Unlike recent UFC events that have featured a horde of fresh talent, there’s only going to be one unfamiliar face at UFC 98 later this month: King of the Cage heavyweight champion Tim "The Thrashing Machine" Hague, who will be appearing on the "Evans vs. Machida" undercard against leg-kick-artist Pat Barry. A native of Edmonton, Hague has built up a 9-1 record, with seven wins by stoppage within the first two rounds, and notable victories over Ruben "Warpath" Villareal and Sherman Pendergarst. He most recently competed at a Raw Combat event last October, where he avenged his sole career loss to Miodrag Petkovic. He’s also strong as hell. But judging from the above highlight reel — which actually shows Hague getting his ass kicked for the first 48 seconds — could he be too unseasoned to make an impression in the UFC?

(Another Bellator show, another epic finish. Yahir Reyes FTW. Video courtesy of youtube.com/BellatorMMA.)

Bellator Fighting Championships‘ sixth installment went down Friday night in Robstown, Texas, featuring the two semi-final fights of their featherwight bracket — both of which produced shocking results. Undefeated tournament favorite Wilson Reis ate his first career loss in an upset against rising star Joe Soto, who stuffed Reis’ takedowns and kept the fight standing where he had the advantage. Soto outstruck Reis to a comfortable unanimous decision, earning the right to face the night’s other big winner, Yahir Reyes, in the tourney’s featherweight finals. Reyes withstood an aggressive showing early on by opponent Estevan Payan — who missed weight by over three pounds — before knocking him into last month with a brilliant spinning-backfist.

Full results from the event are after the jump…

(Megumi Fujii: 52 kilos of walking death.)

Yeah, we pretty much slept on this card since mentioning it once like two months ago — that’s our bad, and we’re just going to have to live with it — but Shooto Tradition is having its star-studded "Road to 20th Anniversary Final" show this Sunday in Tokyo, featuring lightweight PRIDE legend Takanori Gomi, unstoppable female fighter Megumi Fujii, and more big names. Unfortunately it won’t televised in the U.S., but we promise to get all the best fight vids up by Monday. Nightmare of Battle passes along the compete lineup, which is after the jump, and quite sick-looking…

So remember that “war” that UFC president Dana White promised to wage if Chuck Liddell opted not to retire after losing to “Shogun” Rua at UFC 97?  Liddell has yet to officially call it quits, though he also hasn’t expressed any overwhelming desire to fight again, but this war increasingly seems like it’s between White and Liddell’s trainer, John Hackleman — not Liddell himself.  After Hackleman pointed out some of the obvious problems with White trying to make life decisions for another autonomous human being, White fired back in a talk with Sherdog:

“Obviously, John Hackleman didn’t pay his house off yet. John Hackleman needs some money, because anybody who claims they care about Chuck Liddell even a little bit would not be making these f–king statements. …He’s never been a decision-maker in Chuck’s career. I can tell you this: He didn’t make Chuck Liddell. Chuck Liddell made John Hackleman.  How many great, talented guys do you see coming out of John Hackleman’s place?  He’s no Greg Jackson. He’s no Mark DellaGrotte. He’s no American Top Team. He’s not one of the great camps. Chuck Liddell made him.”

(Props: BloodyElbow)

Matt Serra gives us even more Long Island flava with this lastest installment of his videoblog, in which the Terror is tapped for a random drug test ("testin’ positive for espresso and marinara sauce"). But before he pisses in a cup, Serra has to make sure his fade looks tight n’ right at his barber shop, where the proprietor predicts an eight-second tapout victory for the hometown boy: "I say we take that awm back to New Yawk widdus." Later, Matt makes some appearances at his jiu-jitsu schools and runs into Pete Sell wearing the same shirt as he is, despite Sell’s efforts to make sure that wouldn’t happen. Finally, Matt explains that the videoblogs don’t show all his training, because Hughes "might have a computer in that barn of his." It’s probably a good thing the cameras are following Serra for this match instead of Hughes; we’re assuming that Serra’s colorful interactions are more entertaining than a week of Bible studies and hog-slopping.

(By the way, it’s perfectly natural to have thighs like that. Diet and exercise, people.)

After announcing that he would fight anybody at any time in Strikeforce, then turning down a fight against Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante, then threatening the lives of all the keyboard warriors who pointed out the contradiction, Kevin Randleman has changed his mind and accepted a place on Strikeforce’s June 6th "Lawler vs. Shields" card after all. MMA Fanhouse reports that Randleman will be taking on UFC/IFL/Affliction veteran Mike Whitehead, whose sole loss in his last 15 fights came in a decision against Renato Sobral at Affliction: Banned. Whitehead holds notable victories over Ben Rothwell, Travis Fulton, Mark Kerr, and Krzystof Soszynski, and most recently submitted Leo Pla at an M-1 Challenge event last October. With the addition of the Randleman/Whitehead light-heavyweight bout, the lineup for "Lawler vs. Shields" currently looks like this:

(15% off that creepy Chuck cut-out?  Why, I’d be losing money if I didn’t buy it!)

Subtlety has never been something the UFC does particularly well, so I suppose it’s only fitting that they approach Chuck Liddell’s forced retirement with the same lack of sensitivity and tact.  According to an email sent out by the UFC earlier today, just about everything in the UFC store with the words “Chuck” or “Liddell” or “Iceman” on it is hitting the clearance rack.  Consider it their way of saying, ‘Thanks for the memories, Chuck.  Now help us move all your shit into storage so we can make room for the new line of Amir Sadollah baby tees.’ 

Is it a little cold-hearted?  Yeah, but that’s life in the UFC.  One day you’re on top of the world, and the next they’re giving away your signature tank tops to bewildered villagers in Africa.

ESPN "First Take" brought Shaquille O’Neal’s personal trainer on so he could talk about the Diesel’s MMA training and mention the name of his gym and its website no less than a dozen times.  The interviewer here seems oddly amused by her own ignorance of MMA, and really presses this guy to give her odds on the possibility of a Shaq vs. Chuck Liddell fight in the UFC.  Let me put it to you this way, lady: there’s about as much chance of that fight happening in the UFC as there is of you taking over for Larry King when he finally retires/dies.  Got it now?

(Props: these guys, who should really look into a less obnoxious watermark for their photos. Just saying.)

Well, Anderson Silva is officially dead to Wanderlei Silva now.  Here he is training Rich Franklin, who will fight “The Axe Murderer” at UFC 99 in Germany, and also presumably whispering to him about where to find the secret Brazilian “off-switch” to put Wanderlei’s lights out.  Hint: it’s located somewhere in the chin region.  In the past Brazilians have often balked at the idea of training a foreigner to fight one of their countrymen, but Anderson is like Bruce Lee: he teaches whoever wants to learn.  Especially if that person is about to fight someone he’s not particularly fond of at the moment.

(And still…the undisputed king…of the pre-fight mean-mug!)

Here’s some good news for those of you who can’t get enough of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s antics: Spike TV may very well agree with you.  Fighters Only is passing along a rumor that Rampage is being seriously considered as a coach for season 10 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” mainly because he was “a big hit with Spike TV executives thanks to his charismatic and extrovert nature.”  Obviously, this is still in the early planning stages, but it does present a couple logistical challenges for season ten, which is set to begin filming around a month or so from now.

(Always bringing his cock out at the most inappropriate moments.)

Here’s how badly Roy Jones Jr. wants to fight UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva: he’s willing to do it as an MMA bout, where his chances of losing are very, very good.  This, according to a new CBS Sports article in which UFC president Dana White admits that Jones has offered to fight Silva in the UFC Octagon under MMA rules, but White flatly refused:

"I could do it, make it huge, make money, but I could have done a fight like this when we were bleeding money [in the early 2000s]," White said. "The fight would make some money, but it hurts MMA in the long term. We don’t do that because we love the sport. That’s a Pride or K-1 matchup. It’s not what we do."

Honorable, right?  The UFC could make a ton of money on a Jones/Silva bout (regardless of what you think of Jones’ current appeal as a boxing pay-per-view draw, the sheer novelty of this fight alone would guarantee a better buy-rate than any other Anderson Silva bout in recent memory), but say they’re opting not to because it would be bad for the sport.  But how, exactly, does this hurt MMA as a whole?

ATT boxing coach Howard Davis Jr. talks Chuck Liddells retireme – Watch more Funny Videos

American Top Team boxing coach and Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. spoke with me about his work with Chuck Liddell prior to his UFC 97 loss against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.  Contrary to what some people believe, Davis said he really did work with Liddell for about two and a half months, and while he didn’t change his style he did try to add a couple tools to Liddell’s game.  Here Davis talks about what Liddell’s recent loss means for his career, and whether he thinks the former UFC champ should call it quits like Dana White is insisting he do.  He also touches on the addictive “drug” of being a world champion fighter, and why he thinks Liddell has seemed more vulnerable in recent bouts – and it’s not because he’s getting old.

(Fence grab is at 10:18, the alleged illegal blow comes at 17:25. Props: MMA Share.)

Benji Radach has filed a formal appeal with the California State Athletic Commission through his agent, Ken Pavia, challenging his TKO loss to Scott Smith on the April 11 Strikeforce show in San Jose, California.  We contacted Radach earlier today to get him to explain, in his own words, why he’s appealing the loss and what he hopes to accomplish.  Here’s what he had to say.

CagePotato.com: If you could Benji, sum up for me the main points outlined in your appeal.

Benji Radach: There are two main points.  One, in the second round I had him in a guillotine, choking the piss out of him, and I thought I was just going to choke him unconscious.  But he grabbed the fence and used it to pull us into a scramble and get out of the choke, which is illegal.  

(Can’t the Germans find room in their hearts for something besides soccer, beer and buxom women? Not that we’re against those things…)

It just wouldn’t be a new frontier for the UFC without a little hyperbolic fear-mongering from opponents of MMA.  With UFC 99 scheduled for Cologne, Germany on June 13, City Councilor Manfred Wolf (known henceforth as the German Bob Reilly) is doing his part to disrupt the UFC’s German debut with this nonsensical and factually inaccurate criticism (translated by our friend Robert K at Big Odds Mike):

"MMA is not a sport because it legitimizes death and serious injury. The only aim is to destroy your opponent." Adding further: "I personally find disgusting … Here one finds the lowest human instincts."

JZ Cavalcante talks fight preparation, competing in Japan – Watch more Funny Videos

After spending a few days at American Top Team in Florida last week, I came away with a real appreciation for how hard Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante works in the gym.  From a grueling session with his strength and conditioning coach to his intense sparring matches with WEC champ Mike Brown and others from the ATT stable, JZ is putting in serious work to get ready for Tatsuya Kawajiri at Dream.9 later this month.  In this video he talks about the important psychological benefits of his training, whether he’d get in the ring with Fedor Emelianenko like Shinya Aoki did, and one of the stranger things that’s happened to him while fighting in Japan.

(Tom wishes a motherf*cker would call him t-shirt guy to his face.)

Affliction VP Tom Atencio saw a rare opening to take a shot at UFC president Dana White during the press conference to promote “Ultimate Chaos” in Biloxi, Miss., and damned if he didn’t make the most of it.  Atencio’s entering into his second MMA bout against Randy Hedderick, who as far as we know does not run either an MMA organization or a t-shirt company.  And while it’s not exactly like fighting for a UFC title, Atencio points out that at least he’s got the balls to do it, unlike some other promoters:

"I’ve been seen in front of the cameras before as far as the business side, but it’s time to fight. I’m doing something Dana White won’t do and that’s fight. He talks like a fighter, so why doesn’t he fight? I’m stepping up to the plate and win, lose or draw I attempted it. I don’t ever think he would fight."

(And to think this all started with a colorful gi, some little shorts, and a dream.)

