(Cyborg/Coenen 1 semi-highlights courtesy of magnaflowtv.) 

Fresh off her first fight in nearly two years — a first round obliteration of Fiona Muxlow at Invicta FC 5 that absolutely none of us saw coming – it has recently been announced that former Strikeforce featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino will now rematch fellow Strikeforce vet Marloes Coenen for Invicta’s inaugural featherweight title. Barring any last minute “injuries,” the fight will headline Invicta FC 6 this summer, although a date and location for the event have yet to be determined.

Coenen and Cyborg first met in January of 2010 at Strikeforce: Miami. In a typical Cyborg performance, the Brazilian dominated Coenen on the feet and on the mat en route to a third round TKO stoppage. In the time since, Coenen has won, then lost the Strikeforce bantamweight title, been released from Zuffa for her association with Golden Glory, cast in a Dutch version of Survivor, and scored a pair of wins over Romy Ryussen and, you guessed it, Fiona Muxlow.

Cyborg, on the other hand…well, let’s just say that her top-notch management has been quietly screwing her over for some time now and leave it at that.

Will Cristiane run through Coenen again, or does anyone give the Golden Glory product a better chance the second time around?

-J. Jones

(MacDonald would have likely earned a title shot with a win over Condit, and has now gone down with an “undisclosed” injury. Methinks something foul is afoot.)

Thus far, 2013 has been a year surprisingly bereft of injuries, at least in the MMA community. Sure, there have been a couple of withdrawals here and there, but a UFC 151- level crisis? Nothing of the sort. And while we can be thankful that the first major injury of 2013 isn’t anywhere near as devastating to the upcoming UFC 158 card as Hendo’s was to UFC 151, it still leaves the card without a co-main event and minus a key rematch in the welterweight division.

We are talking, of course, about Rory MacDonald and Carlos Condit, who were set to meet for the second time at UFC 158 in a rematch of their thrilling brawl at UFC 115. Unfortunately, news broke earlier today that MacDonald has gone down with an undisclosed injury and will be forced to delay his shot at redemption, if he receives it at all. MMAFighting reports:

According to multiple sources close to the fight, MacDonald suffered an undisclosed injury in training recently, which has forced the young Canadian fighter to withdraw from his fight against Condit at UFC 158.

No opponent has been signed to replace MacDonald against Condit next month. As of now, he is still expected to compete on the card.

When questioned on what he thought could be the possible cause of his injury, MacDonald reportedly exclaimed, “Stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now,” before quickly exiting the room to “return some videotapes.” A strange turn of events indeed.

[UPDATE #1]

It is now being reported that Condit will in fact face Johny Hendricks in MacDonald’s absence — arguably just as interesting a matchup as Condit/MacDonald II in our opinion. Arguably. This move has left Jake Ellenberger without a dance partner for UFC 158, as a replacement opponent has yet to be named.

We will update you on Ellenberger’s sitauation as soon as the details are made available.

[UPDATE #2]

According to BleacherReport, MacDonald suffered a neck injury. And according to MMAJunkie’s John Morgan, final Strikeforce welterweight champ Tarec Saffiedine was originally offered the replacement fight against Condit, but he turned it down, which means he just incurred the wrath of a certain “mean little f*cker.”

-J. Jones

(Trunchface: When a troll face meets a punch-face, the result is always legendary.) 

You see, this is what we love about “old school” fighters like Mauricio Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. They don’t give a shit about rankings (probably because they know the UFC’s official ones are shit anyways), the easiest path to a title shot, or sponsorship deals with anyone not named Praetorian. They only care about scores, and specifically, settling them. It is for this reason alone that Lil’ Nog — the same one currently riding a two-fight win streak including a win over Rashad Evans at UFC 156 earlier this month — recently stated an interest in a rematch with Rua — the same one who has gone loss-win in his past 7 contests and is on the heels of a UD loss to Alexander Gustafsson in December. That is of course, according to UFC President Dana White:

(Shogun vs Evans) is a fight, yeah. That is a fight that could happen, yeah. But I keep hearing this thing that Nogueira and Shogun want to fight each other, they want to do the rematch. I don’t know how that makes sense for Nogueira, but that’s what they want, that’s what I’m hearing they want. Far be it from me to not give somebody what they want. 

Let’s just act like that last sentence never happened for a moment and focus on the potential matchup at hand. Rua and Nogueira first met back at PRIDE FC – Critical Countdown 2005, where Rua emerged victorious by way of unanimous decision in a fight that became an instant classic amongst fans of the sport. The rematch (and a TUF: Brazil coaching gig) was first suggested by Nog back in August, and while circumstances have surely changed in the time since, we can’t imagine there would be a lot of resistance to the idea from a fan’s point of view. Clearly White agrees, but how about you Taters?

Now break out your foam fingers and chug some Yunker Fanti, because we’ve thrown a full video of Rua/Nogueira 1 after the jump to get you amped for the all but inevitable rematch. PRIDE NEVA DIE!!!

(“Move along folks, there is nothing to see here!” Photo courtesy of Getty Images.) 

If the title of this post sounds familiar, it might be because Alessio Sakara has kind of become a master of the do-over during his time in the UFC. Back in 2010, Sakara was scheduled to face the now-retired Jorge Rivera at UFC 118, but the bout was eventually cancelled when both men pulled out due to injury. The fight was rescheduled for UFC 122, but was cancelled again at the last second when Sakara came down with some Jamie Varner-esque flu symptoms that may or may not have been caused by tuna fish. The fight was then tentatively rescheduled for an August event but was eventually scrapped altogether.

So perhaps you should take the news that Sakara has been rebooked against Patrick Cote at UFC 158 on March 16th in Montreal with a grain of salt, because if history is any indication, Sakara ain’t making it to this fight in one piece.

(The best way to stop Cheick Kongo from kneeing you in the jewels? Turns out, it’s a simple jab. Who woulda thunk it?) 

As is the case for approximately 95% of the UFC’s current roster, Mark Hunt was forced to pull out of his last scheduled fight (against Stefan Struve) due to injury. But while he’s been quietly recuperating his knee and enjoying his current, not to mention improbable 3 fight win streak in the UFC, he’s apparently also been thinking about leveling the score with some of his former foes. Mainly, that of Alistair Overeem, who defeated Hunt by first round keylock when the two clashed back in June of 2008 at DREAM 5. It was Hunt’s third straight loss to come via form of arm-lock, but it certainly wouldn’t be his most painful.

In either case, it appears that Hunt may have heard through the grapevine that Alistair stated he would prefer to fight as soon as he got his license back, title shot or not, and figured he could kill two birds with one stone. Those two birds being a bit of redemption and possibly the next heavyweight title shot. He told The MMA Hour: 

If they’d like to get me a fight I’d like to get a rematch with Alistair Overeem, you know, when he comes back from his injury or from whatever, his hiatus. You know? I’d like to have my rematch with him. I’d be willing to fight next year so it doesn’t matter. If he gets a title shot, that’s good on him.

We hate to sound like a bunch of little schoolgirls but OMG JOE SILVA BOOK THIS FIGHT WE’LL LUV U 4EVER PLZZ!!

(“What?! Vitor’s fighting who now? God damn you, JC, you are really bending me over a barrel here!”) 

How the tides have shifted.

When Alan Belcher and Yushin Okami first met at UFC 62 all the way back in August of 2006, both men were actually making their promotional debut. In a hard fought contest, Okami used his superior grappling prowess to reel in a unanimous decision victory over “The Talent,” and would follow the victory with three more before dropping a unanimous decision to Rich Franklin at UFC 72. Belcher, on the other hand, would rebound from the defeat by scoring a head kick KO over woeful UFC washout Jorge Santiago, then dropping a third round submission via Brabo choke to TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove.

Since then, Okami has compiled a 10-4 record in the UFC, including wins over a certain Strikeforce welterweight champion and a certain injury-plagued middleweight contender, a title losing bid to Anderson Silva at UFC 134, and a shocking third round upset at the hands of Tim Boetsch that was responsible for the greatest Joe Rogan meltdown in UFC history. Belcher has gone 8-3, with an upset loss of his own to Jason Day and notable wins over Patrick Cote, Ed Herman, and most recently Rousimar Palhares. It should be noted, and has been on several occasions, that his victory over Palhares made one CagePotato writer look like a complete a-hole.

But although Belcher was a considerable underdog heading into their first contest, one has to imagine that he may find himself the favorite heading into their rematch at UFC 155 in light of their recent momentum swings.

