(Video courtesy of YouTube/FightHubTV)

Marcus Villegas from FightHub TV caught up with Gary Shaw at last weekend’s Chad Dawson vs. Bernard Hopkins event and the former EliteXC president revealed that he attempted to sign Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to his promotion back in 2007 prior to the former PRIDE fighter signing with the UFC.

“I know Rampage,” Shaw revealed. “I tried to sign him when I was with EliteXC.”

Shaw said that he would be interested in working with the former UFC light heavyweight champ if he is serious about moving over to boxing once his UFC contract expires.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Ryron and Rener Gracie break down the action from a UFC card, so we decided to give you guys a double dose of knowledge to kick-start your weekend. Above, we have their take on Chael Sonnen’s ever improving Jiu-Jitsu game, which capped off with a second round arm triangle submission of Brian Stann at UFC 136.

Now, moving past how “gentle” Chael was in his victory, the Gracie’s demonstrate and analyze the transitions, guard passes, and remount techniques Sonnen used to defeat Stann with their usual competency, breaking down both the first and second rounds of their middleweight fight. Being a guy trained primarily in the ground game, I can’t say enough how valuable these break downs are.

Check out the Gracie’s breakdown of Jon Jones’ 4th round rear-naked choke over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135 after the jump.

-Danga 

(Props to MMAWeekly.) 

You can say what you want about Dana White when it comes to title fights, but the man never beats around the bush when it comes to his fighters. In a recent interview, “The Baldfather” spoke in typically frank fashion when asked about former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s claims to pursue boxing at the end of his UFC contract on the heels of his fourth round submission loss to current champ Jon Jones at UFC 135. A few highlights from the interview:

On boxing promoter Bob Arum’s claims that the UFC underpays their fighters: “You hear [boxing promoter] Bob [Arum] out there: ‘Yeah, they don’t pay their guys anything.’ Rampage got paid for his last fight, trust me. A lot of money. Bob Arum pays guys $600 on his cards. We’ve never paid a guy that, ever. We’ve only been around ten years, Bob’s been promoting fights for 120 years”

DW’s infamous vlog’s are back ladies and gentlemen, and it seems his aforementioned pattern of showing loads of footage from the previous UFC event is holding true, this time with UFC 135. It’s hard to even call these Danavlog’s anymore because besides his introduction, The Baldfather doesn’t even make an appearance until 7 minutes into the video. Though I must admit, it is pretty interesting to see the post fight medical examinations, especially Aaron Riley’s, who, after spitting up as much blood as he can manage, declares he’d rather not have his jaw wired shut again. As a fan of solid food, I can’t really blame the guy.

If you’re too busy to watch the entire video, come check out a few of our notes after the jump:

Let’s be honest, there weren’t many of us out there biting our nails in anticipation of Mac Danzig vs. Matt Wiman Part II in the weeks leading up to it, but boy were we wrong. The rematch, which took home Fight of the Night Honors, was a back and forth, blood soaked brawl, and we loved every second of it. So it is in light of their triumph that we present you, Potato Nation, with five rematches, in no particular order, that we can expect to see as soon as Joe Silva starts returning our calls.

5. Carlos Condit vs. Rory Macdonald

Depending on how well Carlos Condit does in his upcoming title fight against GSP, the possibility of seeing these two welterweight brutes tangle again seems pretty high. Both have been on a tear as of late, and the first fight between them was nothing short of extraordinary.

(At least Page won’t have to worry about this sort of thing anymore. Props to MMAFighting.com) 

I can already smell the rumors of a possible match with Kimbo. During a recent podcast with ESPN UK, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson stated that he plans to move to boxing at the end of his UFC contract, primarily to fight people that “aren’t scared.” On the heels of his 4th round submission loss to Jon Jones at UFC 134, many have speculated that this was just a case of Page watching The Secret a few too many times, but Jackson seems about as serious as he can be about it:

(“Get a clue, Rashad. It’s not happening.”)

Within an hour today UFC president Dana White announced and then promptly recanted the news that Lyoto Machida would be squaring off with Phil Davis at UFC 140 in Toronto in December. According to White, the announcement was premature since, unbeknownst to him, Davis is still recuperating from knee surgery to fix the injury that forced him out out of his scheduled UFC 133 bout with Rashad Evans.

Luckily for Dana and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, we have three viable replacements lined up for Machida and we won’t even charge our usual finder’s fee.

Agree or disagree with our line-up after the jump.

(Mess with a bull and you’ll get the horns; mess with a Diaz and you’ll get a Stockton Slap.)

By Jason Moles

It’s time once again to examine your portfolio now that UFC 135 is in the books. Take this opportunity to maximize your ROI by heeding the advice below. Keep reading to find out if you’re sitting on a gold mine or if you need to take that dog to a nice farm where he can roam. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs so lets play another game of Buy, Sell, Hold.

Jon “Bones” Jones: Buy! Buy! Buy!

Last night Jonny “Bones” Jones did what no fighter has done since 2007 — successfully defend the UFC light heavyweight championship. (I don’t care what you say, Shogun won that fight!) I know I’m supposed to tell you to “Buy low, sell high”, and Jones is at an all-time high right now. Just know that the champ’s stock is as low as it will ever be for at least the next ten or so years. Crisp, unorthodox striking combined with superb, tactical grappling contained inside a combat vessel in its prime — need I say more?

Well, Steven Seagal made it out to the festivities Saturday night in Denver and it’s beginning to seem like either he’s some kind of mixed martial arts guru or he’s a senile old man who is way out of touch with reality. My bet’s on the latter.

Our friends Karyn Bryant from MMA H.E.A.T. and Ariel Helwani from MMAFighting caught up with Sensei Seagal before and after the event, respectively, and let’s just say old cockpuncher had a few yarns to spin.

Check out the videos and the bullet points of the world according to The Glimmer Man after the jump.

(Video: Zee2tehPee)

Throughout their co-appearance media blitz, Quinton Jackson and Jon Jones looked angry, annoyed, and eager to punch each other in the face. Now with their fight just around the corner, the two appear at peace, joyful, and eager to punch each other in the face. Jones opted to forgo his usual ‘staring off into the sunset‘ routine for the obvious reason. Even though Koscheck suppressed his inner smug and Nate Diaz kept the safety on his double-barrel “Hey Buddy”, more than one person left the weigh-ins with the feeling that his personal space had been violated.

Join us after the jump for a highlight of the proceedings and the full results from the scales.

Following suit with their dual appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and trusty sidekick Quinton “Rampage” Jackson appeared together on FuelTV‘s Late Show the other night. Rampage broke the tension in typical fashion, by dry humping the closest object to him, in this case Parks and Recreation cast member Alison Becker. It really makes you wonder what Rampage does to keep himself entertained while backstage at all these media appearances. Watch your back, Bones.

Join us after the jump for a few highlights.

(“Ladies, hide yo boats unless you want ‘em motored. And men, protect you nuts at all times. You been warned.”)

With UFC 135 night rapidly approaching and it being Hump Day and all, we figured why not throw up a gallery of GIFs of one half of Saturday night’s main event, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, humping reporters and smacking people in the face?

For those of you whose browsers lock up when the word “GIF” even appears on your SVGA screen, don’t worry. Your Pentium II should be fine since we put the animations on separate pages.

You’re welcome.

Check out 20 GIFs of that crazy chain-wearin, motor-boatin’, stank breff hatin’ sonofabitch clownin’ around after the jump.

Jon Jones jumped on Twitter to respond to Quinton Jackson’s claims that the UFC light heavyweight champ has employed a spy in Rampage’s camp to feed him gameplan and training secrets being used for their upcoming UFC 135 bout. According to Jones, Jackson’s assertions are BS and he doesn’t need to use dirty tactics to win the fight.

(“Was it you, Bisping or was it you, Tiki? I bet it was Arianny. She always seems like she be hidin’ somethin’.”)

Hopefully we’re way off, but if his recent bizarre accusations are any indicator of his current frame of mind, Quinton Jackson might be just a few energy drinks and consecutive screenings of “The Secret” away from playing monster truck smash-up derby again.

In an interview with Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports yesterday, “Rampage” revealed that he believes someone within his training camp is a mole and although he isn’t naming names, he hinted that it’s a sparring partner.

(Video courtesy of BallerStatus)

You would think that given the embarrassing loss he was handed by Randy Couture and the fact that he’s now set to fight Ken Shamrock in his return MMA bout, that James Toney would keep the names of UFC champions outta his mush mouth.

Apparently “Lights Out” done lost his mind on top of his language skills and is now calling out Rampage. James, Dana isn’t going to pay you a million again to throw a handful of jabs and flop around like a fish on your back until you tap out. The experiment is over just like the Kimbo experiment and just like the *sniff* PRIDE experiment. Deal with it.

(“What? I’m bulking. Don’t judge me. Most heavyweights have cans like this.”)

Unemployment can be one of the most stressful times in a person’s life. It can lead to depression, divorce and drug and/or alcohol dependancy. Ask most people who have lost their jobs at some point in their adult lives and they’ll tell you that it’s something they hope to never experience again.

Dan Henderson isn’t like most people.

For starters, most people don’t jump up two weight classes four weeks prior to their 41st birthday to knock out a fighter who was and still is considered by many to be the greatest heavyweight mixed martial artist who ever lived. Most people don’t pull off a feat like that four months after upsetting a tough young champion to take the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt. Most people don’t win every fight since October 2006, save a trio of title bouts. And most people don’t become concurrent champions in one organization in two weight classes.

It’s no surprise then that Henderson, whose stock has arguably never been higher, finds himself without a contract and it’s equally not surprising that he isn’t worried where he’ll next ply his trade.

…and that was the moment that they realized that your momma jokes would no longer suffice.

While I was busy spending six hours with Twitter yesterday, I saw that Rampage and Rashad were jawing at one another again.

(That’s right, i spotted this completely on my own, and CP regular MyFightWiffaCheeto had nothing to do with it. If he says different, i’ll feud with him on Twitter until the whole internet takes sides and someone is embarrassed for life. Your move, Cheeto.)

While most of us assumed that much of the trash talking between these two in the leadup to their fight at UFC 114 was manufactured for The Ultimate Fighter and the pay per view main event, i tend to believe that these two really don’t like one another.

Read on to find out something about Rashad you probably didn’t know (and now will never forget), witness his attempt at squashing the beef with Rampage in order to focus on common enemy Jon Jones, and watch how quickly things go downhill.

Once you’re done snickering, leave us a comment: who had their feeling hurt first?

**NOTE: I DID NOT MAKE ANY OF THIS UP. This is an actual conversation that pretty much illustrates that you can’t make up things that are funnier than real life.**

[RX]

(Man, Edith LaBelle has really let herself go.)

After sorting out some technical difficulties with my satellite company, I am set up to get this b*tch blogged for y’all.

Let’s get to it.

Spoilers are after the jump. You’ve been warned, yo.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

In this episode of his UFC 130 vlog, Dana  spends some time with his son, attends the UFC Fighter Summit and gears up for this weekend’s event.

If you don’t have time to watch it or your boss is a tight ass who banned YouTube in your workplace, the key points in a nutshell are after the jump.

By Jason Moles

Last night Spike aired a thirty-minute ‘In the Moment’ mini-documentary on Quinton “Rampage” Jackson‘s training camp leading up to his UFC 130 main event tilt against Matt “The Hammer” Hamill this Saturday.  While some of you may have watched it because you watch everything Zuffa puts on TV, others may have been more intrigued by the NBA finals or American Idol (you know who you are). So in case you missed it and want to know what Mr. T has been up to the past few weeks, follow us after the jump.

(“Okay everybody, act like your medical benefits were just revoked.”)

Just a friendly reminder that we will be streaming the UFC 130 press conference from Las Vegas today starting at 4:00 m ET.

Will Rampage tell Hammill he has a soft head? Will Hammil try to get Rampage to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Will Nelson bring Mir a Whopper? Will Mir rub Nelson’t belly for good luck?

These questions and more will be answered after the jump.

(Kid showing his animated displeasure in being forced off the card.)

An undisclosed injury has forced the postponement of Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto’s second Octagon appearance at UFC 130 next month. Stepping in for the highly-regarded Japanese bantamweight to face Chris Cariaso will be California native Michael McDonald.

The UFC announced the opponent change early this morning.

(Either someone’s getting knocked the f*ck out, or someone’s getting decisioned into a living death.)

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua will finally get his chance to settle the score with Forrest Griffin this summer.

A rematch of their September 2007 UFC 76 bout has reportedly been signed for UFC Rio in August.

GracieMag.com was the first to report the potential match-up that was confirmed with UFC president Dana White today by MMAFighting.com.

(At least he’s done his research. Pic: ESPN)

Uh-oh, we bet somebody is going to get their Twitter in a bunch over this: Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal spoke with Five Knuckles over the weekend, breaking down the current Jon Jones-Rashad Evans beef with the kind of simple analogy any pimp could understand. Lawal said that in going back on his original oath never to fight a friend and training partner, Jones displayed the personality traits of a common street prostitute and now “Bones” – ahem – should be treated like one.

“I think it broadsided (Evans), because they both made an agreement (not to fight) and all of a sudden someone reneges,” Lawal said. “I would never fight Daniel (Cormier) definitely, and he would never fight me. Then all of a sudden if he went behind my back and said, ‘I’ll fight Mo on TV’ … that’s a ho move and a ho move deserves an ass whipping. I know none of my training partners that are my brothers would ever pull a ho move like that. If I say I ain’t going to fight my brother, I ain’t going to fight my brother.”

(Well, this explains that full rack of “Machida Era” T-shirts at the Montreal Salvation Army. Pic: Knucklepit)

Once long trumpeted as MMA’s marquee weight division, the 205-pound class has had a bit of a rough go in recent years. Call it light heavyweight’s awkward teen phase. The consistency of Tito Ortiz’s early dominance and the glory days of the Chuck vs. Randy trilogy have faded into the uncertain mediocrity of the Rampage-Forrest-Rashad-Machida-Shogun Era. Frankly, what we have here is a division in desperate need of stability. If only someone would come along to restore the 205-pound class to its former awesomeness … someone enormous, with unrivaled athleticism and really, really long arms … someone possessing of unwavering spirituality and wicked Greco throws … someone who could capitalize on the misfortune of his training partners and vault directly into a title shot after just a handful of wins over middling opponents … Anyway, if that guy’s out there somewhere, we can’t possibly imagine who it might be.

Right now, light heavyweight rankings are anybody’s best guess. After the jump, find the current top fives, according to CP’s editorial staff along with our dubious justifications of our crappy opinions. Check out our lists and let us know how badly we screwed them up, would you please …

(“To: Rashad. Some glass trinkets to go with your jaw. Merry Xmas! From: Dana.” PicProps: Sherdog)

We could spend all day debating the wisdom of Rashad Evans sitting out the last nine months while waiting for his title shot against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. In retrospect, that probably wasn’t the greatest move. Evans – who ain’t no spring chicken at 31 years old — essentially squandered what otherwise might have been one of the most lucrative years of his MMA career trying to preserve a fight that now may never happen at all. In the process, he pissed off his notoriously erratic boss and (to hear the fighter himself tell it) put his entire future in the light heavyweight division at risk.

Even though the decision seemed justified at the time, deep down Evans might wish he could take that one back. At least publicly however, he’s holding the line. As the great poet Coolio once said, wishing is for suckers, and Rashad? Well, a few weeks after seeing his next chance at that 205-pound strap evaporate when he got his knee rolled up during a freak accident in the training room, he still says he wouldn’t change a thing …

(We just can’t stay mad at this guy. PicProps: MMA Space)
Not to distract you from your busy morning of eulogizing Fedor Emelianenko, but we feel compelled to remind everyone that Scott Coker isn’t the only MMA impresario who woke up Monday with a pounding headache. Remember that when we left the UFC last Friday, the butterfly effect from Rashad Evans’ knee injury was causing near-seismic shifts in the vaunted light heavyweight division? Yeah, we don’t think that got solved over the weekend.

Let’s see if we can get this goddamned soap opera straight: Evans tweaked his knee a couple weeks ago and instead of pushing his scheduled title bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua back a few months to give Rashad time to rehab, Dana White took a flamethrower to the entire 205-pound title picture. In one fell swoop he gave Evans’ title shot to Jon Jones, pulled Quinton “Rampage” Jackson out of a scheduled fight with Thiago Silva at UFC 130 and quashed entirely the idea of having Matt Hamill fight Phil Davis at UFC 129. Smooth move, guy. Now the matchup merry-go-round is whirling out of control and everybody is pissed.

("I trust this dude so much, I’d let him be my chauffeur if he needed a job. We could make it into a reality show and call it ‘Driving Mr. Dana.’")

Dana White helmed a Q&A session at Fort Hood last week ahead of the Fight for the Troops II show Saturday night and the UFC president dropped a handful of interesting tidbits during the hour-long forum.

Perhaps most noteworthy was White’s proclamation that former UFC light heavyweight kingpin Quinton "Rampage" Jackson will likely get the next crack at the winner of the UFC 128 championship bout between current champ Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Rashad Evans. White pointed to Jackson’s win over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123 — a fight many thought should have gone to "The Dragon" — as being the main factor in his title consideration. He also hinted that the winner of next month’s UFC 127 tilt between Ryan Bader and Jon Jones will likely get dibs on the winner of Jackson versus Evans or Rua.

"There are so many guys at 205. Rampage is probably next in line. Rampage is still in the mix. We’ve got Jon Jones and Ryan Bader fighting on the fifth [of February], which is going to be a great fight and catapults one of those guys to the top five.There’s so many great guys in the 205-pound division," White said. "The big problem has been ‘Shogun’s’ injury has been clogging up the division. Now he’s healthy and going to fight, and we’ll get everything rolling. [Shogun's] recovered now and back in training."

Surprisingly, White said that Machida, who just as easily could be sitting in Rampage’s place in line had the judges given him the split decision nod over Jackson, needs to win his upcoming UFC 129 bout in Toronto with Randy Couture, stopping short of saying that he could be on the chopping block if he loses.

"I didn’t think [Lyoto] was ever going to lose," White admitted. "Shogun beat him, and then he just lost to Rampage, too," he explained. "Now he’s fighting Randy Couture. It’s a must-win for him."

White also touched on several other topics, rumors and bout signings. Check the most pertinent ones out after the jump.

(Somehow, I don’t think this is the first time Chael rocked this feathered coif.)

Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida spoke with Sherdog.com recently about "The Spider’s" upcoming UFC 117 tilt with Chael Sonnen and "The Dragon’s" rumored bout with Quinton Rampage Jackson among other topics.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m not easily entertained or because every fighter seems to spout the same tired crap to the same tired questions, but I would be much more interested in all the pre-fight drama if they made these guys live together for their entire training camp before they fight like on "The Ultimate Fighter." That way, we could watch them squabble about real issues they have with each other like who left the toilet seat up and who drank the last of the morning urine and didn’t throw out the container. You can’t fake that kind of drama.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAH.E.A.T.)

Sometimes Strikeforce interviewer and MMA H.E.A.T. reporter Karyn Bryant sat down with current number one UFC light heavyweight contender Rashad Evans recently and got his take on some of his former and potential future opponents among other topics.

Here’s what Suga had to say about his fight with Rampage, his shot at Shogun and Lyoto’s camp’s call for an interim title bout.