(“You maaaad, you maaaaad, you maaaaad!” Photo via MMAMania)

Tonight, TUF as we know it comes to an end. Before us lies a shadowy, uncertain world of live fights aired on F/X on Friday nights and international spin-offs. But no matter what comes next, you can feel secure in the fact that we’ll still be complaining about the show just as much as we always have, because we know no other way to live.

Welcome, friends, to our liveblog of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Bisping vs. Team Miller Finale. On the menu this evening — Diego Brandao and Dennis Bermudez battle to decide the first featherweight TUF winner in UFC history, while John Dodson and TJ Dillashaw do the same for the bantamweights. Plus, heavy-handed TUF 13 winner Tony Ferguson steps up against seasoned vet Yves Edwards, and in the main event, Michael Bisping looks to remove the smirk off the face of his latest rival, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who will be making his first Octagon appearance in over six years.

Round-by-round results from the TUF 14 Finale main card on Spike TV will be piling up after the jump beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

(Props: Heavy via Cagewriter. / Bisping addresses his supporters at the 5:50 mark. )

At yesterday’s weigh-ins for the Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale, Michael Bisping did nothing to support his claims that there’s a somewhat decent person hiding underneath that bristly persona. The UFC middleweight contender missed weight by a quarter-pound — which he shed later — inviting boos from the crowd at the Palms in Las Vegas. After his opponent Jason Miller goaded the crowd further, telling them to “boo this man,” Bisping took the mic:

“I could give a fuck about getting fucking love. All I care about is smashing this dickhead’s head in. Tomorrow night, that’s gonna happen. Fuck you all.”

Our liveblog of the Spike TV main card kicks off at 8 p.m. ET. Check out the full weigh-in results from the TUF 14 Finale after the jump…

(Props: MMAFighting)

Despite Jason Miller‘s basic-cable cred, Michael Bisping will be the biggest UFC star to compete at the TUF 14 Finale on Saturday night. He’s also one of the biggest villains on the UFC roster — a fighter who fans love to hate. To some extent, you can blame that on reality show editing, which Bisping in fact does, starting at the 10:18 mark of this video interview. But he’s also been responsible for some real-life behavior that’s just nasty and wrong. Like Josh Koscheck, the villain persona that has been hoisted on Bisping seems to be an exaggerated version of what’s already there.

In this 20-minute pre-fight chat, Ariel Helwani gets the Count’s thoughts on his fight with Mayhem Miller, and attempts to reconcile Michael Bisping the bully character with Michael Bisping the human being. Here’s a cheat sheet…

(Video courtesy of YouTube/FightHub)

FightHubTv.com caught up with Chael Sonnen last night in Las Vegas where he hosted the Fighters Only World MMA Awards and the uncharacteristically reserved and noticeably glassy-eyed UFC middleweight sort of cleared up recent speculation about whom he will fight next.

According to “The Gangster from America,” contrary to popular belief, he will not be squaring off with Mark Munoz at the planned UFC on Fox 2 broadcast. Although he wouldn’t say when his next fight is, Sonnen did infer that his opponent will be decided this weekend.

The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale is just two days away, and though the bookies haven’t given us much to work with, we decided to throw y’all some last minute betting advice come fight night in case you plan on bluffing the piss out of Johnny Chan in the Palms Casino afterward. Check out the betting lines, courtesy of BestFightOdds, along with the almighty wisdom of the Great Potato, below.

Main Card (Spike TV)
Michael Bisping (-185) vs. Jason Miller (+160)
T.J. Dillashaw (-205) vs. John Dodson (+165)
Diego Brandao (-320) vs. Dennis Bermudez (+250)
Tony Ferguson (-255) vs. Yves Edwards (+205)

The Main Event: Let’s get right to it. Bisping has a lot of advantages going into this fight: he’s never been submitted, which is Miller’s bread and butter, he’s fought more in the past year, and he has considerably less pressure on him than Mayhem, who is out to prove to casual and hardcore fans alike that he is more than just a goofball TV personality. And we all know that Bisping will do anything, and I mean anything, to destroy those who slander him publicly, so Miller will most definitely be facing at a steep hill to climb for his first appearance in the octagon since 2005. But there are a couple crucial outside factors here. As Miller has stated, he is one hard headed son of a bitch, and despite what Bisping’s record says, have we ever seen him truly overwhelm an opponent as tough as Mayhem on the feet? You could argue Denis Kang, but I would respond to that argument with a pat on your head and a condescending chuckle.

(Gentlemen, please. You can *both* eat dicks. / GIF via IronForgesIron)

After a compact ten-episode run, Spike TV’s final season of The Ultimate Fighter ended last night. So what did we learn? Repeating short phrases over and over again gives them more rhetorical power. “Fufessional” is just another word for dumbass. Karma visits upon every asshole.

But before we put this sumbitch to bed, we have two more semi-final fights to get through. John “The Snitchin’ Magician” Dodson is training for his bantamweight face-off with teammate Johnny Bedford, while Bedford blatantly creeps on him the whole time. Coach Mayhem decides he won’t corner either man, leaving that responsibility up to the assistant coaches.

Says Dodson: “I only got taken down once, by Prince [John Albert], and I’m never going to get taken down again.” But taking Lil’ John down is, in fact, Bedford’s gameplan. And he doesn’t think Dodson has the power to hurt him. Dodson giggles and poses in the face-off after weigh-ins. Once again, we marvel at how small this man is, and how he should really be competing at 125, if such a division existed in the UFC. And once again, his size disadvantage probably won’t matter one damn bit.

The TUF 14 Finale is just a few days away, and unless you overheard Michael Bisping’s spoiler fail on Inside MMA, then this season’s participants in that finale are still a mystery to you. That being said, Team Mayhem coach Jason Miller has released the first of several video journals leading into his upcoming scrap with opposing coach and global pandemic, Michael Bisping, which goes down this Saturday at the Palms Casino.

Though not much is revealed in the first installment (other than Miller admitting Nick Diaz to be one of his favorite fighters), we do get a sneak peak at Mayhem’s diet and weight cutting method from nutritionist and Team Mayhem assistant coach Ryan Parsons. Turns out, Parsons is a strong believer in the power of romance in a fighter’s life. Tom Lawlor concurs.

(More proof that being on the right side of any photo immediately makes Bisping fall asleep. / Photo via CombatLifestyle)

While preparing for this Saturday’s TUF 14 Finale grudge match against Michael Bisping, Jason Miller recently wrote the following on his website:

“I just want everyone to understand how fricken hard I am training. I have never trained this hard or smart for a fight in my life. In ironic twist news- I’m totally getting reimbursed for John Dodson’s insubordination. I’m not even asking about Michael’s training, but for some reason all the friends that I’ve had for years that are working with him seem to be inclined to tell me about his camp and what he’s doing. I don’t want or need this info, I’m going to beat him regardless, just found it interesting. Pretty karmic.”

Hmm. Michael Bisping’s TUF 14 assistant coaches Tiki Ghosn and Rob McCullough train in the same Huntington Beach circles as Miller — could they be moles infiltrating the Brit’s camp in the name of American patriotism? Or is Mayhem just trying to get in the Count’s head? Bisping is convinced that it’s the latter, telling InsideMMA:

(Video courtesy of YouTube/RangerUpVideo)

We’ve considered inviting the think lab at Ranger Up Clothing if they’d consider coming to work for us, but we didn’t for fear that they’d laugh at us and punch us in the face just for asking.

At least we’ve still got their hilarious pre-fight smack talk videos.

With The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale just a couple weeks away, many of us have been wondering how prepared Jason Miller was for his return to the UFC, especially considering that he hasn’t truly faced legitimate competition since his unanimous decision loss to Jake Shields just over 2 years ago. Aaron Tru of TruMMA was able to catch up with the Team Mayhem coach recently, and aside from playing a good old fashioned game of “Sactap,” was able to achieve a rather serious conversation with Miller, at one point even discussing the WEC and Strikeforce veteran’s seriousness (or lack thereof) when it comes to training. And “Mayhem” was quick to set things straight for those doubters out there:

On his training camp: “[Training] is going fantastic. I’m really surprised. This is the first camp that I’ve got a super serious camp in my entire career, and I’m an old damn man by fighter’s standards. It feels awesome. I’ve never been in such good shape and I’ve never had such a good mental focus going into a fight. It’s really refreshing. I was like, ‘Oh, this is what training camp is supposed to be like.’”

On how serious he takes his training: “The reason I do this sport, the reason I got into this career, was because I enjoy going to a padded room where I can act as crazy as I want and it’s not an institution. I think you can train seriously and still have a lot of fun. Even on The Ultimate Fighter, here at Reign Training Center, even going back to high school wrestling, I was always like the funny guy on the team and I feel like it keeps morale up.”

It’s hard to disagree with Miller, who has shown a true knack for not only coaching but connecting with his team on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, whereas Team Bisping seemingly can’t have a sparring session that doesn’t erupt into a brawl at some point.

Check out some more highlights from the interview after the jump. 

“The Stoic Russian” is a hurtful stereotype, so we didn’t include it.  The more you know…..

People complain about “pro-wrestling bullshit” invading MMA, but it’s been demonstrated over and over again: personality will get you places in the fight game.  We’ve pointed this out before, like when we advised Jon Fitch on how to ensure a title shot.  Some fighters are talked about incessantly on forums, at lunch tables, and in interviews because they’ve managed to capture the interest of fans, and many times it is because of things that they have done or said while not in the cage.

Come on in and let’s talk about archetypes, drama, and personality.  Because there’s only so many technique videos out there.

With the recent allegations aimed at former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the sports world has been thrown into a bit of chaos in the past few weeks. The story, which has undoubtedly tarnished the legacy of not only the college itself but also its legendary football coach Joe Paterno, is one of the most shocking and disturbing events to surface in the history of competitive sports.

Amidst the scandal coach Paterno had announced that he planned to retire at the end of the season, but it turns out Penn State had other, more immediate plans in mind. And though Sandusky’s fate has yet to be determined, we can only hope that it involves Pinhead levels of torture. Unfortunately the sad fact is, it often takes a wrongdoing such as Sandusky’s in order to open our collective eyes to the world around us and take action to try and ensure that it never happens again. It is with this in mind that we bring you ten of the biggest skeletons in MMA’s closet.

Whether or not we’ll actually try to do anything but mock them is yet to be determined.

Check out ten of the dirty little not-so-secrets of MMA’s past after the jump.

(“I WAS ONLY KIDDING! RAAAAAWWWRRRR!!!!” Photo via UFC.com)

Mark Munoz‘s post-fight call-out of middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 138 was so unnecessarily beside-the-point that Spike TV didn’t even include it in their tape-delayed broadcast. And you can’t really fault them for that editing decision. Munoz is behind at least two guys on the contender ladder — Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping, provided that the Count can get past Jason Miller in December — and if you’re not going to start your call-out with a memorable line like “Anderson Silva, you absolutely suck,” you’re not going to gain much traction with fans.

So, the Filipino Wrecking Machine has set his sights on smaller, more manageable prey — namely, the aforementioned British heel, Michael Bisping. As Munoz told ESPN:

(Round two of Dillashaw vs. Delorme, via IronForgesIron)

Roland Delorme’s foot is still as red and lumpy as Bruce Vilanch’s face. It hurts like a bitch, but at least he can’t transmit it to anybody else, whatever it is. And there’s still a good chance he’ll be cleared to fight, so fingers crossed.

Jason Miller brings in former Chute Boxe coach Rafael Cordeiro — who currently trains Mayhem at Kings MMA in Huntington Beach — to work with the Team Miller guys on striking drills. But Michael Bisping ups the ante, bringing in Tito Ortiz — his coach on TUF 3 — for a ground-and-pound clinic. “It’s not about the money or fame,” Ortiz tells the blue team. “It’s about us being men and seeing who’s the baddest guy alive.” Marcus Brimage is star-struck: “I was like, wow…that’s a big fucking head!”

Brimage and Akira Corassani are still harping on the fact that TJ Dillashaw asked to fight Delorme instead of Dodson, looking for an easy road to the bantamweight semi-finals. So Akira and Diego Brandao hatch a plan to get even with TJ. It’s a pretty simple plan, really — they plan to beat the shit out of him at practice.

(Brandao vs. Siler. Fight starts at the 1:09 mark. Props: IronForgesIron)

After the fiasco that followed the Akira/Neace fight last week, Team Mayhem coach Ryan Parsons wants to give Michael Bisping a piece of his mind. “You’re the kind of guy that can’t keep his motherfucking mouth shut,” Parsons tells him. “Which is why you’re the most hated fighter in the UFC. I get it now.”

“I earn a lot more money than you, motherfucker,” Bisping says, clearly a 1%’er.

“Go spit on somebody,” Parsons says. And so on. Bisping feels that Team Miller should take their loss like men, and that Parsons should fuck off.

The next fight has already been announced as Diego Brandao (Bisping’s #1 featherweight) vs. Steven Siler (Miller’s #4). Siler thinks that people don’t believe in his skills, but Team Bisping isn’t taking him lightly, especially because Brandao’s cardio is a little lacking during practice. Still, Bisping is excited to see what the half-crazy Brazilian can do.

And awww, Jason Miller’s dog is at the weigh-ins.

(The end of Dustin Neace vs. Akira Corassani…OR WAS IT?? Gif props: IronForgesIron)

After Dustin Pague’s victory last week — which brought Team Mayhem up 4-0 on the scorecard, FYI — Dustin asks his team if they could do a quick “Glory to God” cheer, which Jason Miller actually participates in, even though he’s a die-hard atheist who usually loves to mess with religious people. That just shows what kind of coach Miller is. He let his fighter have his moment, and he didn’t even make Pague participate in a “Glory to Science” cheer afterwards.

As the fighters return to their prep-rooms, Diego Brandao is in Murderous Brazilian Mode (what else is new), and starts to yell at Steve Siler for some reason. “I’m gonna take you head off, bidge!”, etc. Michael Bisping explains that he’s unstable and just wants to fight. Fortunately, he’s in a welcoming environment for that sort of thing.

Mayhem gives Dustin Neace a cowboy hat with a B on it, which stands for “Beast,” his nickname. Josh Ferguson — previously known as “the dude in the cowboy hat” — lays down accusations of swagger-jackin’. (“Come on man, I got one thing going for me here, and you gotta rip it off?”) Oddly enough, Ferguson’s hat also has a ‘B’ on it, even though his nickname doesn’t start with that letter. Unless one of you knows its actual significance, I’m just going to assume it stands for “bumpkin.”

(“I want people to look at me and say, ‘Wow, this is where he started and look where he ended up.’” Photo props: MMA Weekly)

By Ben Goldstein

Over the last six years, we’ve watched Chris Leben evolve from The Ultimate Fighter‘s original wild-ass brawler, to a multi-faceted contender who has the tools to defeat virtually any middleweight opponent on any given night. In fact, two of Leben’s last three fights have resulted in the greatest victories of his entire career — his epic UFC 116 Fight of the Night against Yoshihiro Akiyama, and his stunning 27-second knockout of Wanderlei Silva at UFC 132.

On November 5th, Leben will headline UFC 138 in Birmingham, England, against Mark Munoz, in a meeting that could put one of them on the short-list for a title shot. We spent some time on the phone with the Crippler last week and discussed all the notable battles in his life that have led him to where he is today, facing yet another massive opportunity. Enjoy, and check out our previous Retrospective Interviews right here.

THE ORIGIN STORY

(Matt Lindland, overdressed as usual.)

CHRIS LEBEN: “I think I was in the fourth grade when I got into my first fight. I can’t remember what it was over — something on the playground. But that was my first real, non-wrestling match, hitting-each-other-in-the-face kind of fight. And all the other kids just stood around and watched. I didn’t get into fights a lot, but I definitely had some good ones, like all kids that are a little more on the wild side.

I did a little wrestling in grade school, and something called Christian Karate that I did in like third grade. Then I started boxing in eighth grade and I actually took that really seriously.

Even when I was in junior high, my plan was always to fight in the UFC. I joined Team Quest right after I turned 21. You have to remember that at 185 pounds, I was training with Matt Lindland, Evan Tanner, Chael Sonnen, Ed Herman — we were all in the same room, every day. And every day I walked into the gym, my first coach Robert Follis would say, ‘Good morning Chris, how are you doing?’ And I’d say, ‘Did you get me a fight yet? Did you get me a fight yet?’ I’d never say, ‘Good morning, how are you,’ it was always ‘Did you get me a fight yet?’ I believe it was about six months until I had my first amateur fight.”

Bisping helps Stephan Bass prepare for a fight by pounding on him all day, like you do. GIFProps: ZombieProphet/IFI

It’s double-header week, and there’s no time wasted with extraneous detail — we’re right into discussion of the second featherweight fight picks. Jon Dodson is still insider trading with his boys on Team Death Leperkon Lepracon Leapercorn Lucky Charms Mascots, and Louis Gaudinot passes along the scoop: Miller will announce Dennis Bermudez (Miller’s #1) versus Stephan Bass (Bisping’s #4). Bisping celebrates this intelligence coup by assigning Bass triple practice time. Most of this practice time consists of beating up Bass, blacking his eye in the process.

For the actual fight announcement, Bisping is so confident in his coaching to this point that he feels no need to actually attend the meeting. Miller puts a jersey on a sparring dummy and does an Australian accent, which is kinda close if you don’t really think about it. He goes on to confirm the fight we all already knew was coming.

TUF 14 Neace Akira – Watch MoreFunny Videos
(Is there an echo in here, an echo in here?)

Jason Miller saunters into the TUF gym and dumps an armful of long, foam tubes. “Today we’re going to learn the first rule of the Octagon,” he says. “Defend yourself at all times.” He grabs one of the tubes and starts whipping the fighter closest to him. The gym erupts into a orgy of swinging tubes and high-pitched screams. Yes, my children. Embrace the Mayhem.

Meanwhile, Coach Michael Bisping is working on some payback for last week’s tire prank. He and his lackeys remove the tires from Mayhem’s car and arrange them in the Team Miller warm-up room, like so many throw-pillows. “Son of a bitch…ah, you limey,” Miller says when he discovers them. But it gives him a good laugh. Game recognize game, I guess.

(Hmm. Maybe we should do a video list on the Greatest TUF Pranks of All Time. Or the Worst ones. One of the two. If it’s a slow news day, look out for it.)

(That’s gangsta. For more gifs from episode 2, check out IronForgesIron.)

As the 16 fighters who survived the elimination round move into the TUF house, some of them hump each other excitedly, while others bury their anxiety in barbecue chicken. Here’s Louis Gaudinot, the green-haired guy: “Dana said the house is 15,000 square feet, but it’ll feel really small; it’s gonna feel like a closet. And I’m already feeling that.” Really? Already? Bro, you haven’t even dropped your bags yet.

After huddling with their assistants to analyze the fighters, coaches Bisping and Mayhem arrive for team selections. The coin-flip lands in Bisping’s favor after a dramatic roll across the room. The Count decides to take first fighter-selection rather than first fight-pick. As we all know, that’s a strategic blunder on par with getting involved in a land war in Asia. The teams break down like this…

Bantanweights
Team Bisping: Louis Gaudinot, TJ Dillashaw, John Albert, Josh Ferguson
Team Miller: John Dodson, Johnny Bedford, Dustin Pague, Roland Delorme

(Video courtesy of YouTube/bobbycavian)

Michael Bisping was interviewed by Bobby Cavian from MMANYTT last week after the premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 14 and the slightly tipsy UFC middleweight, although *slightly* less abrasive than usual, was pretty much the exact type of guy his opposing coach, Jason “Mayhem” Miller would have taught a lesson to on Bully Beatdown.

From calling Cavian “a Swedish Hobbit” and insulting his attire to pushing him around and slapping him in the face, Bisping seemed to take pages out of “Rampage” and Forrest Griffin’s playbook for the Q&A session. He better hope he doesn’t meet up with Dan Henderson on the MTV show if Mayhem shows up at his door with Cavian to throw down the gauntlet.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Just a friendly reminder that the final Spike TV-affiliated season of The Ultimate Fighter — TUF 14 kicks off tonight at 9:00 pm ET. Judging by the clip above, Jason Miller’s role on the show is to bug the shit out of perma-heel Michael Bisping and he’s doing a bang-up job of it.

He definitely seems to be getting under the skin of “The Count,” which explains why the cocky Brit has made no secret of the fact that he despises ”Mayhem”  in any of the interviews he’s done about his coaching gig on the show. At least they’ll get the opportunity to hug it out in December.

This season features bantamweights and featherweights and tonight’s episode will have all 16 qualifier bouts between the final 32 selected to fight for the remaining 16 beds in the TUF house.

(Props: KnuckleGame via Fightlinker)

Ultimate Fighter 14 coaches Michael Bisping and Jason Miller took shots at each other for over 30 minutes at a media call held yesterday to pump up the show. Here’s how the conversation ended (skip to the 35:28 mark to hear it):

Miller: [Bisping's] coaching staff are a lot of guys that I trained with back in the day and [I] moved on because they weren’t up to par for what I needed. So that just goes to show you Mike’s level of coaching staff.

Bisping: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’d just like to elaborate that Jason brought a chiropractor as one of his staff. He refers to himself as a doctor, but we all know a chiropractor isn’t a doctor, and certainly isn’t an MMA coach. But good for crackin’ your back.

(Meredith DiVita, the 10th hottest MMA chick of 2010, is back with a new Knoxx Gear photo shoot. For more pics of Meredith, check out her public Facebook page and KNOXXlifestyle.)

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: The UFC Forced Me to Say Things About Nick Diaz (MMA Mania)

- Jason “Mayhem” Miller Explains Alleged Assault on Sister (5thRound)

- The Truth About Fighters and Sponsors (MMA Fighting)

- Strikeforce Ratings Way Down for ‘Barnett vs. Kharitonov’ (MMA Payout)

- Roger Ebert Reviews New MMA Movie, “Warrior” (TheFightNerd)

- Rich Franklin Done for 2011 With Torn Shoulder Labrum (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Photo Report: Alexander Shlemenko Training With Michael Bisping for Bellator 50 (LowKick)

- Rampage Jackson Wants His UFC/PRIDE Unified Light Heavyweight Belt Back (MMA Convert)

- Power Ranking Every Upcoming UFC Event (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Well at Least Kimbo Slice Has No Problem Attracting the Opposite Sex (MiddleEasy)

- Kurt Angle Explains Why Imitating Fedor Is Impossible (FightOpinion)

- Strikeforce Heavyweight Semifinals Recap With ‘Big’ John McCarthy and Lloyd Irvin (NBC Sports MMA)

(Things got so bad that the two had to be kept in permanent split-screen. / Image via GalsGuide)

You guys aren’t going to believe this, but Michael Bisping and Jason Miller didn’t become best friends during the taping of The Ultimate Fighter 14. With the new season kicking off next Wednesday night, Bisping went on The MMA Hour for a little promo work, and spent a good chunk of his appearance talking about how annoying Mayhem was on set. Some notable quotes:

“[There was] a bit of friction between me and Miller, just a little bit, ups and downs. At the start of the season I thought he was an OK guy. By the end of the season I wanted to kill him. Fortunately, December 3, I’ll get that opportunity.”

“Yeah, I mean he tried to [get under my skin], unfortunately Miller’s mouth is bigger than his brain, so he didn’t do a very good job of it. He tried to do it a few times, but they were really quite pitiful…I definitely get the upper hand throughout the entire season. I’m not talking about the fights, I’m just talking about the one-on-one interaction between me and Miller. I feel he crossed the line a few times, there were a few instances that he definitely crossed the line, so come December 3rd, I’m looking forward to making him pay for his words and pay for his disrespect.”

(Props: Spike)

Spike TV has released the full cast of TUF 14, which premieres September 21st on Spike. The 32-man bracket features a diverse spread of talent including WEC vets looking for a comeback (Bryan Caraway, Micah Miller), well-known prospects from outside the Zuffa umbrella (Matt Jaggers, Eric Marriott), up-and-comers from notable camps (Jackson MMA’s John Dodson, Cesar Gracie’s Josh Clopton), and total unknowns (Roland Delorme? Bryson Wailehua-Hansen?).

Episode 1 of ‘Team Bisping vs. Team Mayhem‘ is a two-hour orgy of elimination-round fights, in which the 32 featherweight and bantamweight hopefuls will be slashed down to 16. Mark it on your calendars, and check out the full list of names after the jump.

Pay attention, now. This will come up again.

I’ll be honest: I tried not to cover this. I figured that this was something that would go away on its own, and it’s best not to draw attention to something that may hurt the sport. Plus, after reading reactions to “cunty-gate”, I realized that the majority of our readers simply do not care about issues like this. But after two straight days of Michael Bisping calling things “gay” on Twitter, I feel that the issue needs to be addressed before it gets blown out of proportion.

It started off as a response to a response to a tweet by Chael Sonnen, who himself is not a big fan of Michael Bisping. In a rare miss, Sonnen said that his fight with Brian Stann will be “Iron Man vs. Captain America”, and promised not to wear the suit if Stann didn’t bring the shield. Bisping seized the opportunity to mock Chael Sonnen with the following tweet:

Check after the jump for Michael Bisping’s tweets

(You know you’ve been an ass when Captain America spanks you – Vid courtesy of YouTube/zansinigoj)

Back in the day, Tito Ortiz had the uncanny ability to piss off even the most level-headed opponents, but since he dropped off in the rankings, nobody has been paying his mouth much attention the past few years. As such, “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” announced last week during a UFC 133 conference call that he’s done with smack talk and that he’s instead going to put all of his energy into training.

We’ll believe it when we see it, but in the meantime, check out what Tito had to say about the new breed of trash talkers in the sport after the jump.

Jason Miller clearly knows what’s expected of him in this quickie promo for The Ultimate Fighter 14. Put a camera in front of the dude, and suddenly he hates Michael Bisping‘s stupid accent and funny-looking face. Fair enough. Meanwhile, the Count calls Mayhem the class clown. Yep. Not exactly Sonnen-level eloquence, but it’ll surely be a step up from last season, in which Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos managed to make it through ten episodes without ever speaking to each other. Man, remember how awful that season was? So awful.

After the jump: The Brazilian trailer for UFC 134, which manages to be understated and evocative despite what apppears to be a very random F-bomb at the 0:09 mark.

(The only person who doesn’t like Dan spits at cornermen and says Americans are cocky.)

Since our first offering of Breakfast With a Champion with Strikeforce and K-1 champ Alistair Overeem was such a success, we have set the wheels in motion for subsequent editions of the series, starting with our next one with Strikeforce light heavyweight kingpin Dan Henderson.

Just like last time, we’re asking for your input on what questions you want answered as well as any suggestions for future guests for the column. The only criteria be that they be current or retired champions. Again, we ask that you keep your questions for Hendo respectful, but really, how would they not be?

In the meantime, check out some highlights featuring the man himself courtesy of MachineMen after the jump for inspiration.