With the cobwebs finally clearing from his devastating knockout loss against Ray Mercer, Tim Sylvia will try to regain some semblance of respect against Jason Riley at Adrenaline MMA’s fourth event on September 18. Riley holds a 6-1 professional record, and went 4-0 as an amateur. All of his fights have taken place in Ohio, and he became the NAAFS heavyweight champion after knocking out Justin Black in April.

In other words, he has nowhere near the kind of high-profile, big-show experience that Tim Sylvia does. But you’ll never go broke underestimating the Maine-iac. After all, this is a a guy who weighed in at a morbidly obese 310.6 pounds for his last fight in June, and will now have to get back into legitimate fighting shape just one month from now. Will Sylvia snap his three-fight losing streak, or will Riley make his name off of the former UFC heavyweight champ?

According to NWI.com, Adrenaline IV will go down at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and is likely to feature former UFC vets Jeremy Horn and Houston Alexander — even though Alexander hasn’t been officially released from his UFC contract yet.

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

Some frighteningly dominant performances mixed with some very mediocre ones to form this edition of the Potato Index.  Our arbitrary numerical rankings system sorts through each fighter’s rise or fall after UFC 101.  Were we the only ones who locked our door and slept with the lights on after watching Anderson Silva?  Even then we had nightmares about his fade-away jab and woke up hearing his lengthy Portuguese shout-out echoing in our ears.  Freaky.

Anderson Silva +411
Simply finishing a fight and looking like his old self again would have been enough.  Instead Silva puts on a Jedi striking display and makes a top-ten light heavyweight look like a special needs child.  Might as well go up to 205 lbs. for good now.  The middleweights have suffered enough under his reign.

Forrest Griffin -276
Maybe the most embarrassing knockout ever, and that was after about three minutes of the most one-sided fight in recent memory.  Does it help to know that it came at the hands of the sport’s pound-for-pound best?  Probably not.  Feel better, FoGriff.

(Doing the bird dance. Feeling the flow. Working it. Photo courtesy of LasVegasSun.)

Don’t know about y’all, but Anderson Silva‘s flawless victory over Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 made the prospect of a second fight with Dan Henderson even less interesting to me; if the Spider’s competitive days are truly numbered, I’d much rather see him rumble with guys like Quinton Jackson, Tito Ortiz, and yes, even Lyoto Machida, rather than sit through sequels to old fights. Luckily, it seems that Silva feels the same way (except for the Machida part). According to this Yahoo! Sports article, Silva’s manager Ed Soares approached UFC president Dana White after Saturday’s event and suggested that Silva vacate his middleweight title and move to light-heavyweight permanently. White was very receptive to the idea, saying:

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Nothing lasts forever — even cold November rain, and the seemingly untouchable bantamweight championship run of Miguel Torres. No, Torres did not ruin Brian Bowles’s boyish face at last night’s WEC 42, as many (everybody?) assumed he would. Instead, Bowles nearly knocked the former champ’s mullet off during a violent belt-taking that was reminiscent of Brown vs. Faber 1.

Torres was in trouble from the beginning of the match, as Bowles sent him to the canvas with a heavy right hand. After Bowles dropped some elbows from the top, Torres was able to kick Bowles off of him. Moments later, Torres launched forward with a barrage of punches that had Bowles on his heels, but Bowles fired off a sharp right hook that dropped Torres again, and started throwing down bombs until Torres was in dreamland. Brian Bowles — who picked up a $10,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for his shocking of the world — is the new WEC bantamweight champ. “No excuses,” Torres said after the fight. “Brian is going to be a good champion, but he’ll see that the responsibilities that go along with being the champion are not easy.”

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

MMA Fanhouse has confirmed that Edith Labelle — you know, the large-chested Octagon Girl who’s not Arianny or Logan — won’t be holding round cards and blowing kisses to the camera during UFC broadcasts anymore. Her manager was quoted as saying "Something happened, but at this time, I can only confirm that Edith no longer works for the UFC." Considering the rumors that swirled around Amber Nichole Miller‘s departure, that "something" could be nothing, or that something could be something; feel free to speculate wildly in the comments section below. Edith will be officially replaced by Maxim Octagon Girl Search winner Natasha Wicks at UFC 101 tomorrow night in Philadelphia.

Edith Labelle (born June 30, 1982), aka Edith Larente, made her debut as a UFC Octagon Girl in November 2007, but was released by the company after falling ill at UFC 100 in July 2009. Hailing from Mont-Laurier, Quebec, Edith Labelle worked as a semi-nude model before joining the UFC, and was best known as "Anabelle" from FlashyBabes.com. Outside of her appearance in a low-budget sci-fi movie in 2009, we have no idea what Edith’s been up to since leaving the UFC.

Check out more hot MMA ring girls…
Brittney Palmer
Chandella Powell
Maria Kanellis

(Photo courtesy of Newsday.)

— TUF 3 finalist Ed Herman, who broke a two-fight skid in April with a unanimous decision win over David Loiseau, has been tapped to replace James "Job" Irvin against Wilson Gouveia at UFC 102, according to Sherdog. Irvin was forced to withdraw from the fight this week due to yet another serious knee injury. Herman was previously scheduled to face Aaron Simpson at UFC Fight Night 19 (September 16th, Oklahoma City).

— UFC 104 (October 24th, Los Angeles) will reportedly host a lightweight battle between Joe Stevenson and Spencer Fisher. "Joe Daddy" broke a two-fight losing streak of his own when he scored a decision win over Nate Diaz at the TUF 9 finale in June. Fisher is riding a three fight win-streak and most recently outpointed Caol Uno at UFC 99. The match will likely be on the main card, supporting the light-heavyweight title fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

(Looks like somebody’s heading to the glue factory. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Seriously, the Amir Sadollah Curse doesn’t even come close. Carmichael Dave broke the news yesterday that James Irvin, who was scheduled to face Wilson Gouveia later this month at UFC 102, has been forced to drop out of the match due to a serious knee injury suffered in training which will likely require surgery. And that means it’s time to update the James Irvin "Why Me?" timeline…

— 6/9/06: A Strikeforce match between Irvin and Bobby Southworth ends in a no-contest after both fighters fell out of the cage. Irvin screwed up his left leg during the tumble and couldn’t continue fighting.

— 5/26/07: Irvin tears the ACL and MCL of his right knee during a UFC 71 match against Thiago Silva, and the fight is ruled a TKO victory for Silva.

(Photo courtesy of 411mania.)

According to Graciemag.com, Brazilian middleweight standout Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza has signed a multi-fight deal with Strikeforce, and will make his debut at an October 25th event in Fresno, California — reportedly the same event that will see Fedor Emelianenko‘s Strikeforce debut. Souza has spent the last five fights of his career competing for DREAM in Japan, where he made it to the finals of their middleweight grand prix before succumbing to a Gegard Mousasi upkick, and had two contentious fights with Jason Miller. After their last match ended in a no-contest due to an illegal kick, Jacare and Mayhem were scheduled to fight for a third time at DREAM.11 (October 6th, Yokohama) for DREAM’s middleweight belt. It’s unclear if that fight will still be happening, though Japan MMA hears a rumor that Paulo Filho will be stepping in for Souza against Miller.
 
Souza’s Strikeforce signing is particularly interesting because Scott Coker recently announced that Jake Shields will fight for the organization’s interim middleweight title in October. Shields’s opponent hasn’t yet been announced, and Souza’s first opponent hasn’t been named either. You don’t have to be a genius to figure this one out. The winner of the interim middleweight title fight will face Cung Le whenever Le feels like taking a break from his action movie career and stepping back into the cage.

("So listen, you got any clean urine I can borrow?" Photo courtesy of MMA Junkie.)

According to a story on Sherdog, Sengoku is planning to book American steroid aficionado Josh Barnett for their November 7th card, but not against Antonio Silva as was originally suggested; Silva is currently scheduled to fight at Sengoku 10 in September. Conveniently, World Victory Road Director Takahiro Kokuho is giving Barnett the benefit of the doubt regarding his latest positive test in California:

(More oddball grappling exhibitions between fighters separated by four weight classes? Yes please! Photo courtesy of Sportsnavi)

From MMA Fanhouse:

(Who’s ready for round two?)

Ben Rothwell hasn’t even had his first UFC fight yet, but he’s already got his eye on the UFC heavyweight title.  He even has a little insight about the man who holds it, and how best to go about taking it from him.  

While talking to Rothwell about his impending debut at UFC 104 against Chase Gormley – the same opponent he was originally scheduled to face at Affliction: Trilogy – the conversation turned to other UFC heavyweights like “Ultimate Fighter” season ten participant Roy Nelson, who Rothwell had a memorable clash with in the IFL.  While Rothwell said he’s absolutely expecting a rematch with Nelson in the UFC, he went on to say that he thought of both Gormley and Nelson as preparation for a fight with UFC champ Brock Lesnar:

(Image courtesy of Strikeforce.)

Now that Strikeforce has landed the greatest heavyweight in the world, they have to make sure that casual American fans care. To that end, Fedor Emelianenko may spend the first two fights of his initial three-fight deal with Strikeforce building his name before fighting for the organization’s heavyweight strap. According to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker on yesterday’s edition of TapouT Radio (via FiveOuncesofPain):

(This is a picture of Brian Foster. It is what it is. Props to thehitsquad.com.)

In our almost-daily update of fighters who were supposed to compete at Affliction: Trilogy…

— New UFC welterweight acquisition Paul "Semtex" Daley is expected to make his Octagon debut against H.I.T. Squad product Brian Foster (10-3) at UFC 103 (September 19th, Dallas), according to MMA Weekly. Foster is currently on a three-fight win streak, and eight of his ten career wins have come by first-round stoppage. UFC 103 will be headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort, which will now be at a catchweight of 195 pounds.

(One more round for old time’s sake?)

Though Dana White was hoping he could announce the signing of Fedor Emelianenko at this afternoon’s much-anticipated UFC press conference, it was not meant to be. DW said he did everything he could possibly do to get Emelianenko into the Octagon and offered him an "amazing" deal, but M-1′s dogged desire for co-promotion sunk the negotiations, which made Dana "fucking miserable." Still, there were some major announcements to share, which are sure to get MMA fans talking:

— UFC 103‘s main event has been thankfully changed to Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort. The match will be contested at light-heavyweight. Dan Henderson will likely get the next crack at Anderson Silva‘s middleweight belt, possibly followed by the winner of the Nate Marquardt/Demian Maia match at UFC 102.

— Tito Ortiz (remember that guy?) is back in the UFC, and plans to fight before the end of the year. Mark Coleman has been named as a possible opponent.

(In retrospect, Dan should have never accepted that "Hertz Donut." Photo courtesy of AllElbows.)

The feeding frenzy continues, as the WEC and UFC have reportedly picked up a few more solid additions in the wake of Affliction’s demise. Here’s the latest…

— According to Sherdog, the featherweight bout between Javier Vazquez and L.C. Davis that was supposed to take place during the undercard of "Trilogy" will now take place at WEC 42: Torres vs. Bowles (August 9th, Las Vegas). Vazquez (13-2) is a former King of the Cage and Gladiator Challenge champion who most recently choked out Mark Kergosian in 19 seconds at last month’s Ultimate Chaos show; it was just his third fight since 2003. Davis (also 13-2) is an IFL vet whose most recent decision loss to Michihiro Omigawa at Sengoku 7 in March dropped him from our featherweight top ten list.

(Props: drunkenunicorn)

According to Fighters Only, the UFC has just rescued Paul "Semtex" Daley from Affliction’s wreckage, signing the British 170-pounder to a four-fight contract. Daley, who was scheduled to fight Jay Hieron on the undercard of "Trilogy" before the event was canceled, is the former Cage Rage welterweight champion, and sports a record of 21-8-2, with 17 of his wins coming via stoppage due to strikes. He holds notable wins over Duane Ludwig, Jess Liaudin, Xavier Foupa-Pokam, and John Alessio. As FO explains:

("Don’t worry, Fedor, there will be other offers. Say, would you like to open for a puppet show in Stockton this weekend?" Photo courtesy of 5oz.)

You gotta be kidding me with this shit. According to Carmichael Dave (via Bloody Elbow), here’s what the UFC was offering Fedor to sign with them:

(Those smiles could only mean one thing: Dana and the boys have cooked up a crazy scheme to steal the Westbury High School mascot…again.)

When Dana White announces his future intention to make a big announcement, it’s sort of like your girlfriend saying, ‘Can I ask you something?’  You have no idea what’s coming.  It could be something awesome and big, like ‘What would you think about having a threesome with the hot German girl who lives next door?’ or it could be something like, ‘Do you think I should get bangs?’  You just never know, but the endless possibilities make the moment of anticipation that much more exciting.

According to a recent report from The Sun, Friday’s Dana White announcement will be slightly more hairstyle than it is threesome, at least for those of us in the US of A.  The UK news outlet reports that the UFC will announce a deal with the newly formed UK ESPN channel to broadcast events across the pond, essentially replacing the deal the UFC had with the now-defunct Setanta Sports.  The UK ESPN channel is reportedly set to launch on August 3, and they could turn right around and broadcast UFC 101 on August 8.  

("Hey Lesnar, I heard you like guns. WELL HOW DO YOU LIKE THESE?!?" Photo courtesy of milwaukeemma.com)

Why let Strikeforce have all the fun in picking over Affliction’s carcass? According to Sherdog, the heavyweight scrap between Ben Rothwell and Chase Gormley that was supposed to be featured on the undercard of "Trilogy" will now happen at UFC 104 (October 24th, Los Angeles). Rothwell has won 14 of his last 15 fights, with notable wins over Roy Nelson, Krzysztof Soszynski (twice), and Ricco Rodriguez, and a sole loss to Andrei Arlovski at Affliction: Banned. Gormley is a promising 6-0 heavyweight from Bodyshop Fitness Team who holds wins over Jon Murphy and Eric Pele.

But that could just be the beginning. InsideFights.com hears that a whopping twenty Affliction fighter contracts have been snapped up by the UFC. The names haven’t been released yet — maybe they’ll be revealed at Friday’s "crazy" press conference — but considering guys like Vitor Belfort, Jorge Santiago, Takanori Gomi, and Paul Daley are still floating in the breeze, Christmas may be coming early for Dana & Co. We’d include Fedor Emelianenko on that list, but as long as M-1 keeps denying that their #1 asset is heading to the Octagon, there’s no reason to keep playing with your emotions.

(When reached for comment, a source speaking on the condition of anonymity also confirmed for us that "Bloodsport" was totally kickass.)

Don’t get too excited just yet, but a media outlet that is neither an internet forum nor a celebrity gossip site is reporting that a deal to bring Fedor Emelianenko to the UFC is being “finalized” and will be announced later this week.  Because, much like Jay Hieron, we’ve had our hearts broken too many times to get our hopes up, we’re remaining skeptical for the moment despite the L.A. Times’ assertion (via WKR) that negotiations have been “very civil.”

If you’re looking for reasons to believe this report, the UFC did send out an email to announce a conference call on Friday wherein Dana White “will break all the latest news and developments.”  Then again, Fedor has a press conference scheduled for Wednesday.  If he’s signed a deal or is at least close to one, he’d have to either steal the UFC’s thunder by announcing it two days before them, or else say nothing of interest and generally waste everyone’s time.  

Of course there’s always the possibility that his press conference will have nothing to do with his MMA future at all and will instead be a forum for him to answer questions about his newest short story collection, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Stoic Russian Indifference,” but again, let’s not get our hopes up.

(‘It’s quite simple, gentleman. All we require is a suitcase full of money, a crate of automatic rifles, twelve underaged prostitutes, and a helicopter to take us to the airport. Oh, and the helicopter must be painted with the M-1 Global logo. Do we have a deal?’)

Now that Affliction has gone back to being merely the maker of terrible t-shirts and Fedor Emelianenko has lost another home to fight in, this should mean that the way is clear for him to sign with the UFC, right?  Enter Vadim Finkelchtein, also known around the Zuffa offices as Crazy Russian #1.  Yesterday he spoke to the official M-1 Global site about his new plans to profit off Fedor’s success now that Affliction is gone.  Fedor and his people are all in the U.S. and they plan to talk with several different organizations over the next few days, but Finkelchtein isn’t about to make this thing easy on anyone:

“This is the moment of truth that the UFC has talked about. Fedor and I are here in the States. If they want to come out and fly here, we are ready to conduct negotiations. Of course it still doesn’t imply we are ready to accept any conditions they’ll throw at us. We want to talk to the UFC about having Fedor compete against some of their fighters, but only within the framework of co-promotional efforts with M-1 Global.”

(Seriously. The man showers after every workout, and always uses fresh needles. Image courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Thank God for the city of Japan — where else would fighters who are wrongly accused of steroid use get a chance to redeem themselves? According to an article posted yesterday on Tatame (via BloodyElbow), two such innocent victims could be meeting in the ring at the end of this year:

(Props: MMA Scraps)

Before Ray Mercer became known as the unstoppable heavyweight juggernaut who wrecked Tim Sylvia in 8 seconds, Mercer had a two-fight kickboxing stint in K-1, losing his debut to Musashi by unanimous decision in June 2004. His second bout against Remy Bonjasky at the K-1 World GP 2005 in Seoul was even less successful. We won’t spoil the suprise for you, but the fight (if you can call it that) starts at the 3:53 mark of the above video and ends very shortly afterwards. It’s pretty sad when losing a match to Kimbo Slice by submission still isn’t the low point in your fight career.

Speaking of Merciless, the former WBO boxing champ and Olympic gold medalist may have his next MMA bout booked. American Top Team boxing coach Howard Davis Jr. is in negotiations to put Mercer against old-schooler Marcus "Conan" Silveira in the main event of a December 12th MMA card called "U.S. vs. Brazil," put on by Davis’s new Fight Time Promotions company.

(Props: twitter.com/FollowACE)

Rich Franklin gives us the heads-up that the UFC may be re-thinking the main event for UFC 103 (September 19th, Dallas) — which is great, considering it was a garbage-ass fight to begin with. MMA Junkie claims that the bout, though officially announced, was never added to the UFC 103 event page to begin with. It seems like odd treatment for an upcoming main event, unless something else is in the works; it’s been speculated that because of recent events, Franklin or Henderson could instead face off against Vitor Belfort or He Who Shall Not Be Named at #103. Belfort would be an awesome fill-in, though September might be too soon a return for You Know Who. Adding fuel to the rumor fire is Dana White’s recent announcement that the UFC will be holding a press conference on July 31st to discuss "a lot of crazy things." Stay tuned…

(Whaddaya say, best buds again?)

So after this morning’s news that Affliction: Trilogy was being canceled altogether you might be asking, ‘Sup Affliction?  You going to promote any more shows ever?  You going to give any money to those fighters you just screwed?  And what does this do to your relationship with Strikeforce and the UFC?  Judging by recent developments, Affliction’s answer to all those questions would probably be, ‘Shit, man, I don’t know.  Can you just take me home?’

Basically, it’s a mess right now.  The stories are coming in from all sides and some of them are changing by the hour.  Allow us to try and make sense of it:

("Another opponent that will tool me on the ground? YES!" Photo courtesy of MMA Frenzy.)

According to a new report on Sportsnet.ca (which was also confirmed by MMA Mania), former UFC interim heavyweight champ Frank Mir is tentatively scheduled to face Cheick Kongo at UFC 107 (December 12, Memphis). Mir will try to bounce back from his crushing loss to Brock Lesnar at UFC 100, while Kongo is coming off his own smothering defeat against Cain Velasquez at UFC 99. The match would support the headlining light-heavyweight scrap between TUF 10 coaches Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Rashad Evans.

We know Kongo hits hard, but if Mir can get this one to the mat, his massive jiu-jitsu advantage could decide the fight. No matter what happens, both guys have a lot to lose in this one. (I wonder if Mir will keep pushing his "cocky bastard" routine now that he’s been completely humbled?) Speaking of UFC 107, Rampage and Rashad will be the subjects of a Primetime mini-series on Spike, showcasing their preparations for the match. Think about it, know it, see it.

("Side effects may include headache, dry mouth, constipation, and Huttism.")

Strikeforce’s monumental "Carano vs. Cyborg" card may have lost another title fight. Earlier this week, the scheduled heavyweight championship bout between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum went up in smoke due to Overeem’s infected hand. Now, it appears that the rematch between Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs — which would have decided Strikeforce’s first welterweight champion — could be off as well. According to GracieFighter (via FiveOuncesofPain):

(Don Frye doesn’t offer mustache rides. He merely takes applications and approves or denies them based on merit, need, and whether or not you are a gross fat chick.)

As much as we’ve been enjoying all the back and forth about who will and who won’t fight Fedor next weekend, it just seemed as though it hadn’t gotten quite absurd enough yet.  And then Don Frye chimed in:

"If Tom (Atencio) was smart, he’d have me fighting Fedor instead of whoever he’s hiring on a one week notice.  My phone works if he wants a real fight with someone who sell a fight in four days, somebody who will beat that bald-headed commie too. …He ain’t seen anything I have to offer.  He built his whole reputation (as a) waffle house chef. They’ve been serving him up ham and eggs with a side of canned tomatoes. I’ll bring it. And if he can bring it, you’ll have the best fight you’ve ever seen on the planet."

I’m sorry, bald-headed commie?  Waffle house chef?  Best fight you’ve ever seen on the planet?  And that’s just off the top of his head, people.  Imagine what he could do with a week to prepare some material and really build momentum.

(Sure he’ll fight again.  But he just got the "Wings" DVD box set and, well, you know how it is once you get sucked into a series.)

Hasn’t it just been that kind of week, fight fans?  As soon as something good or interesting or at least newsworthy seems like it might happen, the goddamn facts come swooping in to ruin all the fun.

Wanderlei Silva’s manager tells Fighters Only that they haven’t even discussed the possibility of fighting Michael Bisping at UFC 105, and suggests that even if they had their answer probably would have been no.  Apparently Silva wants to wait until February before he fights again so he can “take time off to heal his body and mind.”  Plus he’s got this gym to worry about and some vague “business affairs” (just say you’re not investing in puppy mills and we’ll believe you) to attend to.   A lot of stuff on his plate, in other words.

So there it is, another rumor destroyed, another dream deferred.  Oh well.

Before we get started, let me just point out that MMABay.co.uk has an accuracy rate of about .500 when it comes to breaking news — which is great if you’re batting cleanup, and not so great if you’re an MMA news site. So take the validity of this rumor as somewhere between "Kimo Leopoldo is dead" and "Josh Barnett is innocent." Anyway: