(Video via PerformanceMMA)

Twitter is a marvelous tool. Dana White tells fans where to find free tickets, media outlets break stories, and your friends can share the crazy stuff they find on the inter-webs.

Coach Marc Montoya from Factory X in Denver, CO, decided to tie a tennis ball on a headband with an elastic string. Add this to the list of things you can think up while being bored out of your mind watching Haywire. The “Skull Blaster,” as he likes to call it, allows the fighter to work on striking, knees, and if you’re dumb enough to really put some heat on it, head movement. Too bad it won’t teach Chael how to get out of a triangle.

If you decide to try this at home, please send us the video. We wouldn’t want something that embarrassing to go to waste.

(JM)

(Images via BJJHQ and ZPR on Facebook.)

Between the widely held beliefs that BJ Penn vs. Nick Diaz would end in a stoppage, Matt Mitrione would outstrike Cheick Kongo, and Mirko Cro Cop still had some old Cro Cop left in him, none of you were 100% correct with your UFC 137 predictions in last week’s fight-picking contest. The closest entry belonged to commenter J. Spaceman, who got all three winners right, predicted the scorecard of Diaz/Penn within one point, and also guessed a TKO win for Roy Nelson. For his efforts, he wins this Gameness Premium Cage Rashguard courtesy of our good buddies at BJJHQ.com! (Spaceman, e-mail contest@cagepotato.com with your name, address, and size, and we’ll get it sent out to you. Please wear it responsibility.)

And since he was one of the first ten entries to correctly pick Diaz/Kongo/Nelson, J. Spaceman also wins a copy of Break Media’s new ‘Zombie Parkour Runner’ iPhone game, perfect for sitting on the couch waiting for your girlfriend to finish putting her Halloween costume together. The other winners of Zombie Parkour Runner are: aaron530, Viva Hate, Ani703, TheJedi, FrontKick Dentist, SmellMyTriangle, PERPATRAITOR, jinx5128, and heavy. If your name has been called, please e-mail contest@cagepotato.com with your real name and screen name, with ‘ZPR’ in the subject line, and we’ll shoot you a download code. Thanks to everybody who played!

Semi-related: If you’re particularly proud of your Halloween costume this year, post a photo of yourself on our Facebook wall. We always like seeing what you crazy bastards are up to.

(Images via BJJHQ and ZPR.)

Update: My apologies — Penn vs. Diaz is a three-rounder, not a five-rounder as I originally implied. Please re-submit your predictions if necessary.

Halloween weekend is coming up, and we have a bag full of treats to give out to all the neighborhood kids in the Potato Nation. You’re damn right it’s fight-picking time.

To win, you’ll have to correctly predict the results of the top three fights on the UFC 137 card: BJ Penn vs. Nick Diaz, Cheick Kongo vs. Matt Mitrione, and Mirko Cro Cop vs. Roy Nelson. Submit your predictions for the fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. The most accurate prediction wins this Gameness Premium Cage Rash Guard (retail value: $35), courtesy of our friends at BJJHQ.com.

And as an added bonus, the first ten entries that get all three fight-winners right will score a free download of Break Media’s new iPhone game, Zombie Parkour Runner (retail value: $0.99). The 11th correct entry will get an apple with a razor in it. Hey, it happens.

Your fight-picking entry must be in this format:

(Props: MMAHQ)

We were pleased to see that over 100 of you conquered our captcha system and submitted entries in last week’s UFC 134 fight-picking contest with MMAHQ.com. In retrospect, I guess it wasn’t that hard to figure out that both Anderson Silva and Mauricio Rua would win by knockout. But most of you thought Silva would finish Okami faster than Shogun would finish Griffin, which wasn’t the case. The closest picks were made by Potato Nation rookie “hroobarb,” who put it down like this:

- Anderson Silva def. Yushin Okami via KO, 2:00 of round 2 (four seconds off actual time of stoppage)
- Mauricio Rua def. Forrest Griffin via TKO 3:34 of round 1 (1:41 off actual time of stoppage)

hroobarb, please send your real name and current address to contest@cagepotato.com and we’ll send you those Everlast Pro Competition MMA Gloves ASAP. Thanks to everybody who played, and please visit MMAHQ.com for daily deals on MMA gear and apparel!

(Everlast Pro Competition MMA Gloves — perfect for wearing around the neighborhood while demanding that strangers get in your guard. / Image via MMAHQ.com)

Know what we haven’t had in a long time? A good ol’ fight-picking contest. Our new friends at MMAHQ.com have pledged us a pair of four-ounce Everlast MMA gloves (see above), and we’re going to award them to one lucky CagePotato reader in a test of predictive skill.

This Saturday, UFC 134 goes down at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, featuring Anderson Silva‘s latest title defense against Yushin Okami and the light-heavyweight rematch between former champs Mauricio Rua and Forrest Griffin. Submit 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. Your entry should be in this format:

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:

(The Albuquerque Hair Monster sucks Anthony Pettis‘s arm into its deadly grasp. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

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

- Clay Guida def. Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision 30-27 x3 [an exact match]
- Tony Ferguson def. Ramsey Nijem via K.O. 3:11 rd 1 [just 43 seconds away from the actual time of stoppage]

So, Spiceman, if you’re reading this, send your name and address to contest@cagepotato.com and we’ll hook you up with your $50 credit to MMAOutlet.com. The rest of you, be sure to swing on Thursday for another chance to win!

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…

After frantically skimming through the 473 (!) entries that came in for this week’s caption contest, we’re happy to announce a winner. So who will pick up the duffel bag stuffed full of gear from Tokyo Five? We can’t tell you that just yet. First, the honorable mentions:

(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…

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…

(Put on the shoes and hat. Stuff the rest into the gym bag. Tell your wife that you don’t need her anymore. Get in the car. Drive.)

Because you guys brought it so hard in our MMA poster contest and t-shirt design contest, we thought we’d give you another shot to flex your creative muscles. Leading MMA gear supplier Throwdown has hooked us up with a very generous prize package (shown above) that consists of the following…

– an All Over Print Duffle Bag
– a Logo Flexfit Hat
– a pair of On Top Remix Shoes
– a Throwdown Hoodie or Thermal of your choice
– 2 Throwdown by Affliction "T"s of your choice
– 2 Large Throwdown Stickers

Total street value of this prize package: About $250. You want it, and it’s yours if you’re willing to work. Here’s how to win…

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!

(Props: Brion S.)

We’ve reached the mid-way point in our massive MMA event poster design contest, and we’ve already gotten some amazing submissions. To inspire the rest of y’all into getting your asses in gear, we’ve decided to post some of our current favorites, which continue after the jump. Please send your poster entries to feedback@cagepotato.com by next Tuesday. We’ll pick some finalists for voting a week from today; the top vote-getter will score a big ass prize-package from Six Deuce, which includes MMA fight shorts, a Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory t-shirt, Muay Thai training gloves, hand wraps, ankle supports, and a leather speed bag. Three runners up will score the shorts — a prize worth $45, just for losing. Please swing by 62gear.com and let ‘em know you care!

(Props: Brian R.)

(Props: Steve W.)

    
      
(Images courtesy of 62Gear.com)

You may remember Six Deuce as the brilliant gear and apparel company that gave us the Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory t-shirt. Well, they’re rolling out some new product, and they want you to be the first person in your gym/book club to sport it. So shut up and listen for a minute: We have on our hands a grand prize training pack that consists of the following items, pictured above…

– These shiny red satin MMA fight/board shorts
– The Fedor-rific Glorious Sweater t-shirt
– These high-quality leather Muay Thai training gloves
– A pair of black hand wraps
– A pair of Muay Thai ankle supports
– This leather speed bag

Total street value of this prize package: About $179. But you’re not going to pay for it. No, child, you’re going to win it. Here’s how…

To quickly sum up last week’s MMA FightPicker action: Manny Pacquiao won by decision but wasn’t able to put Joshua Clottey on the canvas, King of the Cage: Uprising II late replacement Gavin Neil choked out Charlie Zak to become the new KOTC Canadian lightweight champ, some stuff went down at Sportfight 27, and Aaron Rampey is still your father. Ladies and gentlemen, FightPicker’s current top 5:

Our sincere thanks to those hardcore FightPickers who kept playing even when the week’s only action was regional cards and boxing. Now it’s time for the rest of you to get back in the game. There are five (or possibly six) major MMA events going down in the next five weeks, beginning with UFC Live: Vera vs. Jones this Sunday on Versus. And to sweeten the pot this week, MMAWarehouse.com has hooked us up with gear packages featuring Hayabusa fight gloves, TapouT mouthguards, Sprawl Fusion-S fight shorts, and Manto rash guards. Total street value of each package: About $200.

To win one of these kickass kits, head over to MMA FightPicker and choose one of the prize pools at the top. For just 250 chips, you can enter the "Unlimited" pool — but your odds of winning decrease with every entry. If you’re a high-roller, you’ll want to join the "10" pool, which will be capped at every 10 players. The buy-in is a stiff 1,200 PotatoChips, but remember, you can always buy some chips if you need to. Sound good? Thanks to MMA Warehouse for hooking this up, and if you have any questions, please let your voice be heard in the comments section. Questions for this week are after the jump…

Props to "buggs mcmulligan" for turning us on to Penny Mathis/Jennifer Perez, an Internet model who has done stellar work for the MMA apparel companies Take a Nap Fight Gear and Hitman Fight Gear, among other brands. Be her friend at MySpace.com/ThatsJenny, and check out more pictures after the jump…