Jens Pulver may have said that there would be no trash-talking leading up to his WEC featherweight championship match against Urijah Faber on June 1st, but Faber’s implication that Pulver has stopped evolving with the sport certainly comes close. Our favorite part: Jens punching out the cadence of his words at 1:58. This fight is going to kick so much ass…

Also: Check out this teaser clip for the upcoming first episode of Outside the Ring, hosted by Marika Taylor; for more Marika, go here.

Miss, I was born ready…

By Ariel Helwani, courtesy of our new content partners at MMARated.

Whether it’s his legal issues with the UFC or all the fighters competing under the Xtreme Couture banner, one might surmise that Randy Couture will one day be considered the most influential fighter to ever compete in the sport.

While everyone has had a chance to ask Couture about his issues with the UFC we tried to conduct an interview with him where we talked about everything but those problems. Sadly, we only lasted eight minutes and thirteen seconds. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Ariel Helwani: Hey Randy, haven’t heard much about you. Been up to anything special lately?
Randy Couture: Just been cornering a lot of my fighters and doing some voiceover stuff for “The Scorpion King” movie we have coming out at the end of the summer. But I’m really excited about David Mamet’s movie “Redbelt.” Just saw the premiere and got to see the movie for the first time last Monday and I thought it came out fantastic.

By the way, that was a really poor attempt at humor on my part. Obviously, we are all well up-to-speed on everything going down in your life…
(laughs)

But speaking of “Redbelt,” I always thought Tim Allen’s casting in the movie was an odd choice for this kind of movie. What did you think of the job he did in the film?
He played a character named “Chet” who is an action-hero actor who everybody assumes, because of his Hollywood films, that he is a real tough guy. However, he’s really not because he’s got a lot of baggage and several other issues but I thought this was kind of a departure for him to play a little more serious character — it wasn’t a comedic role. He did a fantastic job. I thought he pulled it off great.

Anything else on the entertainment front involving you that we should know about?
Looks like Labor Day weekend “Big Stan” will be finally coming out. That’s the Rob Schneider film that I got a chance to work on two summers ago. I’m really excited about that movie. I think it’s going to be a typical Rob Schneider movie and everybody’s going to get a big kick out of it. And then obviously later this summer, August time frame, they’re saying that “The Scorpion King” will be finished up and coming out. I’ve been reading for some more parts but haven’t really landed the next gig in the acting genre but we did pitch a two-hour pilot to Spike. Kind of a military-esque drama that I will be starring in when they finish writing it and then we get to shoot it.

Will the fact that the UFC has such strong ties with Spike ruin that show’s chances of seeing the light of day?
You know, obviously Dana could get involved if he wanted to mess things up but I think if he wanted to do that he would have done it already at this point. This has already been pitched and taken on by Spike so that may be tough to do at this stage but anything’s possible.

(Jake O’Brien: Too boring for the UFC? Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

— The debut of Strikeforce on NBC on Saturday night was hindered by a lack of participation by major NBC affiliates. In Houston, Without a Trace aired in the timeslot Strikeforce was supposed to have; in New York there was just a black screen for 30 minutes. Steve Sievert reports that Strikeforce purchased the late night/early morning timeslot from NBC, meaning the show is closer to an infomercial than a network sports broadcast. Hopefully it’ll help harvest some new fans for Strikeforce, because the March 29th Showtime broadcast of “Shamrock vs. Le” only pulled in a 1.2 rating (287,00 viewers), which is lower than Showtime’s viewership for “Street Certified” (1.9) and Shamrock’s previous two headlining fights against Cesar Gracie and Phil Baroni (1.6, 1.7). If you missed Strikeforce on NBC‘s premiere, click here.

— Following the first loss in his eleven-fight career (against Andrei Arlovski at UFC 82), the UFC has cut ties with Jake O’Brien; he had two fights left on his current contract. Reportedly, the UFC simply had too many fighters under contract, and are in the midst of a talent purge. We can only assume that O’Brien’s last three fights, in which he bored audiences with dull wrestling and lay-and-pray tactics, soured his image in the eyes of the UFC top brass. O’Brien’s manager Ken Pavia confirmed that O’Brien has agreed to a two-fight deal with the Palace Fighting Championship organization. “Had we known that his tenure with [the UFC] was at risk when we were presented with the Arlovski fight, we may have approached it differently,” Pavia said. “I don’t think they’ve seen the true Jake. He’s still a kid, and he’s still learning.” Before he joined the UFC, all of O’Brien’s fights ended in first-round KO/TKO victories.

(From Inside MMA via Xtreme Couture)

…in which “Sugar Free” defeats Jessica Cruz via ground-and-pound TKO in round three, landing some stiff jabs along the way and narrowly avoiding being Shonie’d at the 1:15 mark. We can only hope that one day Randy and Kim have children who rebel against them by devoting their lives to poetry and visual arts.

(Comes complete with cauliflower ear and courtroom-ready business suit.)

— Randy Couture has weighed in with his thoughts about the not-yet-official fight between Fedor Emlianenko and Tim Sylvia:

“…we’ll see what happens. I think it’s going to be an interesting fight. Fedor just fought a pretty tall opponent in Hong Man Choi, so obviously he’s been in that mode of dealing with a guy that size, but I think Tim is a little more seasoned fighter than Hong Man has proved to be. But Hong Man wasn’t easy so it will be interesting to see how Emelianenko deals with him and a pretty good indicator for me, having just fought Tim this last year, as to where I stand and how things might go if I finally get the chance to fight Fedor.”

How hard was it for Randy to swallow this one down? He’s spent the past few months in a battle of words and lawsuits after leaving the UFC mainly so he could be the one to fight Fedor. Now Big Tim is allowed to leave the UFC and almost immediately starts negotiations to fight the Russian heavyweight. Dana White gets to sport his devilish grin for another day…

— The Natural’s wife — fresh off her first MMA win — chatted with FightHype about her win, her future in MMA, and her husband’s future in MMA. But she also attempts to make us feel sorry for her because she has to shoulder the cross of the Couture name.

“I think it would probably be cool to go through this experience without the last name Couture.”

We look forward to the comments from Potato reader, Kim Couture is a c***.

— Chris Leben visited “The Lights Out Show” recently and mentioned a couple of dudes he wants to step into the cage with:

“We’re talking to Joe (Silva – UFC Match Maker), and we’re starting to look for a fight. If you win 4 or 5 fights in a row, you’re pretty much guaranteed a title shot, so I figured maybe Okami or Bisping would be a fun fight for me.”

Would another fight with Anderson Silva turn out any differently than his last meeting with the middleweight god? Of course not. But we’d be into both Okami and Bisping — and wins over both wouldn’t be something the UFC could ignore. Leben is 18-4 overall, but is 3-3 since he met Anderson Silva in the summer of ’06. He’s got two wins in a row and if he needs 4 or 5 W’s in a row, that’d probably put him in line for a title shot sometime next year. Provided he doesn’t get KTFO by his drunken friends first.

Man, that joint could use a serious maid service.

Forrest Griffin head-butts football helmets for fun.

(Props MMA on Tap)

Randy Couture may be doing “The Sopranos: Biker Gang” very soon.

Bonus: For a Randy vs. Kurt Angle update, go here.

Sean Hannity weighs in on the controversial subject of kids in MMA. In a nutshell, he’s a giant-sized bag of douche.

(Props BloodyElbow)

And since our posted video of Marcus Aurelio’s armbarring of Ryan Roberts has already been pulled by the UFC, here it is again — until this one is pulled by Dana White, of course.

But let’s be honest. The most important video is after the jump…

We’re not going to dignify this clip by going to IMDb and finding out the movie’s actual title, plot, and year of release, so we’ll just say that Randy Couture and Frank Shamrock got together at some point to film a remake of Never Back Down, with all the teenagers replaced by 40-year-olds. We defy you to watch this ten-minute highlight-reel without grinning your ass off. The way Randy kicks over the bench at the 0:58 mark makes me LMFAO every time. We can only hope that Rise of the Akkadian turns out half as good. Anyway, if you’re interested, there’s more…

(Maybe this legal hottie can sort this shit out.)

It’s only been a couple of months since Zuffa/Pride FC Worldwide filed suit against the former heads of PRIDE because of their alleged defrauding of millions from Pride’s sell to the Fertittas. Dream Stage Entertainment’s president, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, has been silent in the case, but Dream Stage Holdings filed for dismissal since they were not a party to the previous contracts.

Now, Sakakibara, Ubon, and Dream Stage Holdings have sued Pride FC Worldwide — the Nevada and Japanese branches — and have laid down the legal to the Fertitta Bros, too. Ubon is a stock company in Japan owned by Sakakibara, who also owns 95% of DSH. The suit filing went down in Vegas on the 2nd of this month. Sherdog has a full rundown of the mess:

In an ironic twist, the motion accused Zuffa of including the DSE Nevada Corporation in an effort to defeat diversity jurisdiction. Zuffa is currently contesting a similar legal strategy employed by HDNet Fights in its suit against Zuffa for declaratory judgment on Randy Couture’s promotional contract.

The suit filed by the former owners of Pride in federal court, under diversity jurisdiction, seeks damages for breach of the asset purchase and consulting agreements that were part of the Pride transaction, as well as fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

The complaint alleges that Pride was sold to the owners of the UFC with the promise that the Pride brand would be maintained as a “global top-level brand.” This promise allegedly resulted in the former owners’ decision to sell to the Fertittas despite more lucrative financial offers from other suitors.

According to the complaint, Sakakibara also met with another “company which promotes martial arts related events, an operator of another sports-related business and investors in the entertainment industry, and received various offers to purchase Pride or to enter into business partnerships with plaintiffs.”

However, the suit alleges that the defendants had no intention of fulfilling that promise.

(Unfortunately, his fight with “Da Spyder” won’t be a pick-axe death-match.)

— Fedor Emelianenko recently carried the Olympic torch in St. Petersburg. There were no survivors.

— In a match where the loser may have to re-think their current career path, Kendall Grove and Evan Tanner have been booked to face each other at the Ultimate Fighter 7 finale on June 21st in Las Vegas. Grove, the middleweight winner from the third season of TUF, has dropped back-to-back contests against Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, while Tanner has lost three of his last four UFC matches, most recently a second-round KO loss to Yushin Okami at UFC 82. By the way, Tanner’s blog is back up, after being taken down temporarily in the wake of his gambling bender post.

— Kenny Florian will join Mike Goldberg in the broadcast booth at UFC 83 (April 19th, Montreal), filling in for Joe Rogan, who will be unable to attend due to previous obligations. We look forward to a new voice constantly correcting Goldberg, as well as less references to the “rape choke.”

— Kim Couture won her first MMA match on Saturday in Portland, Oregon, taking care of Jessica Cruz via ground-and-pound TKO at 1:43 of the third round. “It was a good fight for Kim because Cruz was scrappy,” Randy Couture said. “You don’t want your first fight to be too easy, but you don’t want to be over your head either. It was a perfect first fight.” Speaking of Randy, he addressed his future in a new interview with MMAMadness, saying “More than likely, I will end up signing with HDNet and Affliction. Realistically, that is the best option.”

— In his first match since his back exploded during Strikeforce at the Dome in February, Joe Riggs will headline Phoenix Fight: Street Justice on April 26 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, facing Mike Gates (5-3-1). Gates is a natural welterweight, and the match will be fought at a catchweight of 180 lbs.

— You know that skinny, nerdy looking new UFC ref who handled the Hamill/Boetsch and Maynard/Edgar fights at UFN 13? Well, apparently he has an open marriage.

The body of M-1 Global isn’t even cold yet, and MMA organizations with money to burn are already hot on Fedor Emelianenko’s heels. Two separate reports have surfaced hinting at where Emelianenko may fight next. First, from Nokaut.com:

A reliable source has confirmed ProElite, Inc. has offered Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko (27-1) a four-fight, 18-month contract…The contract calls for Emelianenko’s first two fights in the promotion to broadcast on American television network CBS as a part of the recently inked deal between ProElite and the TV giant. The final two fights would air on pay-per-view and share proceeds with Emelianenko.

M-1 Global Vice President Brian Patton denies the earlier report that Emelianenko was never under contract to M-1 Global, and ProElite’s offer seems to be on the same page, stipulating that Emelianenko will be announced in ProElite fights as “M-1 Global’s Fedor Emelianenko.”

Elsewhere, the still-sketchy partnership between Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Affliction Clothing may have approached the Last Emperor as well. According to an article on 5thRound:

[T]hey already have Matt “The Law” Lindland signed to a three-fight contract, and are chasing after a few other big name fighters as well. Fedor Emelianenko has been linked with the new organization, but according to Inside MMA they are also looking to sign Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell and Aleksander Emelianenko.

Part of us hopes that Fedor can sign non-exclusive deals with both of these outfits (and maybe others) so he can regularly be involved in superfights that would be broadcast on CBS and HBO. But we can’t shake the feeling that a fighter needs to be committed to a single organization for his fights to really matter. What made Fedor a star in PRIDE, and Randy Couture a star in the UFC? The belt. And what do you accomplish by defeating someone in a one-off match promoted by Golden Boy/Affliction? A truckload of money, yes. The knowledge that you beat Fighter X, also yes. But if there’s no system involving contenders, title shots, and championship belts, question marks will always remain in your legacy. Anyway, just something to consider. A more open, promotional model may turn out to be better for MMA’s elite, big-named fighters, but will it really be better for the sport?

(Props: Bloody Elbow, Fightlinker)

(Shad Smith, out!)

No, it’s not GSP. And it’s not James Thompson or Don Frye. The guy’s name is Shad Smith and he was outed yesterday by The New York Times. The 35-year-old KOTC vet — who is the first openly gay male fighter in MMA — recently spoke to The Times and chatted about growing up fighting in a neighborhood where he and his brothers were the minorities. Sounds like the guy had quite a chip on his shoulder, too:

“I was just mad-dogging everyone” — staring them down — “until somebody said something, and then I’d put my hands up and start fighting.” He said he had 46 counts of assault and battery as a juvenile. “And that’s 46 counts posted on me. Can you imagine how many there actually were?”

And then came the outing:

I asked Smith why he spent so much of his youth looking for trouble. I expected some sort of clichéd, though possibly true, explanation — a difficult childhood or a Napoleon complex. What I didn’t expect him to say was, “You know, bro, the sexual-preference thing.”

Smith is gay, and I know of no other professional fighter who is openly so. “I was always scared that my mom and dad would find out and wouldn’t like me, and my brothers wouldn’t like me,” he said. “I was petrified, because I didn’t want anyone to find out. And I would try to be the toughest person around. That way, no one would suspect, no one would ever say it, no one would think it.”

So there you have it. Since this is such a ridiculously-homophobic industry, I imagine it’ll be hard for Smith to get fighters to agree to matches with him now — especially if they share Brock Lesnar’s 18th Century views. Smith last fought in January, losing to Dave Rivas. He is 9-9-2 overall and is 0-3-1 in his last four.

On that note, here’s a video that is fitting for the topic of this post — and kinda’ sweet.

(Props BloodyElbow)

Seriously! We can’t embed it, but go to their website and brace yourself. Just look at the partial cast of characters:

Ozzy!

GSP!

Quinton “Money” Jackson!

This terrifying clown!

Angry Randy!

A metal singer (the dude from Lamb of God, maybe?) with some truly breathtaking dreads!

I mean, fucking look at those things!

Babyface Barnett!

Again with the clown!

Fedor “Sleepy Boy” Emelianenko!

…and Dave Mustaine! WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

(The classic taste test.)

Seriously, can we just push Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture into the alley behind Bed, Bath & Beyond and let them beat the shit out of each other? That’s all we want. Let’s just do this. We’ve heard about The Natural’s numerous UFC legal tangles that stemmed from Couture’s efforts to set up a fight with Fedor, and recently Fedor’s free agency details have also started to surface. And while we’re talkin’ contracts, did Fedor even have one with M-1 Global? Apparently not, according to Sherdog:

The Russian heavyweight’s only agreement with the company — according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity — came in the form of a letter of intent.

The return of a $1.5 million signing bonus paid by M-1 Global to Emelianenko is the only hurdle to the former Pride champion’s potential free agency. That should be remedied this week, the source said.

M-1 Global CEO Monte Cox declined to comment.

Once Emelianenko is clear of his M-1 obligations he is expected to field offers from several MMA promotions. The early leader, according to the same source, comes from the purported partnership between Affliction and Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, which Sherdog.com has learned could debut on June 28.

So the possible Randy/Fedor fight plot thickens. Golden Boy did not comment either, but a source claimed that Fedor would get $1.5 mill for a fight with the organization and his managers would get the TV rights in Japan and Russia. The report also claims that Fedor’s bro — Aleksander — will probably sign with Affliction along with Matt “Movie Screen Forehead” Lindland (previously reported).

So the official contract between Fedor and M-1 was reportedly never signed by the Russian heavyweight. But what does it mean if I forged my uncle’s name on my apartment lease? Am I cool with skipping the April rent? Sweet.

From M-1 Mixfight. Money quote:

Interviewer: Do you care where you would fight Fedor Emelianenko, does that matter to you?
Couture: Well, I care at this point that it’s not in the UFC.

I’m sure Emelianenko feels the same way. The Natural also mentions his obvious preference to fight in a cage should the match ever come together. Good luck convincing Fedor’s people to have him fight Randy outside of a ring. Does anyone else think this is the dispute that will sink the fight altogether?

(Fedor and the M-1 crew, in happier times.)

Could Fedor Emelianenko become a free agent after suffering through five months of M-1 Global’s disorganization and managerial impotence? According to a new bombshell dropped by ESPN: The Magazine, hellz to the yeah.

Apy Echteld, one of Emelianenko’s agents, confirmed what a source close to the situation previously told The Magazine: M-1 Global and Emelianenko will part ways some time in the next week, making the Russian a free agent. Divorce negotiations are ongoing right now, with a formal announcement likely for in the next few days. “Officially, yes, Fedor will be a free agent,” Echteld says.

Holy crap, does this mean that Dana White would be willing to resurrect negotiations with the “crazy Russians” and work on making the Fedor/Randy fight happen in the UFC?

“Absolutely, 100 percent, in a heartbeat,” says White. “People think he’s the best — I don’t, not even close. But if it’s somehow possible, I would make it happen…As much as we’ve gone back and forth on this, I would sign Fedor and do everything possible to get Randy in the Octagon with him…because A., it’s a great fight and B., I think Randy would smash Fedor.”

Echteld responded in a poetic fashion that’s common to Russians: “If everybody is willing to put a little wine in the water, then we have something to work with.” Through his spokesman, Couture declined to comment.

Well this is fucking awesome! The long international nightmare that was the M-1 Global farce looks like it’s about to end, and Fedor can move on with his life. Except not so fast. Maybe it’s just good old-fashioned denial, but M-1 Global prez/CEO Monte Cox is still insisting that Fedor ain’t goin’ nowheres. “As of right now, M-1 Global and Fedor are still working together,” he told MMAWeekly.com:

Cox declined to comment about the ESPN article, but said M-1’s plans were still underway for its first event on American soil, a June 14 card at the Sears Center in the Chicago area, still expected to feature Emelianenko. The show has been rescheduled from a May 3 date at the Allstate Arena, also in the Chicago area.

Monte Cox probably just didn’t get the memo yet, which is understandable because M-1 memos first have to be translated from Russian into English, and that takes time. Anyway, cross your fingers that M-1 swirls down the shitter, because Fedor signing to fight Randy in the UFC would pretty much solve everyone’s problems.

UPDATE: From Sherdog: According to one source that asked not to be identified, M-1 will likely expect Emelianenko to return a $1.5 million signing bonus he was paid last September. Negotiations should be finalized by Tuesday of next week, the same source said.

Earlier: Aleksander Emelianenko to Headline Next Month’s M-1 Challenge?
Way earlier: “Like all children, I was afraid of darkness.”

(Shawn Tompkins works out with Wanderlei Silva.)

Here’s a story from over the weekend that fell through the cracks during our full-court-press of UFC 82 coverage yesterday. Remember when the IFL announced it had changed the name of Team Xtreme Couture to Team Tompkins out of respect for Couture’s legal situation with the UFC? Turns out, it didn’t go down like that. Randy Couture has a much different version of the events on the Xtreme Couture blog. Dig:

On January 8 we submitted a list of seven (7) fighters to the IFL that would be available to fight in the IFL event from the Xtreme Couture gym. The fighters were: Dennis Davis 145lbs (16-8), Jay White Heavyweight (2-5), Phil Friedman Heavyweight (1-0), Eric Uresk 155lbs (2-3), Josh Haynes 185lbs (8-8), Johnny Hendricks 170lbs (3-0), and Karina Taylor 135lbs (0-1).

The IFL informed us that Dennis Davis would be booked to fight a prelim bout against Ian Loveland and that none of our other fighters would be utilized. According to the IFL none of our fighters were a proper matchup for Mario Sperry’s team of Brazilian fighters. The IFL intended to field a team of Benji Radach (who due to injury was replaced by Josh Haynes), Santino DeFranco and Lew Polley. Radach had been a member of Shawn Tompkins’ Anacondas team, while DeFranco and Polley are from American Top Team.

Lew Polley and Santino DeFranco are tremendous athletes and excellent fighters. However, they are members of American Top Team not Xtreme Couture. American Top Team is a great squad and by all means seem to be deserving of having their own team in the IFL. We have 35 athletes that train in our Las Vegas gym and proudly wear the Xtreme Couture patch on their shorts during fights. Yet the IFL decided to field a team called “Xtreme Couture” without putting any Xtreme Couture athletes on the team. The Patriots didn’t show up in the Super Bowl with a bunch of players from the Packers. Why would the Xtreme Couture name be put on the line and not be represented by Xtreme Couture fighters.

It is because of this that the team name was changed to ”Team Tompkins”.

DeFranco and Polley lost their fights, and Josh Haynes won, so nyeh nyeh nyeh on you, IFL. It’s kind of shocking that they would reject the guys that Randy Couture wanted to compete for his gym, and replace their actual fighters with ringers. When Couture signed on to field a team for the 2008 season, I figured that the IFL would bend over backwards to keep him happy. But they had their own plans, and now Randy’s like “I’m done with these jokers, let Tompkins worry about it.” The main reason we were excited about the IFL’s new camp vs. camp system was the idea that we’d be seeing the relatively unknown guys that each coach had hand-picked to represent their gyms. Unfortunately, the new season isn’t any less artificial than the last. Oh well; maybe they can get their shit together in 2009.

There’s another notable recent post on the Xtreme Couture blog which mentions Ken Shamrock swinging through the gym to work out when he was in town for the IFL event: “The World’s Most Dangerous Man tells us he hopes to fight Kimbo and his brother Frank after his March fight in the UK.” Could we be seeing Slice/Shamrock on CBS this summer? Cross your fingers and toes, because that would be huge — not only as a ratings draw, but because Kimbo would finally get the challenge he deserves.

What do y’all think, Kimbo by KO or Shamrock by leg-lock?

(…and the card holders for Barnett’s next fight.)

When Josh “The Babyface Assassin” Barnett fights for World Victory Road in Japan on March 5th, it’ll be the first time we’ve seen him in action in 15 months. Hidehiko Yoshida will be his opponent in the main event at “Sengoku” – WVR’s debut event. Barnett says this fight makes for a good headliner – on an already exciting card – and he’s glad to be back in action.

World Victory Road became the winning horse in the Barnett race after a messy contract situation left by the dismatling of PRIDE. The brand new WVR has been snatching up fighters lately, including top guys like Nick “The Goat” Thompson, Takanori Gomi, and Kazuyuki Fujita – all fighting in the debut event.

Barnett mentioned that although he is now with WVR, he wouldn’t rule out signing up with DREAM, which is run by several former PRIDE suits in conjunction with some K-1′s parent company. Barnett says the deal would be up to DREAM and the execs know what the issues were in PRIDE, so the conflicts can be avoided if they wanted. That could set up a possible fourth fight with Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic who recently signed up with DREAM. Cro Cop accounts for three of Barnett’s five career losses. Are we over that match-up or not? Me? I could probably be coerced into tuning in, but would complain about it being boring the next day.

Josh also recently spoke about the talk of him possibly fighting Fedor Emelianenko.

“Honestly, I don’t think much about it at all. I’m not Randy (Couture),” he said about the Fedor fight. “I’m not going to chase after this fight. For me, I need to be out there fighting my fights, creating my own merit. Fedor is the No. 1 guy out there based on his past performances; he’s an incredible fighter and a cool guy. At this point people need to go their own ways.

“I’ve been waiting way too damn long to get a fight because of the turmoil that came of Pride folding, so at this point I’m not going to do anything that could possibly stall or hold up my career anymore in hopes in putting one specific (fight) together.”

— Further support for the “Andrei Arlovski is leaving the UFC” theory: Though he got a rapturous response from the crowd on Saturday, Andrei Arlovski wasn’t given the honor of a post-victory interview with Joe Rogan, like Jorge Gurgel, Diego Sanchez, and Josh Koscheck were granted in earlier undercard fights. As soon as he chalked up his win, a commercial for Harley-Davidson filled the jumbotrons. Nothing to see here, folks. Luigi Fioravanti was similarly snubbed after his win over Luke Cummo, but I just figured it was because nobody cared to hear him. Anyway, all appearances of civility are out the window.

— Speaking of the Pitbull, one of his current sponsors is do-it-yourself online print shop CafePress. So that’s another thing we have in common.

— In the press conference after UFC 82, Dana White said that Jon Fitch would be next in line for a title shot after “this whole Matt Serra and Georges St. Pierre thing gets figured out.” White implied that Fitch could have sat out and waited for his title shot, but instead he stepped up and took the fight with Wilson. Ouch, Karo! With his win over Chris Wilson, Fitch tied Royce Gracie’s ’93-’94 streak of eight-consecutive victories in the Octagon, which hadn’t been matched since.

— Also during that press conference, Dana White revealed that he recently made Randy Couture another offer to fight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. “We’re waiting to hear back from him,” White said.

(Tompkins at work.)

The first round of the UFC/Randy Couture legal dust-up was scored 10-9 for the UFC, as Xtreme Couture has asked the IFL to remove their name from tonight’s 2008 season opener (more on that later) due to Randy’s ongoing litigation with the UFC. MMAPayout reports that the camp will instead use the name Team Tompkins, named for Xtreme Couture’s head trainer Shawn Tompkins, who has been coaching the team. Team Tompkins will feature last year’s contenders Chris Horodecki and Benji Radach, and reigning welterweight champion Jay Hieron. According to Joe Favorito, the IFL’s Senior VP of Communications, “The IFL is not in any way involved in this litigation, we are doing this out of professional courtesy for Randy and his group.” According to FightOpinion, judge Jennifer Togliatti ruled for further proceedings in terms of discovery (whatever that means), with the next hearing set for March 6th.

Though this move seems like a major concession to the UFC’s complaint that Couture is promoting other MMA organizations, he still has that “false and injurious statements” thing to deal with, which won’t be as easily solved as a name change. But at least it looks like Couture won’t be stonewalling for stonewalling’s sake; he’s willing to bend on the small stuff in order to free himself from his contract. More on this as it comes…

Previously: Shawn Tompkins Gets Knocked Out Four Times

And also: Inside Xtreme Couture Episode 2

Kim and Randy take us inside the Xtreme Couture gym, and give us unnecessary insight about the Couture-household chore-wheel.

Bill Goldberg’s lowlights from “Street Certified.” Gotta love the soap-opera staredown at 0:48 and the Kimbo ass-slap out of nowhere at 1:08.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

(“My wife can kick your ass!”)

We already know that Kim Couture, nineteenth wife of champion Randy Couture and VP of Xtreme Couture, will be in an amateur fight this weekend that will roll on HDNet. Her opponent has now been named – Allison Clarkson. And what will Kim do for an encore? Go pro in April!

While on Fight Network Radio, the hottie chatted about an upcoming Portland, Oregon event where she will battle Jessica Cruz – also making her professional debut – on April 5th. The fight will be promoted by real estate agent/fighter Chael Sonnen and the Full Contact Fighting Federation. Also, Kim has recently said she wants to fight on a card with her husband, so we’ll see how that shapes up – hopefully not as some lame tag-team promotion. She first started fighting as a stress-reliever, but apparently she’s good at it:

“I run all of the businesses, so it’s a good stress-reliever for me,” she said. “After a hard day’s work, it’s great to relieve some stress and punch something.”

(Would he also dominate at light heavyweight?)

—MMA News posted some quotes from Ed Suarez, the handler of superstar middleweight Anderson Silva and the UFC’s Interim Heavyweight Champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The statements were made on “The Lights Out Show”, broadcast by TAGG Radio. Suarez had this to say about Anderson Silva:

“We would consider going up in weight…I don’t think there’s a middleweight in the world that could beat him…You’d have a hard time having a light heavyweight in the world that could beat him.”

And about his heavyweight, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria, possibly fighting Fedor again:

“He (Fedor) hasn’t fought any top opponents over the past couple years…we would love to fight Fedor.”

[Note to Suarez: See Randy Couture's attempts to fight Fedor while contracted by the UFC.]

—Even more quotes were dropped recently, and if Renato “Babalu” Sobral is to be believed Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida won’t be battling afterall. The controversial fighter had this to say to Punch Drunk Gamer:

“I heard that Tito is not going to fight him anymore, so they are going to have to find another opponent for Machida. I got the news a couple of days ago that he was fighting someone else. I don’t know about Tito man……he is a celebrity. He makes a lot of money outside of fighting so I don’t know if he really wants to fight.”

—Chuck Liddell has confirmed he is officially signed to fight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on June 7th. Although the event details have not been officially announced by Dana & Co., the Iceman has pinpointed the date. The fight is expected to be the main event.

Inside MMA is promising a must-see show tonight with “HUGE breaking news” (according to their press release) and a panel that includes Randy Couture, Kim Couture, and Gina Carano. They’ve also released a clip of tonight’s show where Kim Couture discusses training for her first MMA match and the sparring session in which Gina Carano broke her nose. We gotta say, Randy’s wife is lookin’ good — she kinda has a Speed-era Sandra Bullock thing going on. Meanwhile, Gina kinda has a tough-but-warmhearted-lesbian-who-rides-in-an-otherwise-all-male-motorcycle-club-on-the-weekends thing going on. And that’s why we love her.

Inside MMA‘s breaking news will most likely involve Couture’s escalating legal battle with Zuffa. This could be unrelated, but MMAPayout‘s Adam Swift has an article on Sherdog today about HDNet Fights’ new suit against the UFC parent company, which seeks “a declaratory judgment concerning the contractual status of Couture under his Zuffa promotional contract. In an ironic twist, Zuffa’s co-defendant in the suit is technically none other than Couture himself.” Inside MMA airs on HDNet tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET.

A trailer has been released for the upcoming MMA-themed movie Redbelt, which was written and directed by David Mamet and co-stars Randy Couture. We tried to sum up the plot in our post about Caroline de Souza Correa, but it’s even weirder then we thought. Basically, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays this Art of War-quoting MMA instructor who likes to run a drill in which students have to fight with one arm tied to their body. So then, Joe Mantegna and Ricky Jay take his idea and turn it into the basis of a new MMA league. (Cripes, did Bob Meyrowitz do script supervision on this one?) Ejiofor gets pissed, especially when he learns that the game is rigged! For viewers who aren’t familiar with mixed martial arts, it could get a pass; for the rest of us, it kind of feels like hokey, artificial bullshit. Witness:

We’re somewhat willing to reserve judgment at this point, but we have a feeling Redbelt will fall far short of Mamet’s previous work:

(Props: MMA Mania)

(Randy, Rob Schneider, a parasol — pretty good little Saturday.)

The Fight Network has more details about the preliminary injunction that Zuffa has filed against Randy Couture, which we first mentioned last week. Here’s the broad strokes of the 90-page document: Couture’s association with the IFL, particularly his appearance at the IFL’s season opener on February 29th in Las Vegas, will cause the company “irreparable harm” and violates his contract.

Nothing we haven’t heard before, and if there really was a one-year restricted non-compete period in his contract, Couture will likely come out on the losing end of this one. From the article:

Xtreme Couture plans to field a team at the Feb. 29 IFL event, and Couture has said he intends to corner fighters from his camp at the show. Zuffa’s lawyers — who attached e-mails about the IFL card to its injunction request as evidence, including an IFL.tv screen grab that shows Couture’s face next to an Xtreme Couture logo — argue such advertisements constitute “direct or indirect competition” against the UFC.

Well, if Zuffa doesn’t like Randy’s IFL involvement, they’re really not going to like M-1′s latest cockamamie project. MMAFightline is reporting that M-1 Global is launching “M-1 Challenge,” in which various countries will field five-man MMA fight-teams to do battle against each other; think the IFL, but on a worldwide level. Coaching the Russian team will be Fedor Emelianenko, and slated to coach the American team is, of course, Randy Couture. We actually think this is a fantastic idea, except for two things:

1) This is M-1 we’re talking about here, so this project will never, ever get off the ground.
2) That lawsuit thing that Randy’s dealing with.

Aaaaaand, it now looks like his name has been removed from the “M-1 Challenge” post on M1Mixfight. Probably the best thing to do, what with all this legal heat. We’ll keep you updated…

(My shorts rock the party!)

Rumors have been swirling about Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic’s retirement/leaving the UFC/switching organizations for the past week or so. He currently makes $350k per fight, plus bonuses and was signed to the contract when many thought he would dominate his division. After losing 2 of 3 fights and having no appeal for the UFC, Dana White has asked Cro Cop to sign a somewhat less-lucrative contract – the option being to re-sign or to sit out the remainder of the contract.

Has Cro Cop made a decision? Here’s yesterday’s non-announcement from his personal blog:

“I promised to share some news with you today and I feel bad by not doing so. There are some reasons for this that I can’t speak of at the moment. However, I promise to make the statement as soon as possible. Thank you for supporting me and I hope that little more patience is not too much to ask.”

And then today, he followed that up with a prelude to an announcement:

“I’m off to Tokyo! A big announcement will come straight from Japan tomorrow (February 13). When the official part is done I’ll be able to provide more information about everything, and believe me, I have many things to say. What you could easily guess by now is that I won’t be retiring. I’ll keep on fighting, it’s my life, it’s what I do.”

So he promised an announcement tomorrow (the 13th). And you’ve got to love the classic Dana in this one. He’s more than willing to let – actually make – Cro Cop sit out the remainder of his contract, and is equally as willing to dump millions on a lawsuit against Randy Couture for wanting to do the same thing.

(Somebody’s gonna’ pay for this scratch!)

The Natural is speaking out regarding the lawsuit he’s been slapped with – courtesy his friends who run the UFC. This comes shortly after a preliminary injunction was filed by Zuffa, LLC against Couture on February 1st. That was the same day the heavyweight champ was in the corner for his Xtreme Couture fighter, Mike Pyle, at a Hardcore Championship Fighting event. This is apparently one of the many breaches the UFC crew is crying about.

Couture recently spoke to MMA Weekly about the mess that probably won’t end well for anyone. As most suspect, he seems to know Zuffa is wanting to make him spend so much money, he’ll be arm-barred into fulfilling his contract. But they’ve got another thing coming, says The Natural.

“It’s unfortunate that things have kind of degraded to that point,” Couture said in the interview. “I’m sure that’s part of their ploy, to force me to spend enough money that I’ll have to come back and fight for them, which isn’t the case.”

Randy Couture has understood his contract will just run out at some point, but the UFC insists he owes them fights. Randy’s ready to take the next step to prove he’s right.

“I’ve got a very good team of lawyers. I think we’ll basically have to get a declaration from the state of Nevada on what they interpret the contract as, but the way I see it, the contract is up in July,” Couture stated.

(Tito Ortiz: Planning his next move?)

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

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

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

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

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

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

MMA Fightline is saying that sources close to M-1 Global have confirmed the following:

…they received an offer from Art Of War to set up a fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Pedro Rizzo. M-1 was uninterested in the offer however and it was promptly rejected. No further details were given as to the reason.

There’s certainly got to be more to this story than a simple turn down. Maybe it’s the actual offer, because it doesn’t seem like M-1 has got something better in its back pocket. Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo is 16-7 and became the Art Of War’s heavyweight division champ back in September via TKO over the musically-challenged and horribly-tattooed Jeff Monson. Since this Couture thing looks miles down the road, The Rock would be a logical fight for Fedor – especially to the pea-brained nay sayers that say he never takes a tough fight.

(Where did Randy and Rush land in our pound-for-pound top ten?)

Hawk-eyed CagePotato readers may have noticed a new link on the right side of the page — POWER RANKINGS (!!!), our list of the world’s ten best fighters in each weight class, from heavyweight to featherweight. Well, featherweight only gets a top five because they’re half the size of normal fighters, and fans only care half as much about them. But we also have a “Pound-for-Pound” list, which ranks the ten best fighters in terms of talent, regardless of weight class.

In creating these rankings, we took into account not just recent fight history, but past accomplishments and our own opinions on how each fighter would perform against other elite fighters in their division. Of course, all of this is open for debate, and we’ll soon be building separate pages for each weight class that will allow you to comment on them individually. In the meantime, check out the rankings and use the comments section on this post to give us your own thoughts. Stay tuned for more updates on our Power Rankings, which will be updated after most major fight cards. Let’s get it on!