(Video courtesy of YouTube/ShoSports)

It looks like Showtime and Zuffa are going all-in with Strikeforce’s final push at staying alive.

The latest promo for the March 3 Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey event is fantastic. It might even be better than the “Sympathy for the Devil” UFC on Fox promo.

(Ronda Rousey Continues Her Crusade to Become the Female Chael P. Sonnen — Video courtesy of MMA Fighting)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere…

-  Miesha Tate: ‘Ronda Rousey Sounds Like An Idiot Half the Time’ (5th Round)

- UFC on FOX 4 set for Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif., on Aug. 4 (MMA Mania)

-  Tapout/UFC Announce New Sponsorship Partnership (MMA Payout)

-  UFC 143 Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda With Scottie Epstein (MiddleEasy)

-  Valentijn Overeem on Lesnar, JDS and Alistair (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- UFC Announces Twitter Bonus Winners for Q4 (Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com)

- Sanchez Says He’d Be Willing to Fight Teammate Condit  (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Death of a Fight Club  (MMA Convert)

- Dr. PaulBowman on “Theorizing Bruce Lee” (The Fight Nerd)

-  UFC Message: Please Forget the outcome of Condit/Diaz I (Fight Opinion)

-  Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson’s Post-UFC 143 Blog (FightLine)

By CagePotato contributor Shawn Smith

Miesha Tate has been turning heads in mixed martial arts for as long as she’s been fighting. She has always received attention for her stunning good looks, but now she’s turning heads for another reason. The focus has switched from her looks to her skills, and there’s no denying that Tate is amongst the most talented women in the sport.

Few gave Tate a chance against submission phenomenon Marloes Coenen when they met last July, and ever fewer thought she`d be able to tap the 11 year veteran. This didn’t deter “Takedown” from dominating Coenen before getting the submission via arm-triangle choke in the fourth round, capturing the Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Championship, and cementing her spot as an elite level mixed martial artist.

Next up for Tate is the outspoken, abrasive, and ultra-talented Ronda Rousey. These two women don’t get along and the tension is sure to continue building heading into their March 3 bout.

CagePotato recently talked with Tate about her upcoming bout with “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey.
Check out the interview after the jump.

(Hey, I keep tons of random trash in *my* car too! SOUL MATES. / Photo via @RondaRousey)

On March 3rd, red-hot women’s MMA prospect Ronda Rousey will drop to 135 pounds for the first time to challenge Miesha Tate for her Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title. Rousey’s pro MMA career isn’t even a year old yet, and she’s already facing the world’s top-ranked 135′er, a woman who holds victories over such big names as Marloes Coenen and Zoila Gurgel.

And according to oddsmakers, Miesha Tate is dead meat.

Props to MiddleEasy for alerting us to the current betting odds for next month’s Tate vs. Rousey showdown in Columbus, Ohio. Due to her string of armbar victories within the first minute of her fights, Ronda Rousey is as high as a -375 favorite in the matchup, with Tate slated as a +275 ‘dog. That, my friends, is insane.

…and fillilng out nicely, we must say. (Pic: StandThemUp.org)

At the post-fight presser for “Strikeforce: Rockhold vs Jardine”, promotion CEO Scott Coker artfully dodged questions about the demise of Women’s Featherweight Champion Cris Cyborg, offering up some good news for the media to focus on instead. His announcement confirmed the pending showdown between Champion Miesha Tate and rising star Ronda Rousey. Additionally, Coker unveiled three more bouts for the card, which will go down in Columbus, Ohio on March 3^rd.

With their women’s Featherweight division in shambles, Strikeforce will look to further develop the scene at Bantamweight with a pairing of Sarah Kaufman and Alexis Davis. Kaufman formerly held Strikeforce’s 135lb strap–her only loss came in a title defense against Marloes Coenen back in October of 2010. Since that time she’s rattled off wins over Megumi Yabushita and Liz Carmouche. Davis is on a three-fight streak, picking up her last two wins over Julie Kedzie and Amanda Nunes under the Strikeforce banner. Given the caliber of competitors and their placement on this card, it’s safe to assume that the winner of this fight could go on to challenge the victor of the Tate-Rousey bout.

