This is now even less likely to ever get televised, while Caged is a real show. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Antonio McKee is now officially a free agent. After missing weight by an inexcusable seven pounds for his title defense against Brian Cobb last night- resulting in the fight being changed to a three round non-title affair and McKee forfeiting twenty percent of his purse- McKee was released from his MFC contract. And yes, Antonio McKee defeated Brian Cobb by unanimous decision last night in his last appearance (possibly) under the MFC banner.

For those of you still reading, Brian Cobb also missed weight for the evening’s co-main event. Brian Cobb came in a whopping half pound overweight, resulting in promoter Mark Pavelich telling him that it was now “win or go home” for him as well. Despite taking the third round from a clearly exhausted McKee, Cobb came up short and was subsequently released from the promotion. It would have been interesting to see how the championship rounds would have played out, you know, if both men actually made weight and all.

(“I didn’t like working for the David Duke of MMA anyway.”)

Antonio McKee is really limiting his employment options these day.

The 41-year-old Las Vegas native today weighed in seven pounds over the 155 pound limit for his Maximum Fighting Championship title defense against Brian Cobb tomorrow night in Edmonton, Alberta. As a result of the infraction “Mandingo” will be fined 20 percent of his purse stripped of his title and will be let go from the remainder of his contract with the promotion.

(Jimmo will trade his precious metal to finally test his mettle in the UFC)

The UFC announced today that it has signed Maximum Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion and CagePotato guest blogger Ryan Jimmo to face Czech wrestler Karlos Vemola on the inaugural UFC on FX 1 card January 20 in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The Big Deal” will put his 16-fight undefeated streak on the line as he steps into the Octagon for the first time against Vemola, who is 1-1 in two UFC starts.

First, it was “Young Gun.” Then, it was “The Boss.” And now, its Adam “Adam” Lynn. It’s safe to say at this point that the elbow is having a better year than Justin Bieber, and it ain’t easy to top the Biebs. If you weren’t already convinced, the latest testament to the power of the elbow was demonstrated at Maximum Fighting Championships 31 this past weekend, at the same event that saw the birth of the half-point system and the triumph of our boy Ryan Jimmo.

(Immediate title shot? Why not?)

Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich announced last night that his promotion has found the next challenger for Cage Potato guest blogger and reigning MFC light heavyweight champion Ryan “The Big Deal” Jimmo (15-1). Rameau Thierry “The African Assassin” Sokoudjou (12-8) has signed with the Edmonton, Alberta-based organization and will take on Jimmo at MFC 31: The Rundown on Friday, October 7 at the Mayfield Conference Centre in Edmonton. The show will air live on HDNet Fights.

“I am extremely excited to see what happens when Jimmo and Sokoudjou collide. I truly believe it will be the most explosive title fight ever in MFC history,” said Pavelich.“Ryan is a terrific champion and represents the MFC like no other fighter ever has before. Now we’re going to see how he handles the athleticism and pressure that Sokoudjou will put on him.”

This guy’s excited

Okay, so maybe Maximum Fighting Championship may not have the exposure or roster depth of the UFC. You know, just maybe. But unlike its major league counterpart, it does have a sturdy broadcasting deal. According to Sherdog, yesterday MFC and HDNet announced that they inked a new deal, extending their partnership for an additional five years. Their partnership, which began back in 2008, is now expected to carry on into 2016.

The promotion’s next event, MFC 31, will take place on October 14^th. The card will feature newly re-crowned lightweight champion Antonio McKee squaring off against Brian “The Bandit” Cobb, who is a member of Team Pain and Suffering. Go figure. Neither the location of the event or other bouts on the card has been announced yet, but you know where you’ll be able to watch it.

Apparently MMA doesn’t pay if you’re just a regional fighter.

A Fresno, California fighter named John Reedy is facing multiple felony counts including residential burglary and receiving stolen property after neighbors, who witnessed the 29-year-old removing appliances and fixtures from a vacant property Thursday, called police.

According to authorities, Reedy, who fought under the nicknames ”Wild Child” and “Cen-Cal Kid” is responsible for a string of burglaries from vacant residential and construction properties over the past few months, including at least three thefts at the location he was caught robbing this week.

