(Above: UFC 157 poster via @rondarousey. / Below: UFC 157 tickets banner via UFC.com. Click both for larger versions.)

See? I told you guys this wasn’t just an elaborate prank. Here we have Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche front-and-center in the first official promo poster for UFC 157, while Dan Henderson and Lyoto Machida lurk in the background, just a couple more innocent men subjugated by the gynocratic culture of the UFC.

From the moment this event was announced, fans and pundits have debated whether the UFC made the right choice in having its first women’s match headline a pay-per-view, especially when one of the competitors has no name value with casual fans. I thought Zach Arnold at FightOpinion had an interesting take on it yesterday:

When Gary Shaw was promoting Gina Carano as his women’s ace, was he in the women’s MMA business or the Gina Carano business?…Gina drew plenty of eyeballs against female fighters who had lower media profiles. She saw her run end against Cyborg, but it was a hell of a run. You can’t say that the experiment was a failure…

Much in a similar vein to Gary Shaw with Gina Carano, Dana White sees Ronda Rousey as his vehicle to reach the masses who only care about Entertainment Tonight, Extra, The Insider, Access Hollywood, Inside Edition, and random Youtube video clips where Rousey can make remarks about sex & testosterone and know that a billion people are going to talk about her comments. Rousey is completely shameless in the way she attracts what political pundits call ‘low information voters’ and she’s proud of it…

Being the poster-designer for the UFC must be a horrible job. You spend all day selecting the perfect photos of each headliner, tweaking size and shading until they’re juuuuust right, and then you get a frantic phone call from your boss just as you’re leaving for the weekend, saying that so-and-so blew out his such-and-such, and it’s time to start over.

Case in point, check out the poster above. For a brief moment between UFC 151 being canceled and Jones vs. Belfort being booked, some poor bastard actually had to make a Jones vs. Machida 2 poster, and Lyoto Machida hadn’t even accepted the fight. I’m not saying a lot of time was spent on this, I’m saying that no matter how long it took, that time could have been better spent napping.

We’ve compiled a lot more outdated UFC posters in the pages below. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be reminded of great fights that were sunk due to injury, and of the fragility of human ACLs. If we’ve left out any good ones, shoot us some links in the comments section.

(Click for full-size version.)

“Two grudges will end” at UFC 148, you guys. After the main event, Chael Sonnen is going to pull Anderson Silva aside and personally apologize for that wife-groping steak-cooking stuff, in addition to his general lambasting of the Brazilian people, and Silva will be like, “I understand about the trash-talk, baby bubba, but we’re still friends.” And then Urijah Faber will catch up to Dominick Cruz backstage and explain that when Cruz signed his name over Faber’s face on a poster five years ago, it didn’t really bother him, because really, who would actually hold a grudge over something like that, you know? And then they’ll hug. And hug. And keep hugging. These are things that will happen.

Thanks to everybody who entered our UFC 145 fight-picking contest last week! Many entered, but only three were skilled enough to claim the Fightville prize-packages, which include the movie’s official t-shirt from No Mas and a signed poster. The top three pickers were MoshuDragon, Alan K, and TheGangi, who predicted all three winners correctly, and picked unanimous decision victories for Jon Jones and Mac Danzig. Since MoshuDragon also guessed a first-round stoppage for Travis Browne, we’ll call him the unofficial first-place winner and throw in a CagePotato t-shirt.

If your name has been called, please send your real name, address, and shirt-size to contest@cagepotato.com and we’ll hook you up ASAP. Follow Fightville on Facebook and Twitter, and watch it now on iTunes.

(Click images for full-size versions.)

In honor of tomorrow’s release of our new favorite MMA documentary Fightville — look out for it in select theaters, video-on-demand, and iTunes digital download — we thought we’d give away some movie-related swag. We have in our possession three prize packages that include the official Fightville t-shirt produced by the geniuses at No Mas, as well as a Fightville movie poster signed by Dustin Poirier and Tim Credeur. To get it all, you’ll have to out-guess the competition in this weekend’s UFC 145 fight picking contest.

Along with the Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans main event, we’d like you to predict the results for two preliminary-card bouts: Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs, and Mac Danzig vs. Efrain Escudero. Submit your predictions for all three fights in the comments section below, including the winner’s name, the method of victory, and the time/round of stoppage, if any. Your entry should be in this format:

Now this…makes us nervous. Many of you probably remember the inaugural ONE FC: Champion vs. Champion event that took place back in early September, which featured a plethora of previously unheard of talent in addition to a ton of great fights. Shortly thereafter, CEO and owner Victor Cui announced that his promotion had big plans for 2012, which included adding over 23 gyms and 15 promotions to their partnership and scheduling three events in three different countries. Though it wouldn’t do much to detract from the UFC’s ever-expanding market, many of us looked at ONE FC as the spark that could possibly reignite the Asian MMA scene, a flame that had long been quelled since the demise of PRIDE.

If the above poster for ONE FC’s second event, entitled Battle of Heroes, says anything, it’s that PRIDE is back. Unfortunately, it might not the epic, blood soaked glory PRIDE that we were all hoping for, but rather, the ridiculous, freak show fight filled PRIDE that we both loved and silently resented for all those years.

Yep, this is really happening. Mad props to Steampunk for putting this together…

Update: By the way, another source says Machida is not taking the fight, so, you know, whatever.

(The official ‘Fedor vs. Henderson’ poster, via Strikeforce. Click for full-size version.)

By Anton Gurevich

MMA legends Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko and Dan “Hendo” Henderson will meet on July 30th at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Emelianenko and Henderson share numerous MMA titles, and are widely considered two of the most influential fighters in the sport.

Currently 1-2 in his Strikeforce campaign, Fedor stands at the crossroads of his career, after suffering a devastating defeat against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva earlier this year. The thirty-four year old Russian announced his retirement, but later changed his mind and declared that he would continue fighting. Here’s some of the most important quotes from the Russian media over the past weeks, with Fedor Emelianenko talking about what could be the biggest fight of his illustrious MMA career…

Continue reading this article on Lowkick.com

Well, it’s on a poster now, so I guess this fight’s really happening. But if you ask me, the old “U.S. vs. U.K.” opposing-flags angle is a little tired. I’d rather focus on what Nick Diaz and Paul Daley have in common. They’re both perpetually grumpy, for one thing. And they both do some of their best fighting after the last bell. (Who can forget Daley’s Josh Koscheck sucker-punch incident, or the Nashville brawl, or the Joe Riggs hospital fight?)

Unfortunately, one of the names on the poster — lightweight title contender Tatsuya Kawajiri — might have to drop out of the event, due to the current devastation in Japan. According to an MMAJunkie report, Jorge Masvidal and KJ Noons have been asked to stand by as replacements in case Kawajiri and Shinya Aoki are unable to compete. Masvidal and Noons were originally slated to face each other on the “Diaz vs. Daley” card, which goes down April 9th card in San Diego; now we could be seeing Melendez vs. Masvidal and Noons vs. Lyle Beerbohm. We’ll let you know when things are official.

Related: Following destruction in Japan, Akiyama pulls out of bout at UFC 128

Who said the readers of this website are talentless, unmotivated hacks? Without further ado, we’d like to crown Olieng P. the winner of our Six Deuce MMA poster design contest. Olieng’s Mortal Kombat-esque UFC 113 poster brought in a whopping 20% of the popular vote, and earns him the grand prize training pack, which includes red satin MMA fight/board shorts, the Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory t-shirt, high-quality leather Muay Thai training gloves, black hand wraps, Muay Thai ankle supports and a leather speed bag. Use it well, Olieng, and good luck on your new career as a professional fighter.

After the jump: The three runners-up who will be receiving Six Deuce MMA shorts of their choice. If you’re one of the winners, please e-mail feedback@cagepotato.com with your real name, address, and size(s), and we’ll get you hooked up ASAP. Thanks to everyone who entered (and to 62gear.com), and if you have ideas for future photoshop/design contests, let us know in the comments section!

    
      
(Keep your eyes on the grand prize. Images courtesy of 62Gear.com)

After two weeks of furious photoshopping, we have nominated 15 artists as finalists for our Six Deuce MMA poster design contest. Please spend the rest of your afternoon considering the posters after the jump, then vote for your favorite in the poll over on the right. (It’s a little ways down the page, under the "Most Recent Comments" box and the UFC Fan Expo ad.) Get your votes in by Sunday night at midnight ET. We’ll announce the winners on Monday. Many thanks to everybody who entered, and please show Six Deuce some love for making this happen!

(Props: Brion S.)

We’ve reached the mid-way point in our massive MMA event poster design contest, and we’ve already gotten some amazing submissions. To inspire the rest of y’all into getting your asses in gear, we’ve decided to post some of our current favorites, which continue after the jump. Please send your poster entries to feedback@cagepotato.com by next Tuesday. We’ll pick some finalists for voting a week from today; the top vote-getter will score a big ass prize-package from Six Deuce, which includes MMA fight shorts, a Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory t-shirt, Muay Thai training gloves, hand wraps, ankle supports, and a leather speed bag. Three runners up will score the shorts — a prize worth $45, just for losing. Please swing by 62gear.com and let ‘em know you care!

(Props: Brian R.)

(Props: Steve W.)

    
      
(Images courtesy of 62Gear.com)

You may remember Six Deuce as the brilliant gear and apparel company that gave us the Glorious Sweater of Absolute Victory t-shirt. Well, they’re rolling out some new product, and they want you to be the first person in your gym/book club to sport it. So shut up and listen for a minute: We have on our hands a grand prize training pack that consists of the following items, pictured above…

– These shiny red satin MMA fight/board shorts
– The Fedor-rific Glorious Sweater t-shirt
– These high-quality leather Muay Thai training gloves
– A pair of black hand wraps
– A pair of Muay Thai ankle supports
– This leather speed bag

Total street value of this prize package: About $179. But you’re not going to pay for it. No, child, you’re going to win it. Here’s how…

Thankfully, not all MMA event posters are lunkheaded eyesores. Here’s our tribute to some of the most creative and memorable ones we’ve ever come across…


(An appropriate image for an event that featured Mirko Cro Cop, Quinton Jackson, Mark Coleman, Alistair Overeem, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Igor Vovchanchyn, and both Rua brothers.)


(The UFC’s artistic high point.)

(Screw college basketball. This was the most thrilling Final Four of all time.)

Behold the sparse, no-bullshit poster for Strikeforce: Nashville, which clearly takes its design cues from this. Tickets for the April 17th event — priced from $25 to $195 — go on sale to the general public on Friday. Pre-sale begins today at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT for Strikeforce Insider members.

Speaking of Strikeforce, Mauro Ranallo passes along the rumor that the Overeem vs. Rogers fight in May could be for Strikeforce’s heavyweight title, as Fedor Emelianenko’s status with the organization grows hazier. Facepalm, bro. If Fedor can’t make it work with Strikeforce, his only available option is to track down Josh Barnett in Dream. And after that? Is Zuluzinho available for a rematch?