(Watch out for that metal thing? / Props: Maury Povich via ScreenJunkies)

God damn you, ReX13. His running gag this week inspired us to revive an old, dead CagePotato feature, in which we take a moment to recognize some of your efforts in the comments section. Will we forget about this by next Friday? Maybe. Maybe not. All we have is this moment. And now, the eight greatest comments of the week…

ReX13 on “Report: Miesha Tate to Defend Strikeforce Title Against Ronda Rousey on March 3rd” [selected highlights]:
- “If you weren’t pretty, it wouldn’t matter what you said or didn’t say. That’s why you’re getting this attention.” – Miesha Tate
- “Man, Stalin was a real asshole, killing his own people like that.” – Pol Pot
- “Wow, that Bachmann chick is stuck on turbo-crazy. The only reason people are giving her the time of day is because she’s a relatively attractive woman in the Republican party. Does she hear the words that are coming out of her mouth?” – Sarah Palin
- “Goddammit, I’ve spent fifteen years in this neighborhood trying to increase property vaules, and a whole fucking passel of kettles just moved in next door. With their hippity hop music and Tyler Perry movies…..we better get a dog, honey.” – Pot
- “Bobby Flay is kinda a douche, you guys.” – Guy Fieri
- “The Duggars should stop having children. Can they even handle the children they already have?” – Nadya “Octomom” Suleman
- “That Octomom is such an attention whore.” – Kate Gosselin
- “Fuck you, bitch.” – Nadya Suleman

ElDandy on “Video of the Day: Fabricio Werdum Is as Inappropriate as We Are and Fedor Isn’t Impressed“
Fedor’s high priest looks like every dude I’ve ever seen at a Widespread concert.

Fried Taco on “Aw Geez, Now BJ Penn is Calling Nick Diaz a Cheater“:
At least BJ is right about one thing. No one will ever accuse him of being the bigger man.

(Can you train yourself to be double-jointed? I’m just wondering, y’know, for Miesha’s sake.)

Though the match has yet to be confirmed by the fighters or the promotion, MMAWeekly and MMAJunkie are both reporting that Miesha Tate will defend her Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title against fast-rising prospect and Olympic judo bronze-medalist Ronda Rousey in Columbus, Ohio, on March 3rd.

Tate is riding a six-fight win streak, but hasn’t competed since July, when she won her belt by submitting Marloes Coenen via fourth-round arm-triangle choke. A relative newcomer to the sport, Rousey had all four of her professional fights last year, winning each one by armbar in under a minute. But all those fights took place at featherweight or above, and this will be the first time she’ll compete at 135.

Because Rousey’s first fight in her new weight class is a title fight (see also: Keith Jardine), Miesha Tate has made it clear that she doesn’t think Ronda deserves the opportunity, telling FightHubTV:

(Full gallery is after the jump.)

Following her upset submission win over Marloes Coenen at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson, it’s clear that Miesha Tate is the hottest thing going in women’s MMA. While the “Face of Women’s MMA” title doesn’t mean a whole lot to the new 135-pound Strikeforce champion, she’s now the sport’s de facto female star, in light of Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cris Cyborg” Santos‘s long absences from the cage. So how far can Miesha Tate’s growing stardom take her? And can she help sustain interest in women’s MMA in the face of an uncertain future? Those are very important questions to consider as you gawk at the photo gallery after the jump…

The Hendo Alarm Clock ($19.95): Guaranteed to wake you up from the deepest of sleeps. (Pic: Strikeforce.com)

Waking up this morning I had no idea of the war being waged in comment sections and MMA forums throughout the night. I should have expected it, really, given the inexplicable fervor with which fans both exalt and denounce Fedor Emelianenko. My two cents on the stoppage: Dan Henderson hit Fedor with several full-force, illegal punches to the back of the head. They were to the back of the head because Fedor’s face was buried in the canvas. They were full-force force because Fedor’s arms lied limply at his sides, gently tucked below his slightly-less-chubby-than-usual torso. We can argue about “The Last Emperor” recovering and rolling over as Henderson was waived off, but there’s no debating what led referee Herb Dean to step in. Watch it in slow motion, watch it a lot.

That’s all the time I’ll devote to the main event; both men’s legacies were built long before they entered Hoffman Estates, and what transpired last night did little to change that. The real story is what’s ahead for last night’s winners and losers, and where Strikeforce as an organization is headed.

(“Fedor, it’s an honor to fight you. And Scott, no matter what happens tonight, I’ll be violently sodomizing you later.” Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this album, click here.)

There might not be much on the line in the grand scheme of things, but make no mistake — Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson is a superfight. It’s rare that two MMA fighters with so many combined accolades step into the same cage to do battle. Thanks for coming by tonight and watching it with us.

Also on the card: the 135-pound women’s title fight between Marloes Coenen and Miesha Tate, and a pack of heavy-hitting supporting players like Robbie Lawler, Tim Kennedy, Paul Daley, and Scott Smith.

Live round-by-round results from the Showtime broadcast of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson will be piling up after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET. Refresh the page for all the latest and let your thoughts be heard in the comments section, even if they’re relatively stupid thoughts like, “DAAAAYYUM HE GOT NOCKED THE FUGGOUT!!1!” Come on in…

Photographic proof that ReX tried to end Jason’s baby making days.

Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson goes down tomorrow night at the Sears Centre just outside of Chicago.  To help get you in the proper spirit, Doug “ReX13” Richardson and Jason Moles have returned to eloquently debate some of the more important storylines surrounding this historic event. Will Fedor go 0 for 3?  If so, will the internets asplode?  Are we nearing the end of women’s MMA on the big stage? Who gives worse gambling advice, ReX or Jason? Do us a favor and slog through this painfully long column, then let us know your own thoughts in the comments section.

(Screen-cap via ProMMANow)

From a ShootMedia video profile on Miesha Tate (starting at the 4:44 mark):

“I’m gonna try to kill her. [laughs] I really am. I’m gonna try to get to the point where the referee is fearful of her life and stops the fight. That’s my goal.”

Miesha Tate leaves no room for ambiguity when discussing her title fight against 135-pound champ Marloes Coenen at Fedor vs. Henderson this Saturday. It’s a good thing that Dana White has zero interest in Strikeforce or its fighters, or else Tate might be getting chewed out right now, Frank Mir-style.

(Goldie and Rogan get their groove on during the UFC 132 prelims. Props: atran416)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. (Welcome aboard, MMAPayout and FightOpinion!) E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- UFC 132: Payout Perspective (MMAPayout)

- Urijah Faber Considers Adapting His Fight Style Based on How MMA Judges Score Fights (FightOpinion)

- ‘Krazy Horse’ Bennett: “When I Got 22 Losses, I Realized That I Needed to Train” (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- This Guy Learns the ‘Tap or Snap’ Rule the Hard Way (MiddleEasy)

- Why Tito Ortiz Winning Is a Good Thing (MMA Convert)

- UFC 134: Overweight Forrest Griffin Wants to Go Hard for 15 minutes Against ‘Shogun’ Rua (MMA Mania)

- Brian Bowles Hand Not Broken in UFC 132 Win, Wants Dominick Cruz Next (MMA Fighting)

- Fistic Fireworks: Ten Moments in the UFC’s Fourth of July History (Five Ounces of Pain)

- 4th of July Treat: Miesha Tate at UFC 132 (LowKick)

- Melvin Guillard Puts Belt Before Brothers…And Mother (5thRound)

- A Day in the Life of Jeff Monson, Part 8: Jeff Gets a New Tattoo (TheFightNerd)

- UFC 132: Five Lessons Learned (NBC Sports MMA)

(Well, it’s the thought that counts, I guess.)

Showtime has confirmed that Marloes Coenen will defend her women’s welterweight (135 pounds) title against top contender Miesha Tate on the main card of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson, July 30th in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The two fighters were originally supposed to meet up at Strikeforce’s “Feijao vs. Henderson” event in March, but Tate withdrew due to a knee injury less than two weeks before the fight — an excuse that Coenen questioned during an interview on our own Bum Rush Radio Show. Coenen wound up defending her title against late-replacement Liz Carmouche, but it wasn’t easy.

