re about to see makes sense.

(And if they touch chins? Forget it, bro. Total chaos.)

Despite an official 4-0 record in the Octagon, TUF 10 vet Matt Mitrione won’t be getting a big step up for his next bout. The UFC confirmed yesterday that ‘Meathead’ will be taking on fellow heavyweight Christian Morecraft at UFC on Versus 4 (June 26th, Pittsburgh). Morecraft tasted victory last month with a technical submission over Sean McCorkle, but was knocked out by Stefan Struve in his UFC debut last August. Mitrione last competed at ‘Fight for the Troops 2′ in Janaury, where he scored a first-round TKO over Tim Hague, but injured his left hand during the fight.

Also announced for the UFC on Versus 4 card was the return of Joe Lauzon, who will be trying to bounce back from his kimura loss to George Sotiropoulos at UFC 123. J-Lau will face British lightweight prospect Curt Warburton, who recently outpointed Maciej Jewtuszko at UFC 127, following a decision loss to Spencer Fisher in his debut. The current list of matchups for the UFC’s first trip to Pittsburgh is after the jump…

(We don’t really have to crack a joke about this position, do we? PicProps: Yahoo Sports)

Credit where credit is due: Melvin Guillard absolutely steamrolled Evan Dunham last night. He came out and simply blitzed the former lightweight golden boy with his speed, clipping him with an early right hand that Dunham never appeared to recover from. By the time Guillard put a fork in him a couple minutes later with a trio of knees along the fence – the last, clearly illegal one “just a technicality” the broadcast team immediately assured us – he’d managed to further scramble the already muddy lightweight ranks. Now watch Anthony Pettis lose to Clay Guida at the “TUF 13” finale and George Sotiropoulos lose to Dennis Siver at UFC 127 and we’ll really be in trouble.

However — (*clears throat*) – let’s not get carried away here. Let’s not get too crazy. Let’s not do the thing we seem to always do when a guy wins a big fight and start to completely overvalue Guillard based on this one performance. What he proved with his beating of Dunham on Saturday night was either one of two things. One, it could be that Greg Jackson is helping him to finally harness the physical tools he’s possessed from the beginning and has Guillard on the verge of becoming something special in the lightweight division. Or two, he was just a terrible match-up of styles for Dunham.

(Creepiest job shadow ever. PicProps: UFC.com)

The fighters are locked and loaded. We can only assume that by now Evan Dunham has eased off the bender he no doubt went on after his beloved Ducks shit the bed in the BCS championship. Obviously, Melvin Guillard has found a suitably enormous wristwatch to complement his main event status. The troops have surely been drinking all day and we the audience have once again collectively decided to ignore the obvious irony of benefitting the survivors of traumatic brain injury with a show where the desired outcome often includes closed head trauma. In other words, as Bruce Buffer might say, it’s time.

We’ll be live starting at 9 p.m. EST. Be sure to hit refresh early and often for the latest updates.

(What Leonard lacks in striking technique and conditioning, he more than makes up for with his unshakable sense of humor.)

Despite coming off a disappointing performance at WEC 51 in which he was outstruck to a split decision loss against Mark Hominick, former featherweight title contender Leonard Garcia will be one of the first 145-pounders to debut in the Octagon, when he meets Tyler Toner at the TUF 12 Finale (December 4, Las Vegas). The match will be Garcia’s first in the UFC since his 1-2 stint as a lightweight in 2007. Garcia is 1-2-1 in his last four fights in the WEC, with his only victory coming in a very questionable decision against Chan Sung Jung. Tyler Toner most recently dropped a decision against Diego Nunes at WEC 51. The TUF 12 finale takes place four weeks before the "official" debut of WEC talent at UFC 125, and 12 days before the WEC’s last event.

Speaking of the TUF 12 Finale, our guest-blogging friend Rich Attonito will reportedly take on Renzo Gracie product Dave Branch in a middleweight contest on the card. After being forced out of the competition on TUF 11 due to a broken hand, Attonito came back to shut Jamie Yager’s big mouth at the TUF 11 finale, then outscored Rafael Natal at UFC Fight Night 22. Branch was the victim of a Gerald Harris body-slam KO in his Octagon debut at UFC 116, but rallied back to win a decision over Tomasz Drwal, also at UFC Fight Night 22.

In other booking news…

(Seriously Mirko, you didn’t miss much. We’ll tell you about it later. PicProps: Vancouver Sun)

There were times during UFC 119 when it felt like everyone involved spent Saturday afternoon chugging tons of codeine cough syrup. Everybody looked just a little slow, a little out of it. It sure didn’t help that the two main eventers were totally sleepwalking during the first 14 minutes of their fight before Mirko CroCop ended things with his vicious head butt to Frank Mir’s knee. The “co-main event” was also entirely forgettable, as Ryan Bader outpointed Roger Nog to reportedly win the Jon Jones Sweepstakes. Guess we’ll have to check in with him in six months, find out how that worked out for him …

This was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a great effort from the world’s largest MMA promotion. It also wasn’t quite as bad as a lot of people are saying. We’re not talking “worst show of all time” territory here. Credit local boys Matt Mitrione, Sean McCorkle and Chris Lytle for salvaging what they could of the day. Also, Evan Dunham and Sean Sherk’s back-and-forth battle was by turns exciting and totally bizarre. Too bad it was marred by a shaky judges’ decision. And hey, the good news is, if you liked UFC 119 you’re gonna love Oct. 16’s UFC 120, which looks just as terrible on paper but at least airs for free on SpikeTV.