All fighters made weight today in Cologne, Germany, for tomorrow’s UFC 99 event — though things got off to a tense start for the undercard fighters. During the heavyweight faceoff between Stefan Struve and Denis Stojnic, the much-taller Struve leaned in to rest his forehead on Stojnic’s face, and the much-fatter Stojnic shoved him off; Dana White had to jump in to separate them. Then it happened again in the very next staredown, as Paul Kelly pushed his forehead against Roli Delgado‘s, and the Crazy Cuban angrily pushed Tellys off of him. The meeting between Dan Hardy and Marcus Davis was disappointingly cordial. The numbers are after the jump…

In an interview done with Steve Cofield yesterday, Jens Pulver warned his longtime friend and Miletich teammate Tim Sylvia that boxing is a different world from MMA, and he might be setting himself up for another career setback if he’s not taking Ray Mercer seriously. "I love [Sylvia] on a personal scale," Pulver said, "[but] professionally, sometimes you gotta step back and say ‘damn Tim, what are you doing?’"

Thankfully, it’s become a moot point, as the Sylvia vs. Mercer boxing match scheduled to headline Adrenaline III this Saturday has been declared "unwarranted and illegal" by the Association of Boxing Commissions. As Fightnews reports:

(Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos tosses around her 200-pound husband during a Showtime photoshoot. Click all images for larger versions. Photos courtesy of sports.sho.com via Fightlinker.)

MMA Junkie passes along some details on the August 15th Strikeforce title fight between Gina Carano (7-0) and Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos (7-1), informing us that the match is scheduled for five three-minute rounds, and will be contested at a weight of 145 pounds. So in other words, women can fight for 15 minutes just like the boys, as long as it’s in the context of a blockbuster title fight. (Yay, equality!)

Of course, that "145" is the more troubling number when it comes to these two. Cyborg famously came in seven pounds over the 145-pound limit for her last fight against Hitomi Akano, while Carano’s long history of scale fails include weighing in at 144.5 for a 140-pound fight against Kaitlin Young, and the infamous naked-behind-a-towel situation prior to her scrap with Kelly Kobold in October. While Cyborg blamed "woman problems" for missing weight, Carano probably should have been competing at 145 all along — though after a 10-month layoff, missing weight again is always a possibility. Good luck to both of these dangerous, water-retaining warriors.

"Carano vs. Cyborg" will be held at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California; tickets go on sale this Monday.

(Gomi’s contract stipulates that he is allowed to start a post-fight melee at a time of his choosing, but he agrees to provide his own confused Asian kid.)

Earlier today MMA Weekly reported that a 165-pound catchweight bout between former Pride star Takanori Gomi and IFL/Affliction up-and-comer Brett Cooper was “in advanced negotiations” for Affliction “Trilogy.”  Awesome, right?  Now Ariel Helwani comes along and destroys our hopes of seeing “The Fireball Kid” on American soil again by going and talking to Affliction VP Tom Atencio, who says it ain’t happening.  Damn.  We barely had time to get excited, and already we’re disappointed.

(One more again, just for bizarre times’ sake?)

When would-be California State Athletic Commission director Kimo Leopoldo was arrested for drug possession back in February while wearing a police jumpsuit and sandals and playing with a yo-yo on the streets of southern California, the MMA media, including us, might have jumped to some conclusions about the former steroid-using fighter from the early days of the UFC.  You read certain phrases, such as “police jumpsuit” and “meth” and “yo-yo” and you start adding it up on your own.  But that was all wrong, and we owe it to the guy to make that clear.

(Man, wouldn’t it be ironic if they were actually related?)

Jake Shields to Fight! Magazine following "Lawler vs. Shields" (via OMA):

(Something tells me Cyborg is going to be played up as the villain in this one.)

After months of angling and negotiating, the highly anticipated bout between Gina Carano and Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos has been set for the main event of Strikeforce’s August 15th event in San Jose, as was announced during the broadcast of "Lawler vs. Shields." Now, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has confirmed that the match will crown an official female champion for the organization:

(Don’t fear the belly; fear the consequences.)

Kimbo Slice’s chances of winning season ten of “The Ultimate Fighter” just got a little worse, because according to MMA Madness former IFL heavyweight champion Roy “Big Country” Nelson joined the cast of the show, which began filming last week.  Those of you didn’t watch a lick of the IFL might remember Nelson from such bad referee stand-ups/devastating knockouts as his loss to Andrei Arlovski on the same EliteXC card that produced the StandGate incident.  After that Nelson lost a very close decision against Jeff Monson at March Badness, bringing his pro record to 13-4.

(That punch alone has got to be worth $500, easy.)

After a great night of fights in Sacramento, the WEC continues to be the place where even the stars get paid like inner-city high school teachers for absorbing only slightly more physical damage.  Jens Pulver, of all people, topped the disclosed WEC 41 payout list, taking home $31,253 for his thirty-three seconds of work in a losing effort against Josh Grispi.  Guess it pays to be a legend.  The rest of the fighter salaries from last night, not including the $10,000 bonuses given to Faber, Brown, Aldo, and Dikun, look like this:

Mike Brown — $25, 256 (includes $13,000 win bonus)
Urijah Faber — $25,790
Jose Aldo — $17,625 (includes $11,000 win bonus)
Cub Swanson — $8,940
Donald Cerrone — $17,682.54 (includes $9,000 win bonus)
James Krause — $1,692
Josh Grispi — $17,381 (includes $9,000 win bonus)
Jens Pulver — $31,253
Manny Gamburyan — $26,960 (includes $14,000 win bonus)
John Franchi — $3,108
Rafael Rebello $3,650 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
Kyle Dietz — $1,840
Anthony Pettis — $3,302.10 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
Mike Campbell — $2,950
Antonio Banuelos $9,840 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
Scott Jorgensen — $5,530
Frank Gomez — $3,962.41 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
Noah Thomas — $2,350
Seth Dikun — $3,940 (includes $2,000 win bonus)
Rolando Perez — $2,890

So who got screwed and who did the screwing?

(How’s taste this career-shattering loss? Photo by Esther Lin for Showtime Sports.)

What a weekend of fights, and amazingly, all without the benefit of the initials “UFC.”  Instead we had Strikeforce and the WEC (okay, a Zuffa property, but still) teaming up to blow our minds without charging us fifty bucks for a pay-per-view.  Now we begin the difficult task of using the Potato Index’s completely arbitrary numerical rankings system to see who’s up and who’s down after the eventful weekend.

Mike Brown +209
He beat Faber fair and square, no flukes needed, and he also proved he can last through five tough rounds.  Instead of making broken hand-related excuses for Faber, let’s finally all give Brown the unqualified props he clearly deserves.

Urijah Faber -37
We can play the ‘what if?’ game with his broken hand all we want, but that’s the fight game.  That he still fought well and fought hard afterwards, even in a losing effort, deserves to be mentioned.  But he’s not the world’s best featherweight as long as Brownie is around, and that deserves mentioning too.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

What up, guys? I just got back from shooting some footage at the Strikeforce press conference, which I’ll be sharing with you on Monday. The basic gist of the Q+A session was: Joe Riggs and Scott Smith had to go to the hospital after their fights, Andrei Arlovski just didn’t feel like sticking around, Jake Shields has made up his mind that he’s not going to give Joe Riggs the time of day, Nick Diaz doesn’t consider Cung Le to be an important opponent, and Brett Rogers is just gonna keep doin’ work. (Direct quote.) Plus, Brett Rogers told me the secret to his KO power, I chatted with Gilbert Melendez about his preparation for his rematch with Josh Thomson, and Nick Diaz provided me with an exclusive rant. In the meantime, video of the Rogers/Arlovski knockout is above, and video of the Diaz/Smith scrap is after the jump. Talk soon…
 

(Kevin Randleman is athletic *and* explosive! Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

All fighters successfully weighed in today for Saturday’s Strikeforce event, which will be held at the Scottrade Center and broadcast on Showtime. CageWriter passes along this little detail from the weigh-in:

Yeah, that sounds about right. The numbers are after the jump. Don’t forget to swing by tomorrow night starting at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT as we liveblog the televised card. Fire up, Potato Nation!

(Fredbird hypes up Robbie Lawler before he throws out the first pitch at yesterday’s Cardinals/Reds game at Busch Stadium. Photo courtesy of Esther Lin/Strikeforce.)

- Urijah Faber and Mike Brown fill out Sports Illustrated‘s "Cheerleader of the Week" questionnaire. Hilarity ensues. (Asylum)

- Due to Cung Le’s movie career, Strikeforce will soon introduce an interim middleweight belt. (CageWriter)

- As if Team U.S.A. needed another reason to hate Jason Pierce. (SPIKE)

- Fedor Emelianenko discusses why he couldn’t sign with the UFC. (MMA Fanhouse)

- USA Wrestling is trying to bribe wrestlers not to jump ship to MMA. (Fightlinker)

- It’ll be Choi vs. Minowa and Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou in the second round of DREAM’s "Super Hulk" tournament. (MMA Mania)

- Kenny Florian will join the broadcast team at WEC 41 on Sunday. (MMA Junkie)

- Weigh-in results for tonight’s Bellator show. (MMA Madness)

- Mike Brown discusses how he got his start in fighting, and how his loss to Joe Lauzon turned his career around. (Scores Report)

- Urijah Faber is packing on leg muscle and working on a clothing line. (Ask Men)

- Redneck backyard MMA fight ends in head-kick KO. (NothingToxic)

- Spiders Flee From Paris Hilton’s Vagina. (HolyTaco)

- Trailer and production photos from It Might Get Loud, starring Jimmy Page, Jack White, and the Edge. (ScreenJunkies)

- Wreck of the Week: Drunk Fan Edition. (AllLeftTurns)

- Daily Market Madness. (WallStreetFighter)

- The Citizen Kane of beer pong trick-shot videos. (Break)

(He’s got comedic timing, too.)

Mike Thomas Brown destroyed the myth of the unbeatable Urijah Faber with his upset knockout victory at WEC 36 last year, but respect (and until recently, money) have still been hard to come by for the American Top Team featherweight.  With the rematch now just a couple of days away, Brownie talks paydays, fame, and beating the oddsmakers in our one-on-one chat with the WEC 145-pound champ.

CagePotato.com: A lot of people seem like they’re still not buying you as the real WEC featherweight champ.  Do you feel like you still need to prove that your win over Faber wasn’t just a fluke?

MB: No, I think I’ve proved it now.  I mean, I read a lot on the internet, people saying it was a fluke and all that.  But I think when I beat Garcia pretty quickly too, and almost in the same way since I hurt him with the right hand and then finished him off, then it was basically like a replay.  That showed it wasn’t a one-time deal, that I could do this to good guys.  Leonard had never been finished before so I was proud of being able to put him away.

Sources have confirmed to MMA Junkie that the rumored bout between returning welterweight contender Frank Trigg and perennial threat Josh Koscheck will indeed take place at UFC 103 (September 19th, Dallas); bout agreements have been sent out are expected to be signed shortly. Though his last two UFC appearances resulted in first-round rear-naked choke losses to Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre, Trigg is now on a four-fight win streak, including wins over Edwin Dewees and Falaniko Vitale. Koscheck is coming off an upset knockout loss against Paulo Thiago to UFC 95 in February, and needs a win to still be considered one of the best 170-pounders in the division.

UFC 103 will come just three days after UFC Fight Night 19 (September 16th, Oklahoma City), which will serve as a lead-in to the season premiere of For the Love of Kimbo.

In other fight-booking news…

TUF 9.10, Osipczak vs. Johnson – Watch more Funny Videos

It’s time to pick TUF 9‘s semi-final matchups, and while this could have been another opportunity for an argument, Bisping and Henderson are pretty much on the same page. They’d like to see Cameron/Ross and Jason/Andre in the lightweight bracket, and James/Demarques and Nick/Frank for the welterweights. The fighters are asked who they want to take on. James wants Damarques and Damarques wants James. ("I want to hurt his feelings.") Nick wants Frankie and Frankie wants Nick. Ross wants Jason, but Jason wants Andre, and Andre is "happy to fight eeva."

Cameron breaks ranks and brings up his teammate Jason Dent as the guy he’d like to fight. He tries to backtrack, but the seed has already been planted in Dana’s head. DW suggests putting teammates against each other in the semis. "Fuck that, no way," Bisping says. Then, echoing the thoughts of every Internet message board conspiracy theorist: "What so you can guarantee one of each in the finals?…I think we have the stronger team and you’re worried that you’ll have an all-UK final."

Ariel Helwani with the monumental scoop:

(Marcus Jones vs. Eduardo Boza, 11/10/07)

Though the UFC is keeping the cast of TUF 10 under wraps for the most part, MMA Junkie is reporting that four of the 16 heavyweight hopefuls did time in the NFL before taking up fighting. Here’s a cheat sheet:

Marcus Jones: First-round draft pick for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996; spent six seasons as a defensive tackle, then moved to the Buffalo Bills for two years but didn’t play in the regular season. Training out of Gracie Tampa with Rob Kahn, the 35-year-old made his professional MMA debut in October 2007, and now holds a 4-1 record, with all fights ending in the first round.

(Some say Goldberg had a legit sexual harassment claim after what happens in the 0:49 mark in this interview, but clearly he was asking for it walking in there dressed like that.)

The war of words between Strikeforce fighters Joe Riggs and Phil Baroni this week seemed to promise an interesting encounter on today’s media conference call to promote Saturday night’s Strikeforce event on Showtime.  The only problem is that Riggs failed to pick up a phone in time, so Baroni was left alone with Jake Shields and the notoriously tight-lipped Robbie Lawler to do all the talking.  Fortunately Baroni had prepared all his life for just such a moment.

Some highlights from the NYBA:

(Check the sweater/sport coat combo.  If Cliff Huxtable were white, humorless, and utterly incapable of reason, he’d be this man.)

Tomorrow, June 3, is a big day for those of us who have been following the cause of MMA in New York State, because the State Assembly’s Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development Committee is set to vote on whether to move forward with allowing MMA to be regulated.  The most vocal opponent of our beloved sport is, of course, Assemblyman Bob Reilly.  We’ve attempted to understand the man’s arguments and tried to get him to explain his opposition in a semi-coherent fashion, and all we’ve come away with is a headache and disdain for self-righteous track coaches everywhere. 

But as the vote draws near and Reilly’s moment in the national spotlight comes to a close, it seems as if his reasoning is getting somehow shakier, if you can believe it.  With that in mind, it seems only fitting to recap some of Reilly’s favorite logically unsound arguments, just so we know what we’re up against tomorrow.

(Props: YouTube.com/TRIGGZINC via TheGarv)

When it was announced that Triggonomics brand-manager Frank Trigg was returning to the UFC after a four-year absence, we had a lot of questions — like who his first opponent would be, and when exactly he’d be fighting, and had he picked out his next weigh-in outfit yet. Well, we still don’t have specifics, but in this enlightening video blog recorded Sunday, Twinkle Toes tells us the following:

— He’d rather crash and burn against top-ranked opponents then face lesser-known guys, and he decided to return to the UFC because every top welterweight other than Jake Shields fights there.

(Jorge Santiago gets to his feet after choking out Kazuo Misaki in the fifth round of their title fight at Sengoku no Ran 2009, while UFC superfan Satoshi Ishii [bottom left] tries to comprehend what the hell he just witnessed. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

After racking up five-straight wins in Sengoku and earning the promotion’s middleweight belt, American Top Team fighter Jorge Santiago will be making his U.S. return at Affliction’s third event on August 1st. MMA Weekly has confirmed that the top-ten-ranked 185′er — who has gone 9-0 since leaving the UFC in 2006 — will collide with Vitor Belfort in a match that’s expected to be on "Trilogy"’s main card.

Formerly a light-heavyweight competitor in the UFC, PRIDE, and Cage Rage, Belfort has gone 2-0 as a middleweight in Affliction, with knockout victories over Terry Martin (at "Banned" last July) and Matt Lindland (at "Day of Reckoning" in January). With this bout in place, the pay-per-view lineup for Affliction’s third and not final MMA event is looking pretty kickass. Get caught up after the jump…

As promised yesterday, here is the full interview with Joe Riggs, who opens up about his past painkiller addiction, his ongoing attempts to get Jake Shields into the cage with him, and of course, the possibly “pharmaceutically enhanced” Phil Baroni who he’ll meet in Strikeforce on Showtime this Saturday night.

Cage Potato: Thanks for talking with me, Joe.  You’re fighting Phil Baroni this weekend, but I think we all know that’s not the fight you wanted.  You were pretty adamant about trying to get a fight with Jake Shields.

Riggs: Yeah, that was a fight that I’ve been trying to get for a couple years now and he’s managed to squeak his way out of it every time we were supposed to fight.  This time contracts were signed and everything was ready to go and he just wormed his way out of it.  He’s the type of guy who just wants to fight the fights where the match-ups are stylistically in his favor.  I think he also wants fights, like this one [against Robbie Lawler] where if things don’t go his way he has excuses.

(Relax, Mike — you can’t catch it just by touching him. Photo courtesy of myvegasscene.com.)

According to the Manchester Evening News, the coaches of The Ultimate Fighter: U.S vs. U.K. will be fighting for more than brgging rights during their clash at UFC 100.

(Props: CageWriter)

From Dana White’s appearance last night on the Carmichael Dave Show, in which DW discussed the Kimbo situation for the first time:

"We shot episode one today. He walked into the gym and was, ah…lemme tell you what, he was pretty serious. He wasn’t messing around, he wasn’t joking. He wasn’t laughing. I don’t think he’s a big Dana White fan, either. You know, how could you be after all the things that have gone back and forth? So we’re gonna find out this season if he’s for real or not…

I said a lot of things about this guy, and I’m gonna tell you now, just like I would, I’ve got nothing but respect for him. This guy stepped up and he wants to fight on The Ultimate Fighter. And he’s dead serious about winning this thing too."

(Immediately after reading the news, I searched for this music video on YouTube and cranked my speakers to maximum volume. All props to TheGarv.)

Oh sweet Jesus, thank you Jesus, my prayers have been answered. Yahoo! has the exclusive:

(Highlights from Playboy model LaTasha Marzolla’s MMA debut. Props: PureFight.org)

Xavier Foupa-Pokam’s stint with the UFC was almost as short as his time spent upright against Drew McFedries at UFC 98.  After suffering his second straight loss in as many fights “Professor X” has been cut from the organization and set adrift on the sea of free agency.  It’s a shame, considering the promise he showed in his pre-UFC fights, but the first-round TKO loss to McFedries was all the UFC needed to see in order to decide he wasn’t ready for the big time just yet. 

Speaking of McFedries, he got himself in hot water with his Miletich camp teammates by claiming that none of them were supporting him in the run-up to his UFC 98 bout.  Pat Miletich says that’s absolutely untrue, and it sounds like McFedries either needs to do some public apologizing or else find himself a new place to train.  MFS is brutal enough without having those guys genuinely pissed off at you.

In other MMA news…

(Baroni training at Xtreme Couture, looking ripped.)

Joe Riggs was expecting a fight with Jake Shields in Strikeforce this summer and didn’t take kindly to the news that he would be getting Phil Baroni instead, but talking with Riggs this afternoon he said his focus is now fully on Baroni, who he is expecting to be “pharmaceutically enhanced” when they meet in the Strikeforce cage on June 6.  While the “Diesel” stopped short of saying that Baroni was definitely on the juice, he did say that Baroni exhibits all the typical signs of a steroid user, from his physique to his performance on fight night.

“He always shows up in shape, looking shredded and puffed up, but I think he’ll be pharmaceutically enhanced, too.  Just because he doesn’t test positive for steroids doesn’t mean he’s not on them right now.”

(His mouthpiece says "DEATH." His shorts say "CONDOM DEPOT." Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

With Gegard Mousasi and Vitor Belfort‘s weight-related bitch-fest producing nothing positive, Affliction has scrapped the match and moved on. MMA Weekly has now confirmed that Mousasi will be instead be taking on #6-ranked light-heavyweight Renato "Babalu" Sobral at Affliction’s third MMA event (August 1st; Anaheim, California). Not exactly an easy first fight at light-heavyweight for the Young Vagabond, but he’s already 1-0 in the highly competitive Super Hulk division, so don’t count him out. At any rate, the fight against Babalu should tell us a lot about how Mousasi will fare as 205-pounder.

(Please, guys, there are kids watching. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

"I believe I won that fight. I’ll stand behind that for the rest of my life. On the feet, it’s clear I dominated the fight. I didn’t just win, I dominated on the feet. I did not get hit flush on the face or the body one time the whole fight. Dan took me down on several occasions, most of which I was able to stand back up. While I was on the ground, he was not capable of mounting any kind of damage…He had to resort to kneeing me on the back of my thigh because he had no other option and didn’t know what else to do…

Couple that with the fact I was head-butted twice and poked in the eye once. I would think that maybe the first one was incidental. I would assume that after you have a couple head-butts and then you poke me in the eye, perhaps as a referee you’d think about taking away a point. I don’t see how a judge should give him that decision."
— Rich Franklin, still salty about his split-decision loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 93.