It looks like Combat Sambo tournaments might actually lead to career advancement opportunities, after all.  Blagoi Ivanov has signed a three-fight deal with Sengoku and will reportedly face former Pride fighter Kazuyuki Fujita in his first fight at Sengoku 9 in August.  Ivanov is the guy who made minor waves (more like ripples by the time they reached the U.S.) when he beat Fedor Emelianenko on points in the World Combat Sambo Championships last November.  Fujita’s claim to fame is that he once hit Fedor so hard it briefly stunned him.  Neither of these accomplishments is enough to make this a truly interesting fight, although Sengoku has got to take what they can get when it comes to heavyweights. 

(The universal sign for: ‘I’m weighin’ in ova here!’)

I’ll admit that when Matt Serra told his then-protégé, Joe Scarola, that he’d basically disown him if he walked away from “The Ultimate Fighter” after losing to Mac Danzig early on in season six, I suspected it might be an empty threat.  But judging from Serra’s comments in an interview with MMA Fanhouse, “The Terra” don’t make empty threats.  When he tells you that you’re about to ruin the beautiful friendship the two of you share, he’s being totally cereal.

There was also a little bit of an issue with your friend Joe Scarola. You brought him on the show and then he quit during it. Are you still friends with him?

WEC Champ Mike Brown Does Business Casual – Watch more Funny Videos

Last week yours truly was in Florida at American Top Team while on an assignment for Fight! Magazine, and I learned a number of interesting things about what goes on inside the walls of one of America’s best fight gyms.  For instance, here’s WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown getting suited up for another day of training and explaining why he wears business socks to work out in.  You can’t argue with his results, though that might be due more to his training partners than his attire.  The day before this interview was filmed I saw him in a heated sparring match with “JZ” Cavalcante that left both men bloodied before the action spilled out of the ring.  Needless to say, they train hard down at ATT.  Keep an eye out for more videos coming later this week.

(Yeah, that’s an upside down triangle choke. Props: Watch Kalib Run.)

Maybe the most interesting story to come out of Bellator so far is Toby Imada’s upset of Jorge Masvidal in last night’s Bellator lightweight tournament semi-finals.  Masvidal was reportedly in control for most of the bout, but in the third round a failed takedown attempt led to an upside down triangle choke from Imada against a standing Masvidal.  Masvidal did his best to endure it, but ended up collapsing to the canvas unconscious.  Bellator promises us video of the submission soon, and this ought to be good.  Imada moves on to the finals to face Eddie Alvarez, who was also victorious last night.  Full results are after the jump.

(We were middle-aged and so in love once.)

Former UFC champ Randy Couture really is now headed down the path toward divorce number three, according to a Raw Vegas report that claims Couture has served his wife with the official papers to end their union.  We heard rumors that the couple’s marital strife was responsible for Kim “Sugar Free” Couture pulling out of her bout with Miesha Tate.  Guess Randy is single again.  Somebody go tell this girl.  She’s at the tanning salon.

(Don’t fear Arona.  Fear his freaking cat-like reflexes.)

Hey there, people who have been following MMA for more than just the last six months, remember Ricardo Arona?  Muscular Brazilian guy, had a rivalry with Wanderlei Silva, got knocked out by Sokoudjou…any of this ringing any bells?  Well now that Dana White has more or less ruled out any possibility of signing Arona to the UFC because, hell, even Dana thinks he can beat Arona, the big man is looking at making a return to action soon, possibly in Strikeforce.

(Guess who isn’t in this sport to just screw around?)

Strikeforce may have found their replacement for Kim “Future Ex Mrs.” Couture, and it’s an undefeated fighter who made her willingness to scrap known on the UG.  8-0 Sarah Kaufman said in a forum post that she’d step in to face Miesha Tate while Couture sorted out her personal issues, and Strikeforce may be taking her up on the offer.  They acquired her contract in the Pro Elite sale, and though the fight’s right around the corner on May 15 Kaufman has a real opportunity to turn the Couture family’s rumored marital strife into a big payoff for herself so why not?  Unlike Kim Couture, she may not have a recognizable name, but she does have more than two fights, so automatically this becomes more of a serious fight with her in it.  Those of you wondering what she can do should take a look after the jump.

(This was going to be part of a new tourism campaign for the nation of Japan, but even they thought Okami was too boring.)

It’s not enough that Yushin Okami keeps getting overlooked in the UFC’s middleweight title picture.  Now an injury has forced him out his UFC 98 bout with Dan Miller, further pushing him into the land of the also-rans.  So who will replace Okami against the larger of the two Miller boys?  How about Ed Herman, who absolutely no one brings up when the conversation turns to guys who deserve a shot at Anderson Silva.  And the most telling part is, Herman vs. Miller feels like a fight that makes perfect sense.

(‘This? Just a karate tournament trophy I won in the seventh grade. I bring it to all my fights. Intimidated?’)

Undaunted by his decision loss to Denis Kang at UFC 97, Xavier Foupa-Pokam (“Professor X” to his friends) is doing the best thing a new UFC addition without a victory in the Octagon can do – he’s fighting again right away and on short notice.  A knee injury has reportedly forced James Irvin out of a bout with Drew McFedries at UFC 98 and Foupa-Pokam has stepped up to fight McFedries in his place, and why not?

(Friends forever? Photo courtesy of AllElbows.com)

It’s hard to even get up the energy to mock Jared Shaw anymore.  He’s just so damn irrelevant.  But in talking about the role Kimbo Slice’s loss to Seth Petruzelli played in EliteXC’s collapse, he summed up the company’s fundamental failures without even realizing it:

"I stick up for him a lot because we put so much weight on his shoulders because we had to, we needed a face. No, we didn’t expect him to be the world champion. We knew if he fought the kind of fighters that were at that level that his chances of winning were probably slimmer," said Shaw. "But you’ve got to throw somebody up there as the best in the world, because you’ve got to put a face on the company. And that’s not to say he can’t become one of the best fighters in the world, cause he’s an athlete, he has talent, but that was the situation we were up against."

I spoke to Kenny Florian last week for this SportsIllustrated.com article on the effects of the dreaded “Octagon jitters,” and naturally our conversation turned to his upcoming UFC lightweight title fight against B.J. Penn at UFC 101.  When I asked about Penn’s claims that Florian had warned him of potential “greasing” by Georges St. Pierre before their UFC 94 superfight, Florian did his best to downplay the dust-up.

“I’m not sure what that was.  Maybe it was a miscommunication, after what I had said about Roger Huerta.  Maybe it was head games on his part.  Maybe he genuinely believes that.  I don’t really know.  But I have a lot of respect for B.J.  I think he’s a proud champion.  I think he worked hard for that fight against Georges, and he just wasn’t able to deliver.  That can be hard to deal with.  I think that loss hurt him.”

Rashad Evans may be the UFC light heavyweight champ, but the title doesn’t seem to have gone to his head.  Talking with him last week he mentioned that it’s both humbling and sobering to be at a point in his career where he’s the headlining attraction on a card with legendary UFC fighters he came up watching.

“Seeing a guy like Matt Hughes, it makes me kind of wonder, how did I get to be headlining over Matt Hughes on a UFC card?  I mean, Matt Hughes?  It’s Matt Hughes, man.  It just makes you really stop and think.”

(The hazy glow in this picture can only mean one thing: we’ve stumbled into one of Nick Diaz’s dream sequences again.)

Strikeforce’s June 6 show is already shaping up to be as good or better than their debut on Showtime earlier this month.  In addition to the Jake Shields vs. Robbie Lawler main event, they’ve gotten verbal agreements from Nick Diaz and Scott Smith to face each other in a 180-pound bout.  Apparently the extra weight felt good on Diaz as he smashed Frank Shamrock’s face all to hell, which is a good thing since he’ll be taking on a guy in Smith who can definitely take a shot.  

(Silva keeps talking about the elusive "perfect fight" with "Inside MMA.")

You might think that Patrick Cote, of all people, would be somewhat sympathetic regarding the negative fan reaction after the five-round snoozer between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites at UFC 97.  You’d be wrong.  Despite being one half of a middleweight title fight that was unsatisfying for different reasons, Cote wasn’t afraid to come right out and blast Leites, telling FightHype.com the fight was “boring.”  Which, of course, we already knew.  But he didn’t stop there.