(An artist’s depiction of what may have happened had Nick Diaz not been a complete space-case.) 

Sigh…

We can’t be the only MMA news outlet that is getting tired of Nick Diaz’s inability to accept responsibility for his actions, or at the bare minimum speak up when his inability to do so is called into question. The man is one of the most entertaining and plain intimidating fighters in the game today, yet the only thing that seems to be holding him back is this ever-present sense of adolescent rebellion. And it looks like were not the only ones sharing this frustration.

You know the story by now. After no-showing for his BJJ superfight against Braulio Estima, Diaz went back into hiding, opting to have coach Cesar Gracie do his talking for him. In an incredibly long letter, Gracie claimed that a “lack of professionalism” on Estima’s part (ie. an inability to make the required 180 lbs.) was the reason for Diaz’s decision to pull out, even though Estima claimed to have made the required weight on the morning of the fight.

This was enough to set off a “fed up” Estima, who responded to Gracies claims with his own statement that awaits you after the jump.

(Hey, a win’s a win. / Image via Brett Rogers’s wiki page.)

For chaos-loving MMA fans, getting one over on Wikipedia is a mark of honor. This UG thread reminded us of the hilarious tradition of Wikipedia-page vandalism, so we decided to scour the Internet for some of our favorite MMA-related examples; thanks to all the anonymous men and women who quickly screen-capped these gems before they were fixed. Check out our full gallery of MMA wiki edits after the jump, and if we’ve left out any good ones, shoot us some links in the comments section.

UFC welterweight Nick Diaz recently filed suit against the Nevada State Athletic Commission, asking for an injunction against their summary suspension of the fighter for his February failed drug test. Yesterday, a district court judge in Clark County denied Diaz’s request for the injunction.

Diaz’s attorney Ross Goodman previously claimed that the NSAC had breached statutes and his right to due process, arguing that the NSAC no longer had jurisdiction over his situation. Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto then tried to publicly debunk the argument. Now that Diaz’s injunction has been denied, he can appear before the NSAC in a hearing set by the athletic commission on May 21st. (Check out MMAFighting’s report for more details.)

Estima reacts to Diaz’s antics (Video: MMAFighting.com)

In a way, the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo got everything they asked for last night. When you contract Nick Diaz for a bout, you sign on for a fair amount of trials and tribulations; the Nick Diaz package extends well beyond his formidable fighting skills. The very behavior that spikes a promoter’s blood pressure draws media attention and fan speculation—added interest that may not exist were it not for the Stockton native’s puzzling behavior. It’s a trade off, a roll of the dice that you make in hopes that you get the best of both worlds–the amazing prize fighter and the polarizing figure. But there’s a problem with counting on a tortured soul unable to cope with the most mundane aspects of life: you can’t count on him.

If you haven’t gotten the sense that all did not go well for Nick Diaz’s BJJ superfight with Braulio Estima last night, let me spell it out for you: the bout didn’t happen.

The details, as far as anyone knows, are after the jump.

(Sadly, the fight between Penn and Jon Fitch was ruled a draw and the puppy was left without a home)

UFC President Dana White continues to say that future hall of famer BJ Penn will indeed return to the Octagon, despite Penn’s coyness. But Thursday, White provided more details to MMA Junkie on what weight the pound for pound great will fight at, and revealed that Penn declined a bout with Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez.

“I tried to do [Melendez vs. Penn], but it was at the time when B.J. was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not fighting for a while,’” White told Junkie.

Apparently, he didn’t say if that match up would have meant Penn going to Strikeforce or Melendez going to the UFC.

(Photo courtesy of NBC Sports)

Remember when Nick Diaz‘s legal team filed suit last week, claiming that the Nevada State Athletic Commission had acted improperly in handling his failed drug test and ensuing proceedings, and that they now no longer have jurisdiction over their client’s case? Well, the state of Nevada disagrees. After Diaz’s lawyer Ross C. Goodman referenced a “summary suspension” in their paperwork last week, Nevada’s Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto wrote Goodman to explain that, in legal terms, he doesn’t know what he’s talking ’bout. MMA Fighting has the report:

“‘No Notice of Summary Suspension was ever served on your client,’ Masto wrote. ‘In this matter, Mr. Diaz was properly served with a Notice of Hearing on Temporary Suspension and he failed to appear at the hearing. The Commission temporarily suspended Mr. Diaz’s license at the hearing. Neither Mr. Diaz nor you objected in any manner to the temporary suspension.’“

(Come at me, NSAC!)

UFC welterweight contender Nick Diaz has sued the Nevada State Athletic Commission for allegedly violating his right to due process and for alleged violations of statutory law. Diaz’s suit petitions the court to stay the summary suspension given to Diaz by the NSAC and to prohibit the NSAC from going forward with additional disciplinary proceedings.

And, oh yeah, Diaz says he is ready to fight “immediately,” should the court rule in his favor, in a sworn affidavit released by his attorney. “On February 7th, 2012, the UFC’s President publicly announced that Mr. Condit agreed to an immediate rematch against me. It is my understanding that the winner of that rematch will be offered a contest against Georges St-Pierre, the current UFC welterweight champion,” Diaz said.

Top 10 beard-for-beard MMA reporter Luke Thomas has more details, many of which will fly over your head if you’re not a law student:

(Come on brah, would you give up this life to wrestle with a bunch of fence holders? | Photo via FIGHT!)

My good friend Karyn Bryant, host of MMA Heat, recently interviewed former welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn and asked him if he was still retired. Penn said he was grateful for the attention but that he doesn’t intend to fight right now.

“At the moment, I don’t have any plans to fight,” Penn said. “I have nothing scheduled, I’m just kind of taking it easy at this point in my life. As of right now, yeah, I’m not entering the Octagon anytime soon.”

Penn says that losing to Nick Diaz last fall was not the only reason he decided to stop competing. “The fight was a tough fight but I don’t think it was just that fight. I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” he said.

Bryant revealed to Penn that she had spoken to his boxing coach Jason Parillo, and that Parillo said he recently held pads for BJ. So why would Penn be hitting pads if he was retired?

(OK Nate, once the ballad starts, you’re gonna grab her hips and just kinda sway like this…)

Perhaps you recall that Jiu-Jitsu superfight Nick Diaz was scheduled to participate in while stepping out for a smoke break from his UFC career. It was to be held at the first annual World Jiu-Jitsu Expo in Long Beach, California on May 12th, against an opponent TBD. Though we had no clue as to who this “TBD” fellow would turn out to be, we already assumed that the match would be rife with Stockton Heybuddies, relentless taunting, and at least one insistence by Diaz that they both “stand up and settle this like men.”

How wrong we were, because it turns out that Diaz will be too busy trying not to get submitted to do much trash talking, as his opponent was announced earlier this morning, and it’s Braulio f*cking Estima. That’s 2009 ADCC double gold medalist, three time European champion, three time CBJJ champion, and five time Pan American champion Braulio Estima. If you consider yourself a fan of the ground game and live withing driving distance of Long Beach, you best be in attendance for this one.

Though Diaz earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Cesar Gracie back in 2007, you gotta imagine he’ll be the underdog heading into this one, as Estima’s list of BJJ credentials ranks him among the legends of the sport. The fact that Estima also took home a Superfight Championship at last year’s ADCC trials by defeating former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo Souza only furthers this theory.

Familiarize yourself with Estima’s skills after the jump. 

(“From now on, all preliminary card fighters will be required to slam four shots of tequila before the start of each round.”)

After a one-week resting period, the CagePotato Roundtable is back up in that ass with another spirited debate. Today’s topic is “If you could make one change to the Unified Rules of MMA, what would it be?” Sitting in this week is Potato Nation comment-section all-star Nathan Smith (aka The12ozCurls) — and since it’s his first time, we’ll make the new guy go first. If you have a topic-suggestion for a future Roundtable column, please send it to tips@cagepotato.com, and shoot us your own MMA rule-change suggestions in the comments section…

Nathan “The12OzCurls” Smith
One of the reasons we love the sport of MMA is the absolute reality that a fight can end in the blink of an eye. We have all held off taking a leak or grabbing another beer until the end of a round because we all know that in the 30-90 seconds that we step away from the screen, the fight could be over. It has happened to all of us. You figure the last minute of the round is going to be uneventful just like the four minutes prior. You get up to snag another High Life and then you hear the collective “OOOOOHHHHHHHHH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” from the roomful of friends that have gathered in your man-cave garage to watch the latest UFC.

So I ask: How could it get better? Answer: By adding another way to win a fight in the blink of an eye, that is more painful than a Paul Harris ankle lock and more powerful than a 2005 Iceman overhand right.

I would change the rule that states that it is illegal to “intentionally throw your opponent out of the cage/ring.” Now let me preface this by saying it has to be a cage because pushing somebody over the top rope is for guys like Brock and Hillbilly Jim. Not only would I make chucking your opponent out of the Octagon legal, I would propose that you automatically win if you are able to successfully achieve that feat.

(Props: 2000dwrecked, via IronForgesIron and MiddleEasy)

Look, we appreciate this guy’s passion. And sure, we’ve seen worse MMA-fan tattoos. I’m just saying, think of how this ink-piece might appear to the vast majority of humanity who isn’t aware of Nick Diaz’s legendary gogoplata victory over Takanori Gomi at PRIDE 33. To them, it just looks like one dude in shorts blowing another dude on his back, and it’s right there on your chest, forever. Wouldn’t a cool t-shirt have been a wiser choice? At least that way you can take it off when you discover someone else to idolize in five years.

Have I just grown too cynical? Is this Nick Diaz tattoo not the most regrettable thing you’ve seen all week?

(Wait, now I’m fighting who?) 

Maybe it’s because we’ve been burned many, many times before, but we’re not exactly sold on Dana White’s recent claims that the upcoming TUF 15 Finale headlining match between Martin Kampmann and Jake Ellenberger will be for the next title shot. You see, “number one contender” is a term that is so loosely used and abused by the Zuffa brass these days that it might as well be Rampage Jackson.

But be that as it may, a press release sent out by the UFC this morning, quoting the almighty DW nonetheless, has stated that the victor of Kampmann/Ellenberger will indeed get the winner of Condit/GSP, whenever the hell that happens:

The welterweight division is stacked and Jake Ellenberger and Martin Kampmann are going to fight for the chance to earn a title shot. They will headline the season finale of TUF Live on FX to crown the next Ultimate Fighter. There’s a lot at stake for the guys competing on this card at the Palms.

You see how they did that? “For the chance to earn a title shot,” is about as brilliant a non-commitment as we’ve ever seen. Dan Henderson would be impressed by such a classic Dana White misdirection, and would undoubtedly have a better response than the one you are about to read. But if you feel tricked, hoodwinked, or even bamboozled by such a statement, then you’re not alone. We’re not going to take it anymore, and are calling shenanigans on this right now before things get out of hand. Here’s why.

(Don’t play that shit around Senator Harry Reid. This is the man who *invented* invisible lat syndrome.)

As the editor of an MMA website, I’m constantly bombarded with images of tattooed skinheads engaged in gay foreplay. And yet, there are times when I’m faced with an image that even makes me uncomfortable. Check out 25 of the most chillingly awkward MMA photos in the gallery after the jump, laugh nervously, then avert your eyes in shame…

(Props: Amazon.com, via CP reader “joe sons balls,” who claims that he randomly came upon one of Phil Baroni‘s old fetish-modeling gigs while searching for XTC t-shirts. Sure, buddy. Your secret’s safe with us.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere…

- Sean Sherk Planning UFC Return in 2012, But Won’t Fight ‘Some Chump Who Needs Some Fame’ (MMA Mania)

- Report: UFC Beginning to Target Consumers in Online Piracy War (MMA Convert)

- Pat Curran Talks Title Win Over Joe Warren at Bellator 60 (The Fight Nerd)

- Trouble Already Brewing on Set of TUF 15 (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Nick Diaz Might Be Retired From MMA, But His Career as a Ninja Has Just Begun (MiddleEasy)

- Jon Jones Wants Anderson Silva as a “Mentor,” Not an Opponent (Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com)

- Odds Stacked Against Frank Mir at UFC 146 (5th Round)

- Cesar Gracie Wants Penn or Pettis for Gilbert Melendez’s Next Fight (FightLine)

- Tim Sylvia Deserves Another Shot in the UFC (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- UFC Threatens Lawsuit Against Oklahoma (MMA Payout)

- Testosterone Capitulation: The UFC, Rampage, & Fighters Only (Fight Opinion)

(“When people started asking me if I was going to fight someone other than Georges, I was like…”)

(“…and then I was like…”)

UFC interim welterweight champ Carlos Condit made a stop by HDNet’s Inside MMA last night and revealed his intention to wait on his Team Jackson stablemate Georges St-Pierre to return from knee surgery, instead of taking a bout in the interim.

“The bottom line is, I have my heart set on fighting Georges St-Pierre. If George is back this year, even if it’s…later…even if it’s November, which is what’s being thrown out there, I’m waiting for Georges and that would be my next opponent,” Condit told hosts Bas Rutten and Kenny Rice. If, perhaps he’s not ready to fight this year — not ready to fight until 2013, I will entertain the idea of taking on somebody else.”

Some will complain that he should be rematching Nick Diaz, but unless the Stockton native comes out of the other side of his suspension appeal in Nevada without any sanctions against him, he likely won’t be fighting any time this year.

(In Stockton, even the superheroes are on drugs.) 

Considering that Nick Diaz has stated he is done fighting MMA, a notion that his own brother believes he will hold true to, perhaps this news is ultimately a moot point. Regardless, after Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites following his unanimous decision loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143, he was handed a one year suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, probably to give him some time to think about this whole retirement issue.

Well if Diaz’s lawyer, Ross Goodman, has his way, Diaz could have the option to return to MMA sooner than he thinks, should he decide to. Yes, it appears Goodman filed a response challenging the commission’s ruling yesterday, claiming that since Diaz tested positive for “marijuana metabolites” and not marijuana, he should therefore be exempt from any punishment, as marijuana metabolites are not on the NSAC’s list of banned substances: Here’s what he told ESPN.com in a recent interview:

Marijuana is the only substance that is prohibited; not marijuana metabolites. The basis to discipline Mr. Diaz is that he tested positive for a prohibited substance. We know he didn’t test positive for marijuana. So, you look to see at WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] whether marijuana metabolites are prohibited. They do not prohibit it in any category. You have to test positive for marijuana, as opposed to this inactive ingredient Nick did.

If there’s nothing in the rules prohibiting marijuana metabolites, why are we here?

(Shirtless Saturdays just aren’t going to be the same around the gym without Nick.)

MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani caught up with UFC on Fox 3 headliner Nate Diaz today at the press conference today in New York for the New Jersey event and the lightweight contender revealed that he thinks his brother Nick’s days in the Octagon are over.

“Triathlon season is starting so he’s just training, getting in shape for that. [He's] concentrating on being in shape, being healthy, helping me out and coaching me for my fights. Right now, I don’t think [we'll ever see him back]. He’s just big on, like I said, just being healthy and staying in shape and not worrying about [fighting] and thinking about it. I think he’s retired. He hasn’t been into this whole fighting thing for some time, you know? Since everything that goes on with the funny wins and losses — for not just him — for me and for people on our team. I think he’s just relaxed right now and he’s pretty set on his retirement. I kind of agree with him, you know? It’s hard to say, especially when it’s somebody like my brother,” Nate explained.

Check out the video and the rest of what Nate had to say about the situation after the jump.

(Then again, when you’re married to this chick, every day is kind of a celebration.) 

Residents of Albuquerque, rejoice! It seems Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry has officially declared this day to be “Carlos Condit Day” in honor of the newly crowned interim Welterweight Champion. Condit was presented a special ceremony at Greg Jackson’s MMA Gym this afternoon, which consisted of re-watching the Condit/Diaz fight on a 4 hour loop and playing a real life version of Wooly Willy using Greg Jackson and some pencil shavings. A great day indeed.

Since we don’t really need an excuse to celebrate (re: drink) around here, we’d like to spread word of this holiday until we are eventually allowed to use it as an excuse for missing work. You know, like we’re trying to do with Steak and Blowjob Day, Festivus, and Leif Erikson Day. Anyway, join us after the jump for a look back at some of “The Natural Born Killer’s” greatest moments, brought to you in the ever convenient forms of GIF and video. We won’t be able to celebrate this day again until 2016, so get you party hats on.

(Video courtesy of Sapo/IronForgesIron)

Nick Diaz has been out of the public eye since his close UFC 143 loss to Carlos Condit and subsequent announcement by the Nevada State Athletic Commission that he had tested positive for marijuana metabolites, so when we heard he was going to break his silence on SPIKE’s new MMA Uncensored show last night, we tuned in to hear what he had to say.

Unfortunately we were disappointed since he did not address the positive test or retirement and really didn’t say much about the Condit fight except that he thinks the judges in the sport choose their favorites to win and that he still feels he won the fight.

“Well, I never said anything about pursuing boxing. I [haven't] really said much about anything about what I’m gonna be doing in the future. I’ve had what feels like a week or so to think about any of this, but I haven’t really put much thought into it, ” he explained. “It just feels good to get some workouts in and just try to act normal, I guess.”

(“Tell me you aren’t going to miss this shit, bro.”)

Our friends at Kimura.se caught up with Jake Shields ahead of his UFC 144 fight with Yoshihiro Akiyama Saturday in Japan and they asked the Team Cesar Gracie fighter whether or not he thinks his teammate Nick Diaz will follow through on his plan to retire.

(Bas Rutten‘s infamous Swedish bar-fight story gets animated, via klawiterstudios)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere…

- Takanori Gomi Thinks UFC 144 Will Help Reignite Japanese MMA (MMA Fighting)

- Bart Palaszewski: First Hatsu Hioki, Then Jose Aldo (Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com)

- Benson Henderson Focused on Frankie Edgar, but Has Anthony Pettis in Sight (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson Will Have Special Cheering Section at UFC 144 (5th Round)

- UFC’s Sean Loeffler Recounts Wild Redneck MMA Fight From the Early Days of His Career (MMA Mania)

- Fighters Sound Off on the Enigma That Is Nick Diaz (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Japanese MMA Scene Primer: The Shooto Edition (MMA Convert)

- Five Questions to Look at Heading Into the UFC Japan 2012 Event (Fight Opinion)

- Shannon Lee Talks “I Am Bruce Lee” Documentary (The Fight Nerd)

- Jacob Volkmann-Paul Sass Planned For UFC 146 (FightLine)

- The Joe Lozito Story (MiddleEasy)

- Can Boxing Make a Comeback? (MMA Payout)

You know the deal by now, Potato Nation. Dana White’s first video blog for UFC 144 takes a look back at the aftermath of UFC 143, as has become the norm. So we’re going to skip the fancy introduction and get right into it.

(1:43) -  Matt Riddle has to be one of the nicest guys in the UFC, bar none. Talk about a guy that loves his job. And a metaphorical fist bump is due to Henry Martinez for putting on a hell of a fight on such short notice. DW states that he originally thought this match-up was “the worst mismatch in UFC History.” How quickly we all forgot Silva/Leites.

(2:36) - Poor Edwin Figueroa‘s testicles.

(2:44) - Apparently Bruce Leroy kicked Figueroa so hard in the balls that he forgot how many times he kicked Figueroa in the balls. Irony? Either way, we agree that a two point deduction seemed a little harsh. Then again, Caceres likely destroyed any of Figueroa’s future plans to have children, so we’ll call it even.

By Elias Cepeda

(“Where I come from, asking a guy if he’s on drugs will get you slapped, homie.”)

UFC welterweight Nick Diaz and his most recent positive test for marijuana after competing against Carlos Condit at UFC 143 in Las Vegas, may present Nevada with a first of its kind disciplinary situation, according to Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) Executive Director Keith Kizer.  Diaz is a resident of California, where medical marijuana has been legal since 2003, and the fighter has said that he has been prescribed marijuana by doctors to treat psychological issues.

(Under Stockton rules, fights are judged by who moved forward the whole fight and the winner is the fighter who takes his opponent’s back in the final minutes of the bout.)

Shortly after the main event between Jake Ellenberger ended last night at UFC on FUEL, Nick Diaz took to his Twitter account to post a rare pair of tweets about the fight.

According to Nick, even though pretty much everyone else who saw the fight agreed that “The Juggernaut” took the decision, he believes that Diego “The Exorcist” won the fight. I guess Nick missed the counter-punching clinic that Jake put on, or maybe he’s still sore that he lost the fight to Condit even though he was the one moving forward like a Sherman tank the whole fight and in spite of the fact that Carlos landed more. Whatever his reasoning was, it’s unlikely that he’ll be called upon by NSAC or CSAC to fill in scorecards for them any time soon.

(I may not know how to buy a house, but if you give me fifteen minutes I WILL make a four percolator bong out of this.) 

Man, the UFC marketing department intern in charge of Lorenzo Fertitta’s Twitter account must be working overtime these past few days. Aside from announcing the Mir/Velasquez, Griffin/Ortiz, and Overeem/JDS fights last night, “Lorenzo” recently held a Twitter Q & A session to set the record straight on this whole Nick Diaz/Puff the Magic Dragon thing. And even if Diaz is planning to retire, his contract with the UFC will remain. You know, just in case he gets the sudden desire to fight B.J. Penn, Karo Parisyan, or Joe Riggs again in some small promotion somewhere.

When asked about Diaz’s Zuffa future, Fertitta was quick to respond, “[I] really like the kid [he] just needs to get it together. I’m a sap for real fighters.” We know, Lorenzo.

We don’t want you to argue about whether or not marijuana should be considered a banned substance, or illegal for that matter, because we already have. Needless to say, if anyone out there actually thinks weed enhances anything but zombie mode on Call of Duty and the enjoyment of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, then they are clearly unfamiliar with the term “enhance.” What we are interested in is what kind of punishment you think Diaz should receive for violating a rule, as silly as it may be. Three months? Six months? A year? Well, barring a successful appeal, which, come on, it’s looking like it will be a year or more before we see Diaz in the octagon, if at all.

Perhaps even more hilarious than the predicament Diaz has put himself in was how the MMA community responded to his failed drug test. Check out some of the best tweets, compiled by MMAFighting.com, after the jump.

By Mike Russell

We know the suspense has been killing you, so we’re just going to break it to you.

Apparently Nick Diaz partook in the stick icky a little too close to his UFC 143 welterweight interim title bout with Carlos Condit as the Nevada State Athletic Commission has announced this afternoon that the Stockton native’s post-fight urinalysis came back positive for marijuana metabolites.

According to NSAC executive director Keith Kizer, 18 of the 22 fighters who competed on Saturday night’s card were tested and only Diaz yielded a positive result.

Carlos Condit, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Koscheck, Renan Barao, Ed Herman, Dustin Poirier, Max Hollaway, Matt Riddle, Henry Martinez, Edwin Figueroa, Alex Caceres, Matt Brown, Chris Cope, Rafael Natal, Michael Kuiper, Stephen Thompson and Dan Stittgen were also tested.

(Maybe this is why the Condit fight ain’t happening?)

According to Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer, an unnamed fighter that competed on Saturday night’s UFC 143 card in Las Vegas had a drug test come back positive for an unspecified substance.

Here’s Kizer’s quote from an email we received today:

“Thank you for the many email and phone calls.  I am still waiting for all the steroid and drug test results to come back.  We did have at least one positive test.  I will send out an email later today on that matter.”

(I got you now you son of a…wait, where’d you go?) 

A great man once said that if you tweet it, they will come. Yes it seems that after days of tireless bitching reasonable pleas, we will in fact be treated to a Carlos Condit/Nick Diaz rematch in the near future. DW broke the news yesterday via his Twitter (go figure):

By Elias Cepeda

(‘The Mazz’ making sure things don’t get started before the bell Saturday night.)

With all the talk of how the judges scored last weekend’s UFC 143 main event between Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz, CagePotato thought it would be interesting to shift the focus and speak with the man charged with mediating the fight – referee Steve Mazzagatti. In this exclusive conversation, the veteran top ref and occasional owner of one of the best mustaches in all of MMA, talks about Dana White’s hate for him, bitch slaps, shit talking and much more.

(How can you say no to that face?) 

Aside from its placement atop nearly every MMA fan’s “Favorite Fights” list, Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin‘s war at the first TUF Finale is widely considered to be the fight responsible for popularizing MMA into the near mainstream sport it is today. Well, believe it or not, that fight almost didn’t happen on account of Bonnar’s uncontrollable desire for bottom shelf alcohol, specifically, Mad Dog. Although Bonnar has told this story with a slightly different spin before, Dana White recently discussed the craziness that was the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, and how Bonnar almost got himself kicked off the show:

The first season of the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ was the longest season we’ve ever done. It was something like 8 weeks and those guys were losing their (expletive) minds. I almost kicked (Stephan) Bonnar off the show. 

Bonnar turned the shower on, climbed out the window and went to find a liquor store. Remember we took all the liquor out after that big fight? These idiots…we had been driving these guys around for six or seven weeks and the house is in the middle of nowhere. There was no liquor store near there. The guy was walking around for an hour and thirty minutes. So much crazy (expletive) happened that first season. Imagine if I had kicked off him off the show for going to a liquor store? Forrest (Griffin) and Stephan would have never happened. 

No Dana, we would not like to imagine a world in which Griffin/Bonnar never existed. We’d rather imagine one in which Motley Crue serenades our lovemaking sessions with Adriana Lima, thank you very much.