(Props: @JoshLBarnett)

Now, if that happened to my hand, it would be a wrap — you wouldn’t be able to stop me from sobbing. But Josh Barnett is cut from a different cloth than you or I. Despite suffering this uncomfortable-looking break within the first 30 seconds of his Strikeforce headlining fight against Black Fedor/Bro Cop on Saturday, the Warmaster bravely battled on for five agonizing rounds, only letting the pain show after the match was over. That’s what you call a savage and a true champ. Daniel Cormier also re-broke his hand early in the fight, but until he provides us with x-ray evidence, we’re going to have to proclaim Barnett the winner of their unofficial Gnarly Hand Injury contest.

(True story.)

Rousimar Palhares‘s reputation for unsportsmanlike leg-breaking, terrifying aggression, and general insanity is well-documented, and well-deserved. But now that he’s being blamed for leg-murders he didn’t even commit, we felt it was time to step in to defend him.

This morning, as part of their Blood Week series, Deadspin linked to a photo of a man on a table, with his femur sticking out of his leg. If you really, really need to see it, just hit the “next page” link at the end of this post. [Ed. note: Don't actually do that.] As Deadspin writes:

Click through to see what happened to Isiah Ordiz’s femur after he wouldn’t tap out of a heel hook from Rousimar Palhares. I cannot stress this enough: this is a Faces of Death-level photo and you will wish you hadn’t seen it.

Immediately, my bullshit sensors went off. I researched an entire article about Palhares’s assholish history of leg abuse two years ago, and there’s no way I would leave out something this gruesome and dramatic, if there was any record of it on the Internet. The fact that this is surfacing now makes it suspect to begin with. Surely us MMA fans would have already heard of it?

(As it turns out, Belfort-brand bottled water mostly consists of hydrochloric acid. Good to know. Photo via LasVegasSun)

Due to an undisclosed injury, UFC middleweight Vitor Belfort will not be showing off his “powerful trunks” against Cung Le at UFC 139 (November 19th, San Jose). Dana White broke the news via Twitter, adding that Le’s new opponent will be another Brazilian legend — none other than Wanderlei Silva.

Silva vs. Le will serve as the co-main event of UFC 139, which will be headlined by the PRIDE-era fantasy match between Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua. Silva is coming off his 27-second knockout loss to Chris Leben at UFC 132, while Le will be making his Octagan debut 17 months after his rematch victory over Scott Smith.

(Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland)

Between the rotator cuff injury he fought through against Yushin Okami and the rib injury during his scrap with Chael Sonnen, Anderson Silva is becoming a bizarro version of Tito Ortiz — meaning that he makes injury excuses after winning fights. His latest ouchie is enough to take the UFC middleweight champion out of action for the rest of the year. Silva’s manager Ed Soares informed MMA Fighting this weekend that the Spider’s bum shoulder will most likely keep him benched until the first quarter of 2012.

So here’s the good news: 1) Silva will not need surgery to treat it, and should be back to 100% after some rest and rehabilitation. 2) It’s not like Silva needed to fight again this year anyway. And I don’t mean just financially, although he’s clearly rich beyond measure. More importantly, there won’t be a legit challenger to his belt set up until at least January.

(…and when he woke up, he could speak perfect Spanish. / Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

You know, if James Irvin didn’t already exist, Mike Swick would be a solid front-runner for Most Cursed Fighter in MMA. Since his second-consecutive loss against Paulo Thiago last February, Swick has been completely out of action, nursing himself back to health following a stomach-related medical misdiagnosis then a back injury. ‘Quick’ was scheduled to take on newcomer Erick Silva on the prelims of UFC 134 — which would have ended an 18-month layoff — but has now withdrawn from that fight due to a torn MCL and ACL suffered in training.

(The good old days — when men were men and briefs were shiny.)

Hello to all of my Cage Potato friends and thanks again for your interest and questions. It’s been a busy 2011 so far and things are only looking better from here. Thank you for the wonderful night before UFC 129 in Toronto. To those who missed it, there was a Cage Potato: Banned party that week and I had the opportunity to meet many loyal readers and Cage Potato “Big Wigs.” As you may know, I’ve reached a different stage in my career and I hope to provide you with more honest insights into many of the things that I’ve learned. I’m pleased to be black by popular demand. Ask away for my next column. Also, add me on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog www.bigdaddyfightteam.com.

All the best and Happy Humping,
Gary Goodridge

‘Bob Villa’ asks: How do you feel about all the lay and pray we’ve been subjected to lately? What do you think about guys like GSP who seem to fight not to lose and never go for the finish?
You’re asking the wrong guy because I always went for the finish. I think just lying on top of somebody is just crap and ridiculous. However, when fighters start doing that they pay the price because the promotions are not going to bring you back. You already know I like Wanderlei Silva and Chris Leben; I also like a lot of the U.K. fighters like Dan Hardy because they always provide entertaining fights.

GSP is a different animal though. He is a champion. He doesn’t have to finish these guys. They have to finish GSP. His job is to keep his belt any way that he can because the belt means prestige and, more importantly, money. If I were him I would use every fibre in my body to walk away with the belt. I never won a championship beyond the International Vale Tudo Championship so I was never in a position to have to try and retain my belt. I was the guy who tried to shatter the myths of others fighters as champions.

People need to understand that guys like GSP are facing the top competition in the world every fight. There is no room for a mistake. It may not look like he’s doing much but trust me, he is.

‘bgoldstein’ asks: At PRIDE 11, you gave Yoshiaki Yatsu one of the most savage beatings I’ve ever seen in my life. Why did PRIDE book a rematch of that fight the next year? Did you feel bad accepting it?

(Pokrajac chokes out James Irvin at UFC on Versus 2, but contracts the Sandman Curse in the process. Props: Francis Specker)

UFC 131 was never going to be remembered as the most stacked event of the year, but it did have a lot of crowd-pleasing names on it. Then, Brock Lesnar fell ill with a flare-up of diverticulitis, TUF 11 winner Court McGee tweaked his knee in training, and Mac Danzig’s chest injury snubbed out a compelling bang-up with Donald Cerrone. Throw in injury withdrawals from supporting players Anthony Perosh and Rani Yahya, and you’re left with a ghost-ship of a card that’s making Joe Silva work double-shifts.

Now, just days before the third UFC event in three weeks, the card continues to lose bodies. Due to an undisclosed injury*, Croatian light-heavyweight Igor Pokrajac has been forced to withdraw from his fight against Krzysztof Soszynski, and will be replaced on short notice by Mike Massenzio. (Pokrajac was already an injury replacement for Anthony Perosh, which means that this UFC 131 injury curse has affected K-Sos as much as anybody.)

(Get used to this mug. Props: MMARatings.net)

Anthony Johnson was slated to welcome Nate Marquardt to the welterweight division at this month’s UFC Live event (June 26th in Pittsburgh), but due to a rotator cuff injury suffered in training, ‘Rumble’ won’t be able to make that date. Coming in on short-notice against Marquardt will be rising welterweight star Rick Story, who was in action just last weekend at UFC 130, picking up his sixth-consecutive win against Thiago Alves.

It’s a gamble for Story, but taking out a longtime middleweight contender like Marquardt would earn the Washington native even more respect in the crowded contender pool at 170. Will Story be able to use his wrestling to stifle Marquardt in the same way that Chael Sonnen did at UFC 109, or is Nate going to put the welterweight division on notice, starting with Rick?

The current lineup of UFC Live: Marquardt vs. Story (aka ‘UFC on Versus 4′) is after the jump…

(“What has two relatively healthy thumbs and just screwed with Rashad Evans’s career? This guy!” Photo courtesy of Francis Specker.)

Well, this isn’t going to help the credibility of that swagger-jackin’ Jon Jones. Bones’s manager Malki Kawa took to twitter today with a revelation that will only give more ammunition to the haters who found it a little suspicious that the UFC light-heavyweight champion postponed a fight against Rashad Evans to fix a thumb injury that “doesn’t affect [his] punching or grappling“:

I guess its time to put out the truth. @Jonnybones suffered a tear in his thumb in 2 different spots… Every dr he saw said to have surgery. We went to meet with the surgeon on wed and after he looked at @Jonnybones he thought that surgery was a bit [invasive] and bones didn’t have To have if he didn’t want to. @Jonnybones decided against surgery, and we immediately met with dana and lorenzo the next day to get his next fight scheduled.

(Props: ix3623vault)

Think of it as a necessary cool-down after those ring girl videos. Starring: Dwayne Lewis, Mark Hominick, Kazushi Sakuraba, and a bunch of lumpy boxers. Gross.

(The Shotgun in action. Props: 000BHVids000)

The UFC announced yesterday that featherweight veteran Rani Yahya — who most recently scored an upset decision over Mike Brown at Fight for the Troops 2 — has suffered an injury, and will not be able to face Dustin Poirier at UFC 131 (June 11th, Vancouver). Filling in for him will be Octagon first-timer Jason “Shotgun” Young (8-3), a former Cage Rage lightweight champion based in London, England. Last month, Young competed at Ontario’s first sanctioned MMA event, where he scored a unanimous decision over Jorge Britto. (You can see Jason talk about that match here, if you want to get a sense of the dude’s vibe.)

Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier is riding back-to-back wins over Zach Micklewright and Josh Grispi. He’s poised to become one of 2011 breakout fighters — especially since the documentary about his life, Fightville, was just picked up by Showtime Networks.

(“…and once I find that son-of-a-bitch who embalmed me, there’s gonna be hell to pay.” Image courtesy of ESPN)

Due to a torn MCL suffered in training, Ultimate Fighter 11 winner Court McGee has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled middleweight bout against Canadian prospect Jesse Bongfeldt at UFC 131: Lesnar vs. Dos Santos. McGee has been inactive since his submission victory over Ryan Jensen last October, and his current timetable for return is uncertain. Bongfeldt will likely remain on the Vancouver card against a replacement opponent. Update, 4:01 p.m. ET: Bongfeldt will now be facing Chris Weidman, the undefeated Serra-Longo Fight Team product (and former All-American wrestler) who scored a unanimous decision over Alessio Sakara in his Octagon debut last month at “Sanchez vs. Kampmann.”

According to reports, McGee injured his knee while training with the Cesar Gracie team, helping Jake Shields, Nick Diaz, and Gilbert Melendez prepare for their upcoming fights. (Damn it, why couldn’t it have been Chael?) So remember kids, EFX Performance bracelets may improve your balance and stamina, but they don’t make you impervious to knee injury…

(Yeah, now that you mention it, you never see Mike Kyle and Newark mayor Cory Booker in the same room together…)

Due to a broken hand suffered in training, Strikeforce light-heavyweight contender Mike Kyle has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled match against Gegard Mousasi at ‘Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley‘ (April 9th, San Diego). The Kyle/Mousasi match would have likely produced the next challenger to Dan Henderson’s 205-pound title. Strikeforce is currently looking for a replacement opponent for Mousasi, who has scored wins over Jake O’Brien and Tatsuya Mizuno while competing in DREAM since losing the Strikeforce light-heavyweight title to Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal last April.

The news of Kyle’s injury withdrawal comes just a day after we learned that Jon Fitch — who trains alongside Kyle at American Kickboxing Academy — would not be making his rematch date with BJ Penn because of a shoulder injury. Speaking of which, Carlos Condit is down to step in against BJ Penn…as soon as the UFC asks him to.

(Come on, Jon. A real man takes “prohibited injections” and fights through that shit. Photo courtesy of Zimbio)

Bad news for fans of immediate rematches and mouthpiece-chewers. As first reported by MMAWeekly, Jon Fitch has withdrawn from his upcoming fight with BJ Penn at UFC 132 (July 2nd, Las Vegas) due to an undisclosed injury suffered in training; according to ESPN, it’s shoulder-related. A replacement opponent for Penn has not yet been named.

Fitch and Penn met in the main event of UFC 127 last month and fought to a majority draw, in a match that saw Penn take a slight edge in the first two rounds before getting clobbered in round three. UFC 132 is currently slated to feature the bantamweight title fight between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber.

(Definitely an upgrade for Jorge. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

Zoila Gurgel (formerly Frausto)’s first Bellator appearance since winning the promotion’s 115-pound title last October may also be her last of the season. According to a CSAC medical report, Gurgel broke her hand during her unanimous decision victory over Karina Hallinan this weekend, and may be out of action for six months. Since Bellator’s current fourth season is only scheduled to run through May 21st, it’s almost certain that she won’t be back until season five, which kicks off in the fall.

(Chris Tuchscherer)

From Fedor Emelianenko to Dwayne Lewis, gruesome eye injuries are so hot right now in MMA. So we thought we’d make them the subject of our latest photo tribute. Because it’s all fun and games until…you know. Lots more after the jump.

(Marcus Davis)

(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…

(Phil Davis: Athletic, explosive, and built like some sort of alien.)

Due to an injury suffered in training, undefeated Bulgarian prospect Stanislav Nedkov will not be taking on Rodney "Sho Nuff the Master" Wallace at UFC 117 (August 7th, Oakland). Stepping up on two weeks’ notice to face Wallace will be another exciting light-heavyweight, Phil "Mr. Wonderful" Davis.

Davis (6-0) has posted two consecutive victories during his time in the Octagon, scoring a lopsided unanimous decision against Brian Stann in his debut, and choking out Alexander Gustafsson in his latest appearance. Since the former NCAA wrestling champ has a growing amount of hype behind him, it seems somewhat odd that he would risk his momentum to take a short notice fight against an opponent who’s beneath him on the light-heavyweight ladder. (Although it’s never really a bad idea to pick up cage experience and an extra paycheck while scoring valuable brownie points with the UFC.)

Unlike Davis’s success in the Octagon, Wallace (9-2) has had a rough time of it so far, suffering back-to-back decision losses to Brian Stann and Jared Hamman. In other words, he needs a win here to save his job. Lotsa luck, bro.

(Damn, as if the constipation wasn’t bad enough…)

Urijah Faber‘s scheduled bantamweight debut against Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 50 (August 18th, Las Vegas) has been canceled, due to a knee injury that Faber suffered in training on Monday. The California Kid confirmed the bad news via Twitter earlier today, and told Heavy: "Somebody was going to take me down during training. They swept me and I heard a loud pop. They said it would be six weeks before I could train again, but it may heal even faster."

According to MMAJunkie, a replacement will not be found for Mizugaki. Tough break, but on the bright side, it’s a miracle that Faber can even walk at all at this point. WEC 50 will be headlined by the bantamweight title (re-)match between Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez.

(Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com’s UFC 115 Fight Night Photos gallery.)

Chuck Liddell may have lost his ability to take a punch, but he still had enough offensive firepower at UFC 115 to break Rich Franklin’s arm with the first body kick he threw. Following their meeting on Saturday night, Ace confirmed that he broke his left ulna during the fight, and would be in a cast for at least eight weeks. As the former UFC middleweight champ told reporters at the post-fight press conference:

"I definitely wasn’t going to quit — I’ve broken bones before and continued fighting — but there was part of me that was wondering what kind of strategy I was going to use to win the fight with a broken left arm in the second and third rounds." 

…proving once again that knocking your opponent out early is always the best gameplan. (Are you listening, Pat?) Liddell woke up from his knockout with a horribly split lip and a gash over his left eye, but that didn’t stop him from making an appearance at his afterparty. A photographic timeline of Chuck’s night continues after the jump.

(Uh…what? Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

By DL “Remember the Lackland” Richardson

Bellator’s second season is winding down, as we complete another set of semifinals at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas. Even if you’ve been paying attention, though, you still may find it hard to predict what is going to happen when Bellator is on. BFCXX popped off last night, and if you forgot about it or your cable company is a bunch of greedy bastards, allow me to fill you in. Results and full recap after the jump, as well as my secret to wealth and attracting the most attractive sexual partners…

(Props: WatchKalibRun)

It wasn’t shown on Saturday night’s pay-per-view broadcast, but Jason MacDonald‘s return to the Octagon at UFC 113 didn’t exactly go as planned. Midway through the first round of their prelim fight, John Salter scored a takedown against MacDonald, whose left leg snapped underneath him in horrifying, Joe Theismann-esque fashion. The result? A broken tibia and fibula, and a dislocated ankle. Get well soon, Jason. "The Athlete"’s overall UFC record dropped to 5-6 following the TKO loss via injury, while Salter picked up his first UFC win. And as you can see, he was pretty damn pleased with himself.

MacDonald wasn’t the only fighter who left Montreal busted up. Patrick Cote broke his right hand in his losing effort against Alan Belcher — a terribly unfortunate outcome for a guy who was already coming back from a year-and-a-half of injury inactivity.

(Sure, you’ll save a few bucks going to an unlicensed chiropractor, but you wind up paying for it in other ways.)

From a new report on MMA Junkie:

Of course, it had already happened twice before during Aoki’s combat career: When he snapped Keith Wisniewski’s arm in Shooto, and when he dislocated Kuniyoshi Hironaka’s arm in a grappling match. The man is very disrespectful towards arms, basically, and he refuses to feel bad about it. Of course, what really got Aoki in hot water after the Hirota fight was his Stockton-style celebration, which I can’t really see him doing in the U.S. against a guy he has no personal history with. But the bottom line is this: Don’t be a hero, Gilbert. If Aoki has your arm, just tap, unless you want to spend the rest of the year in recovery. Aoki’s already pissed off about the shorts situation. But for a Strikeforce championship belt? Dios mio, he gonna carve you up real nice.

(Props: ATTMain)

When we first came across this clip, we immediately got bad flashbacks to Miguel Torres‘s reconstructive forehead surgery video, expecting basically the same thing but with exposed brain. Don’t worry, you’re not going to see the actual procedure here. It’s just Thiago Alves heading to the hospital on Wednesday, clearly a little nervous, and waking up later completely lucid and with no obvious signs that his skull was removed while the doctors fixed whatever was wrong with him. Actually, this Sherdog report informs us that the procedure was done to mend a malformation in the left hemisphere of his brain, and they basically went in through his groin. [Ed. note: *barfs*] Said ATT coach Ricardo Liborio: "He is really excited to get back to training and I think it is going to be hard to keep him from trying to get back too fast."

("Yeah? Well now there’s an ‘irregularity’ in your *face*, son.")

Now that the dust has settled on UFC 111, we can finally ask ourselves, "So is Thiago Alves dying or what?" The welterweight contender gave us quite a scare on Thursday when he was forced to pull out of his match against Jon Fitch due to an "irregularity in his brain," which was spotted by a pre-fight CAT Scan. The condition was reported as potentially career-ending, but luckily that doesn’t seem to be that case. Alves will undergo a minor outpatient surgery this Wednesday to address the issue, and hopes to make his return to the Octagon in May, if not sooner. Dana White confirmed the improved prognosis, telling TMZ, "He’ll be back…it’s all good."

After the jump: In celebration of Alves’s eventual return, check out this video of the Pitbull at his best.

(Click the above image to watch a sleepy, drugged-up Brandon Vera try to explain what happened to him on Sunday night.)

We just wanted to pass along a little update on Brandon Vera’s broken face following his beating by Jon Jones at UFC on Versus. Vera reportedly had surgery last night to fix his dislocated cheekbone, which was in woeful shape after absorbing that fight-ending elbow:

In other words, Vera won’t be back until the fall or winter, assuming that his face eventually returns to normal. And when he does come back, what will be waiting for him? A full-time position as a gatekeeper for up-and-comers? Most likely, he’ll have one more chance to prove that he has any sort of value to the company. Who would you put him up against at this point?

(Sorry, Duane. Looks like a pre-existing condition to me.)

Now that we’ve all seen this horrific picture of Duane “Bang” Ludwig’s ankle doing something it is not made to do during his fight with Darren Elkins at the UFC on Versus event, let’s all take a second to say, ‘Daaaaaamn!’ After that we can dry heave a little and move on to the actual reason why we’re revisiting this moment of forced empathy. According to MMA Weekly (and common sense), Ludwig is going to be out of action a little while. As you might have already guessed, that thing is going to require surgery, at which point doctors will reportedly put three pins in that mangled ankle, removing one once it’s suitably healed up, and leaving the other two in there permanently to act as embedded foreign objects with which to pummel future opponents.

The weird thing is, he’s projected to return in as little as six months, though Ludwig insists he’ll “be back before everybody expects.”

Let us be the first to say, take your time, Duane. This isn’t Texas high school football. No one is going to think you’re a pussy if you don’t tape it up and jump right back in there. We admire your fierce determination, but until you can stand to hear the sound of someone snapping a celery stick in half without flinching, you don’t want to be jumping back in that Octagon.  Let’s not forget the cautionary tale of Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons.

(Image courtesy of twitter.com/MiguelTorresMMA)

Yeah, that’s a bad one. In the co-main event of WEC 47 on Saturday, Joseph Benavidez struck a gusher on Miguel Torres‘s forehead before finishing him with a guillotine choke in the second round. Now, the former bantamweight champ will have a very prominent scar to remind him of the ugly loss. So what happened? Is Torres slipping, or was he undefeated for so long just because he never faced opponents as dangerous as Benavidez and Brian Bowles? Your thoughts, please.

A photo of the stitched up aftermath is after the jump…

(Photo courtesy of twitter.com/martinkampmann)

The poor bastard you see in the picture above is UFC welterweight contender Martin Kampmann, who had to pull out of his UFC 111 fight against Ben Saunders on Tuesday due to a stomach-turning gash over his right eye, which he suffered in training. (Damn, those Xtreme Couture guys need to take it easy with the broken-glass kickboxing matches.) Kampmann hopes to return to the cage in May. Saunders, who’s coming off his first-round knockout of Marcus Davis at UFC 106, will now take on Jake Ellenberger, who’s fresh off his TKO victory over Mike Pyle. In other UFC matchup news…

— According to a report on MMA Weekly, TUF 7 winner/Master Tweeter Amir Sadollah will compete next against undefeated Judo specialist Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 114 (May 29th, Las Vegas). Sadollah is riding back-to-back unanimous decision wins against Phil Baroni and Brad Blackburn; due to injury, Kim hasn’t competed since his decision win over TJ Grant at UFC 100 last July.

(Photo courtesy of promma.info)

No fighter goes into a match 100% healthy — but Josh Thomson‘s situation is particularly troubling. Four months after breaking his leg in practice — and less than three weeks before his scheduled Strikeforce lightweight title rematch against Gilbert Melendez at "Carano vs. Cyborg" — Thomson told MMAJunkie Radio that he’s still very much feeling the effects of that injury: