Thanks to everybody who entered our UFC on FX 8 fight-picking contest, brought to you by It’s Time! My 360° View of the UFC. Though nobody specifically predicted that Belfort vs. Rockhold would be decided by a spinning hook kick halfway through the first round, there were a bunch of CP fight-pickers who correctly guessed that Vitor Belfort would make short work of the the former Strikeforce champ. The two closest entries were…

fulltimekilla: Belfort via TKO at 3:12 of Round 1 (40 seconds away from actual time of stoppage)
kuckleup101.2: Belfort def. Rockhold via TKO, 3:31 of round 1 (59 seconds away from actual time of stoppage)

If your name has been called, please send your real names and mailing addresses to contest@cagepotato.com, and we’ll send out your autographed copies of Bruce Buffer’s new book right away. As for the rest of you, feel free to actually buy a copy of the book right here.

And hey, we also have some other contest business to discuss. Last week, we promised a t-shirt to the person who could come up with the best fake rule for Nick Diaz’s new MMA promotion. The competition was fast and furious, and after sifting through the entries, we’ve decided to hand out CagePotato t-shirts to three winners. They are…

(Buy it now at Amazon!)

This Saturday at UFC on FX 8, Vitor Belfort will welcome Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold to the Octagon for the first time, in front of a friendly crowd in Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil. Belfort is coming off of his second-round TKO of Michael Bisping at UFC on FX 7 (which also happened to take place in Brazil), while Rockhold hasn’t competed since last July, when he picked up his ninth-consecutive win against Tim Kennedy. At this point, you should start formulating your opinion about which of these guys will win, and how — because if you can predict the future, we’ll make it worth your while.

Yes, ladies and gents, it’s fight-picking time once again. Shoot us your prediction for the Belfort vs. Rockhold fight in the comments section of this post, and the two closest guesses will each score a copy of Bruce Buffer‘s new autobiography It’s Time! My 360° View of the UFC, autographed by the Buffman himself. (If you missed our review of the book yesterday, click here.) Your predictions should be arranged like this…

(Fill in the blank: When this happened, I nearly ___ my pants. / Photo via Getty Images)

In retrospect, all of you should have picked Ronda Rousey by first-round armbar. (Hindsight is 20/20, my friend.) After digging through the entries for last week’s UFC 157 fight-picking contest, we are proud to announce the winners. The envelope, please…

First place: Alan K, who guessed the armbar stoppage for Rousey within nine seconds (!), and got the judges’ scores exactly correct in the Machida vs. Henderson decision. Alan will receive the “Ronda Knows” and “Keep Calm and Break Arms” t-shirt package, courtesy of Fight Chix.

Second place: Brian001, who predicted a much earlier armbar stoppage for Rousey, but also predicted the judges’ scores perfectly for the co-main event. Brian will receive his choice of one of the aforementioned shirts.

Alan/Brian, please e-mail your full name, shirt size (including gender of choice), and address to contest@cagepotato.com, and we’ll get you hooked up ASAP. As for everybody else, there’s no law saying you can’t acquire these t-shirts the old-fashioned way. Visit FightChix.com, pick up a shirt or two, and show the world that you’re an enlightened human being who supports women pounding on each other. Thanks for playing, guys!

(Image courtesy of FightChix.com. Click for larger version.)

This Saturday marks the UFC’s first-ever women’s title fight between Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche, which headlines UFC 157 in Anaheim. In honor of this historic occasion, our friends at Fight Chix have hooked us up with a Rouseyriffic prize-package, featuring their Ronda Knows and Keep Calm and Break Arms t-shirts. Both are available in men’s and women’s styles, so whatever gender you claim to be, Fight Chix has you covered.

If you’d like to win these shirts, here’s what to do: Submit your prediction for the Rousey vs. Carmouche fight — as well as the Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida co-main event — in the comments section. Your entry should look something like this:

(Was there ever any doubt?)

