(The lovely Edith and Logan. Who needs Fabio to have a good time? Photo via MMA Mania.)

If all the fighter appearances, Hall of Fame inductions, grappling superfights, and Kimbo sightings aren’t enough of an incentive to check out the UFC Fan Expo (July 10+11, Mandalay Convention Center, Las Vegas), maybe this will convince you. From UFC.com:

(This is particularly good news for Indiana-based fighters who aren’t currently allowed to leave the state.)

The unregulated, chaotic MMA scene that produced Miguel Torres is finally getting some much-needed structure. Via MMA Junkie:

(Oh, please. In my day, we’d fight with three broken hands. Photo courtesy of Brawlin.net.)

Jamie Varner‘s technical split-decision over Donald Cerrone at WEC 38 counted as a win on his record, but it sure didn’t feel like one. Varner left the cage that night with a broken hand, a broken foot, impaired vision from the illegal knee that ended the match, and heaps of abuse from fans who thought he should have sacked up and finished out the last three minutes of the fight, which he was leading on the scorecards. Five months later, Varner is still feeling the after-effects of that brutal five-rounder. Last week, he Twittered the disappointing news that his hand is still fractured, and with no return date in sight, reports began emerging that his cowboy-hat-wearing nemesis and Benson Henderson would fight for an interim lightweight title. And then, things got even worse.

(Photos courtesy of UFC.com.)

According to a new report on FiveOuncesofPain, a welterweight rematch between Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs has been added to the undercard of Strikeforce’s "Carano vs. Cyborg" event (August 15th, San Jose). Due to the show’s main card featuring as many as three 25-minute matches — the historic headliner, the lightweight championship rematch between Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez, and the still-unconfirmed heavyweight title fight between Alistair Overeem and Brett Rogers — Diaz vs. Riggs II may not make the televised Showtime broadcast.

The two fighters first met at UFC 57 in February 2006, where Riggs won a unanimous decision; infamously, they continued their fight later that night at a hospital. Bad Boy and Diesel were both successful at "Lawler vs. Shields" earlier this month, with Diaz choking out Scott Smith and Riggs outlasting Phil Baroni. Considering their tense history and shared love of trash-talk, this should be a great one. No other matches have been confirmed for "Carano vs. Cyborg" besides the ones mentioned above, though Roger Gracie and Erin Toughill are expected to participate.

(Let’s remember the good times…)

Drew Fickett used to be the most entertaining drunk in MMA. But over the last year, his increasingly erratic behavior and 2-7 skid against fighters he should have been able to destroy have sent up red flags about his well-being. Saturday night, he hit his bottom. "The Master" was booked to face prolific submission victim Shannon Ritch at a Rage in the Cage event, and was barred from fighting because he showed up intoxicated. As Ritch explained on the UG:

(What’s he looking for?  A war.)

I spoke with Affliction VP Tom Atencio for this week’s SI column on his fight with local card dealer Randy Hedderick at tomorrow night’s “Ultimate Chaos” event in Biloxi, Mississippi.  Contrary to my suspicions before our talk, I came away convinced that Atencio isn’t doing this so much as a self-promotional Affliction publicity stunt, but rather because he genuinely wants to.  What makes me think so?  Mostly his reluctance to even talk about the fight, as well as mild surprise that anyone would want to talk about him considering the other fights on the card.

He also offered some insight on his life as a highly-publicized but low-level MMA fighter, as well as his career as a fight promoter.  And naturally he managed to slip in some shots at the UFC…

(Bones puts a hurtin’ on Andre Gusmao at UFC 87. Photo courtesy of MSNBC.)

Saying you have Anderson Silva figured out? Old and busted. Saying you have Lyoto Machida figured out? New hotness. In a recent interview with USA Today (via MMA Mania), undefeated light-heavyweight prospect Jon Jones flexed his trash-talk muscle for the first time:

(War Machine, Unidentified Mayhem Monkey, and Frank Lester: Worst game of FMK ever.)

It seems that an insane amount of heart doesn’t necessarily guarantee job security if you can’t win fights. After being choked out by Nick Osipczak at the Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale — which followed a TUF 9 run where he beat Kiel Reid and Dave Faulkner and lost twice to James Wilks — Frank Lester has been cut by the UFC. The Team Quest fighter’s pro record dropped to 3-3 after his most recent loss. Godspeed, young shadow-boxer.

Remember Roger Huerta? Mexican guy, lightweight, used to bang a lot of hot chicks? "El Matador," as he was known, hasn’t fought since a unanimous decision loss to Kenny Florian last August, due to a falling out with the UFC over a perceived lack of respect and a desire to pursue acting and modeling. (How’s that going, by the way?) Though a previous rumor that he was going to finish out his contract against Sean Sherk at UFC 97 turned out to be nothin’ but wind-piss, the word on the street now is that he’ll be facing undefeated lightweight contender Gray Maynard at UFC Fight Night 19 (September 16th, Oklahoma City).

(Click here to cast your vote for this guy. Or whoever you want. No pressure.)

Nominees for ESPN’s 2009 ESPY Awards have been announced, with two UFC fighters honored in the "Best Fighter" category. While Georges St. Pierre was MMA’s only representative last year — he was edged out by Floyd Mayweather Jr., who also won the award in 2007 — this time we have Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva going up against boxing champions Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao. Pac Man will probably take this thing in a landslide, but why not let your voice be heard by voting? Y’know, particularly for Machida, whose innovations in the sport and accomplishments over the last 12 months deserve to be recognized. The polls are open through July 11th, and the Sam Jackson-hosted awards ceremony goes down July 15th at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

No other MMA fighters are nominated for any of the other categories, which is a shame: Couldn’t they have given us some love for Best Upset (Frank Mir over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira), Best Coach (Greg Jackson) or Best Team (Team Kimbo)?

(The American Kickboxing Academy team poses during a Dethrone Royalty photo shoot. Yes, that is Josh Thomson’s mean-mug. Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

In the future, UFC fighters will only be able to wear Xyience t-shirts and Burger King hats before and after their fights. At least that’s how it seems with the way the UFC has been banning sponsors from the Octagon:

 
"I’m not his father, okay, he can do whatever the hell he wants to do. I’m his friend, and I care about him a lot, and I’d really like to never see him fight again."

So said Dana White on the TUF 9 Finale edition of "Inside the Octagon", perhaps loosening on his stance that Chuck Liddell will never fight again. Could it be that one more go-round for the Iceman is in the works? According to an Inside Fights report on potential main events for UFC 103 (September 19th, Dallas), yeah, maybe:

(‘Oh, I should not have eaten that last chili dog.’)

After the Adrenaline MMA debacle in Birmingham, Alabama that saw promoter/manager Monte Cox try everything in his bag of tricks to get Tim Sylvia and Ray Mercer in some form of a fight together, people are starting to ask one very appropriate question: what the hell is going on?  And not only with Sylvia’s career, which was unquestionably damaged by the knockout loss to Mercer.  What’s up with Adrenaline in general, which went from trying to hold a boxing match in Atlantic City to a boxing match in Alabama to an MMA bout in Alabama?  

According to Cox, it was all a learning experience and he knows “what needs to be done in Birmingham now.”  And as for Sylvia’s career?  He’s going to keep battling because he’s too young to give it up:

("After I’m through with you, your face is going to be as stylishly distressed as our premium denim." Photo courtesy of OCRegister.com.)

Betting odds have been posted for some of the key matchups at this Saturday’s Ultimate Chaos show (props to BloodyElbow for the tip), and oddsmakers have labeled Affliction VP/occasional fighter Tom Atencio as the favorite in his fight against Randy Hedderick, who is 4-3 as an amateur and will be making his pro debut against Atencio. Hedderick welcomes the attention that comes with fighting The T-Shirt Guy; in a recent Ultimate Chaos press release, he was quoted as saying:

So let’s peep those odds, shall we?

(Yep, that’s the face you make when you realize that you’re now famous enough to get laid without making any effort at all.)

No one is more eager to find out what awaits heavyweight contenders Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez than we are, but from the sound of things some people may be jumping the gun a bit regarding rumors that the two are headed for a clash at UFC 103.  Inside Fights says sources have told them that Carwin and Velasquez could be the co-main event for the September event in Dallas, Texas, right alongside Mike Swick vs. Matt Hughes.  And yeah, they clarify that the bout has not been agreed to, but Carwin says it hasn’t even been discussed:

(New York Governor David Paterson. You’d think a guy who lost his eye in unregulated vale tudo matches in the late ’80s would have more sympathy to our cause.)

I doubt many of you follow New York politics, but it’s a freakin’ mess out here right now. Virtually nothing constructive has gotten done in the NY senate over the last two weeks, and as an emergency session comes to a close today — ending the legislative body’s 2009 schedule — one bill that will be left out in the cold is our beloved S2165A, intended to regulate mixed martial arts in New York State. Originally, the bill was on the docket for a June 9th vote. Unfortunately, things fell apart on June 8th. MMA Weekly has the story:

(Well, you sleep on the job as much as Andrei does and you’re bound to get fired at some point. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Andrei Arlovski’s career options just got even slimmer. After suffering back-to-back first-round knockouts against Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers — both of which were humiliating in their own special ways — Affliction has declined to renew the Belarusian’s fight contract. Affliction VP Tom Atencio did his best to spare Andrei’s feelings:

(Guida turns taking a shot into an art form. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

After another fun, free MMA weekend we turn once again to the Potato Index to tell us where everyone stands.  Those of you who are confused by what the numbers mean, just think of every fighter starting at his own particular zero coming into the event.  Then we make up a number to reflect how far he’s climbed or fallen after his latest fight.  Kind of like the stock market, but way more fun and only slightly more bullshit.

Diego Sanchez +104
Whatever you think the final scores should have been, Sanchez won that fight.  He was a whirlwind on the feet and even managed to be the aggressor from the bottom when it hit the mat.  But does a decision victory here equal a title shot?  We wouldn’t mind seeing Sanchez vs. Gray Maynard to establish a clear contender.

(Props: youtube.com/BellatorMMA)

Bellator’s inaugural season came to a close on Friday night, with the finals of their middleweight and lightweight brackets. In the 185-pound title fight, Hector Lombard used his striking and ground-and-pound to open up some nasty cuts on the head of his opponent, Jared Hess; the fight was eventually stopped in the fourth round after Hess lost a few gallons of blood. Directly after, 155-pound favorite Eddie Alvarez completed his sweep of the lightweight tourney by knocking Toby Imada out of his jock with a big right hook early in the second round, then sinking in a rear-naked choke. Lombard and Alvarez collected $100,000 checks for their efforts.

In non-tournament action, Jorge Masvidal submitted Eric Reynolds via third-round rear-naked choke, Bodog/ShoXC vet Rosi Sexton submitted Valerie Coolbaugh via first-round armbar, and Stephanie Guimaraes became Bellator’s latest YouTube star with her 49-second knee-knockout of Yvonne Reis. The Guimaraes knockout is above; highlights from the Lombard/Hess and Alvarez/Imada fights are after the jump.

(Diaz and Stevenson earned $25,000 Fight of the Night bonuses and contracts with Cirque Du Soleil. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

For the first time in the organization’s history, the UFC handed out three Fight of the Night bonuses for last night’s Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale show, giving $25,000 bumps to Joe Stevenson, Nate Diaz, Chris Lytle, Kevin Burns, Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida for their thrilling three-rounders. But that doesn’t mean the UFC skimped on its other traditional bonuses: Tomasz Drwal pocketed the $25,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for his knee-and-punches KO of Mike Ciesnolevicz during the undercard, and TUF 9‘s Jason Dent scored the Submission of the Night bonus for sinking on an anaconda choke at the end of the first round of his fight with Team U.S.A. rival Cameron Dollar, after getting beaten up standing for much of the round. Speaking of the prelims, here’s how they turned out:

(It beats the hell out of welfare.)

In case you’ve forgotten, the Strikeforce Challengers event from Kent, Washington is on Showtime tonight, headlined by “Smokin” Joey Villasenor taking on the other “Cyborg” Santos.  You know, the dude one.  That’s all well and good and they even shoved each other at the weigh-in yesterday to add a little easy hype, but the story that’s being overlooked right now is just how much Nick “The Goat” Thompson obviously does not want to fight Army special forces bad-ass Tim Kennedy.  He’s not even pretending that this was his idea, or that he is anything but resigned to his fate at this point.  Just check out these quotes from Thompson, courtesy of Strikeforce:

Last night’s season finale of The Ultimate Fighter ended with each coach telling us exactly what he thinks of the other guy; basically, Dan Henderson thinks Michael Bisping‘s a douchebag, and Bisping thinks Henderson’s time has passed. And maybe they’re both right. But with three weeks left until they face each other at UFC 100, tensions aren’t exactly building. Here’s a highlight from a media conference call held earlier today, via MMA Fanhouse:

(Anthony Johnson does his Bushwick Bill impression following his July 2008 fight against Kevin Burns.)

If Keith Kizer has his way, Dan Miragliotta and Steve Mazzagatti’s ability to fuck up fights by not paying attention could be severely limited by the year’s end. The Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director revealed yesterday on the GoodSports radio show that his commission is trying to figure out how an instant replay system could be incorporated into MMA, to be used only when a potentially illegal blow leads to the immediate end of a match (i.e., Mostapha Al Turk getting eye-poked by Mirko Cro Cop, and Anthony Johnson’s repeated pokes by Kevin Burns). As Kizer explained:

(Image courtesy of the UFC)

Earlier today, the UFC distributed its first poster image for UFC 102 (August 29th; Portland, Oregon), making the top two fights official — Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the main event, and Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva as a lead-in. Interesting…is this the first UFC event that’s being headlined by four guys who are coming off losses? Would it have been that hard to slot Demian Maia and Nate Marquardt (who are also on the card) in the co-main spot? After all, that fight will produce a legitimate middleweight title contender, even if Michael Bisping or Dan Henderson could sneak to the front of the line depending on their performance next month. Meanwhile, Jardine and Silva aren’t getting close to the 205-pound belt anytime soon.

Tickets to UFC 102 go on sale to Fight Club members on Thursday, newsletter members on Friday, and will probably be sold out by the time they’re released to the general public on Saturday. In addition to Couture/Nogueira, Jardine/Silva, and Maia/Marquardt, the following bouts have also been confirmed for UFC 102, according to UFC.com:

Joe Stevenson began his UFC career on the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter.”  On Saturday night he returns to fight another TUF alum, Nate Diaz, on the season nine finale in what might prove to be a make-or-break outing for him.  In our exclusive talk with him, Joe “Daddy” tells us why he changed training camps after his decision loss to Diego Sanchez, whether he’s worried about being cut, and why he might be hesitant to appear on a new season of TUF if he were coming up through the ranks today.

CagePotato.com: So you’ve been in New Mexico with Greg Jackson’s team preparing for this fight.  What made you decide that it was time for a change of training camps?

JS: Honestly, I’ve been here for going on seven weeks now and it’s been great.  I was feeling a little stagnant and I knew that if I didn’t try something different I would regret it.  If you don’t try all your avenues you’re going to end up when your fifty wishing you’d done something different and I don’t want to be that person.  On top of that, there’s great coaching here, great strategy, and they’ve given me a different outlook on the way I fight.  I’m just excited to let people see it now.

You mentioned strategy and that’s something a lot of people talk about when it comes to Greg Jackson.  How is his way of strategizing for a fight different from what you’ve been exposed to in the past?

(Careful, Shaq, that’s no cardboard cutout. Image courtesy of The Baltimore Sun.)

We’d take this with a grain of salt until the UFC makes an official announcement, but the usually-accurate U.K. paper The Sun says it has the names of all 16 castmembers for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. (Props to TheGarv for the tip.) Unfortunately, there are no more shocking additions — no Lashleys, no Petruzellis, no Quinns — just the usual gang of up-and-comers trying to make a name for themselves. We already knew that Kimbo Slice, Roy Nelson, Wes Sims, Marcus Jones, Brendan Schaub, Matt Mitrione, and Wes Shivers scored bunks in the TUF house. So who else is gonna be hunting for that six figure contract? Here’s the lowdown:

(Cristiane and Evangelista’s high school class voted them "Most Likely to Push Your Shit In." Photo courtesy of Showtime Sports.)

No rest for the hardcore MMA fan: Strikeforce’s second "Challengers" event goes down this Friday at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington — a day before the TUF 9 finale in Las Vegas. Headlining the Strikeforce card will be a middleweight matchup between two exciting strikers: Team Jackson product “Smokin’” Joey Villasenor and Chute Boxe veteran Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos. Both guys are coming off extended layoffs; Villasenor hasn’t competed since his first-round TKO win over Phil Baroni last May, and Santos is coming back from an elbow injury suffered in a Sengoku fight against Siyar Bahadurzada in September.

Also on the card: Highly-regarded welterweight Nick Thompson takes a middleweight fight against Tim Kennedy out of desperation, UFC vet Jorge Gurgel makes his Strikeforce debut against bully-beater Conor Heun, and Sarah Kaufman and Shayna Baszler will test out Strikeforce’s new five-minute-rounds policy in the night’s sole women’s feature. Not bad for premium cable. The full lineup is after the jump.

Brutal Flying Knee KO at Bellator XI – Watch more Funny Videos

Lyman Good became Bellator‘s first welterweight champion on Friday night, scoring a quick TKO victory over Omar De La Cruz at Bellator XI in Uncasille, Connecticut. The Tiger Schulmann MMA product needed just 1:23 to take De La Cruz down and slug his way to a referee stoppage, collecting a $100,000 check in the process.

But the event’s real star was Good’s rookie teammate Nick Pace, who KTFO’d Collin Tebo with a flying knee to the jaw, then knocked his mouthpiece out with a follow-up right hand; the video is above. Not sure how we feel about his weird hip-grinding at the end, but Pace could be a fighter to watch. Full results from the card are here. Video of the Good/De La Cruz stoppage is after the jump.

(Cro Cop vs. Al Turk Props: MMA Linker)

Dana White’s over-the-phone verbal contract with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic prior to UFC 99 was the first time he’d done a deal with a fighter without getting it in writing, or negotiating in person. We’re guessing it’ll also be his last. The big scandal coming out of Germany after yesterday’s show is the surprise news that Cro Cop had already signed a new three-fight deal with DREAM by the time he stepped into the Octagon against Mostapha Al Turk (video above). Though Cro Cop had previously told White that he wanted to officially sign for two more fights in the UFC and make a run for the heavyweight title, the truth came out following Mirko’s TKO victory via eye-pokes. As you can imagine, DW was seeing red in the post-show press-conference:

(Props: MMA Scraps)

Jens was right — Ray Mercer still knows how to thump, and Tim Sylvia shouldn’t have messed with a real boxer. After weighing in at a worrisome 310.6 pounds for his boxing MMA match against Mercer at "Adrenaline III: Bragging Rights" in Birmingham, Alabama, Sylvia only had a chance to throw one leg kick before eating a massive overhand right and dropping like a felled redwood. (The video above doesn’t show the kick, but you can hear the cameraman’s buddy say "Aw see, they agreed to not do that.") After the fight, Mercer said “Wow, I didn’t get a chance to warm up," and called out Butterbean. Meanwhile, the Maine-iac’s career prospects just went from bad to worse. He’d better hope DREAM organizes another Super Hulk tournament — or maybe Strikeforce can set up a "Loser Has to Drink Ipecac" rematch between him and Andrei Arlovski.

Full results from the Adrenaline card are here.