(Thiago Silva has been booked to fight “The Silva Hunter.”)

Believe it!

— Scary undefeated Brazilian light-heavyweight Thiago Silva, who was originally slated to face Rashad Evans at UFC 84 in May, will now battle Antonio Mendes in light of Evans being signed to fight Chuck Liddell at UFC 85. Mendes has put together a record of 14-2 fighting in organizations you’ve never heard of, and will be making his UFC debut. He went 9-0 last year, including three wins at a one-night tournament in June where all three fights went the distance, and another two wins in April on consecutive nights in different promotions. Mendes also holds a career record of 3-0 against other guys named Silva, which could be the defining stat of the matchup.

— Speaking of potentially lopsided matchups, Strikeforce announced last night that Gilbert Melendez will be facing some guy named Gabe Lemley at their March 29th EliteXC/Showtime co-promoted card, with a lightweight championship belt on the line. Melendez is coming off his first career loss, having dropped a decision to Mitsuhiro Ishida at Yarennoka! on New Year’s Eve. Lemley lost four of his first five fights before turning his career around, and now sports a still-shitty 11-6 record. And he’s fighting for a belt. And we think that’s just super.

From a Shooto event called “Shooting Disco 4: Born in the Fighting” (!!!), held on February 23rd. If you don’t have time to sit through all 137 seconds of this fight, just jump to the video’s 2:14 mark and brace yourself. Live by the leg-scissor choke, die by the leg-scissor choke. Great photo of the uncomfortable-looking moment of impact here…

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

(Ed Herman: The guy who’s about to lose to the guy who could possibly be worthy of facing Anderson Silva one day.)

With just over a month to go until UFC 83, a pair of fights have been added to the preliminary card, bringing the event to a thick 11 fights total. The UFC announced today that TUF 3 finalist Ed “Short Fuse” Herman will take on undefeated Brazilian grappler Demian Maia, who choked out Ryan Jensen during his UFC debut last October; Herman is riding a three-fight win streak, his most recent being a knockout of Joe Doerksen at UFC 78 in November. The news follows up a weekend announcement confirming that heavyweights Brad Morris (8-2) and Cain Velasquez (2-0) will both make their Octagon debuts at UFC 83. Morris is a heavy-handed Australian striker who’s done time in King of the Cage and Bodog Fight. Despite his very limited professional experience, Velasquez was previously shouted out by his American Kickboxing Academy teammate Jon Fitch as the dude who will “turn the heavyweight world upside down in another year or two.”

With these additions, the final lineup to the April 19th Montreal show looks like this:

MAIN CARD
Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre (for welterweight title)
Rich Franklin vs. Travis Lutter (middleweights)
Nate Quarry vs. Kalib Starnes (middleweights)
Michael Bisping vs. Charles McCarthy (middleweights)
Mac Danzig vs. Marc Bocek (lightweights)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Joe Doerksen vs. Jason MacDonald (middleweights)
Jason Day vs. Alan Belcher (middleweights)
Rich Clementi vs. Sam Stout (lightweights)
Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs. Jonathan Goulet (welterweights)
Ed Herman vs. Demian Maia (middleweights)
Brad Morris vs. Cain Velasquez (heavyweights)

So many middleweights, so little hope of ever beating Anderson Silva…

In other UFC news:

(Human cockfighters: They’re just like us!)

According to this New York Times article, today marks the beginning of the UFC’s public campaign to legalize MMA in New York State. Eleven years after it was banned by killjoy governor George Pataki, Zuffa has launched MMAFacts.com to massage NY lawmakers into realizing that MMA is safe family entertainment. And at no small cost: Prior to the launch of the site, Zuffa made a $25,000 donation to the state Democratic party, hired a political consulting firm used by current New York governor Eliot Spitzer for media relations, and has had the $10,000/month Albany lobbying firm Brown, McMahon & Weinraub on retainer since November.

Anyway, take a gander at the site, which combines positive news coverage (“Associated Press: Anheuser-Busch ad deal is milestone for Ultimate Fighting”), original fluff pieces (“MMA Events Draw Tourism and Tax Revenue to Host Cities”), explanations of the sport’s honorable history, and good old-fashioned charticles. But the best part is the athlete profile page, where dudes like Keith Jardine, Kenny Florian, and Joe Lauzon — awkwardly stuffed into button-down shirts — try to explain that MMA fighters are just as educated as you are, if not more so, and don’t turn to the sport because they can’t do anything else. (Lauzon’s an IT guy!) But unlike the other guys in their office-ready wear, Matt Lindland keeps it real in his IFL jersey. It’s very possible that no photos of him wearing collared shirts actually exist.

(Top to bottom: Most Likely to Succeed, Best Smile, Ugliest)

Man, what a fucking mess. If there was any debate as to whether Ken Shamrock should retire, his Cage Rage appearance last night settled it. Check out the 3:54 mark of the video, as Ken takes a glancing jab and a right hook to his glove, then flops over sideways, Bo Cantrell-style. At this point, it’s hard to imagine any professional heavyweight that Ken has the tools to beat. At the very least, he should have to change his nickname from “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” to “The Third Most Dangerous Shamrock” (after Frank and Frank’s wife).

Even if he’s given the medical clearance to fight next month it’s doubtful that EliteXC will still want to book Ken to get eaten up by Kimbo Slice on their CBS debut. Problem is, he was the most marketable option for Kimbo’s next opponent. Will Slice vs. Berry draw the amount of eyes that Shaw & Co. need for their first network television show? Maybe, maybe not. But any hope for a blockbuster “superfight” just buckled like Ken’s ever-wobbly legs.

(Props: Victory Belt via MMA.tv via BloodyElbow)

Based on a true story…

(“Dude, could you at least pretend to be surprised?”)

(Mach Sakurai works over Mac Danzig at PRIDE 33.)

A lot of news coming from Japan in the wake of Sengoku’s first show and the run-up to next week’s DREAM debut…

— Nokaut.com reports that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has finally gotten an opponent for the first DREAM show, with only nine days to spare. As Mirko wrote on his official blog: “A little over an hour ago I was contacted by DREAM officials. They informed me that my opponent on March 15 will be Yoshihiro Nakao from Japan. It was very important for me to fight as soon as possible and I’m happy that DREAM was able to find the opponent for me.” You may remember Nakao as the dude Heath Herring knocked out after a tender expression of affection was misinterpreted as an insult; hopefully Nakao won’t make that mistake again. DREAM1 goes down next Saturday at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

— Hayato “Mach” Sakurai has also locked down an opponent for the DREAM show. As SukiMMA translates from his blog: “I fight Hidetaka Monma from Keisyukai. One foreign fighter and one Japanese fighter canceled and finally I got an opponent!” Monma has a 14-7-3 record, with notable wins over…well, basically nobody. The Sakurai/Monma fight doesn’t seem to be a part of the lightweight Grand Prix that’s also going down at DREAM1, but it should be an ugly rout just like the Cro Cop/Nakao feature.

EliteXC signs with CBS. The UFC signs with Budwesier. And CagePotato.com makes its first appearance on BetUS Radio.

It was a monumental week for MMA, and Damon D had me on the show today to plug the Potato, discuss the week’s wild news, and guide all you gambling addicts through the smart picks at UFC 82. I’d like to thank whoever gave me a cold this week, which left my naturally warm and sonorous voice a nasally, scratchy wreck. I’d also like to thank Sprint for their always crystal-clear cell phone reception. (Honestly, it sounds like I did the show via tin-cans-and-string from the bottom of a coal mine.) And on an unsarcastic note, I want to give a big shout-out to Damon for letting me swing by and talk shit for 40 minutes. The man’s energy…is contagious. Check out BetUS’s official UFC 82 odds here, and GO HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW! You can also find the podcast in the iTunes store; just search for “UFC,” then click “See All” in the Podcasts section. Feedback appreciated!

Also Important: As I mentioned at the end of the show, I’m flying down to Columbus tomorrow to take in the fights, and I’ll have some first-person impressions and exclusives for you by Monday. Liveblogging the action in my place will be TheFightingLife‘s Ben Fowlkes, so be sure to come back here tomorrow night starting at 10pm ET/7pm PT for round-by-round updates. And go easy on him, okay?

The IFL’s “New Blood – New Battles” season opener goes down tonight at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, with Team Tompkins set to do battle against Mario Sperry’s World Class Fight Center, and Matt Lindland’s Team Quest facing off against Ken Shamrock’s Lions Den. Also, title-holders Ryan Schultz (lightweight), Matt Horwich (middleweight), and Roy Nelson (heavyweight) will defend their belts against John Gunderson, Ryan McGivern, and Fabiano Scherner, respectively. TheFightingLife‘s Ben Fowlkes (who also writes news for IFL.tv) has been on the scene since Tuesday and gave us this glimpse into the high-tension among the fighters before the event. Watch the action tonight on HDNet, starting at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT.

Covering the IFL for the past year and a half, here’s one lesson I’ve learned: during any interview with Matt Lindland, he’s going to get mad at me at least once. I can never tell what will cause it; it could be anything. This time it’s Kimbo Slice.

It’s the day before the IFL Las Vegas event and we’re interviewing all the fighters and coaches. It can be monotonous, to say the least. We get just about everyone to weigh in on Kimbo, but as soon as I ask what Lindland thinks of him, the mood of the interview changes.

“He’s a bum,” says Lindland. The look on his face tells me to leave it alone. I ask what he means by that. He glares at me. I bring this on myself. I really do.

“I mean he’s a bum,” he says. “He’s a nobody. What do you want me to say? You asked me what I thought and I told you. I don’t have anything else to say about him.”

The hell of it is, despite how ornery he can be I really like Lindland. I can’t help it. Even when he gives me the look like he’s trying to figure out how one human being ever got to be this stupid, at least I know it’s sincere. You have to respect honesty like that.

Writing about fighters, sometimes honesty is difficult to gauge. Do these two guys really hate each other, I find myself asking, or are they just trying to hype the fight? In the build-up to Friday night’s IFL event, I wondered this about Ian Loveland and Dennis Davis, two former teammates who are slated to go at it.

(Am I weird, or is this chick hot?)

For all you nerds who like trivia, flexing your brain, and shit, head over to FightMetric to do it up MMA style. The quiz sports questions to test how much you really know about MMA – specifically how fights end. I got 8 out of 10 correct and I would’ve scored better had I not popped open the bottle of tequila at noon. The questions/answers are pulled from FightMetric’s extensive database of fight endings from both major and minor organizations.

We’ve spent our share of hours checking out FM’s number crunching on everything that happens in a fight such as strikes thrown and landed, types of punches, kicks, positions, time spent on the ground, etc. Their reports are pretty in-depth and they arrive at their data via some Einstein-esque equations. Don’t believe me? Here are two formulas they use to get their figures (actually taken from the site):

My head hurts. I’m going to go watch TV.

(Kimbo posing with Tappy McTapsalot.)

Alright, so that may be a bit of a stretch. But Variety reports that Showtime subscriptions jumped 11% in the fourth quarter of 2007; parent company CBS Corp.’s profit fell 19% in the same period. We’d imagine that many of those new subscribers were people who signed up just to see Kimbo Slice destroy Bo Cantrell at EliteXC: Renegade. It sure as hell wasn’t for The Tudors.

In other dollar-related news…

— “Strikeforce at the Dome” took in more money than any other combat-sport event ever held in Washington state. 7,089 disappointed fans packed the Tacoma Dome and gave up $300,000 of their money, which they immediately regretted.

— Rich Franklin has put the Hummer H2 he was given for being a coach on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter up for auction on eBay. The starting bid is 80 grand, and you can “Buy It Now” for $125,000. The auction ends on March 2nd, and 10% of the proceeds will go to the Keep it in the Ring Foundation, which channels youthful aggression through after-school sports and martial arts programs. We hope Franklin is more successful at this eBay thing than Ricco Rodriguez, who eventually settled for $250, a dozen Krispy Kremes, and a pack of smokes.

EliteXC’s welterweight top-dog Jake Shields was awarded his BJJ black belt yesterday by Cesar Gracie at Team Fairtex Gym in San Francisco. Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez and others were on hand to congratulate him the only way they know how. Hmm…I assumed this moment would be a little more dignified. Anyway, big ups to Shields, who faces UFC vet Drew Fickett at the March 29th Strikeforce/EliteXC show headlined by Frank Shamrock/Cung Le.

(Video courtesy of Sherdog)

There are so many things about this video that confuse me — the three-minute first round, the standing 8-count, the “hey, no hitting!” stoppage at 2:39 — but basically what you’re watching here is kickboxer Ray Sefo beat the crap out of Min Soo Kim in Sefo’s MMA debut at K-1 Hero’s 2 (7/6/05). If you’re an expert on K-1 history, let us know if the Hero’s rules were all screwy in the promotion’s early days, or if they’re using a hybrid kickboxing/MMA rule-set to ease Sugarfoot Sefo into the world of MMA. Anyway, despite his serviceable grappling, Kim is basically knocked out twice at the beginning of the second round — once by a kick, once by a punch. Since Sefo (along with roommate Jan Nortje) just joined Xtreme Couture’s fight team, we’ll hopefully see more beatings like this in the future.

(Perfectly legal, mind you.)

Ah, the good old days — when men were men, women were women, and ballsacks could be repeatedly pummeled inside the Octagon without Big John McCarthy doing a damn thing about it. Above, of course, is the fateful UFC 4 fight between Keith “By Any Means Necessary” Hackney, and Joe Son (who later appeared as Random Task in the first Austin Powers movie). By the late ’90s, rule changes had made mixed martial arts look somewhat civilized, and dozens of attacks/holds/gouges were deemed verboten. But regrettably, accidents still happen. And now, our favorite “accidents” ever…

7. Anderson Silva upkicks Yushin Okami

Before The Spider was the deadliest dude in the UFC, he was just a guy trying to get Yushin Okami the fuck off of him at Rumble on the Rock 8. His knockout kick was a crowd pleaser, but unfortunately he was DQ’d on a technicality — Okami’s knees were down.

6. Andrei Arlovski rabbit-punches Marcio Cruz
After back-to-back losses at the hands of Tim Sylvia, Arlovski was dying for a win, and he wasn’t above fighting dirty to get it. When the opportunity presented itself at UFC 66, the Pitbull started whaling on the back of Marcio Cruz’s head. Herb Dean gave him a warning. Arlovski kept doing it. Herb Dean warned him again. Arlovski kept doing it. Herb Dean stopped the fight and gave Andrei the win. Love that Herb Dean.

Well, here it is — your main event from Strikeforce: At the Dome. Watch as Sapp starts running for his life at the 3:37 mark. By the way, Nortje’s “14-12 MMA record” is a complete fabrication. But then again, Bob Sapp was never an “NFL star.”

(Combined weight: 689 pounds. Combined talent: 25 milligrams. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

I’d like to congratulate everyone who put money on +450 underdog Jan Nortje in his Strikeforce headlining match against Bob Sapp last night — you are officially smarter than a 5th grader. Video of the fight will be posted early this week in case you missed it (and honestly, how many of you subscribe to HDNet?) but wow, what a performance. The Beast rushed out after the bell and immediately got caught with a punch, then clinched and pushed Nortje into the fence. After some fat-man hugging, the two super-heavyweights separated and Sapp stuck Nortje with some stiff jabs. But as soon as Notje got the chance to throw some leather, Bob winced, ran in the other direction, and fell to the mat, where Nortje pounded him until the ref stopped it at 55 seconds into the first. Classic Sapp. Now are you ready to retire, dickhead?

But it wasn’t all slapstick comedy at the Tacoma Dome. Joe Riggs had to be carried out on a stretcher after his submission-via-agony loss to Cory Devela. Riggs and Devela clinched early in round 1, and Devela broke the stalemate with a hip throw that slammed Riggs hard onto his back. Not only was the pain immediately apparent on Riggs’s face, but he barely had the strength to tap out; the ref called it at 1:22 of the first round. Unable to get to his feet, paramedics had to remove the former UFC fighter from the cage. Making the scene even more brutal, Riggs’s entire body seemed to spasm involuntarily while he was laid out. For a guy who was previously addicted to painkillers, Riggs will have a tough road ahead of him, even if the prognosis is just a few slipped discs. We’ll update you when you know more.

In the evening’s other notable match, 46-year-old former UFC heavyweight champ Maurice Smith spolied the MMA debut of 41-year-old kickboxer Rick “The Jet” Roufus. Roufus was totally lost once Smith shot in for a takedown, and Mo’ was able to get full mount and tap Roufus with an armlock at 1:53 of round one. It was the second fight in Smith’s current farewell-tour; he stepped away from the game in 2000, but returned to action with a TKO victory over Marco Ruas at an IFL event last May.

The night’s other matches weren’t nearly as exciting, unless you dig slow three-rounders fought by guys you’ve never heard of. But here’s how they turned out:

Eddy Ellis def. Steve Berger via unanimous decision
Jorge Masvidal def. Ryan Healy via unanimous decision
Mychal Clark def. Josh Bennett via TKO (doctor’s stoppage), end of round 2
Lyle Beerbohm def. Ray Perales via submission (guillotine choke), 1:19 into round 3
Mike Hayes def. Matt Kovacs via unanimous decision
Zach Skinner def. Scott Shaffer via unanimous decision
Nathan Coy def. Dave Courchaine via KO (punch), 1:46 into round 1

Our earlier mentions of Chute Boxe and rope-a-dope reminded us of this light heavyweight match from Cage Rage 15 (2/4/06), which could easily earn a place in our greatest fights of all-time list. The first round features as much slugging as you’d expect from these two, but it’s the second round that makes the fight legendary. Cyborg and Melvin become so exhausted from whaling on each other that at one point they can do little more than stand with their hands down and suck air. Luckily, Manhoef has a little extra in the tank. Watch Cyborg baby-punch Melvin’s lifeless body at the end — totally adorable. (Fight starts at the 2:26 mark.)

Sure, why not — here’s Krazy Horse’s fight against K.J. Noons at EliteXC: Destiny (2/10/07), which we discussed earlier. It’s a leg-kick battle for a while, until the guys start throwing leather and Noons walks into a sledgehammer right hook. Entertaining as always, Bennett does his backflip thing a couple times after the knockout then leaves the cage before the cops can show up.

(Emmanuel Yarborough probably won’t make the list.)

Attention, Potato Nation: We’re looking to put together a massive, ambitious feature on the greatest MMA fights of all time, and we need your help with the nominations. Now, what makes for a truly great fight? Well, if it’s…

…a non-stop war where two evenly matched fighters leave their hearts on the mat (see: Frye vs. Takayama, Griffin vs. Bonnar 1).

…a match where one fighter is getting his ass handed to him but comes back to steal a victory (see Minotauro Nogueira vs. Sapp, or Nogueira vs. a lot of people, for that matter).

…a fight that settles a genuine grudge or rivalry (see: Royce Gracie vs. Sakuraba 2, Liddell vs. Ortiz 1).

…the arrival of a new hero — or a new villain (see: Severn vs. Macias, Abbott vs. Matua).

…a fight that represented a changing of the guard (see: Hughes vs. Gracie, Ortiz vs. Shamrock III).

…a match that ends in Aleksander Emelianenko knocking out James Thompson (see: A. Emelianenko vs. Thompson).

If you think your all-time favorite fight should be included in the feature, tell us what it is and what made it so wicked awesome. Thanks, as always.

As we mentioned earlier, ICON Sport middleweight contender Kala Kolohe Hose’s brief career has been marked by some memorably fierce knockouts. If you’ve never seen him in action before, now’s your chance. Below are the end of his most recent fight against Frederic Belleton at the last ShoXC Challenger Series (1/25/08), and his complete 67-second match against Kekoa Baker at Icon Sport: All In (2/9/07). Check out the way Hose waits with his hands on his hips until Belleton comes in to eat a good-night knockout punch. That’s a confident young man…

(Heavyweight champion of the industry.)

Whether you need to take your fight career to the next level, or you’re stuck in a Thai prison for a “misunderstanding” with a local bar-girl, Ken Pavia is your man. The New York-bred, Huntington Beach-based MMA agent drives the careers of Karo Parisyan, Rob McCullough, Chris Lytle, James Thompson, Renato Sobral, Phil Baroni, and a few dozen others, and his work doesn’t stop at just arranging fights and locking down sponsorship deals. After realizing we knew next-to-nothing about what an MMA agent actually does, we decided to drop “The Pav” a line and get the lowdown on how he got his start and how he keeps on top of the competition. Also, coffee enemas.

THE EARLY DAYS

You were a sports agent for 12 years after graduating from the Miami School of Law. Did you focus on any sport in particular?
I primarily represented baseball and hockey players, though I did have a couple basketball players and a football player. I had my own firm from about ’91 through ’03 or so.

And you’ve said you retired because you got bored. Was there more to it than that?
I don’t know if it was so much boredom — I was a boutique firm competing against larger, much better capitalized corporate firms, and capitalization was ultimately a stumbling block in my ability to maintain higher-profile guys. I’d recruit a football player coming out of college, and it’d be about six to nine months before he saw any money, and he’d want a couple-hundred-thousand dollar advance. After a while I needed a break from recruiting and the daily grind.