(Who’s in the mood for a popularity contest based on the most superficial criteria possible?)

The big dance begins today, ladies and gentlemen. Our quest to crown 2011′s Hottest Woman in MMA kicks off after the jump with the first half of the round-of-16, plus a bonus vote to determine the Wild Card spot in Pool B. (We won’t ruin the surprise, but let’s just say that one of the competitors has an adorable South African accent, one of them is occasionally referred to as “the beautiful” by Mike Goldberg, and one has a cartoonishly huge ass.)

Here’s what to do: With the help of the photographic aids we’ve provided below, cast your vote for your favorite lady in each of the five polls; hit that ”next page” link when you’re done with each one. Any questions, let us know in the comments section, and be sure to come back on Friday to decide the other half of the Grand Prix round-of-16.

Note: If you don’t see the poll widget under each pairing of girls, please refresh your browser, or switch to one that doesn’t suck. And please forgive the janky formatting on pages 2 and 4; not sure what’s up with that. Now let’s go to work…

(Now smile and pretend you like each other.)

If you didn’t know, Miesha Tate‘s turn ons are long walks on the beach and a good Twitter war.

The problem is that her latest intended target,  Tara LaRosa hates the feeling of sand between her toes and isn’t one to take unwarranted abuse lying down. Consequently, the 11-2 Strikeforce women’s  135-pound contender may have bitten off more than she can chew with the outspoken highly-touted 125-pound 14-2 New Jersey native.

In a nutshell, Tate started the ball rolling by saying she would easily beat LaRosa as she claims that she used to “handle” her when the pair trained together when Meisha first started training in the sport. LaRosa scoffed at the claims, and said that she used to go at about 30% intensity with her much larger former training partner.

Of course Tate took umbrage to the intimation that she was fat, prompting her to say that she saw photos of LaRosa in high school and that she had to be about 180 or so — another claim Tara debunked.

The game point of the match went to LaRosa who revealed that a source in the know had tipped her off today to the fact that Tate allegedly employs the use of clenbuterol, a bronchodilator  typically used by asthma sufferers that also doubles as a weight-cutting aid. Tate uncharacteristically ignored the claim by LaRosa and pretended like she didn’t read the tweet (or subsequent tweets).

For those of you who speak Twitter,  the nuts and bolts of their back-and forth are after the jump.

(You win again, knee brace fetishists. Pic: Fight! Magazine)

Those of you who were waiting to see how many outfits Miesha Tate would bring to Strikeforce: Columbus on March 5 are going to be very disappointed by this news. Unfortunately, Tate is out of her scheduled 135-pound title match with Marloes Coenen after injuring her knee in training, the promotion announced via press release on Wednesday. Instead, undefeated prospect Liz Carmouche will step in as Coenen’s first championship challenger on just 11 days notice.

The injury undoes what was shaping up as a compelling bout between two of Strikeforce’s more popular female fighters. It also renders essentially moot the careful groundwork laid by the one-night welterweight tournament Tate won in August of last year to claim No. 1 contender status. On the bright side, this story will momentarily distract us from the rumored postponement of the company’s next round of heavyweight GP quarterfinal bouts. Win some, lose some, we guess.

It seems like every MMA site and their brother has put out a ranking of hottest MMA wives and girlfriends. For this list, we’re more interested in the couples who would kick the most ass together in a street-fight — or in one of those freaky-ass tag-team MMA bouts. If we’ve left out any notable MMA couples, holler at us in the comments section…

#6: BRANDON AND KERRY VERA

Combined MMA record: 13-6
Status: Married since 2006
Tough cred: Brandon’s career skid in the UFC has culminated in three consecutive losses (though that last one might be overturned). On the bright side, his adorable wife Kerry is currently 2-0 as a mixed martial artist following a successful kickboxing career, including a first-round shellacking of Kim Couture in her Strikeforce debut.

#5. JORGE GURGEL AND ZOILA FRAUSTO

Combined MMA record: 23-8
Status: Just married
Tough cred: Like the Veras, the male half of this couple has had a tough go of it lately, losing four of his last five fights; Jorge will have a chance to redeem himself against Tyler Combs on the preliminary card of Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson on March 5th. Meanwhile, Frausto has established herself as one of the greatest female fighters in the world, grabbing Bellator’s 115-pound title and putting an end to Megumi Fujii’s 22-fight win streak. (She’ll also be returning to action on March 5th, against Karina Hallinan at Bellator 35.) Hopefully that isn’t a problem for Gurgel’s ego.

(And the first nomination for 2011′s Corey Hill Award is… / Photo courtesy of the DREAM Dynamite!! Photo Gallery on FightMagazine.com)

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…

– Five Lessons: UFC 125 (Versus MMA Beat)

– Antonio McKee: Loss in UFC Debut Was a ‘Humbling Experience’ (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 125 Aftermath: Clay Guida’s Enthusiasm For Fighting Is A Draw For New MMA Fans (SBNation.com/MMA)

– 11 Fighters The UFC Should Sign In 2011 (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Video: Hatsu Hioki vs. Marlon Sandro Featherweight Title Fight From Sengoku ‘Soul of Fight’ (MMA Scraps)

– Watch Dana White Give Snoop Dogg $20,000 in Unmarked Bills (MiddleEasy)

– UFC 126: Silva vs Belfort Official Trailer (LowKick)

– Miesha Tate Targeting March 5 in Ohio for Welterweight Title-Shot (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Brock Lesnar Wants You to Read His New Book (MMA Convert)

(Bryan Caraway and Miesha Tate as Dexter and some chick who’s about to get murdered. For more MMA fighter Halloween costume photos, hit up FiveOuncesofPain.)

– The Korean Zombie Vows Never To Fight ‘Zombie Style’ Again (MMA Convert)

– Must-See: Front Kick to the Chin Knockout (MMA Scraps)

– Faber The Key To Bantamweight Success In The UFC (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Manny Gamburyan: ‘WEC Fighters Deserve To Be In The UFC’ (SBNation.com/MMA)

– Scott Coker: Melendez vs. Aoki 2 in Works for New Years Eve in Japan (LowKick)

– The Top Ten Audience Reactions in MMA, Vol. 2 (MiddleEasy)

– Mike Brown Campaigning for WEC 53 Fight (Versus MMA Beat)

– The Method to Our Madness: FIGHT! Rankings Explained (FightMagazine)

– Keith Jardine’s Next Fight Postponed by Tropical Storm Tomas (MMA Fighting)

Now that Gina Carano is off chasing the Hollywood dream, Miesha Tate has the title of "Hottest Female MMA Fighter" pretty much locked up. She recently posted a new gallery of Brandon Olimpiada-shot photos on her Facebook page that proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Check out more highlights from the shoot after the jump…

(One night, two wins, two different outfits. How are the men supposed to compete with that? PicProps: Strikeforce)

In theory, I was in favor of Strikeforce’s 135-pound women’s tournament on Friday night. At this point in MMA’s development, tournaments feel like a nostalgic throwback to our wild, misspent youth. They’re like that one friend we all have who just turned 30 and now insists on drinking two beers and talking about how crazy he was back in college. More specifically, I was hopeful that this particular tourney would brings some much-needed forward momentum and excitement to SF’s female welterweight division, where right now even the champ doesn’t especially want to be there. In practice however, not so much.

In reality, the truncated fights, overall lack of sizzle and a field that felt from the start like Miesha Tate and three also-rans all conspired to make the tournament a bit of a nonevent. Tate won the whole thing in a little less than two hours, Strikeforce strapped a belt on her (Really? A belt? For that?) and then we all went off and did other things. It all happened so fast that play-by-play shouter Mauro Ranallo looked like he didn’t even bother to shave before he went on the air. That alone should tell you something.

("Next time on Extreme Makeover…" / Photos courtesy of Esther Lin/Strikeforce.)

Program the codes into your DVR machine, because Strikeforce’s femme-tastic Challengers event in Phoenix airs tonight at 11 p.m. (For most of us, at least. Check your local listings.) Weights have been made, and the first-round tournament match-ups have been set: Miesha Tate will face Maiju Kujala in the semis, while Carina Damm takes on Hitomi Akano. Plus, Ryan Couture makes his pro debut, and Joe Riggs aw who cares. If you’re tuning in, please direct your thoughts to the comment thread below. Let’s have some fun tonight…

(Click above for larger version. Four competitors, representing four continents. Miesha enjoys cake decorating. Maiju’s turn-ons include the right hook and rear-naked choke. Image courtesy of Strikeforce.)

MMA Junkie passes along word that the format for the 135-pound women’s tournament at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers event has been tweaked by the Arizona State Boxing Commission, a longtime enemy of epicness. First off, the two first-round matchups — which, again, won’t be determined until tomorrow — will only consist of two 3-minute rounds, rather than the three 3′s that were originally announced. The ASBC has also nixed the idea of a "sudden victory" round, so to prevent the inevitable 19-19 draws, the judges will just call the fight for whoever they think won it, PRIDE-style. (Okay, so that part’s not so bad.) The final match will still consist of three 3-minute rounds.

Two of the tourney’s four participants have previous multi-fight GP experience. Miesha Tate made her pro debut at that infamous 2007 HOOKnSHOOT women’s tournament, where she spent 12 minutes winning a decision over Jan Finney before getting blasted out by Kaitlin Young in 30 seconds. Maiju Kujala last competed at an Upcoming Glory tourney in the Netherlands in March, where she submitted Akvile Vitkauskaite and outpointed Titiana van Polanen, in over 19 minutes of total fight time.

(Can Miesha Tate smash through two fighters in the same night? Photo courtesy of Strikeforce.)

Look, we could talk about Silva and Sonnen all day, but there’s new business to attend to — namely, this is a huge week for women’s MMA. Thursday marks the premiere of Bellator’s third season, which will go down at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. In addition to appearances by Hector Lombard, Eddie Sanchez, and Yves Edwards, Bellator 24 will host two opening-round fights from their 115-pound women’s tournament: Megumi Fujii against late replacement Carla Esparza, and Jessica Aguilar vs. Lynn Alvarez. 

The following night, Strikeforce Challengers comes to the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, featuring Miesha Tate, Carina Damm, Hitomi Akano, and Maiju Kujala in a one-night 135-pound tournament; first-round matchups will be determined at Thursday’s weigh-ins. If you’d like to enter some MMA FightPicker pools, please make it happen by tomorrow at fightpicker.cagepotato.com or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker. The full list of this week’s questions is after the jump…

(And you thought the tats on the *front* of Mahe were insane? Photo courtesy of Esther Lin/Strikeforce.)

…are after the jump, for the benefit of all you crybabies.

(Lolohea Mahe’s body is eerily similar to what my legal pad looks like during boring conference calls. Photo courtesy of Esther Lin/Strikeforce.)

As a light appetizer to tomorrow’s big show, Strikeforce is having its latest Challengers event tonight at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. The main card will be broadcast on Showtime starting at 11:45 p.m. ET/PT. If you don’t subscribe to Showtime, you’re in luck — the network will be available for free this weekend in 54.4 million households as part of their All Access Free Preview Weekend.

So why is tonight’s event worth DVR’ing? Well, you’ve got Hottest Women in MMA honoree Miesha Tate (8-2) taking on undefeated prospect (and former Fresno City College soccer player) Zoila Frausto (5-0) in a 135-pound contest. Jiu-jitsu phenom Andre Galvao (3-1) will try to rebound from his first MMA loss — a split-decision against Jason High at the DREAM Welterweight Grand Prix semi-finals — against Strikeforce veteran Luke Stweart (6-2). And in the main event, Fresno native Lavar Johnson (11-3) will take on Hawaiian heavyweight Lolohea Mahe (3-0-1). It will be Johnson’s first cage-appearance since his 18-second knockout of Carl Seumanutafa last May. In July, Johnson was shot in the abdomen by an unidentified gunman while attending a family barbecue. Four other people were shot during the incident, with one of them dying at the scene. Expect a hero’s welcome from the hometown crowd tonight.

The full lineup and weigh-in results are after the jump. No, not all fighters made their contracted weights, but they all tried, which I think is totally admirable.

(We weren’t sure what to put up at the top of this post, so we figured, hey, Miesha Tate’s ass, right guys? Photo courtesy of Fight! Magazine.)

Praise Crom it’s Friday! Time to shout out our favorite members of the peanut gallery… 

chamby on "War Machine Returning to MMA in April, Still Out His Damn Mind": I wish that grenade on his neck would blow up already

Aptninja on "Photo Gallery: 17 Amazing MMA Event Posters": (@skeletor) Sperm sometimes move toward an egg rather than the space bar.

ReX13 on "Heads-Up: Win a $200 MMA Warehouse Gear Package in This Week’s FightPicker Prize Pools": (@JoseMonkey) Don’t think i won’t put on this entire outfit and run errands, including stopping at the bank, where i will refuse to take out my mouthpiece while i converse with the tellers. Despite the fact that i have hands so dimunitive that i refuse to go to Burger King, i will not remove my gloves. I will grasp the pen-on-a-chain with an overhand stabby grip and scrawl an approximation of my name, and mumble about "fucking staph" while they count out stacks of ones, per my request. When i am bid a good day, i will grunt the words "protein", "gym", "train", "appreciate your help and have a lovely afternoon", or some combination of preceding, and i will stalk out. I hope the rash guard won’t cover the awesome tribal armband i have planned. If you want to quit being a pencilneck, feel free to come by my gym, Keyboard Warrior, and ask for a free month’s membership (promotional code: Tap, Nap, or Snap).

Goog on "Tito Ortiz Rumorwatch: Now It’s a Neck Injury": "I tattooed my fathe, beat the pith out of Robin Giventh, and thquandered over 300 million dollarth and I’m thtill not the biggest douchebag in thith photo."

If your name has been called, please send your real name, address, and shirt size to feedback@cagepotato.com, and we’ll send you a CagePotato.com Devil Horns tee to you at some point in the near-to-distant future. 

Between the ring girls, apparel models, television hosts, and the lady-fighters themselves, MMA is a damn fine sport to follow if you appreciate beautiful women. (And my God, do we ever.) So we figured, why not throw together our favorite females from all corners of the fight game and see how they stack up against each other? Enjoy the pics, and let us know how you’d rank ‘em in the comments section. And if you like this list, Digg it!

#12) MIESHA TATE

Hot Contender: Spending her high school years on the boys’ wrestling team gave Miesha Tate the grit she needed to fight in cages for a living. These days, "Takedown Tate" is one of the top-ten 135-pound female fighters in the world, and the combination of her nasty ground-and-pound and natural sex appeal has made her a rising star. You can see Miesha in action next month at Strikeforce Challengers 7 as she takes on Zoila Frausto. 

#11) LAURA CELESTE

Hot East Coast Girl: A native of Staten Island, Laura is a local legend among MMA fans in New York and New Jersey thanks to her ring-girl appearances for fight clubs like Ring of Combat and Asylum Fight League. As a professional hot chick, she has tremendous upside; let’s hope this exciting prospect gets her shot at the majors sooner rather than later.

Yeah, that’s Miesha Tate showing off some of her assets (hi-yo!) in the new issue of Fight! Magazine.  She might not flaunt it as much as some others, but Tate is another female fighter who is both way too tough and way too good-looking for us.  Does that make us sad?  A little, yeah.  But this picture helps ease the pain.  If only we’d known how fine she was when we talked to her a couple of weeks ago, we could have really worked the old magic.  And by magic we mean been really weird and creepy.  Missed opportunity, there.

More Tate hotness is after the jump, and way more in this month’s issue of Fight!, which coincidentally also features an article by yours truly on everyone’s favorite mustache ride-offering hard-ass, Don Frye.  Check it out.