Thanks to all 426 of you who took the time to vote for your favorite finalist in our “CagePotato’s Next Top T-Shirt” design contest. The winner, with 32.2% of the popular vote, was Ben S.’s “Fryed Tater” design. Congrats bro! We’ll be in touch if/when we decide to make your funny little dream a reality. For now, we’ll send you one of our existing CagePotato t-shirts for your efforts. And what the heck, we’ll send CPtees to the 2nd and 3rd place finishers as well: Daniel S. (“Fightin’ Dudes,” 20.7% of the vote) and Bobby (“Nothing to F@%k With,” 14.6% of the vote). To see the full results breakdown, please consult this pie chart or this bar graph.

Now tell us the truth: If we produce those “Fryed Tater” shirts, you’d wear one, right?

(Buy it here.)

On Saturday night at UFC 153, Anderson Silva TKO’d Stephan Bonnar with a knee to the solar plexus that briefly paralyzed him, followed by some punches on the ground. The fight was called at 4:40 of round 1, which means…TOPDOG, YOU ARE OUR WINNER. The Dog’s prediction of “Anderson Silva def. Stephan Bonner via TKO (strikes) @ :23 seconds left in Rd. 1” — though strange in its syntax — came closest to the fight’s actual result, which means he gets the Blacktalians t-shirt, as promised. So Topdog, please e-mail contest@cagepotato.com with your real name, address, and shirt size, and we’ll get it sent out ASAP. The rest of you can get the shirt the old-fashioned way. Props to Longo/Serra MMA and East Coast MMA Fight Shop for the hookup.

(“Fightin’ Dudes,” via Daniel S. I would wear this. I would wear this so hard.)

Last week we sent out the call for a new official CagePotato t-shirt design, and so far you guys haven’t let us down. But it never hurts to cast a wider net, so if you have an idea for a new CPtee (and have the artistic ability to execute it) please e-mail your submission to contest@cagepotato.com by October 16th. We’ll announce the winner(s) shortly after, and if we actually use your design to produce a shirt, we’ll pay you $100.

Complete rules are here, and two more front-runners are after the jump…

(Too. Damn. Talented.)

By: Jason Moles

I’m sure there are more important things to talk about just days away from Jones-Henderson Jones-Sonnen Jones-Machida Jones-Belfort than another gimmicky post attempting to be relevant, but it’s been a while since we gave away CagePotato T-Shirts and we love you guys so much that we’ve decided to do it again. Here’s how it’s going to go down. Below is a list of 25 fighters and a brave attempt to describe them in three words. Not two, not four, just three simple words. Pretty easy, right? Read through them, then tweet us @CagePotatoMMA with your own three-word MMA fighter descriptions, including the hashtag #MMAFighterIn3Words. The three best submissions by tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET will win a shirt. (We’ll update this post with the winners after we select them.) Now let’s begin, shall we?

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson: Exit stage left.

Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson: Seeking next level.

Jon “Bones” Jones: If Healthy, Undefeated.*

Diego “The Dream” Sanchez: Starting over again.

Leonard Garcia: God help him.

Matt Hughes: Slayer of beasts.

(The current front-runner: This awesome variation on a Shepard Fairey classic, by ‘Stubbsy’)

In case you missed it last week, we’re currently running a fan art contest with Roots of Fight, and giving away their limited edition Black House apparel line to the top three finalists. The short version: Create a piece of art paying tribute to any Black House fighter or the camp itself, and send it to contest@cagepotato.com by Monday, June 18th, at midnight ET. We’ll announce our three favorites the next day, who will be picking up the t-shirt and sweatshirt. Now get hustlin’, people…

Related: Black House Tribute Video by Roots of Fight – Featuring Rener Gracie, Mark Munoz, and Bas Rutten

(Props: YouTube.com/RootsofFight. For further viewing, check out Bas Rutten’s ground-fighting epiphany, inspirational words from Mike Tyson, and George Chuvalo’s Muhammad Ali memories.)

Our good friends at Roots of Fight have previously hooked us up with their Gracie-themed apparel, and now they’re releasing a limited-edition collection that pays tribute to the shadowy MMA brotherhood known as Black House. Check out the video above to learn about the origins and guiding principles of the Black House gym, which has hosted such MMA stars as Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, the Nogueira brothers, Rafael Cavalcante, Mark Munoz, Roger Gracie, and Glover Teixeira.

The new Black House X Roots of Fight series includes a t-shirt and sweatshirt that showcase Black House’s unique logo, which was created by legendary illustrator/designer Shepard Fairey. (Check out images of the gear after the jump.) And it just so happens that we have three prize packages to give away, which include both items. If you want them, they’re yours for the taking — all you have to do is create a piece of art paying tribute to any of the fighters in the Black House stable, or the camp itself. And it has to be really freakin’ cool…

(And you had to pay your own medical bills, too? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Thanks to everybody who entered our Safe caption contest! After carefully considering 132 of your entries today, and ranking them by the volume of my laughter, we have an obvious winner that will be picking up four movie passes to Safe (which hits theaters this Friday, April 27th). But a lot of you were throwing down nuggets of comedy gold, so let’s start off with some honorable mentions…

The12ozCurls: This is the picture next to the word “DICKNAILED” in the dictionary

Tyr: Note to self: Never wear a CagePotato t-shirt to a UFC expo.
[Ed. note: Exceptions can be made if you're enormous, or heavily-armed.]

albyvader: He just escaped from Tom Cruise’s basement.

Smitty: photographer: “Ok now lean back on both hands…show me sexy…show me painful sexy.”

JTBlock: “So let’s call it a draw and both go home. No? Damnit.”

RSparrow: Step 1: Youtube “Mad World” Step 2: Stare at picture
[Ed. note: Yep, that works. Not as well as cueing up "Cool It Now" and staring at this gif, but it works.]

LOKI: And the sad part is none of us will ever know this poor shlub’s name or even care.

And the winner is…

(Props: YouTube.com/TrashTalkinKids)

The wait is finally over. After keeping you guys on pins and needles for like a full month, we have a winner in our Urijah Faber t-shirt design contest with Punch Buddies. Watch the stunning conclusion above, in which Urijah, Stephan Bonnar, and Rachelle Leah take the finalists out to the desert and eliminate the losers one by one in the most hardcore way possible.

When the dust settles, they’re left with two designs that they can’t decide between — so Punch Buddies is producing both of them. Since the surfing California Kid shirt was created by one of PB’s own artists, our congrats really go to CagePotato reader Peter Starwalt, who went all the way with his beach/shark-themed design. Congrats, man! Your design is going to be on an actual MMA t-shirt, and you might actually see Faber wearing it someday! We’ll be dropping you a line shortly, because your wild ride is only getting started.

Also: Remember when I said we had a surprise for everybody whose design was featured in this contest? Well check it out: Urijah printed out and signed all your designs, and I’ll be sending them out to you guys over the next couple weeks. Keep an eye on your inboxes; we’ll be in touch.

Thanks to everybody who entered our UFC 145 fight-picking contest last week! Many entered, but only three were skilled enough to claim the Fightville prize-packages, which include the movie’s official t-shirt from No Mas and a signed poster. The top three pickers were MoshuDragon, Alan K, and TheGangi, who predicted all three winners correctly, and picked unanimous decision victories for Jon Jones and Mac Danzig. Since MoshuDragon also guessed a first-round stoppage for Travis Browne, we’ll call him the unofficial first-place winner and throw in a CagePotato t-shirt.

If your name has been called, please send your real name, address, and shirt-size to contest@cagepotato.com and we’ll hook you up ASAP. Follow Fightville on Facebook and Twitter, and watch it now on iTunes.

(Click images for full-size versions.)

In honor of tomorrow’s release of our new favorite MMA documentary Fightville — look out for it in select theaters, video-on-demand, and iTunes digital download — we thought we’d give away some movie-related swag. We have in our possession three prize packages that include the official Fightville t-shirt produced by the geniuses at No Mas, as well as a Fightville movie poster signed by Dustin Poirier and Tim Credeur. To get it all, you’ll have to out-guess the competition in this weekend’s UFC 145 fight picking contest.

Along with the Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans main event, we’d like you to predict the results for two preliminary-card bouts: Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs, and Mac Danzig vs. Efrain Escudero. Submit your predictions for all three fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. Your entry should be in this format:

(Props: YouTube.com/TrashTalkinKids)

At this point, I’m willing to admit that our t-shirt design contest with Punch Buddies and Urijah Faber has gone completely off the rails. In case you were wondering why the quarterfinal round didn’t happen last week, it’s because Faber and Stephan Bonnar were working on a unique method of separating the winners from the losers, and it involved firing assault rifles in the desert with UFC Octagon Girl hall-of-famer Rachelle Leah. See, isn’t this better than just having you dummies pick the winner?

P.S.: We also have a really cool surprise for everybody whose design was featured in the contest. Stay tuned for details, and please follow Punch Buddies on Facebook and Twitter!

It’s day 3 of our Punch Buddies t-shirt design tournament, and the competition is only getting hairier and more intense. In today’s installment, your hosts Stephan Bonnar and Urijah Faber evaluate a pair of movie tributes — Michael P.’s “Fast Times” tee vs. Toby N.’s “Karate Kid” design — and Carlos G. does battle with himself in two Faber-on-a-bear designs. Which talented Potato Nation artist is going all the way? And how can I get my hands on one of those Diego “Dirty” Sanchez shirts? Stay tuned, and browse through some of PB’s classic t-shirts at PunchBuddies.com.

Semi-related video after the jump: Forrest Griffin does the monkey-face in his “Furious Forrest” Punch Buddies t-shirt.

(Bonnar and Faber — the Reynolds and Boosler of MMA.)

When we sent all of your Urijah Faber t-shirt design contest submissions to Punch Buddies last week, we figured they’d just pick a winner and shoot us a cold, impersonal text message (“not the 1 w/the intestines, thx”). We weren’t expecting Urijah Faber and Stephan Bonnar to film a video series where they evaluate your submissions, tournament-bracket-style. Holy crap, thanks guys!

After the jump, in episode one: The boys give a bye to one of our frontrunners, and introduce a design by one of their hot-shot illustrators. Can our Potato Nation scribblers defeat the seasoned camel-toe-drawing professionals? We’ll be posting a new video every day until the winner is revealed, so stay tuned. Massive props to Punch Buddies, Urijah, and Stephan!

(Did we say “safer than boxing”? We meant “usually safer than knife-fighting.” Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly)

Congrats to CagePotato commenter “PELF” for making the most accurate prediction in last week’s fight-picking contest. His predictions were:

- Junior Dos Santos def. Shane Carwin via unanimous decision (29-28 x 2, 30-27 – one score correct)
- Kenny Florian def. Diego Nunes via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3 – one score correct)

Just one other commenter (“Fedor Penn”) predicted unanimous decisions for both Dos Santos and Florian, and the margin of victory couldn’t have been closer; PELF’s inspired decision to toss in a 30-27 for JDS clinched the win. So, PELF, if you’re reading this, send your name and address to contest@cagepotato.com and we’ll hook you up with a $50 credit to MMAOutlet.com. Everybody else, come back on Thursday for a chance to win something totally different in a Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum pick-off…

Yessir, we’ve got another $50 store credit to MMAOutlet.com burning a hole through our pants, and we’re holding another fight-picking competition this week to determine its rightful owner.

This Saturday night, UFC 131 goes down in Vancouver, headlined by a heavyweight #1 contender fight between Junior Dos Santos and Shane Carwin, and a featherweight feature between Kenny Florian and Diego Nunes. If you want a crack at this week’s prize, post your predictions for these two fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage (if any). Basically, your entry should be in this format:

While surfing the web for a new lovemaking mask, I stumbled across MMAOutlet.com, and it’s quickly become my go-to spot for MMA gear online. Now, MMAOutlet wants to give two $50 store credits to the Potato Nation, which you can use on their wide selection of MMA shorts, MMA gloves, Jiu Jitsu gis, and loud-ass t-shirts. But as usual, you’ll have to burn some calories to win a prize. So how’s about a little fight-picking action, for old time’s sake?

This Saturday night, the TUF 13 Finale will go down on Spike TV, headlined by Clay Guida vs. Anthony Pettis, and Tony Ferguson vs. Ramsey Nijem. If you want a shot at a $50 credit from MMAOutlet, here’s what you need to do…

(Images courtesy of TokyoFiveBrand.com.)

This Saturday at UFC 119, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra will step back into the Octagon against old buddy Chris Lytle, who he defeated back in 2006 to win TUF 4‘s welterweight trophy. Serra is coming off his first-round KO of Frank Trigg at UFC 109 and hopes to make it two in a row against The Bonus Collector, who most recently subbed out Matt Brown at UFC 116. To commemorate the occasion, our friends at Tokyo Five want to give one of you a Muteki duffel bag stuffed to the gills with T5 gear. (Check out Tokyo Five’s denim, tops, and athletics selection to get a better idea of what you stand to gain here.)

You know what this means. Glory for one, heartbreak for many — it’s caption contest time. Check out the photo after the jump, and post a clever caption in the comments section below by Thursday at midnight ET. We’ll pick out our favorite and post it on Friday. First place gets the haul from Tokyo Five, runners-up will get CagePotato t-shirts. Simple as that. Now go take what’s yours…

(Images courtesy of Esther Lin/Shark Fights, Victory Belt)

Thanks to everybody who entered this week’s caption contest — even those of you who referred to "General Custer" as "General Custard." After sifting through 280 of your entries, we’ve pulled out the two that we think are most worthy of winning a signed copy of Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts: The Ground Game, in stores now. As usual, there are a bunch of captions that were almost good enough. Let’s take a look at those first… 

(Photoprops: CageWriter)

Thanks to everybody who submitted captions for yesterday’s Beatdown contest; the general consensus was that Marcus Davis looks like a cross between E.T., Rocky Dennis, Sloth from The Goonies, the Elephant Man, and one of several characters from Total Recall. So who will go home with a copy of Beatdown (out today on DVD and Blu-Ray)? First some honorable mentions…

LikeTheWhiskey: This is what happens when you say "I’m a Yankees fan" in Boston.

Sudos KFC: the only thing the townsfolk would later agree on was that Quasimodo was never seen in the 209 again.

Dirt: "The doc said I’d look 10 years younger"

MoTropolis: "I think I’m allergic to getting punched in the face repeatedly."

Contraband:
The Stockton Makeover!
Get yours today!
Just call 1-800-420-DIAZ

dxhernandez: Shortly before, the man to the left began to have an acid flashback from two hits of acid he had dropped at a 1985 KISS concert. As Marcus Davis approached he looked on with horror while trying to differentiate between reality and "fuuuuuuuu……"

ReX13: "Don’t be scarred, homey"
[Ed. note: As an increasingly visible contributor to CagePotato, we'll say that ReX is disqualified from winning contests for a while. But come on, how brilliant is that.] 

And now the winners…

(Props: YouTube.com/MaplePictures)

We’ve been waiting patiently since last winter, and the moment is finally upon us: Beatdown, starring Rudy Youngblood, master thespian Michael Bisping, Bobby Lashley, Heath Herring, Mike Swick, Eric Balfour, and Danny Trejo, will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow. Check the synopsis:

Brandon, a respected street fighter, is forced to flee the city after his brother is murdered and the money that was supposed to be paid back to a local gangster is stolen. While lying low at his father’s house in a small Southern town, Brandon soon gets involved in the local underground cage-fighting circuit. With the help of Drake Colby, a former MMA champion, Brandon devises a scheme to bring a massive payday, if they are able to survive.

We have eight copies of the flick to give away, in two separate caption contests. If you want one, check out the gnarly UFC 118-related pic after the jump and follow our instructions…

Well that was exciting! Thanks to a late surge on Thursday night aided by a mysterious re-tweet, Jesse L.‘s russkie-inpired "Potato Nation Unite" design edged out JoseMonkey’s old dad tribute to win our CagePotato Wallpaper Design Contest! A round of applause for Jesse, who surely has some interesting opinions about who should own the means of production.

Sorry we didn’t get the results up on Friday as originally promised, but as jimbonics correctly pointed out, we were up at the Expo not giving a damn about you. (Lots of amazing videos, photos, and stories to come.) Jesse L., please shoot us an e-mail at contest@cagepotato.com with your name, address, shirt size, and shoe size, and we’ll get you hooked up with that bomb-ass $250 prize package from Throwdown. Thanks so much to Throwdown for making this possible; visit them at shopthrowdown.com and show your support for one of the best brands in the industry. 

If you didn’t win, brush the dirt off your shoulders and stay tuned, because we have another contest that we’re financially obligated to announce in the next hour. And after that, we’ll be back to your regular programming, scout’s honor…

This week’s caption contest brought in 241 entries — but only five of you will walk away with your very own copy of The Crazies, which is available now on DVD and Blu-Ray. So who made the cut? Our hand-selected winners are after the jump. Laugh, complain, do what you’re gonna do. Props to Anchor Bay Home Entertainment for making this happen…

The votes have been tallied, and we’re pleased to announce a winner in our MMA fighter t-shirt design contest, presented by FLO TV. After grabbing attention as an early favorite, tj.labs’s Caol Uno shirt (shown above) sailed to a comfortable victory with 20% of the popular vote. Congrats, buddy! Please send your real name and address to contest@cagepotato.com and we’ll get you set up with a FLO TV Personal Television, with access to the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 115.

We’d also like to show a little love to the contest’s three runners-up, who you can check out after the jump. Chin up, guys — shoot your info to contest@cagepotato.com and we’ll hook you up with CagePotato t-shirts. Thanks again to FLO TV for their support, and please give ‘em a look at flotv.com.

(Image courtesy of FLOTV.com)

Happy Memorial Day, Potato Nation! As promised, we are proud to present the finalists of our FLO-TV t-shirt design contest, which brought in nearly 100 brilliant entries over the last two weeks. Please study all 16 (!) of the nominated designs after the jump, then vote for your favorite in the poll over on the right. (It’s a little bit down the page, under the "Most Recent Comments" box and the Power Rankings link.) Get your votes in by Thursday night at midnight ET; we’ll announce the winner on Friday, who will score their own FLO TV Personal Television, with access to the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 115. Überprops to everybody who entered, and to FLO TV for making this happen! 

Who said the readers of this website are talentless, unmotivated hacks? Without further ado, we’d like to crown Olieng P. the winner of our Six Deuce MMA poster design contest. Olieng’s Mortal Kombat-esque UFC 113 poster brought in a whopping 20% of the popular vote, and earns him the grand prize training pack, which includes red satin MMA fight/board shorts, the Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory t-shirt, high-quality leather Muay Thai training gloves, black hand wraps, Muay Thai ankle supports and a leather speed bag. Use it well, Olieng, and good luck on your new career as a professional fighter.

After the jump: The three runners-up who will be receiving Six Deuce MMA shorts of their choice. If you’re one of the winners, please e-mail feedback@cagepotato.com with your real name, address, and size(s), and we’ll get you hooked up ASAP. Thanks to everyone who entered (and to 62gear.com), and if you have ideas for future photoshop/design contests, let us know in the comments section!