So what did you plan on doing with the rest of your life?
Well, I took a couple years off and sat on the couch, watched sports, ate bon-bons, and went through a divorce. I was semi-retired and trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Eventually I opened up an auto auction and I met Ricco Rodriguez, who dragged me into the MMA game.

Was Ricco your first client?
He was. A mutual friend introduced us, and Ricco sat me down and said “We need mainstream agents to cross over and help the fighters get the kind of compensation that the owners are getting.” I had been a fan of the sport — I think I’d seen pretty much every UFC event — but Ricco’s the one who convinced me to get in from a business standpoint.

How did you go about finding and attracting clients in those early days?
Having the former UFC heavyweight champion was sort of a high-profile thing, and being in Huntington Beach — which was a hotbed for MMA talent at the time — I was able to find a couple of local guys with Ricco’s help. I’d take Ricco to fights, he’d meet the up-and-coming talent, and they’d pretty much come to me. I was blessed that the talent was seeking us out as opposed to the grind I had in other sports.

Five years before Frank Mir disposed of Brock Lesnar via kneebar, he put away Tank Abbott with an ankle-lock at UFC 41: Onslaught (2/28/03). The fight marked Tank’s first professional match since 1998, and Mir’s sixth overall. Though Tank showed some nimble movement on the ground, Mir displayed his ability to keep calm against an aggressive opponent while expertly working toward a submission. Following this fight, Mir won two victories over Wes Sims (the first by illegal-stomp DQ, the second by KO) then faced Tim Sylvia for the title. Abbott would close out 2003 by losing to Kimo Leopoldo and Wesley Correira, then leaving the UFC.

We’d take Kevin Ferguson‘s endorsement over Ted Kennedy‘s any day. Stay tuned, because this isn’t the last you’ll see of Kimbo on the Potato. Oh, no — this is just the beginning.

(“Paying fighters a living wage? Why, that’s simply bad business!”)

We always assumed that the only reason fighters sign with Bodog Fight is because the company is drooling with cash — it certainly isn’t for the recognition or the level of competition. The operation is run by Calvin Ayre, who’s made hundreds of millions of dollars from his online gambling empire Bodog (and can’t set foot in the United States because of it). To paraphrase Chris Rock, if Calvin Ayre woke up tomorrow with Dana White’s money, he’d jump out the fucking window. Sadly, it looks like Ayre’s ill-gotten gains don’t trickle down to the guys who compete on Bodog Fight cards. MMA Weekly just released a new roundup of recent fighter salaries, and we were shocked when we saw the numbers from BF’s event last Friday in Las Vegas, in which Nick Thompson defended his welterweight title against John Troyer:

TUFF-N-UFF/BODOG FIGHT MAIN EVENT FIGHTERS
Nick Thompson: $20,000 (defeated John Troyer; no win bonus)
John Troyer: $5,000 (lost to Nick Thompson; no win bonus)

TUFF-N-UFF/BODOG FIGHT UNDERCARD FIGHTERS
Seth Baczynski: $2,000 (defeated Chris Kennedy; win bonus was $1,000)
Chad George: $1,500 (defeated Richard Screeton; win bonus was $500)
Angela Magana: $1,500 (defeated Lynn Alvarez; win bonus was $500)
Bryan Humes: $1,250 (defeated Ryan Murray; win bonus was $500)
Chris Kennedy: $1,000 (lost to Seth Baczynski; win bonus would have been $1,000)
Ryan Murray: $1,000 (lost to Bryan Humes; no win bonus)
Sara Schneider: $1,000 (defeated Kaitlin Young; no win bonus)
Richard Screeton: $1,000 (lost to Chad George; win bonus would have been $500)
Aaron Simpson: $1,000 (defeated Scott Dingman; no win bonus)
Kaitlin Young: $1,000 (lost to Sara Schneider; win bonus would have been $500)
Lynn Alvarez: $750 (lost to Angela Magana; win bonus would have been $500)
Scott Dingman: $750 (lost to Aaron Simpson; win bonus would have been $500)

TUFF-N-UFF/BODOG FIGHT DISCLOSED FIGHTER PAYROLL: $38,750

In other words, Ricardo Almeida made more money for submitting Rob Yundt in 68 seconds at UFC 81 then all of the Bodog Fight payouts combined. No wonder Nick Thompson has been looking elsewhere. He’s arguably the most exciting fighter that Bodog had under contract, and they can’t even hook a brother up with a win bonus? I’m done criticizing Dana White and the Fertittas — it’s time to start hating Calvin Ayre. The man could certainly afford to spend money on attracting/keeping talented fighters and promoting his shows so that people actually care about them. But he’s too cheap, too lazy, or both. So what’s the point of even having an MMA league in the first place?

