Okay…my name is Tito Ortiz…my name is Tito Ortiz…*clears throat* “Good afterday. My name is Ito Tortiz.”

If you’re unfamiliar with our “Unsupportable Opinion/Counterpoint” columns, they’re our attempts at taking an issue that most MMA fans are in agreement on and arguing for the other side, even if we don’t necessarily believe anything we’re writing. Sometimes, they’re actually right. Hell, sometimes they’re downright prophetic. Usually, they’re even more wrong than we imagined. Regardless, they’re usually just a way to argue against popular opinion, so try not to call me too many mean names over this column, okay? I’m sensitive, you guys.

Anyways, the general consensus on the latest attempt at public speaking by Tito Ortiz – the press conference he held to announce that Cyborg had signed with Invicta FC – is that it ended predictably. He did fairly well until the part where he had to open his mouth, and then…tragedy.

Video is After the Jump

(We hate to admit when Bisping is right, but we’re suddenly more interested in this fight than those little flyweights.) 

After that old man Dan Henderson ruined our chances of seeing Jon Jones fight someone at least in his weight class at the time at UFC 151, another old man/lion hybrid stepped up when nobody else would, resulting in a much better card and a much needed break heading into this weekend’s UFC 152 event.

And now that you’ve all sufficiently recharged your batteries and disposed of the last of your paychecks, check out a full video of the UFC 152 pre-fight press conference after the jump. As you can see, the staredown between Michael Bisping and Brian Stann gets pretty gosh darn intense for a couple men in three thousand dollar suits. Meanwhile, it appears that Jones has apparently stolen Dave Herman’s beard in an attempt to hide his chin from the dynamite hands of Vitor Belfort. Very clever, Greg. Very clever.

Full video after the jump. 

(One of these guys will likely get the winner of Showtime-Bendo II)

The UFC held a press conference in New York City today for the May 5 UFC on Fox 3 show, which we would have covered live, had they not rejected our credential application AGAIN. Thankfully we still have access to these things via YouTube.

Probably the most interesting tidbit to come out of the event was Dana White’s assertion that the winner of the Jim Miller-Nate Diaz bout would likely be the next in line for a title shot after Anthony Pettis.

It makes sense, even though Nate is only 2-0 in his current run as a lightweight and Jim lost his last bout against Ben Henderson. When you look at the fact that Diaz beat Melvin Guillard and Donald Cerrone as a lightweight, has only lost to Gray Maynard, Clay Guida and Joe Stevenson in the Octagon at 155 and he has never been finished and that prior to losing to the current champ, Miller had only ever been defeated by Frankie Edgar and Maynard, it makes sense.

Really, besides giving Edgar another shot — which he really should have to earn, considering he lost fair and square to Henderson — who else deserves a crack at the belt?

Tickets for the May 5 event, that takes place in New Jersey at the Izod Center, go on sale tomorrow.

Check out the full vid of the presser after the jump.

After the fight, Dereck Chisora brawled with David Haye. Props: IronForgesIron.com

By Steve Silverman

It’s fairly clear that Vitali Klitschko’s reign as heavyweight champion has not been respected by all of his opponents. Prior to his unanimous 12-round decision over Dereck Chisora Saturday, the challenger made news by slapping Klitschko across the face at the weigh-in a day before the fight.

Imagine the nerve of Chisora, smacking the champion across the face as if he was a child of the 1960s getting disciplined by his father. (Nowadays, that would never happen because if you slap your own kid across the face the police get called in and I’m not kidding.)

Klitschko (44-2) could not wait to get into the ring against Chisora and teach him a lesson for his disrespect. He pretty much did just that, setting a tone in the opening round by cutting Chisora’s lip. The bout was fairly even for the next three rounds, but then Klitschko started to pound Chisora with a constant one-fisted attack.

That one fist was Klitschko’s right hand because Klitschko claimed that he injured his left hand during the early portion of the fight. Klitschko’s strong right hand was good enough to get him the victory and allow him to retain his World Boxing Council championship.

However, even though Chisora (15-3) lost he gave a fairly good account of himself during the fight. He had several rallies where he would respond to Klitschko’s punches with his own flurries. He appeared to hurt the champion from time to time, but not enough to put the results of the fight in doubt.

(UFC on Fox 2: Evil Twins.)

Just a friendly reminder that you can watch the Chael Sonnen Show UFC on Fox: Evans vs. Davis pre-fight press conference live right here starting at 2:00 pm ET sharp.

The smack talk between Sonnen and Bisping will likely be taken to the next level when the two of them are seated within ten feet of each other, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

Let us know your picks for Saturday night in the comment section while we wait for this thing to start.

The video feed is after the jump.

Just a friendly reminder that we’ll have the UFC 140 pre-fight press conference stream here starting at 1:00 pm ET. At the event, which will take place at the Toronto International Film Festival Lightbox,  will be main card participants Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida, Antonio Rodrigio Nogueira, Frank Mir, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Tito Ortiz.

Will Tito keep shoving his self-invented, “The People’s Champion” moniker down everyone’s throats?

Will Frank Mir tell everyone how much better he is than the Nogueiras?

Wil Jon Jones explain why he will always be the betting favorite in his future fights?

Will anyone ask Lyoto about drinking piss?

Will Lil’ Nog be asked any questions?

All of these questions and more will be answered after the jump at 1:00.

Just a friendly reminder that the pre-UFC 139 presser starts at 4:00 pm ET today, and as usual we will have the live video feed for you here.

Just a friendly reminder that we’ll be streaming the UFC on Fox 1 pre-fight presser starting at 4:00 pm ET, so grab somJagerbombs and get in here. Wait, your boss lets you do shots on Wednesday afternoons, right?

Ok. Just checking. We thought maybe we were the only ones.

Video stream is after the jump.

(Stream courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Just a friendly reminder that we will have the live stream of today’s UFC 137 pre-fight presser for you right here starting at 4:00 pm ET.

If you’re at home today or somewhere your boss won’t catch you getting shit-faced, we’ve created a little drinking game for you to enjoy it a bit more.

Check it out after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Just a friendly reminder that the UFC will be holding a press conference in Toronto today at the Air Canada — the site of UFC 140 in December — and we will have the live feed for you right here starting at 1:00 pm ET.

Just a reminder that we will have the stream of the UFC 124 post-fight presser here after tonight’s event. It should be live around 1:00 am ET, but check in after the broadcast ends as it may start a few minutes early.

Will Koscheck get Tito next?

Will GSP fight Jake Shields in Toronto in March?

Will the UFC finally match up Thiago Alves with Dan Hardy?

Did Dana try poutine?

All of these questions and more will be answered 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.

Will "Rampage" finally pull out the "stank piss breff" joke he’s been dying to use on Machida?

Will Lyoto praise Steven Seagal for bringing back the old "Dragon?"

Has BJ Penn given up conventional training and gone back to carrying rocks under water and diving off of cliffs?

Will Matt Hughes ever be humble?

These questions and more will be answered within the hour as the UFC 123 pre-fight presser from Auburn Hills, Michigan hits the web via the UFC streaming web player after the jump.

("You want the winner of Koscheck-GSP?")

Here’s another story that illustrates why the Potato Nation is awesome.

Jason Wright (or J-Dog as he is known around these parts) contacted us about a month ago to see if we needed a photographer to cover UFC 119 for us. Since CagePotato had never been credentialed, we figured with the success of our UFC Fan Expo booth (which was due largely to the help of CP’ers ReX13 and Viva Hate) now is as good a time as any to apply.

(Video courtesy YouTube/ddevilMMA)

Thursdays are like the red-headed stepchild of the work week.

Mondays are a write-off. Everyone says they hate them, yet most of us can’t wait to get to work on Monday to tell everyone what we did or to talk about the fights that happened on the weekend. I guess you can say they’re like Josh Koscheck.

Tuesdays are kind of like Matt Wiman. We can take them or leave them, they put in decent performances, but nobody really looks forward to them.

Wednesday is "Hump Day" — you know, middle of the road not quite Monday, not quite Saturday, but a hell of a lot of fun — kind of like Joe Stevenson.

Fridays are gimmes. Who ever really works hard on "the third day of the weekend"? They’re like Fedor. You know they’re going to be full of win, but you don’t ever really think about it because nothing ever changes.

But what does Thursday have going for it?  Not much.

So in honor of the Jason Thacker of the work week, here is something to help you make it through to Fedor-day.

More vids after the jump.

Some decent fights tonight. I’m guessing we’ve seen the last of "The Crow" and "The Iceman" and we’ll be seeing a lot more of Rich Franklin (once his arm heals) Rory MacDonald, Martin Kampmann, Carlos Condit and Claude Patrick.

I’m thinking Cro Cop UFC career may be close to its expiry date considering he is on the last fight of his contract and he carries an exorbitant price tag, but you never know.

Check out the post-fight presser after the jump. It should start around 1:30am ET.

("Your mama’s so big, I had to walk three blocks and turn left to get on her good side")

Just a friendly reminder that we will be streaming the UFC 114 presser here today at 4:00 ET. Should be more of the same Rampage and Rashad bickering like an old married couple, insulting each other’s mamas and chins.

Video player after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

So, I attended the UFC press conference in Toronto yesterday and I had a brief chance to interview UFC president Dana White and his company’s new director of Canadian operations, Tom Wright.

During my interview with White, I had him cracking up with a few Photoshops I brought along and asked him to identify the names of ten famous Ontarians depicted in a photo collage. He got all but one correct: Neil Young, but in his defense, it was a trick question as Young was born in Manitoba and grew up in Ontario.

Remember to check out the live post-fight presser here at around 1:00am EST. The player is after the jump. 

Fedor vs. Rogers post-event press conference – Watch more Funny Videos

Here’s some footage I took at the Strikeforce post-event presser on Saturday night, which all the main event fighters showed up for. You’ve already heard what Fedor had to say, but check out the reactions from everybody else…

— Fabricio Werdum says he’s earned a shot at Fedor, who Werdum believes is the best fighter in the world. After a week of rest, he’ll be back to training hard.

— Gegard Mousasi says people underestimated Sokoudjou, and called the fight a learning experience.

— Jason Miller blames himself for not capitalizing on the chances he had in his fight against Jake Shields, and for not training his wrestling enough; he was not expecting a "grapplefest."

— Shields still thinks that his best weight is welterweight. Scott Coker would like to put him against Marius Zaromskis or Hayato Sakurai at 170.

— Shields thinks Cung Le is avoiding him. "That’s why he vacated the belt, obviously, and fights a month later."

(Post-fight presser footage, via Versus.com)

Anderson Silva seems to be getting too used to disappointing fans.  Check the look on his face when a reporter takes him to task for not doing more to try and finish Thales Leites.  He seems more bored than anything else.  His manager and Chuck Liddell both get angry for him, but it’s as if Silva himself can’t be bothered with it.

Dana White will continue to defend Silva’s status as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter, and he has a lot of good points, particularly about Fedor being “at a buffet in Russia,” and not at all interested in proving himself against the best in the world.  But at the same time, if the world’s best fighter can’t entertain anybody but himself, what’s the point?  

This is the second straight time Silva has left us bored and confused with his performance.  He’s so concerned with fighting a “perfect” fight, he doesn’t care whether anyone actually wants to see it.  That’s a problem.  The UFC set a North American attendance record with 21,451 people packed into the Bell Centre last night, and yet the organization’s best fighter may have spent five rounds proving to the audience in the venue and at home that he isn’t concerned in the least with giving them their money’s worth.

(‘You…just ruined my vacation, Frank Mir.’)

Despite the heat generated by the post-fight face-off between "Rampage" Jackson and Rashad Evans, the proposed title bout for UFC 98 in May isn’t guaranteed just yet.  Dana White was upfront about the possibility that injury or simple fatigue could keep Jackson out of the fight, in which case Lyoto Machida would get the title shot.

Injuries or not, Rampage didn’t exactly sound thrilled about fighting again in just a little over two months.

"I want my belt back, but I got to talk to manager and talk some things though.  Then I’ll tell Dana what’s up," he said.

(Oscar, his life partner Tito, and their mentally-challenged adopted son Fedor. Mad props: MMA Mania.)

Earlier today in New York, Affliction held a press conference featuring Fedor Emelianenko, Oscar De La Hoya, Tito Ortiz, Donald Trump, Tom Atencio, and Vadim Finkelchtein. (I totally would have been there if not for the fact that something completely historic was happening at the same time; awesome scheduling as always, guys.) All the star power in the room was unfortunately upstaged by Fedor’s horizontally-striped pastel-hued Ultimate Sweater, which probably made De La Hoya and Ortiz very self-conscious about their boring tailored suits. When asked about his sweater, Emelianenko replied, "you dress for job you want, not for job you have."

Just kidding. But according to this Sherdog recap of the presser, here’s what actually went down:

— De La Hoya called MMA’s progress “incredible” and said he expected his company’s success in boxing to follow in MMA through working with Affliction. 

— Affliction VP Tom Atencio said he plans to promote four MMA events per year with Golden Boy. On the UFC’s counter-programming tactics, he said: "They’re going to do what they have to do to make sure that they’re the only game in town. With the organization that we have and the partners we have, I just don’t see that happening."

— "Day of Reckoning" color-man Tito Ortiz said he looked forward to “possibly” fighting for Affliction. 

— Fedor Emelianenko explained that prior to his World Sambo Championships loss in November, he wasn’t as prepared as he should have been, but he’s "fully motivated" for Arlovski. Regarding Arlovski’s much-publicized training with Freddie Roach and Roach’s criticism of Emelianenko’s boxing technique, Emelianenko said, "I never claimed that I had the best boxing technique in the world…[Roach] has trained a lot of great fighters and maybe he’s right, but we’ll see what happens in the ring. We’ll see what Andrei has to offer. We’ll see what I have to offer him.”

After the jump: M-1 Vice President Jerry "Gary" Millen completely bites Dana White’s style with his own video blog, which covers yesterday’s press engagements. What Fedor is wearing at the 4:42 mark may shock you.

If big, beaming smiles were an indicator of mental health, then Dana White’s latest video blog stands as proof that Quinton Jackson is fully recovered and ready to rock. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. In this clip, DW checks in with UFC 92′s marquee fighters before a press conference on Monday, including Rashad Evans, who is apparently dressing for the job he wants rather than the job he has. We also learn that Dana can never sleep in Japan ("oh, fuck no"), ‘Page and Wandy find endless amusement in bodybuilder underwear, and Brock Lesnar still can’t deal with modern technology. Later, Dana shows off some of his totally sweet Christmas gifts, introduces us to Arianny Celeste’s sister (!), and has his bald head markered up by a mischievous Lorenzo Fertitta. But don’t worry: He gets his revenge by electrocuting an underling. Merry Christmas!

After the jump: Highlights from the aforementioned press conference, courtesy of ESPN.

(Lesnar: title belt, stitches, and all. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Dana White and the cast of fighters from UFC 91 were surprisingly forthcoming at the post-fight press conference on Saturday night, with one exception. Near the end of the Q & A session, a reporter asked Brock Lesnar what the essential differences were between being a UFC employee and a WWE one, from a business standpoint.

“Don’t answer that question,” White said to his new heavyweight champ, only half-jokingly. Lesnar said he wouldn’t. It got a laugh. Seems like these two are going to get along just fine. When someone brought up the possible Kimbo Slice-Brock Lesnar comparison, based more on the number of pro fights each man had than the quality, White was quick to shoot it down.

“It drove me crazy when people would compare him to Kimbo Slice. If I had hair I’d pull it out. He’s far from Kimbo Slice.”

“I don’t even know that guy,” said Lesnar, who had already claimed not to “have the internet” or even read newspapers when asked if he was discouraged by critics in the press. “Who is he?”

“You’re lucky,” said White.

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

The unholy union between the UFC and 50 Cent has spawned its first offspring — this promo video for tomorrow night’s Couture vs. Lesnar fight, soundtracked by Fiddy’s new single “Get Up.” I don’t know…in the words of Randy Jackson, this one’s just aight for me, dog.

MMA Rated brings us this video from yesterday’s UFC 91 press conference, in which Dana White announces that the winner of the Kenny Florian/Joe Stevenson fight will earn a shot at BJ Penn’s lightweight title. Florian, Stevenson, Brock Lesnar, and Randy Couture also take the podium to say a few words. Fun fact: 15 of Randy’s 18 UFC fights have been for a championship belt.

After the jump: something completely different…

(Just another day in the organization for Jared Shaw. Props: Steve Cofield.)

The Kimbo Slice fairy tale is over now. At least it ought to be. The “street certified” brawler got himself knocked out in fourteen seconds by a guy who calls himself a “part-time fighter.” A guy who isn’t in the same weight class and isn’t thought of as anything more than a mediocre also-ran in the weight class he normally calls home. To call this a worst case scenario for Elite XC is putting it too mildly. This is an absolute disaster. Which means, of course, that they will now try to convince us that it is not.

Announcer Mauro Ranallo got that ball rolling almost immediately after the fight by suggesting that this should be considered a “mulligan” for Kimbo, since he didn’t plan on fighting Petruzelli. Do we dare mention that Petruzelli also didn’t plan on fighting Kimbo, a heavyweight, in the main event? Apparently not. Instead we start playing up the predictable Rocky Balboa angle, forgetting for the moment that Rocky fought Apollo Creed, the world champion. Unlike Kimbo, the fictional Apollo was both style and substance, and he didn’t go down to a tentative jab.

This is the point where Elite XC makes excuses for Kimbo and tells us that a star is born in Petruzelli. Just watch Jared Shaw working from this script in his interview with Ariel Helwani and see if you don’t find yourself feeling a little sorry for him. His cringe-worthy performance includes transparent lies such as, “it’s just another day in the organization,” and “(Pertruzelli) is a very promotable guy; everybody in this sport is promotable,” and my personal favorite, “we’re gathering all our other nuts.”

This, from the same guy who could be seen having a total meltdown at cageside while Kimbo was getting pounded out on live network TV.

The person who seemed least bothered by last night’s events was Kimbo Slice himself. He hyped his after-party in the post-fight interview and showed up forty-five minutes late to the press conference, where he interrupted Elite XC Head of Operations Jeremy Lappen and made a very brief statement, laughing about his swollen eye, and then disappeared again.

(Man, I just hope Ken’s HMO is going to cover this.)

Yesterday’s press conference for Elite XC: Heat provided all the requisite photo ops and pre-packaged quotes. We get to hear every fighter talk about what a great opportunity this is, how much they love Elite XC, etc. But what every good press conference has to have is a quote that just plain doesn’t make sense. Thankfully, Kimbo Slice obliged:

“Ken’s fighting in Florida, which is no place for an old man. I’m mentally prepared and ready to do it and represent the crib. It’s going to be ‘305’ (his area code) all day.”

Really? Florida’s no place for an old man? Perhaps what he meant to say was, Florida is the place for an old man. Senior citizens make up 16.8% of the population there (don’t say you never learn anything on Cage Potato). If anything, Florida is the perfect place for a fighter of advanced age such as Shamrock. He can catch an early bird dinner before the fight, then maybe enjoy some shuffleboard after the bout is over. When he finally comes to, that is.

Speaking of Shamrock, you didn’t think you were going to have a press conference without him putting his public speaking gifts into action, did you?

Nobody likes to lose, but there’s losing like a man and there’s losing like a six-year-old. In the above video from NBC Sports Jon Fitch ups his stock by taking his loss to Georges St. Pierre as well as can be expected. Not only did he prove his toughness by hanging in against GSP for five rounds, he also showed up to the press conference even though his face looked like he’d just made out with a wolverine. That’s an honorable competitor, right there.

For fighting his heart out and for this display of gentlemanly sportsmanship, we extend to Jon Fitch our rarely-awarded Cage Potato ‘Atta Boy (award has no implied or actual monetary value). We’d like to also give one to Dana White for trying to subtly replace Fitch’s beer with a bottle of water while he’s answering questions from reporters, but we only have so many of these fake awards lying around.

(That’s the kind of youthful exuberance Affliction needs!)

Today’s Affliction press conference managed to temporarily steal some of the media spotlight away from UFC 87, as the organization announced that they had signed former IFL lightweight Chris Horodecki, and revealed a planned bout between IFL heavyweight champ Roy “Big Country” Nelson and Paul Buentello at their next in event in Vegas on October 11. That’s right, Nelson will not face Xtreme Couture’s Jay White in a pump-up squash match, as was previously rumored. Instead he’ll get something closer to a real test when he takes on the revitalized Buentello, who is fresh off a decision victory over Gary Goodridge at Affliction: Banned.

Affliction VP Tom Atencio said he was “really excited” about signing Horodecki and added that “everything is falling into place for Las Vegas.”

What Affliction didn’t announce at the press conference was the official signing of Tito Ortiz, who was said to be close to a “ground-breaking record contract” with the organization. According to Michael Cohen, Affliction’s COO (also Special Counsel to Donald Trump, see how that works?) there’s nothing to get excited about just yet: