(Clash of the Titans? So which one’s the kraken? Props: shosports)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- Handing Out Hardware: 2011 MMA Mid-Year Awards (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Georges St. Pierre ‘Grinds Down’ a Female at Boulevard 3 Nightclub in Hollywood (MMA Mania)

- Rashad Evans: “When Jon Jones loses (in the UFC), he’s going to quit in a fight” (FightOpinion)

- ProElite’s T. Jay Thompson Shares Details on the Promotion’s August 27th Return (MMAPayout)

- Video: If You Thought the Kim Couture Late Stoppage Was Bad… (MMA Convert)

- Exclusive: Will Frank Trigg Be the Third Fighter in a Row Retired by Tom “Kong” Watson? (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- There’s Still Time to Enter the Chael Sonnen Baby-Onesie Design Contest; Check Out the Front-Runners Here (MiddleEasy)

- Half-Year in Review: 2011′s UFC Stats, Facts & Figures (MMA Fighting)

- Photo Gallery: Nam Phan Trains for UFC 133 Fight Against Mike Brown (LowKick)

- Bellator Fighting Championships Hosting Open Tryouts July 16th in New Jersey (5thRound)

- Round 5 Unveils Bruce Lee Figure Based on “Enter the Dragon” (TheFightNerd)

- Exclusive: Jon Jones Discusses UFC 135 Fight With Rampage, Feud With Rashad (NBC Sports MMA)

(“My knee should be OK next week. I’ll take Tito when they match Rashad up with Lyoto.”)

According to MMAFighting, Phil Davis suffered a knee injury and as such has been forced to pull out of his UFC 133 main event bout with Rashad Evans. Although no replacement opponent has been named, sources say the UFC will be announcing Davis injury and Evans’ new opponent for the August 6 event soon.

Two prime candidates would be Lyoto Machida and Tito Ortiz — both of whom Evans has faced before. He lost in his very first title defense against Machida by second-round KO at UFC 98, five months after TKO’ing Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 to win the strap. Evans battled to a draw with Tito Ortiz at UFC 73, but would have likely lost the bout had “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” not been deducted a point for grabbing the fence.

Machida is on the sidelines awaiting word of his next bout and Ortiz could likely be ready in time to fight on the card.

Barring something completely crazy and unexpected, the fight card for UFC 133 on August 6 in Philadelphia is set in place. Yesterday, the UFC officially announced the addition of a middleweight clash between Rafael Natal and Constantinos Philippou to the prelims. Rafael Natal is coming off of a majority draw against Jesse Bongfeldt at UFC 124, while Constantinos Philippou lost his UFC debut against Nick Catone at UFC 128.

Even though both middleweights are still searching for their first UFC victories, this bout is likely to appeal to the local fans. Both fighters are veterans of Atlantic City’s Ring of Combat, amassing a combined record of 10-2, with one no contest within the promotion.

UFC 133 will be headlined by a light heavyweight fight between Phil Davis and Rashad Evans. Also set for this card is throwback between Rich Franklin and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, the return of Vitor Belfort against Yoshihiro Akiyama and another attempt at the ill-fated Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara scrap. Not to mention the other seven fights listed after the jump.

…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]

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ncaasteve)

Steve Cofield caught up to TUF 14 coach Michael Bisping recently during a break from taping the SPIKE TV reality series, and the cocky Brit expressed his dissentient opinion that his opposing coach on the show, Jason “Mayhem” Miller is not a worthy opponent.

“I can fully understand it. The guy’s obviously….he does Bully Beatdown. He does a TV show, so he’s got a bit of got a bit of a crossover appeal, if you will, but I wasn’t overly excited that he’s going to be my next fight. I wanted somebody like Chael Sonnen or possibly the winner of [Yushin] Okami and Anderson [Silva] — you know, somebody of that stature in the middleweight division,” Bisping explained matter-of-factly. “But I can understand from a business perspective the UFC’s decision to do…you know, to give Mayhem the shot. It’s a double-edged sword. It will be good for the show, but it wasn’t the opponent I wanted though.”

Happy Monday, Nation. We hope you had a good weekend. No, really, we hope you’re in a good mood, since we’re presenting the second installment of Keyboard Warrior. Hopefully everyone had naked funtime last night, slept like a baby, and had a great breakfast this morning. Otherwise, we imagine there will be lots of very not-nice things in the comments.

We’ve changed up the appearance of KBW, making it look more like a typical MMA forum, complete with the kind of critical information any Keyboard Warrior should have for important discussion, like join date and number of posts. Maybe now it won’t seem like we’re blatantly ripping off other peoples’ ideas.

You can read the first episode here (all two pages of it), check out number two, and then you’re welcome to leave suggestions, ideas, and odes to our greatness below.

Thanks again to WithLeather and @MrBrandonStroud for letting us blatantly rip off their ideas.

[RX]

(I dare you to find me a better GIF than this one. Yeah, that’s what I thought.)

“I really believe zombies are a realistic possibility. Patient zero will start out of someone’s gym. A guy has their dog in the gym, the dog gets a staph infection, the dog gets bit with rabies, some type of cross breeding with the staph and rabies happens and then the dog bites the person because the dog goes crazy. The person goes to the hospital and this crazy strain of staph/rabies turns them into a zombie and it all started right there in somebody’s gym…

“You can’t armbar a zombie. You try to armbar a zombie and it will bite you on the leg. You can’t do jiu-jitsu with a zombie. Kickboxing might help a bit. At the same time, I’m a ‘germaphobe’. I’m afraid I’ll get scratched and infected. I could kick the zombie in the head and his head explodes and I’ll get zombie juice on me and I get infected because I have a scrape somewhere. It’s kind of scary.”

— Yves Edwards (40-16-1) explains to UFC.com why you should never bring your dog to the gym. The “Thugjitsu Master” is 2-0 in his latest UFC stint, most recently choking out Cody McKenzie at Fight for the Troops 2 in January. He’ll try to make it three in a row against Sam Stout tomorrow night on the Spike Prelims Live portion of UFC 131: Dos Santos vs. Carwin.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/CagePotato)

We know everyone is getting sick of the back-and-forth between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans, but we figured this was an interesting tidbit worth mentioning from an interview “Bones” did with TopMMANews while he was in London, Ontario, Canada last week for MMA Live 1.

While talking about Evans’ upcoming match-up with Phil Davis at UFC 133 Jones said, although he thinks Rashad will win the bout decisively, he likely won’t get the next shot at his strap as was previously promised. What made the off-the-cuff comment interesting is that Jones said the decision to push “Suga” back a position in line wasn’t his; it was UFC president Dana White’s.

(Rashad Evans: Friend to the white man.)

Look, we’ll be the first to admit that this business about Rashad Evans calling Jon Jones a fake ass white boy via text message is pretty damn silly. The only reason we felt the photo was worth posting on this site is because Evans originally denied sending it. Do I think the “white boy” line should be characterized as “racist,” or as an insult to white people? No, not at all — although the tradition of one black fighter questioning a rival’s blackness is one of the oldest tricks in combat sports, and it’s slightly disappointing that Rashad stooped to that level.

Now that the photo has spread around the Internet, Evans was forced to admit its authenticity, which he did on the latest episode of MMA Weekly radio. Evans offered an apology to anybody who he might have offended, but also used the situation as an opportunity to question Jones’s maturity. The quotes (which start around the 1:23:00 mark of the show) are below:

By Brian J. D’Souza

While making promotional appearances at the MMA Expo and MMA Live show in London, Ontario, UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones took the time for an interview. [Ed. note: We'll be posting the video later.] Speaking on a number of subjects, off-camera, the question of the authenticity of a recent racially-charged insult from Rashad Evans came up.

I took this photo of Jones’s smartphone (blacking out Evans’s number), which contradicts Rashad Evans’ earlier denial where he wrote, “Let me just state 4 the record I never made a racist statement 2 Jones. Jones creditability [sic] is gone with his fake surgery.”

Currently, Rashad Evans is expected to face Phil Davis at UFC 133; original opponent Jon Jones pulled out of the bout, citing a hand injury. Jones’s next opponent is undetermined.

UPDATE: Yes, this is real. I texted the number in the photo, asking for an interview with Rashad Evans, and Evans texted me back the info for his publicist, Jennifer Wenk. Evans is busy training, but Wenk mentioned that he would tell the entire story on ‘Inside MMA’ Friday evening. [Ed. note: Evans discussed his recent nightclub encounter with Jones, but we're not sure if he talked about the text message. Anybody DVR the episode?] Jones also confirmed himself that the image was taken from his phone.

Official UFC light heavyweight benchwarmer Rashad Evans – seriously, it’s been what? A year since this guy fought? – stopped by Pro MMA Radio this week to give his account of that “nightclub altercation” with Jon Jones we’ve been hearing so much about lately. Let us say from the outset that our first thought upon reading this transcript from 5th Round.com was to wonder how differently Jones’ version of events would be. Significantly, we’re betting. For now, all we have to go on however is Rashad’s take on the subject which – get your surprised face ready – makes Evans look pretty cool under fire and Jones look pretty dorky. So, you know, grain of salt and all that.

A little scene setter: Both Evans and Jones were attending the UFC fighter summit in Vegas last week when they independently decided to take in some much needed R&R (from their busy schedules of tending to injuries and defending themselves from haters on Twitter) at something called “Surrender nightclub at Encore.” Yeah, sounds shitty. Anyway, both being fairly sizable dudes in what we can only assume were just epic outfits, it didn’t take them long to find each other on the dance floor or the VIP or the champagne court or wherever the fuck dudes hang out in places called “Surrender.” From here, we’ll let Rashad pick up the narrative …

(The UFC Fighter Summit has a storybook ending. Congrats, Janitor.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- BJ Penn and Jake Shields Want to Fight Each Other (LowKick)

- Shane Carwin’s Cardio Under Microscope at UFC 131 (NBC Sports MMA)

- Rashad Evans Explains His Nightclub Altercation With Jon Jones; Insists ‘Bones’ Ducked Him (MMA Mania)

- Mac Danzig Out of Next Month’s Anticipated Clash With Donald Cerrone, Vagner Rocha to Replace (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Matt Mitrione: If Ortiz Is Still Upset After Confrontation, ‘Then We Can Scrap’ (MMA Fighting)

- Your Favorite Hooters Girl to Serve Ring Cards at ‘UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber II’ (5thRound)

- This Will Be the Strangest Seven-Second Knockout You Will See This Year (MiddleEasy)

- Mark Coleman ‘Would Drop Everything’ To Fight Herschel Walker (MMA Convert)

- Video: Hector Lombard Gets Pissed at Reporter After Bellator 44 (TheFightNerd)

- Going Medieval: MMA’s 20 Worst Beatdowns (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

(Chuck Liddell poses with ‘Taboo’, co-host of Our Time.)

We have no idea how most of these encounters came about — but we’re sure they were all fairly awkward. Here are 21 of our favorite photos of MMA fighters rubbing shoulders with reality show stars, B-list actors, and aging rock royalty. Ah, the perks of fame…

(Cain Velasquez: The meat in a douche sandwich.)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMACanada)

When news got out last week that the hand injury that forced Jon Jones out of his planned UFC 133 meeting with disgruntled former teammate Rashad Evans did not require surgery, and that the UFC light heavyweight champ’s manager Malki Kawa intimated that his client was likely to fight another opponent before facing Rashad, our first thought was, “Damn, it looks like Bones is just doing whatever he can to screw Rashad out of his shot.”

But then we said, “Nah, it must just be a coincidence,” when we heard Jones say they consulted with three doctors before deciding to forgo surgery and that, not to worry, he will still face Rashad somewhere down the road.

Well, it’s looking like our first inclination may have been correct.

(“What has two relatively healthy thumbs and just screwed with Rashad Evans’s career? This guy!” Photo courtesy of Francis Specker.)

Well, this isn’t going to help the credibility of that swagger-jackin’ Jon Jones. Bones’s manager Malki Kawa took to twitter today with a revelation that will only give more ammunition to the haters who found it a little suspicious that the UFC light-heavyweight champion postponed a fight against Rashad Evans to fix a thumb injury that “doesn’t affect [his] punching or grappling“:

I guess its time to put out the truth. @Jonnybones suffered a tear in his thumb in 2 different spots… Every dr he saw said to have surgery. We went to meet with the surgeon on wed and after he looked at @Jonnybones he thought that surgery was a bit [invasive] and bones didn’t have To have if he didn’t want to. @Jonnybones decided against surgery, and we immediately met with dana and lorenzo the next day to get his next fight scheduled.

(Rashad had the last laugh that night when he gave Jones the stink-palm.)

It looks like there’s no love lost between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans.

A pirate at the Las Vegas Review Journal is reporting that the former Team Jackson training partners came close to getting in a bar fight this week while in town for the Fighter Summit.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMADigest)

Rashad Evans was in Toronto over the weekend to watch his friend and former training partner Georges St-Pierre’s UFC 129 bout against Jake Shields Saturday night at Rogers Centre.

The night before the event, Evans spoke to MMADigest at a pre-party at Muzik nightclub and touched on his recent break from Team Jackson as a result of Jon Jones becoming UFC light heavyweight champ.

For those of you who can’t watch the video at work, the meat and potatoes of the interview are transcribed after the jump.

(Phil Davis looking to steal Rashad Evans’s #1 contender status, says he “might have to use a little bit of craziness” to beat him. Props: philmrwonderful)

- UFC 129: Georges St. Pierre and the 10 Most Dominant Title Runs in MMA History (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Video: Mark Hominick, Sean Pierson Get Early Look at Rogers Centre (Versus MMA Beat)

- B.J. Penn: ‘Teammates Have to Fight Each Other’ (MMA Fighting)

- M-1 Global Insists They Aren’t Holding Up Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson Signing (MMA Convert)

- The Evolve MMA Chronicles: Day 1 (MiddleEasy)

- Dave Batista’s MMA Career Over Before it Begins (5thRound)

- Tom Lawlor vs. Maiquel Falcao likely for UFC: Rio in August (LowKick)

- UFC Live 5 Starts to Take Shape With Ludwig vs. Sadollah, “Magrinho” vs. O’Brien (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Mauricio Shogun Rua Goes Back to His Old Trainer at King’s MMA (MMA-Scraps)

- MMA Welterweight Rankings (Fight Magazine)

(If Rashad tests positive for anything after this fight it will likely be Prozac.)

A torn tendon in his hand that he suffered in his UFC 128 light heavyweight championship win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has forced Jon Jones to bow out of his August UFC 133 grudge match against former training partner Rashad Evans. Stepping in for the injured champion in the bout will be Phil Davis.

The news was first reported this morning by Neil Davidson of The Canadian Press and was later announced by the UFC.

It seems like Rashad can’t get a break these days.

If you’ve ever trained in an MMA gym, you know that much like Fight Club, the first rule of sparring, is you don’t talk about sparring. Talking about how you tapped out or knocked out a sparring partner in practice is considered bad etiquette and in some cases, it could get your ass beat.

In a recent interview with ESPN’s Josh Gross, UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones touched on the taboo subject of who handled whom when he and former training partner Rashad Evans rolled and sparred at Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/GenghisConFilms)

If you’ve been reading the site for a while, you know we’re big fans of Genghis Con’s work. The dude has put together some of the slickest MMA highlights and recently began filming, editing and producing some incredible web documentaries including Miami Hustle, which follows the trials, tribulations and triumphs of former Sengoku champ Jorge Santiago.

The latest short from the series by GC follows Santiago on a typical day relaxing and training in Miami for his upcoming UFC 130 bout with Brian Stann in May. Making a special appearance in the episode is Santiago’s new training partner, former Team Jackson fighter and ex-UFC light heavyweight champ Rashad Evans.

If you missed the prequel to Miami Hustle, check out “The Sengoku King” after the jump. If you enjoy Genghis Con’t work, you’ll thoroughly enjoy it.

(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.”

(The Authentic Sports Management Christmas party might be a bit awkward this year if all of the firm’s fighters attend.)

Jen Wenk, the ex-UFC director of public relations announced today that her new firm, StarPR™ Las Vegas, will be taking over the public relations duties for Authentic Sports Management, the agency representing several MMA fighters including UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and number one contender Rashad Evans.

“I am honored to have worked for the UFC and with owners and visionaries Lorenzo J. Fertitta and Dana White for the last six years,” Wenk said via press release. “I only hope to continue my good public relations work in representing this dynamic new management company and many of the organization’s top fighters, including the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon “Bones” Jones, former UFC champion Rashad Evans and more. “

(“Your numbers are a little weak in the swing states, Jon. We’d like you to consider wearing this American flag pin.” Pic: ESPN)

Even as MMA hardcores continue to cream their collective jeans over the unbelievable awesomeness of new light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, early estimates indicate UFC 128 didn’t quite live up to expectations in the sales department. Stalwart fight journalist (and the kind of dude who keeps track of this stuff) Dave Meltzer reports his numbers show Saturday night’s pay-per-view notching between 415,000-470,000 buys, which puts it pretty much exactly on the nose of the UFC’s “average” buy rate of 445K. What’s that mean exactly? Well, to borrow a phrase from Scott Coker, it means UFC 128 didn’t really “move the needle” with casual fans.

Naturally, some of the people who get paid to have opinions about this kind of thing (dudes like us) will see this as a failure on the part of Jones himself. After all, the UFC did everything it could to market this PPV behind the 23-year-old phenom, including both a “Countdown” special and the heretofore unseen “In the Moment” documentary on SpikeTV. To this notion, we’d like to say: Not so fast. Even as a website that’s occasionally been quasi-critical of the sport’s new Christ figure, we think it’s pretty unfair to hang this particular PPV’s disappointing showing on Jones. Don’t forget that he didn’t become a full-on breakout superstar until AFTER he crushed Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to win the strap, you guys.

(“So, we can put you down for two boxes of Thin Mints, one box of Samoas and one box of Thank U Berry Much, then?” Pic: SB Nation)

Have a conversation with any of the top trainers in mixed martial arts – say, a Bob Cook, Trevor Wittman, or even Cesar Gracie – and it’s almost guaranteed that you will walk away struck by their incredible levelheadedness and otherworldly patience. Nowhere is that commitment to sanity and likability more evident than in Greg Jackson who – let’s face it – must be a goddamned saint to put up with everybody else in this sport’s crazy bullshit on day-to-day basis. Seriously, this dude seems far too reasonable to even be involved in MMA.

In fact, if there’s a real tragedy in Jon Jones’ and Rashad Evans’ lightning quick transition from bros to foes these last few weeks, it’s that Jackson is caught in the middle of it. The renowned trainer reiterated his resolve to stay neutral during an interview with MMA Fighting published on Wednesday, in the end essentially saying he feels both Jones and Evans are in the wrong here: Jones for capitulating to public pressure to fight Evans and then Evans for totally freaking the fuck out and decamping for Florida when he found out about it. Jackson’s entirely too sensible take on the situation is after the jump …

(Well sure, if you need advice on how to beat up an overhyped light-heavyweight, Antonio Silva’s definitely your man. Kidding! Only kidding! / Props: twitter.com/SUGARASHADEVANS via MiddleEasy)

Don’t know about y’all, but I already miss the days when the Rashad Evans/Jon Jones situation was merely awkward, and not openly hostile. The gloves finally came off yesterday when Evans gave an interview to BloodyElbow in which he told everyone what he really thinks about the new UFC light-heavyweight champion, and reveals that he never wanted to train with Jones in the first place. Some highlights…

On Jones’s change of heart before the Shogun fight: “I mean it’s one thing to say something in an interview but the least you could have picked up the phone and been like, ‘man I did an interview today and they kind of put me on the spot with a rough question and I answered it this way.’ At least give me the heads up so that way I know and not look at it if he’s Judas or something. You know who Judas is? That interview was some backstabbing s**t but now it’s like whatever because now I know the game he is playing. Then for Greg to sit back and say he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it….why not? You f**kin’ created the situation. Be his coach and be in his corner. That’s what you want so do it. I don’t care if he coaches against me. It doesn’t even matter.”

[Ed. note: Yeah, I think a guy with a New Testament scripture inked on his chest is pretty familiar with Judas. In all of the verbal-trash that will be slung around in the lead-up to this fight, this is probably the line that will stick with — and motivate — Jones the most.]

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAScrapsRadio)

What a difference a year makes.

Less than 365 days ago, newly-crowned UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones appeared on MMAScraps Radio and told  Pat Barry, who was then the co-host of the show, that there was no way, no how he would ever fight a teammate, especially not “his brother Rashad Evans.”

Jones’ change of heart has caused a rift in Albuquerque which caused Evans to move his camp from Team Jackson to Imperial Athletics in Boca Raton Florida, where he will train with displaced former members of American Top Team who have set up shop there including Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante, Jorge Santiago and the Villefort brothers.

In the interview, Jones backed Evans recent revelation that he had to agree to never fight any of his Jackson teammates as a condition of joining the revered fight team — a clause he later publicly reneged on prompting the former champ to accept the offer to face his heir apparent and former training partner. Interestingly, even when Barry tried at length to convince Jones that fighting a teammate wasn’t a big deal, “Bones” didn’t waver in his stance that it simply wouldn’t happen. He even went so far as to say that if pressed by the UFC to fight Evans or Keith Jardine, he would find a way out of the bout even if it meant faking an injury.

Check out the transcript of the interview after the jump.

(I guess that would make Anderson Silva the other joker, and Randy Couture the “Rules of Poker” instructional card that always gets lost.)

By Anton Gurevich

After just three years of MMA competition, Jon “Bones” Jones became the youngest champion in the UFC’s history. Jones defeated the PRIDE legend Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in an impressive fashion to become the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, proving to everyone once again that “the hype is real.”

The Greg Jackson product is currently 7-1 in his Ultimate Fighting Championship campaign, defeating Andre Gusmao, Stephan Bonnar, Jake O’Brien, Brandon Vera, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ryan Bader on his way to the triumph against Shogun Rua at UFC 128. His only defeat came via DQ (“12-6 elbows”) against Matt Hamill at the TUF 10 Finale event on Dec. 5th, 2009.

And since the majority of Jacks, Queens and Kings of the UFC Light Heavyweight division are behind him, here’s the list of four aces who may be on their way to challenging “The Joker” Jon Jones for his belt…

Continue reading on Lowkick.com

(Vid: MMA Fighting)

For being one of MMA’s more tried-and-true institutions, there is always something a little awkward about those postfight confrontations in the cage between champion and challenger. Emotions are running high and the heat of the moment has a way of testing fighters’ grasp of the English language, spawning hilarious internet memes and sometimes even sparking enormous, embarrassing brawls. Still, we’re not sure our sport has ever seen an in-ring altercation as hard-to-watch as Jon Jones and Rashad Evans at UFC 128. Both dudes looked more like they were entering into a suicide pact than agreeing to face-off in a professional sporting contest as they mumbled halfhearted “trash” talk into Joe Rogan’s microphone and then sealed their impending friend-vs.-friend fight with the world’s least enthusiastic handshake.

We’re talking second-season-of-the-British-“Office” levels of discomfort here, like The Situation bombing at Donald Trump’s roast or Carl Lewis singing the anthem at that Bulls game. Everybody involved (including us) couldn’t wait for it to be over. Immediately afterward, when Evans cut the above interview with Ariel Helwani where he declares he’s “done” working with Greg Jackson’s camp and then Jackson himself had to think of five or six different ways to explain how badly this situation sucks for him, we realized: We’re just getting started here. In Jones vs. Rashad, we may be poised on the brink of the most uncomfortable feud in UFC history.

“In Mirko’s case, GTL means “Going to Lose”.

It may be too early to declare that a new era has begun, but last night proved that the old one is on life support. The Prudential Center is used to watching some pretty lopsided beatdowns, but even the hometown crowd seemed surprised at what they were watching. Unlike the Nets, fans actually expected Shogun to put up competitive effort.

Last night was business as usual for the newly crowned LHW champion, Jon Jones. Shogun, who landed only eleven strikes all night, was outclassed in literally every aspect of the fight. It’s no exaggeration to say that Jones made Shogun look like the 23 year old fighting a legend of Pride. For that matter, it’s barely an exaggeration to say that Jones made Shogun look like the untrained mugger he stopped in the park earlier that day. It’s tempting to prematurely declare the Jon Jones Era after last night. But let’s wait until he defends the belt first.