(Or at least MMA.)

The Washington Post ran a story today about a Maryland Delegate trying to undo the ban on mixed martial arts in the state. The bill is House Bill 795 – which is fascinating reading – drafted by Democratic Delegate Kirill Reznik of Montgomery County. Here’s a snippet:

Democratic Delegate Kirill Reznik of Montgomery County has proposed a bill allowing the mixed martial arts contests. He says the law change would allow Maryland to play host to nationally known events. Reznik has studied a version of a martial art called Chinese Kempo for more than 20 years.

Reznik says all Maryland’s neighboring states except West Virginia allow the fights. Lawmakers in Michigan signed off on a similar bill about mixed martial arts last year.

And as BloodyElbow pointed out earlier, MMA is legal in the nation’s capitol and in the state of Virginia. So bringing Maryland on board would expand the opportunities for fighters, venues, promotions and training camps in the DC/Tri-State area. The Canadian Press also reported on several states legalizing MMA last year.

Arkansas, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Virginia all approved MMA in 2007, according to the UFC.

Evan Tanner’s fight against David Terrell at UFC 51 (2/5/05) was actually his second shot at a UFC championship belt — four years earlier he faced Tito Ortiz for the light heavyweight title, but was knocked out via slam after just 32 seconds. After working up a 6-1 record in his next UFC fights and dropping down to middleweight, he was given the chance to fight David Terrell for the vacant middleweight championship. Despite Terrell hanging off his neck for a full 30 seconds during the match, Tanner was able to slip the guillotine attempt and move on top of Terrell, where he ground-and-pounded his way to victory. Unfortunately, he lost his title to Rich Franklin four months later. Tanner returns to the Octagon at UFC 82, where he’ll face Yushin Okami.

(Tito Ortiz: Planning his next move?)

Too boring to get posts of their own — just boring enough to be lumped in with a few other stories!

— UFC 81 drew 10,583 spectators at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday, with 7,167 of those asses-in-seats actually paying for their tickets. That’s the lowest paid-attendance figure for a Mandalay Bay UFC event since UFC 48, which featured Ken Shamrock vs. Kimo Leopoldo as the main event. “Breaking Point” took in a live gate of $2,437,890, which is the sixth-lowest total out of the venue’s past seven UFC events. This could all be explained by an inordinate amount of comp tickets being handed out for Brock Lesnar’s Octagon debut, and the UFC could have easily gotten their money back on pay-per-view buys. But since the UFC isn’t required to release information on PPV revenue, we may not hear the full story for some time.

— Tito Ortiz may be planning a 10-year-anniversary re-match with Frank Shamrock outside of the UFC. The two fighters first met at UFC 22 back in September 1999, where they battled for the UFC’s 205-pound title. Shamrock won by submission due to strikes near the end of the fourth round, then retired from the UFC with a perfect 5-0 record in the organization.

— Zuffa has filed a motion for preliminary injunction against Randy Couture, with a hearing date set for March 4th. The injunction will likely be focused on preventing Couture from making further breaches of the non-compete agreement in his employment contract.

— Though most Canadian provinces have given MMA their blessing, the sport is totes unkosher in Ontario.

— I just finished eating some thai food. It wasn’t bad.

Carlos Condit — who we have ranked as the #8 welterweight in the world — will defend his WEC welterweight title for the second time next Wednesday at WEC 32. Here’s his last fight, against Brock Larson at WEC 29 (8/5/07). A submission specialist with 12 tapout victories under his belt, Condit kept his cool while on his back, waiting for the perfect moment to snap onto Larson’s arm and wrench him into submission.

If you missed our UFC 81 liveblog, click here. Check out the videos below for Chris Lytle’s nitro-burnin’ bash-fest against Kyle Bradley, and Ricardo Almeida choking out Rob Yundt despite being dropped directly on his head.

Chris Lytle vs. Kyle Bradley:

Ricardo Almeida vs. Rob Yundt: