(To be fair to Diaz’s camp, maybe they’re trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir.)

Perhaps the third time will be the charm for Nick Diaz.

Following his unanimous decision loss to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 158, Diaz’s camp first accused Georges St. Pierre’s handwraps of being shady in an effort to demonstrate that Nick Diaz was the victim of a massive conspiracy. That didn’t work, so then a video of the “Canadian loophole” was leaked to prove that the champion was allowed to weigh 0.9 pounds over the 170-pound weight limit. Of course, it turns out that Quebec’s athletic commission has consistently allowed this since UFC 83 in 2008, so that option isn’t nearly as scandalous as it once appeared. Now today, Diaz’s camp accused Quebec’s athletic commission of failing to properly supervise St. Pierre during his post-fight drug test.

But that’s not all. In an email sent to MMAFighting.com, Diaz camp representative Jonathan Tweedale explained that they intend to file a formal complaint regarding the events that took place before and after UFC 158. In this email, not only does Tweedale make it clear that Diaz and company were not impressed by the Quebec commission’s performance, but he goes as far as to write that Nick Diaz deserves a rematch against GSP. Via MMA Fighting:

“The Quebec Commission’s statement is a disappointing admission that the March 16 event was not conducted under the rules applicable to a UFC title fight – or under the rules the fighters contractually agreed to, upon which rules Mr. Diaz was entitled to rely under his bout agreement,” stated Jonathan Tweedale, a Diaz camp representative.

(Anderson Silva will be watching this one with great interest. / Photo via MMAJunkie)

Georges St. Pierre‘s 19-month hiatus from the Octagon is one of the reasons why MMA kind of sucked this year. But the UFC welterweight champion is back in the saddle tonight in Montreal against interim champ Carlos Condit, so come a little bit closer baby, get it on, get on, ’cause tonight is the night when two belts become one.

In the co-main event, Martin Kampmann battles Johny Hendricks for a potential title shot against the winner of St. Pierre vs. Condit. Plus: This clown, that weirdo, and Mark Hominick‘s must-win featherweight scrap against Pablo Garza. [Note: Nick Ring was supposed to fight Constantinos Philippou on the main card, but fell ill today and wasn't cleared to compete. Mark Bocek vs. Rafael Dos Anjos was promoted to the main card from the prelims.]

Guiding us through the proceedings is liveblogger-supreme Aaron Mandel Ben Goldstein!, who will be throwin’ down round-by-round results from the UFC 154 pay-per-view main card beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and let your voices be heard loudly and proudly in the comments section.

(“Sorry, guys. We wanted to have Cyborg fight King Mo for the main event, but the fight fell through.”)

Bad news for Quebec MMA fans who were patiently waiting for the UFC to return in March.

According to a report by the Canadian Press, the UFC had decided to postpone the event in Montreal, presumably until welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is ready to fight in November.

Most of the bouts slated for the event will be moved to the April 21 card which will take place in Atlanta at the Philips Arena.

(If you squint, you can see Simpsons characters in their abs.)

Rory MacDonald will face a fellow up-and-coming welterweight in his adopted hometown of Montreal on March 24 when he takes on British standout Che “Beautiful” Mills at Bell Centre at UFC 145.

Sportsnet’s “Showdown” Joe Ferraro was the first to report the potential bout via Twitter and we have since confirmed the news with a source close to one of the fighters.

(One of the instances when we’d overlook the flagrant violation of Zuffa’s “business as usual” policy)

Montreal is being targeted as the site of UFC 140 on December 10 according to the UFC’s director of Canadian operations Tom Wright who revealed the news on Ringside Report Radio Wednesday night.

“We’ll do Vancouver on June 11 and then most likely we’ll be back in Montreal on December 10,” Wright said.“We know how important this market is to us and putting on great fights. [Bell Centre's]  a great venue, it’s a great fan-base, it’s a great environment. The energy in that building is as good as any building in North America. We’ll always have a soft spot for Montreal.”

(Koscheck showing the Canadian customs agent his passport.)

Well, tonight’s the night we get to see if Josh Koscheck is full of shit or if he really has improved exponentially more than UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has since the last time they met three years ago.

I find it interesting that in the UFC 124 previews the UFC is touting Kos as some kind of pugilistic wrecking machine when he has only won one fight by KO and two by TKO since 2006 and the guys he beat (Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Frank Trigg and Dustin Hazelett) aren’t exactly known for their durable chins.

If I had to make a surefire prediction for the main event bout, I’d say that Koscheck’s ego has not gotten over the fact that GSP, who didn’t even wrestle in high school, outwrestled a division one champion like him, and he will likely try to prove himself on the mat and not on the feet. 

It may have been a coincidence, but Kos’ American Kickboxing Academy teammate, Phil Baroni backed my inclination when he told us this week that the peroxided prick is a way better wrestler and that he will control the fight with his wrestling. I’m guessing that Baroni was around when the AKA coaches worked on implementing Kocheck’s game plan for the fight during training and may have included portions of it in his own prediction, kind of like his plethora of "borrowed" daily Twitter quotes he intertwines with his own personal NYBA witticisms.

Whatever the case may be, it should be interesting to see if GSP lets him execute anything before he puts his own strategy into motion.

Let’s get this thing going.

**SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP**

(Video courtesy YouTube/Bosh4ffl)

Just a friendly reminder that we will have the feed of today’s UFC 124: St-Pierre vs. Koscheck press conference from Montreal which will go live starting at 1:00 pm ET.

Will Josh Koscheck stop being a dick long enough to show an ounce of due respect to his opponent prior to their fight?

Will GSP let his guard down and tell Josh to go f*ck himself with a bottle of maple syrup?

Will Sean McCorkle attain Chael Sonnen’s title of best smack talker in the UFC?

All of these question and more will be answered this afternoon.

As always, the UFC media player is after the jump.

(Rogan was right. That DOES look like a goat’s vagina.)

It looks like Mike Pierce won’t be getting the bone he wanted the UFC to throw him for earning his third Octagon appearance last weekend at UFC 118 against Amilcar Alves.

Yesterday Pierce called out Thiago Alves via Twitter and "The Pitbull" accepted the Washington native’s challenge, however the UFC had other plans for the American Top Team fighter who will now face John Howard at UFC 124 in Montreal on December 11.

The news was first reported by MMAJunkie this afternoon and we were able to confirm with a source close to Alves.

The fight may well be Alves’ last stab at remaining at welterweight after he failed to make weight for the second time in his UFC career, this time for an important number two contendership match-up with Jon Fitch at UFC 117 last month that would determine who was next in line for a shot at the winner of the Georges St-Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck bout, which is also slated for the December 11 card.

(I’m not impressed by your eyes-closed technique.)

Josh Koscheck will definitely not have the advantage of a bipartisan crowd on his side when he squares off against Georges St-Pierre two weeks before Christmas in the UFC welterweight champion’s hometown of Montreal, Quebec at UFC 124 on December 11. 

The news was first reported today by MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, who confirmed the venue and the match-up (which will be the culmination of the pair’s season as opposite coaches on The Ultimate Fighter 12) with UFC president Dana White.

( UFC contract: $Millions,  30-day suspension: $0, Becoming a bigger heel than Josh Koscheck for sucker punching him after the bell: PRICELESS)

Paul Daley is lucky he didn’t sucker punch Josh Koscheck in Nashville.

Otherwise, he likely would have received a much heftier punishment for the May 8 infraction than the 30-day suspension the Quebec athletic commission — the Régie des Alcools des Courses et des Jeux (Regulators of Alcohol, Racing and Gaming) — sentenced him to in his absence at a hearing in the French-Canadian province today.

Sherdog’s Loretta Hunt is reporting that the suspension may not even affect the British welterweight who fought on the July 18 Impact Fighting Championships card where he submitted Daniel Acacio and who is slated to take on Jorge Masvidal at Shark Fights 13 on Sept. 11 — two days AFTER his suspension ends if it begins immediately.

(A brief glimpse of an offense. Photo courtesy of SI.com’s UFC 97 gallery.)

Since Anderson Silva doesn’t seem terribly interested in defending his UFC 97 performance against critics, and because his lack of English skills makes that difficult anyway, his manager, Ed Soares, has been doing it for him.  Soares said in a recent interview that he didn’t think Silva’s fight with Leites was “a bad fight,” and even partially blamed the UFC for putting a “one-dimensional” fighter against the champ.  He also made the case for Silva’s dominance by pointing out the lack of damage he took in the fight:

"After watching the fight on TV, I thought [Silva] fought a good fight. He didn’t finish him, but I thought he fought a good fight. Technically, I really didn’t see anything wrong with the way he fought. Who goes in there and fights five rounds with somebody and doesn’t even have a mark on his face? Not too many people can do that."

[…]

"I don’t know. People have to look at it that way instead of always thinking that Anderson is going to go in there and knock people out or submit them really quick. It just doesn’t happen sometimes."

Soares is right.  It is unrealistic to think that even Silva is going to finish everyone in spectacular fashion, especially if he’s facing an opponent who doesn’t want to engage with him.  But that’s only part of the problem. 

(A tough night in so many different ways. Photo courtesy of SI.com)

Even our supercomputer had trouble dealing with the data from a bizarre main event at UFC 97.  We had to hit it with a broomstick a couple times just to keep it chugging.  Not a great Saturday night for the UFC, but at least it’s over now.  Let’s see who’s up and who’s down.

Anderson Silva -129
Against Cote, the computer was willing to cut him some slack based on past performances.  But two lackluster showings in a row, followed by an inability or unwillingness to comprehend why fans might have been unsatisfied, that equals a big drop.  Is this the Silva we can look forward to from now on?

Thales Leites -176
You get the opportunity of your lifetime and spend most of it flopping onto your back?  We think you’re going to regret that decision.  How Leites thought this strategy might yield a victory is a real mystery.  What the UFC can do with him now is another.

(Young kid named Thales goes to jail for the first time, and gets thrown in a cell with a mean-looking dude named Anderson. Anderson says to Thales, "so do you want to be the mommy or the daddy?" Figuring he doesn’t have much choice, Thales says "the daddy." To which Anderson replies, "good, now come over here and suck mommy’s dick." True story. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

Let’s get ready to REDEEEEEEEEEM OURSELLLLLLVES! The Thunderdome has returned to Montreal’s Bell Centre, and the stakes are high. Can Anderson Silva make it a historic nine Octagon wins in a row? Who keeps their top-ten 205′er status in the Liddell/Rua fight, and who completes their dramatic flame-out? And…ah…who else is on this card again? Live round-by-round updates and commentary await you after the jump; refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest.

(Photo courtesy of this set on CombatLifestyle.com)

Spoilers after the jump…

(Yep, still painful to watch.)

Want to know how Chuck Liddell’s going to beat “Shogun” Rua at UFC 97?  Simple: keep his eyes open and avoid right hands.  That’s essentially what Olympic gold medalist boxer Howard Davis Jr., who helped train Liddell for this fight, told MMANews.com.  Davis said he spent a lot of time working with Liddell on “avoiding the right hand, slipping and blocking the right.”

That sounds almost so basic as to be stupid, but then you remember Liddell’s recent knockout losses to both Rashad Evans and “Rampage” Jackson.  The right hand counter did him in both times.  Now he’s got Davis helping him, so, problem solved?

(After he was so excited about finally meeting Kevin Federline, Chuck was extremely disappointed to find out that K-Fed had a better picture pose than he did.)

The Gambling Addiction Enabler had a somewhat rough go at Strikeforce thanks to Frank Shamrock deciding to go ahead and get old out of nowhere (okay fine, in retrospect, probably should have seen that one coming), but he managed to cut his losses by picking Scott Smith to pull off the minor upset against Benji Radach.  With underdogs proving profitable, maybe your favorite compulsive gambler will have to take a long look at some of the major ones on the UFC 97 lineup.  Maybe put down a big bet on a certain middleweight challenger who nobody thinks has a chance in hell…

Odds today come from BestFightOdds.com:

Anderson Silva (-500) vs. Thales Leites (+456)
"Shogun" Rua (+170) vs. Chuck Liddell (-172)
Brian Stann (+151) vs. Krzysztof Soszynski (-150)
Nate Quarry (+110) vs. Jason MacDonald (-110)
David Loiseau (-112) vs. Ed Herman (+110)
David Bielkheden (+240) vs. Mark Bocek (-255)
Antoni Hardonk (+275) vs. Cheick Kongo (-261)
Steve Cantwell (+265) vs. Luis Cane (-275)
Eliot Marshall (+120) vs. Vinny Magalhaes (-150)
Xavier Fouka-Pokam (+300) vs. Denis Kang (-300)
T.J. Grant (+177) vs. Ryo Chonan (-187)
Sam Stout (-125) vs. Matt Wiman (+120)

Best bets…

Thanks to your brilliant nominations, we’ve selected the 15 best spots in North America to watch MMA events with a drink in your hand. All of these places have been sent official CagePotato banners to hang during fight nights, so if you swing by and see one, pat yourself on the back, because you made that happen. So which watering holes made the cut? And are any of them *not* famous for their wings? Read on, Potato Nation.

***

HUMPERDINK’S
700 Six Flags Dr.; Arlington, Texas
Located about a half-mile from Rangers Ballpark and the soon-to-be-opened new Cowboys stadium, Humperdinks is revered by Dallas-area sports fanatics, and as long as the home teams aren’t playing, Dink’s is all about their cage-fighting. Besides the fact that every UFC event is shown and there’s never a cover, the restaurant’s main selling point is the 16 varieties of beer that are brewed on the premises, which you can actually buy kegs of to take home with you. We suggest pairing their Total Disorder Porter with a big hearty fight like Lesnar vs. Mir II, and the seasonal Raspberry Blonde with something lighter and more technical like Penn vs. Florian.
Our readers say: “The girls are always hot (it’s Texas, did you expect anything different?) and the bouncers are big enough to make you think twice about throwing that haymaker you saw on the show.” — kadumel

EL GUAPO CANTINA
7250 Melrose Ave.; Los Angeles, California
Laid back sports bars are something of a rarity in Hollywood, but lo and behold, there’s El Guapo Cantina right on Melrose, showing UFC fights for a modest five-dollar cover.  The place gets packed on fight nights, so getting there early is a good idea, and while you’re there you might as well eat a steak quesadilla.  They’ve also staffed their team of waitresses with aspiring actresses (it is Hollywood), which means that even if they can’t remember what you ordered they’re still easy on the eyes and can probably cry on cue.
Good to know: El Guapo features semi-regular beer pong tournaments.  Judging from the standings published on their website, they’re pretty serious about it too.  Consider yourself warned.

PUNCHERS SPORTS BAR
421 Third St.; Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Pretty much everything you need to know about Punchers you can learn from their signature drink – The Donkey Punch.  Beyond that, they’re friends of the local MMA scene and have largely designed this downtown bar for hosting fight-viewing parties.  There’s even a punching bag in the bar.  Things can get a little rowdy, but you better keep it level during the fights.  They don’t play around once that gladiator intro starts up.
Good to know: Every week they offer the Tuesday Triathlon, which is comprised of shuffleboard, pool, and the punching bag.  Winner gets a $100 bar tab.  Losers get sad.

According to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza’s manager, they’re planning on a fight “for the title” at Dream.9 on May 26.  Nothing is confirmed yet, Jacare’s manager told Tatame, but right now it looks like it will be a rematch between Jacare and “Mayhem” Miller for Gegard Mousasi’s vacated middleweight belt.  If true that would make for a tight turnaround for Miller, who’s slated to take on Kala Hose in Hawaii at Kingdom MMA on April 18.  Call it making up for lost time.  Or maybe he’s just assuming that it won’t take much out of him to whup on Hose in front of his Hawaiian peeps.

– As we saw earlier today, Dana White’s threats to step back from the limelight might be the slightest bit hollow, but ESPN plans to actually make him talk on video when they send their E:60 crew to Montreal for a story on his recent video blog controversy.  The piece will allegedly seek to compare White to the heads of other major sports organizations, asking what would have happened to them had they gone all nasty on a female sports reporter and her anonymous sources.  We just hope E:60 has learned from their past mistakes.  If they ask him about steroids, the interview’s over.

– Spike TV sent out another ‘in your face!’ press release today to announce that Saturday night’s replay of UFC 94 was the “#1 program among Men 18-34 in all of television (cable and broadcast) during its time period.”  The replay peaked at 2.4 million viewers for the main event and averaged 1.9 million over the three-hour broadcast, which, as Spike is kind enough to point out, bested HBO’s Winky Wright/Paul Williams bout, which drew a measly 1.5 million viewers.  What you’re wondering is, did they mention how it compared to Strikeforce’s viewership?  They did not.  But they know you’re thinking about it anyway.

– Remember the rumored bout between Mark Coleman and Stephan Bonnar?  The UFC made it official for UFC 100 today, but relegated it to the “may not be broadcast” prelims.  On one hand, that’s a hell of a place to end up after such a great career (talking about Coleman, obviously. I said great career, not one great fight).  On the other hand, if there’s one UFC card where you can feel okay about being pushed to the prelims, it’s that one.

(ESPN talks redemption with "Shogun" Rua.)

While much has been made about the ‘dazzle me or hang ‘em up’ ultimatum that Dana White issued Chuck Liddell in the press, the man across from him in the Octagon is also in an obviously dire situation.  Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is 1-1 in the UFC and has yet to look like he belongs in a light heavyweight division thick with talented fighters.  But unlike Liddell, Rua’s problem isn’t that he’s slowing down as a natural side effect of age.  Instead he seems to have lost his explosiveness while at the same time developing the cardio of a toddler.

There are two commonly offered explanations for why this happened to the man who looked like Pride’s best 205-pounder just a couple years ago.

1) Knee injuries, followed by surgeries and rehab, have left him with too little time to train hard, resulting in him fighting at far less than 100%.

2) Now fighting in the UFC and subject to actual drug tests, he has to perform without the oft-rumored pharmaceutical assistance that was said to be rampant in Pride.

(Foupa-Pokam’s most recent fight, against Kyacey Uscola at PFC 12 in January. The KO comes at the video’s 8:12 mark.)

UFC 97: Redemption goes down this Saturday in Montreal, and among the card’s horde of Brazilians, Canadians, and TUF vets are three dudes who will be looking to prove themselves in the Octagon for the first time. These are their stories…

***

BRIAN STANN (LHW)
Experience: 6-1 record primarily in the WEC, with all wins by first-round TKO. Holds victories over Aaron Stark, Steve Cantwell, and Doug Marshall.
Will be facing: Krzysztof Soszynski (16-8-1, 1-0 UFC)
Lowdown: Stann became the WEC’s light-heavyweight champion in March 2008 when he knocked out Doug Marshall at WEC 33, but lost the title in his first defense when he was TKO’d by Steve Cantwell — who Stann had defeated in a previous fight. Stann and Cantwell were supposed to have their rubber match at UFC’s "Fight for the Troops" event last December, but Stann was forced to pull out with a foot injury; Cantwell went on to snap the arm of Razak Al-Hassan then brag about it. A former Captain in the U.S. Marines and Iraq war vet, Stann was awarded the Silver Star after saving the asses of his entire 42-man platoon following an unfortunate ambush-situation near Karabilah, which was later portrayed on the History Channel show Shootout! He hails from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

XAVIER FOUPA-POKAM (MW)
Experience: 20-9 record (18 wins by stoppage in the first two rounds) with multiple appearances in Cage Rage and Palace Fighting Championship.
Will be facing: Denis Kang (31-11-1, 0-1 UFC)
Lowdown: Currently riding a seven-fight win streak, the 26-year-old Frenchman describes his Muay Thai-based style as "very violent." Professor X splits his training time between Team Quest in Temecula, California — where he acted as an Anderson Silva-mimic when Dan Henderson was preparing for his middleweight title fight against the Spider at UFC 82 — and Cyrille Diabate’s Snake Team in Paris. Before devoting his life to fighting, Foupa-Pokam was a cameraman and director’s assistant, and calls filmmaking his "second passion." He has three DQ losses on his record, due to an ill-fitting mouthpiece that kept falling out (in a fight against Martin Kampmann), an accidental groin strike, and an illegal elbow on the ground during an event where they weren’t allowed. Canada will be the twelfth country he’s competed in.

(Image courtesy of XMMA.tv)

Well at least there’s one brave, honest MMA organization left in the world that’s willing to take a chance on War Machine despite his arrests and controversial views on American politics. Canadian league XMMA is holding an event tonight in Montreal which features the fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver in the main event against Guillaume "Il Toro" de Lorenzi. De Lorenzi is a perfect 5-0 in MMA competition with all wins by TKO, the last four of which came in the first round.

Machine is actually a replacement for Phil Baroni, who pulled out of the match against "Il Toro" two weeks ago when Strikeforce acquired his contract from Pro Elite; Baroni expects to make his Strikeforce return in May. Machine — who most recently scored a first-round TKO win over David Anderson at a Desert Rage event in November — still has about ten hours to do something stupid enough to get him kicked off the show, which is like eight weeks in normal-people time. So cross your fingers for him, and if you’ll actually be buying the XMMA pay-per-view broadcast, let us know how it goes.

Related: War’s gay club brawl? Totally started by someone else.

Now that they’ve got the green light from Montreal, the UFC has released the official lineup and bout order for UFC 97: Redemption, which will go down April 18th at Montreal’s Bell Centre. The event is headlined by the middleweight championship match between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites, and the true "redemption" match between sullied superstars Chuck Liddell and Mauricio Rua. Here’s how things will be arranged:

MAIN CARD
Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites (for middleweight title)
Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio Rua (LHW)
Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brian Stann (LHW)
Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk (HW)
Steve Cantwell vs. Luis Cane (LHW)

UNDERCARD
Denis Kang vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam (MW)
Jason MacDonald vs. Nate Quarry (MW)
David Loiseau vs. Ed Herman (MW)
Mark Bocek vs. David Bielkheden (LW)
Ryo Chonan vs. TJ Grant (WW)
Sam Stout vs. Matt Wiman (LW)

It’s somewhat surprising that TUF 8 vet Krzysztof Soszynski is the only Canadian fighter on the UFC 97 main card, considering the north-of-the-border popularity of Denis Kang, Jason MacDonald, and David Loiseau; surely one of their bouts could have replaced Cane vs. Cantwell. The Montreal fans will just have to appreciate the undercard, which has a distinct "Canada vs. The World" flavor to it. Make your country proud, MacDonald and Loiseau, because Stout and Kang are pretty much dead weight at this point…

(‘Hey, cut that out!  It’s mildly annoying.’)

UFC 97 will go on as planned in Montreal in April, with only one slight alteration of the normal rules: no foot stomps.  Considering that there was some concern over whether the event would take place at all after the local commission got scared and claimed never to have really sanctioned MMA at all, this is indeed great news.  Now Anderson Silva will be free to destroy Thales Leites as planned.  And if he loses, he can always blame the altered rules for taking away a vital piece of his attack.  Not that he really uses foot stomps regularly, but it’s the threat of foot stomps that keeps opponents guessing.  Now it’s back to the drawing board for Silva.

A report from Corus Sports that is written in some indecipherable script known as “French” confirmed the news.  We have no idea what it says, but oddly enough our friends at Fightlinker are familiar with this strange tongue.  And here we thought they only knew broken English.  Looks like we owe them an apology.

There’s no word yet on what exactly the commission in Montreal found so objectionable about foot stomps while at the same time being unbothered by punches, kicks, knees and elbows, but as long as Chris Leben isn’t added to the card we’re guessing it won’t be much of an issue.  MMA, onward!

UFC 97 (April 18th, Montreal) was supposed to be a triumphant return to the city that gave the UFC its fastest-selling, most well-attended event in history. But even though last year’s UFC 83: Serra vs. St. Pierre 2 was such an overwhelming success, the Quebec Athletic Commission may block the UFC from holding future events there under traditional MMA rules. As Sportnet.ca reports:

Obviously, there’s no way the UFC would agree to such a compromised version of their product, and they’re probably looking for a backup arena somewhere else just to be safe. (Which is a bummer if you’re a Canadian UFC fan, considering 13,000 tickets to the event have already been sold.) But here’s where things go from upsetting to just plain bizarre…

 
(Props: MMA Mania)

Maybe the epic visual presentation for St. Pierre vs. Penn 2 has spoiled us, but we’re getting the sense that the UFC’s design department doesn’t really care about their upcoming Montreal show. Above is the poster image they’ve released for #97, which features old stock images of the four headliners in front of a generic cage background, surrounded by a cloud-like fog. Are these the men that are guarding the gates to MMA heaven? And what’s up with the janky-ass bubble-block lettering?

It seems significant that UFC 97 will be just the second UFC pay-per-view event since September to be identified with a word ("Redemption") rather than by the headlining matchup (i.e., "Couture vs. Lesnar," "Franklin vs. Henderson"). We’re guessing that’s because the idea of "Silva vs. Leites" headlining a card tends to bum people out. Still, "redemption" works well as a unifying theme. Liddell and Rua will be battling to rescue their careers after putting in woeful performances in their last fights, and Silva will be trying to redeem himself in the eyes of fans after his oddly restrained and anti-climactic performance against Patrick Cote in October.

Still, if it were up to us, we’d call the card "Silva and Liddell," have the two of them on the poster by themselves, and hope fans are duped into thinking that they’re fighting each other. And we’d dial back the fog machine by at least 50%.

After the jump: The latest announced and rumored matchups for UFC 97. [Updated at 12:16 p.m. PT]

(Georges St. Pierre and Firas "Take About 20 or 30 Minutes and Go Fuck Yourself" Zahabi drill some standup at Tri-Star. Photo courtesy of DayLife.com.)

From TheFightNetwork: 

Here’s my theory: GSP was so infuriated by BJ Penn’s greasing accusations, which stole so much attention from St. Pierre’s historic win, that he’s making it his life’s work to make sure Penn gets crushed by everyone else he faces in the future. It’s not like St. Pierre can completely transfer his gameplan to Florian — that would require Ken-Flo to pack on about 25 pounds of muscle and become an elite-level wrestler in a matter of months — but as he stated after the fight, GSP went into UFC 94 with certain ideas about Penn’s thoracic cage and core strength that turned out to be rather insightful. If Zahabi and GSP can work with Florian on effective ways to assault Penn’s body and pass his guard, maybe he’ll have a snowball’s chance in hell after all. As Penn mentioned on his Facebook page, he hopes to take on Kenny in June. 

(Nate Quarry [left] shows off the move that made him famous. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com.)
 
The UFC returns to Montreal on April 18th for UFC 97, headlined by the shrug-worthy title fight between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites, and the somewhat more compelling light-heavyweight battle between fading legends Chuck Liddell and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Here’s some of the supporting bouts that we’ll be seeing on the card…

— Jason MacDonald vs. Nate Quarry (MW): MacDonald is coming off a first-round submission-via-strikes loss to Wilson Gouveia at last month’s TUF 8 finale, and hasn’t been able to put together two wins in a row since 2006. Quarry became Demian Maia‘s latest strangulation victim when he succumbed to a rear-naked choke at UFC 91 in November. The win-or-get-fired threat level on this one has been raised to Orange.

— Luis Cane vs. Steve Cantwell (LHW): Though Cane was originally rumored to face Keith Jardine in his next fight, the Dean of Mean was booked to headline UFC 96 (March 7th, Columbus) instead. Cane will instead be taking on reigning WEC light-heavyweight champ Steve Cantwell, who famously snapped Razak Al-Hassan’s arm at last month’s "UFC Fight for the Troops," then gloated about it afterwards. Cane is coming off of impressive TKO victories over Jason Lambert and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, while Cantwell is on a four-fight win streak, dating back to his time in the WEC.

(Cane vs. Sokoudjou, round 2.)

According to MMABay.co.uk, UFC light-heavyweight Keith Jardine will take on Brazilian up-and-comer Luis Cane at UFC 97 (April 18th, Montreal). "The Dean of Mean" is 3-2 in his last five Octagon appearances, with big wins over Brandon Vera, Chuck Liddell, and Forrest Griffin, and big losses against Wanderlei Silva and Houston Alexander. Cane most recently beat down Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at UFC 89 in October, and scored a first-round TKO win over Jason Lambert before that at UFC 85. All of Cane’s nine victories have come via stoppage, and his only loss was due to disqualification.

Sounds like solid matchmaking to us. A win for Cane would establish him as a serious contender in the UFC’s 205-pound division, while a win for Jardine would re-build his momentum and give him back-to-back victories for the first time since 2006. Keith hasn’t fared well against aggressive strikers in the past — but then again, he’s got that nipple-tweak thing going for him, so maybe this one’s already in the bag.

At this point, no matches for UFC 97 have been officially announced, though a middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites is very likely.

(Leites smashes Pete Sell at UFC 69. Photo courtesy of miyanville.com.)

According to MMA Junkie, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and Thales Leites have verbally agreed to face each other at an April event (update: IntheGuard.tv says it’ll be UFC 97 on 4/18), though bout agreements have not been signed yet. As the story goes, the UFC is hoping to replicate the success of UFC 83 by returning to Montreal for the card, one year after "Serra vs. St. Pierre II."

This of course means that Silva won’t be headlining UFC 95 (February 21st, London), and it means that his next match won’t be one of those "superfights" that people love so much. Not taking anything away from Thales Leites, who’s obviously very talented, but does anybody believe that he’s truly the #1 contender in the UFC’s middleweight division? Though Leites is on a five-fight win streak — just like Patrick Cote was when he got his title shot — the only big name he’s beaten during his current run is Nate Marquardt, and he would have lost that fight if Marquardt didn’t have two points deducted for illegal strikes; one judge still scored the fight for Nate.

Now that Dan Henderson is (temporarily?) back at light-heavyweight, I see two guys ahead of Leites in the middleweight title picture…

(Photo courtesy of NationalPost.)

From Georges St. Pierre‘s latest blog entry for Yardbarker.com:

First I want to thank everybody for their get well wishes — I feel way better right now than I felt when I came back from L.A. It took me 3 days to recuperate and get back 100%. I didn’t take any medication — I just slept better and trained to sweat it out. After I felt better, I went to New York to see my trainer Phil Nurse and train with 4 of his students who had an upcoming fight at The Wat — Brett, Sean, Nicholas & Stan. It seems to me that every time I go to New York, those guys get better & better all the time. I also saw my old friends Eric Owing & Andre Gusmao — we went to dinner and then out together for a great night.

Then I came back in Montreal with new tricks and more tools than I had before I went to New York. It’s very important for me to help my friends and training partners when they need it because they were there for me when I prepare for my fights. When I came back to Montreal, I kept training with Patrick Cote & Denis Kang, who are both fighting on October 25th. Kang is fighting in Calgary, and Patrick Cote is fighting Anderson Silva for the UFC World Middleweight Championship. Patrick looks better than I have ever seen — even though the odds are not in his favor, I would not be surprised to see him shock the world. It would be great to have world champions in Quebec!

Georges Laraque, one of my friends who also plays for the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, gave me two tickets to go see their game Saturday night. Even though it was an off-season game, it was very fun and then after I went to see EliteXC at a friend’s house.

Gina did a nice performance and I’m glad for her because she also represents the sport very well. The main event was obviously a tough situation because Ken had to pull out because of a cut…and I have a lot of respect for Seth & Kimbo to still go out and put on the fight for the fans.

To see what GSP has to say about his latest deal with CAA Sports, training at Team Jackson, and his mentor Krystoff Midoux, read the rest of this post here.