(A homeless man who claimed to be Franca turned himself in last Monday)

More details have emerged in Hermes Franca’s sexual assault case and let’s just say, it doesn’t look good for the former UFC lightweight contender.

According to Fox 12 Oregon, the alleged victim is under the age of 14 and the pair of “unlawful penetration” charges indicate that Franca used an object (or numerous objects) on her.

(These latest charges make Franca’s DUI in 2008 look like a jaywalking charge.)

According to a report from Sherdog, nine charges were laid this week against Hermes Franca in relation to a sexual assault that took place in Oregon, where the UFC veteran used to live and run his Team Hermes Franca Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy.

The 36-year-old native of Fortaleza, Brazil who was arrested in 2008 for a DUI, flew from Florida, where he now lives and trains to turn himself in on Monday. He is charged with seven counts of sexual abuse in the first degree and two counts of unlawful sexual penetration in the second degree. Franca’s trial is scheduled for July 12 at 9 a.m. in the Clackamas County Courthouse in Oregon City, Oregon. His bail was set at $250,000.

(A sign outside MFC headquarters reads: “Champions Wanted: Apply Within”)

MMAWeekly is reporting that Maximum Fighting Championships welterweight champion Douglas Lima (18-4) will reportedly vacate his MFC title to sign on for Bellator’s season 5 welterweight tournament. If he does, the Edmonton, Alberta promotion will be left with no contracted champions on its roster.

Earlier this month the organization unceremoniously and inexplicably stripped lightweight champion Antonio McKee (25-4-2) of his belt when it announced that Drew Fickett and Hermes Franca would be fighting for the vacant strap at MFC 30 on June 10. The problem is, nobody told McKee that he was no longer the MFC champ. He had to read the news online that Fickett and Franca were to fight for his belt.

(Ford when he found out he was ripped off again.)

Ryan Ford has had it up to here with dishonest people in MMA.

Having split from Mark Pavelich, his manager and the promoter of the Canadian MFC organization where he fought the lion’s share of his fights in 2009 because of a contract dispute, “The Real Deal” moved on to Edmonton, Alberta promotion “The Fight Club” only to have TFC cancel a planned bout with Carlo Prater. Going against his better judgment, Ford, who now had a young baby to feed besides supporting himself and his girlfriend re-signed with the MFC.

Two fights later the brash Canadian welterweight fell out with Pavelich for the second time in as many years. This time the dispute wasn’t over contract terms, per se. It was regarding money Ford says he was owed nearly $2,700 by Pavelich for selling close to $22,000 in tickets to MFC shows since he returned to fight for the organization. The case is currently in litigation, but Ford is confident that he will win just like the last time the MFC boss tried to sue him.

“Mark came out and said that I was going to claim racism against him. I was like, ‘What is this guy talking about?’ I did an interview and the interviewer asked me about it and I said, ‘Number one, I have no idea what he’s talking about and number two, if he did say something racist about me we wouldn’t be settling it in the media. I would confront him to his face and we’d settle it personally.’ I don’t know what he eats for breakfast but that was pretty far out there,” Ford says. “He’s crazy. He didn’t pay for the lawyer’s bill from the last time he took [TFC] to court. He breached my contract, plain and simple and I moved on. I shouldn’t have been back with the MFC in the first place, but oh well. You live, you learn.”

(“Left kick, Brock Lesnar’s Canadian hospital.”)

Undefeated in the past four years, at 13-1 Ryan Jimmo is one of Canada’s most promising MMA prospects. The Big Deal is in the thick of training camp for a championship bout with fellow Canadian Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 — a fight Sherdog.com has deservingly named one of this month’s 10 Tussles Worth Watching — on February 25 in Edmonton Alberta and has offered to write about his preparations for the biggest fight of his career via a weekly training blog published every week leading up to the fight here at CagePotato.com.

Check out Ryan’s latest entry after the jump.

 ("It’s not pink, it’s blood-stained.")

Undefeated in the past four years, at 13-1 Ryan Jimmo is one of Canada’s most promising MMA prospects.

The Big Deal is in the thick of training camp for a championship bout with fellow Canadian Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 on February 25 in Edmonton Alberta and has offered to write about his preparations for the biggest fight of his career via a weekly training blog published every week leading up to the fight here at CagePotato.com.

Check out Ryan’s latest entry after the jump.

CagePotato.com Video Interview with UFC vet Keith Jardine – Watch more Funny Videos

Our video reporter at large, Sal Mora recently caught up with former UFC light heavyweight standout Keith Jardine at his recently opened Mean1 MMA & Fitness gym in Albuquerque, NM and broached a number of topics with "The Dean of Mean."

Jardine gave us the scoop on what went down in the Dominican Republic during the nightmare Nemesis Fighting show on December 11 and also outlined his goals for 2011, which include stringing together a few solid wins and making his way back to the UFC. He recently helped establish PaytheFighters.com, a not-for-profit website whose purpose is to raise money to pay all of the short changed fighters on the Nemesis card.

Apparently lot can change in a few years.

Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich had a change of heart and has re-signed lightweight Drew Fickett to a multi-fight deal with the Edmonton, Alberta promotion. The news wouldn’t be as interesting if Pavelich hadn’t proclaimed in 2008 that "Knight Rider" would never fight in the MFC.

To recap what led up to Pavelich’s assertion that Fickett’s days as an MFC fighter were numbered before he ever cashed a paycheck from the promotion, it all started when "The Master" breached a clause in his 2008 contract by taking a fight within two months of a scheduled MFC bout.

But that’s not the reason he was banned by Pavelich.

When the promoter read online that Fickett had agreed to fill in for an injured Joe Riggs on a Strikeforce challengers card last-minute participation, he attempted to contact the fighter’s camp to tell them that he would be breaching his contract if he took the fight as he had an MFC bout less than a month later. When his calls and messages went unanswered, he contacted Scott Coker to tell him that Drew couldn’t fight on the card and the Strikeforce promptly rescinded the offer to Fickett.

His decision was met with an even split of support and opposition, but the St. John, New Brunswick native stood by his convictions and was eventually offered another shot at the title vacated by Trevor Prangley against MFC veteran, Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 on February 25.

If you’re unfamiliar with Jimmo, you likely won’t be for long as 2011 promises to be a breakout year for the two-time Pan-Am medalist and four-time Canadian national karate champion who is riding a 13-fight win streak into his bout with Lewis – a fighter he defeated by decision three years ago.

In 2008 he appeared on the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter 8, but lost a very close majority decision to Antwain Britt and was sent home.

Since then he switched camps and moved from Nova Scotia to Edmonton where he joined the Hayabusa Fight Team, becoming a more well rounded fighter as a result of his hard work, diverse training partners and methods.

Ryan has offered to give the Potato Nation and inside look at his training and thoughts heading into his fight in February and as such he will be doing an exclusive training camp blog for us every week for the next eight weeks leading up to MFC 28.

Check out his third entry after the jump.

(Now that MMA is legal in Ontario, the bandwagon will undoubtedly carry in a glut of Dana White wannabes. Let’s hope the OAC knows how to weed out the legit promoters from the scumbags.)

It looks like the UFC might get beaten to the proverbial punch when it comes to holding the inaugural sanctioned MMA event in Ontario.

CagePotato.com has learned from a source close to the situation that several promotions, including San Jose-based Strikeforce and Edmonton’s Maximum Fighting Championship have applied for promoter’s licenses in Ontario and pending approval by the Ontario Athletic Commission, at least three shows have been penciled in ahead of the UFC’s April 29 show in Toronto.

Although none of the shows have been given the go-ahead by the province as of time of writing, a number of venues have been tentatively reserved — some by first-time promoters — across the province in such locales as Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and Orillia. 

(Jimmo making Wilson Gouveia think long and hard about returning to jiu-jitsu competition. Photo courtesy PicYourAngle Photography)  

Arguably Canada’s top light-heavyweight fighter, Ryan “The Big Deal” Jimmo raised eyebrows when he turned down an MFC title bout against promotional newcomer Glover Texeira earlier this year because he felt that the Brazilian hadn’t done enough to earn a the opportunity to fight for the strap. Jimmo had to win seven fights in the MFC to be considered for a shot, and figured that anyone else he would have to fight for the belt should have to at least win one fight under the organization’s banner to earn the same..

His decision was met with an even split of support and opposition, but the St. John, New Brunswick native stood by his convictions and was eventually offered another shot at the title vacated by Trevor Prangley against MFC veteran, Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 on February 25.

If you’re unfamiliar with Jimmo, you likely won’t be for long as 2011 promises to be a breakout year for the two-time Pan-Am medalist and four-time Canadian national karate champion who is riding a 13-fight win streak into his bout with Lewis – a fighter he defeated by decision three years ago.

In 2008 he appeared on the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter 8, but lost a very close majority decision to Antwain Britt and was sent home.

Since then he switched camps and moved from Nova Scotia to Edmonton where he joined the Hayabusa Fight Team, becoming a more well rounded fighter as a result of his hard work, diverse training partners and methods.

Ryan has offered to give the Potato Nation and inside look at his training and thoughts heading into his fight in February and as such he will be doing an exclusive training camp blog for us every week for the next eight weeks leading up to MFC 28.

Check out his second entry after the jump.

(When he isn’t fighting, you can find Jimmo at a Karaoke bar.)

Arguably Canada’s top light-heavyweight fighter, Ryan “The Big Deal” Jimmo raised eyebrows when he turned down an MFC title bout against promotional newcomer Glover Texeira earlier this year because he felt that the Brazilian hadn’t done enough to earn a the opportunity to fight for the strap. Jimmo had to win seven fights in the MFC to be considered for a shot, and figured that anyone else he would have to fight for the belt should have to at least win one fight under the organization’s banner to earn the same..

His decision was met with an even split of support and opposition, but the St. John, New Brunswick native stood by his convictions and was eventually offered another shot at the title vacated by Trevor Prangley against MFC veteran, Dwayne Lewis at MFC 28 on February 25.

If you’re unfamiliar with Jimmo, you likely won’t be for long as 2011 promises to be a breakout year for the two-time Pan-Am medalist and four-time Canadian national karate champion who is riding a 13-fight win streak into his bout with Lewis – a fighter he defeated by decision three years ago.

In 2008 he appeared on the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter 8, but lost a very close majority decision to Antwain Britt and was sent home.

Since then he switched camps and moved from Nova Scotia to Edmonton where he joined the Hayabusa Fight Team, becoming a more well rounded fighter as a result of his hard work, diverse training partners and methods.

Ryan has offered to give the Potato Nation and inside look at his training and thoughts heading into his fight in February and as such he will be doing an exclusive training camp blog for us every week for the next eight weeks leading up to MFC 28.

Check out his first entry after the jump.

(Jimmo’s a tough dude, but his mean-mug needs work.)

Imagine spending more than three years working for a company and putting in countless gallons of your blood sweat and tears in equity to be given the opportunity to compete for a promotion within the organization. Now imagine if the company’s president decided to bring in a talented, but underrated go-getter to interview for the role you worked frenetically and incessantly to earn in your 44 months under his employ.

Chances are you might not be too receptive of the proposition.

That’s exactly the situation Ryan Jimmo found himself in the past few weeks when negotiating his next fight with the Canada-based Maximum Fighting Championship.

(Antonio McKee: Good at fighting, terrible at keeping secrets. PicProps: Sherdog)

Antonio McKee went on Sherdog’s The Savage Dog Show this week in the wake of his victory over Luciano Azevedo and pretty much screamed into his phone for 40 minutes. The effect was dizzying actually, and hosts Greg Savage and Jeff Sherwood could really do nothing about it but sit back and laugh while McKee ranted. There is frankly no way to do it all justice in blog form, but some of McKee’s major bullet points included: He still suspects a vast conspiracy against him and his gym; that he knew he would stop Azevedo in the first round at MFC 26 because he saw it in a vision; that he thinks elbows should be outlawed in MMA because he’s too dangerous when he can use them; and also, that he cried and had to go to church to seek forgiveness after beating Azevedo so badly during their bout.

In midst of these ramblings McKee let slip that, although he hasn’t signed anything yet, he’s currently in contract talks for a four-fight deal with the UFC. Apparently not understanding that he was on a live radio show at the time – and hey, who has time for details when there’s so much shouting to be done? — McKee asked Sherdog not to tell anybody about that until after the deal was finalized. A very short transcript is after the jump.

(Fight starts at 2:45. VidProps: YouTube/ ZombieProphetMMA)

Alas, we’ll never know if Antonio McKee really would have made good on his threat to retire if his MFC lightweight title match against Luciano Azevedo went to decision on Friday. McKee, who’d promised to beat Azevedo like he cheated him at dice, needed just three minutes, 11 seconds to stop the 26-year-old Brazilian, after gashing him open with a pair of nasty right elbows on (where else?) the ground.

Give McKee some credit, he doesn’t look like a boring fighter here. Though this fight is marred by an early low blow by Azevedo, McKee slams him to the mat immediately after the restart — “Boom-shaka-laka!” yells the always understated Michael Schiavello, at that point — and goes to work with punches and elbows. As soon as Azevedo sees his own blood – “Blood is absolutely pissing out!” shouts Schiavello, ever elegant – the fight is pretty much over. After that, it takes McKee an uncharacteristic extra minute on the mic before he starts saying crazy stuff. Then he calls out some UFC guys.

(VidProps: YouTube/FightHub)

Antonio McKee is just way ahead of his time. At least that’s what Antonio McKee says in the above video with your boy Marcos from FightHubTV.com. In fact, though this interview is ostensibly about McKee’s upcoming MFC lightweight title defense against Luciano Azevedo, much of it is just Antonio McKee explaining why it’s OK for Antonio McKee to do many of the things Antonio McKee does. This includes but is not limited to both his wrestling-based fighting style — which McKee assures us is the wave of the future — and his liberal use of the N-word, which he says we shouldn’t be offended by because … well … it doesn’t offend him. 

“I’m just the baddest nigger on the planet, you know?” McKee says at about the :55 second mark. “For those black folks that I offend when I use the word nigger, let me explain this right now to you. Nigger is not a bad word to me. Where I come from, nigger is a term of endearment and loyalty and brotherhood … I want to let you know now, this fight here is about putting on a show. So, if you see me out there wearing my monkey suit doing my monkey dance, don’t be tripping, alright?”

OK, we’re not tripping, though McKee’s reasoning about why we shouldn’t trip seems pretty flawed here.

 
(Where’s your muay thai now, playboy?)

For most fighters, losing their next fight after losing a championship bout would mean that they likely would drop down a few slots on the main card.

Matt Serra lost his belt to Georges St-Pierre, then lost to Matt Hughes and got another chance to redeem himself against Frank Trigg. Chuck Liddell lost his belt to Quinton Jackson, then lost to Keith Jardine and was given Wanderlei Silva in his next fight. Evan Tanner lost his belt to Rich Franklin, then lost to David Loiseau and was given Justin Levens as a chance at redemption.

Then there’s Thales Leites, who loses via unanimous decision to Anderson Silva and subsequently drops a close split decision to Alessio Sakara and he’s given his walking papers and has to fight the unemployment line.

("You see these? I’m gonna beat you without even hitting you with them. THAT’S how good I am.")

If we’ve learned anything in the past couple years, it’s not to believe fighters when they say, "If I                , I will retire." 

Maybe we need to institute another Cage Potato ban.

According to Maximum Fighting Championship lightweight champion Antonio McKee, his claim is different than those of guys like CroCop, Kurt Pellegrino, Quinton Jackson, Juanito Ibarra (I know he’s not a fighter, but I’m still pissed off that he welched on his retirement) and Georges St-Pierre as he claims he’s serious when he says he will walk away from the sport if his September 10 MFC 26 bout in Brandon, Manitoba with Luciano Azevedo goes to the judges’ scorecards.

Cain Velasquez and Wanderlei Silva weren’t the only big winners over the weekend. Some of you managed to parlay the goings-on in Australia at UFC 110 into personal success with our MMA FightPicker, and unlike those poor suckers you were able to do it without ever leaving the comforting glow of your computer screen.

But before we get to shouting out some winners, we must answer the question, who was the superior Ben in this weekend’s FightPicker action? The answer is me (BF). I finished sixth in Journeyman Pool 30 #390 with 160 points, which doesn’t sound very impressive until you note that BG finished fifteenth with 130 points, coming in just ahead of Joe Bananas, who we can only assume is the owner of a discount electronics store known for its certifiably insane deals on everything from digital cameras to personal computers.

(Lister vs. Leites, 12/4/09. The video appears to have some problems midway through, but you aren’t missing much.)

Dean Lister got back in action this weekend for the first time since the dismal performance against Yushin Okami that prompted his dismissal from the UFC. As you may recall, after that painfully boring fight Lister took to the internet to offer a pseudo-apology (or, if you prefer, a fauxpology) to fans before then challenging those fans to come down to his gym and fight him if they’re so freaking tough. Oddly, this did not seem to win people over.

On Friday Lister squared off against fellow UFC castoff Thales Leites at MFC 23 and the result was sadly predictable. Leites did everything he could to press the action, but once again Lister reverted to pulling guard and settling for a stalemate once his ineffectual takedowns failed him. He lost the decision, further alienated whatever fans he may have had left, and, from the sound of it, even pissed off his cornermen:

I hope that not everyone is too abusive to me in this forum cause I would like to apoligize for my fight against Leites. Even my own corner let me know that this is an abomination of a fight and my worst performance ever, so what can I say??? the first kick landed by Leites set the tone of the fight. While he absolutely beat me fair and square and I have no excuses, this is the blow (kick) that set the pace. This is my bad leg, my knee that I have always had problems with. This I guess is similar to saying in another fight for instance "he broke my eye socket" and I lost, lol so yes my leg was damaged in the first damm round, like I said, not an excuse but the reason I was so immobile and not able to do anything… well from my point of view. I must give my opponent credit and he has improved his striking to an incredible extent.

(You know it’s a meaningless fight when the promoter starts nodding off. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

If you like to keep tabs on the careers of UFC washouts, tonight’s "Maximum Fighting Championship 22: Payoff" show in Edmonton is a great opportunity to see a bunch of them in action. Headlining the event will be a middleweight clash between submission specialists Jason MacDonald (21-12, fired from the UFC earlier this year after back-to-back losses to Wilson Gouveia and Nate Quarry) and Travis Lutter (9-5, fired from the UFC last year after back-to-back losses to Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin). It will be Lutter’s first fight since the Fraklin match, which took place nearly 18 months ago.

Also on the card, welterweight veteran John Alessio (25-13, 0-3 in the UFC) takes on Luigi Fioravanti (15-5, fired from the UFC after his loss to Anthony Johnson in February), while light-heavyweight David Heath (13-5, axed by the UFC after three straight losses in 2007-2008) rumbles with TUF 3 also-ran Mike Nickels. Plus: Marvin Eastman, Pete Spratt, and a lightweight meeting between Antonio McKee and Carlo Prater that was supposed to be a title fight until Prater missed weight. Folks, it doesn’t get any more average than this — you may or may not want to miss it.

MFC 22 will be broadcast live on HDNet beginning at 10 p.m. ET. The complete lineup and weigh-in results are after the jump…

(Okay, but just so you know, shooting out jets of sparks from your arms is currently prohibited under the unified rules. Photo courtesy of faniq.com.)

I guess Bobby Lashley is serious about this cage-fighting stuff after all. MMA Mania reports that the former WWE star has signed with Canada’s Maximum Fighting Championship promotion, and will appear at their "Hard Knocks" event (May 15th, Edmonton) a month before he collides with Bob Sapp in Biloxi. Lash will be taking on Mike Cook, a Frank Shamrock-trained heavyweight who’s either 6-3 or 5-5, depending on who you ask. Will Cook further expose Lashley as a work-in-progress, or will Lashley redeem himself after his unsatisfying performance against Jason Guida? "Hard Knocks" will be broadcast live in North America on HDNet, and will feature UFC vets Marvin Eastman, David Heath, and Trevor Prangley.

MMA Mania also reveals that the June 27th Lashley vs. Sapp pay-per-view event has been given the official name of "Unarmed Combat." Din Thomas is expected to be on the card (along with Tom Atencio), and Lashley’s fight nickname is now "The Dominator." Yawn. Come on guys, I think we can do better than that…