(Just bide your time, Chael, he’s gonna walk right into that kneebar any second now.) 

The current betting line on Forrest Griffin vs. Chael Sonnen is downright insane.

Say what you want about how Griffin has looked in the octagon as of late (Seriously, do it. Here are a few adjective suggestions: sluggish, apathetic, hairy, manic-depressive), but even we couldn’t have seen this coming. When it was announced a few days ago that Sonnen would making his return to 205 lbs at UFC 155 against FoGriff after being tarred and feathered coming up short in his rematch with Anderson Silva, we expected that he would open as a small favorite with the former Light Heavyweight champ, if not even. Despite Griffin’s aforementioned lack of firepower lately, especially considering he was riding the TRT train for his last bout, Forrest is pretty massive for a light heavyweight, and you know, already beat Sonnen once before. There is also the fact that Sonnen’s last fight in the UFC at light heavyweight ended in submission (you know which one), and that Griffin managed to catch him with that exact same submission in their first, etc…

In either case, we were dead wrong.

Currently, BestFightOdds has Sonnen listed at an even -300 over Griffin, which must be based entirely on their respective performances against Anderson Silva, with Sonnen lasting roughly six and a half rounds and Griffin lasting roughly three and a half minutes. But those were a long three and a half minutes, you guys, like watching the puppy you got for Christmas fall through the ice in your Grandma’s pond and drown in slow motion…on that very same Christmas.

Needless to say, if this blatant disrespect doesn’t light a fire under Griffin’s ass, nothing will. We feel like we’ve typed that a lot lately.

Is that line as bad as we’re making it out to be? Join us after the jump for a good old fashioned head-to-head breakdown to see if our outrage is justified.

By George Shunick

When predicting a rematch in MMA – or, frankly, any sport – it’s only logical to look at the previous encounter and attempt to discern what advantages a certain participant had, whether their opponent is capable of adjusting and overcoming them, and whether the rematch will follow the overall narrative of the previous encounter. Our knowledge, or anticipated knowledge, of these factors determines how much we anticipate a rematch. For instance, no one really cared about the third fight between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock – we all knew how lopsided that fight would be. Conversely, Frankie Edgar’s third match against Gray Maynard was appealing because there was a strong narrative coming out of their second fight, a sense of uncertainty as to which fighter would make the necessary adjustments to overcome the other.

The rematch between Edgar and Ben Henderson falls into the latter category because it possesses that same degree of uncertainty. We don’t know what will happen in this fight, other than it promises to be one of the best fights of the year. It’s a rematch between the two best fighters in the strongest division in MMA, after a fight that each fighter thought he won. Both will be at the top of their game, attempting to ensure that this match will leave no doubt who is the better man.

(Busto vs. Anjo at UFC 25, or, before the UFC’s commentating team knew what an arm-triangle choke was.) 

Former UFC Middleweight Champion Murilo Bustamante will be returning to action for the first time since 2010 on March 31st when he headlines Amazon Forest Combat 2. And if that sentiment alone doesn’t give you a fearection, then get this: the man he will meet across the cage is none other than the same one he took the UFC Middleweight title from, Dave Menne.

Not since Abbott/Ferrozzo II have we been so excited.

One of the founding member of Brazilian Top Team and a twenty year MMA veteran, Bustamante’s grappling accolades are extensive to say the least, including four Brazilian National BJJ Championships, a 1999 Mundials World Championship, and several appearances in the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships. After defeating Menne back in January of 2002 at UFC 35 by second round TKO, Bustamante would defend the belt once, submitting Matt Lindland with a guillotine in the third round of their UFC 37 title fight. Financial disputes with the UFC, however, would force Bustamante to vacate the title shortly thereafter and sign with PRIDE FC, where he would go 4-5 against the likes of Dan Henderson, Ikuhisa Minowa, and Quinton Jackson. Bustamante will be looking to erase the memory of his last performance, an abysmal second round TKO due to retirement loss to TUF 7 alumnus Jesse Taylor at Impact FC 2 in July of 2010.

Join us after the jump to hear Bustamante’s thoughts on his upcoming rematch with Menne, as well as his pick for a future opponent that will make the PRIDE fan within you channel Lenne Hardt. 

(Aoki/Alvarez 1, from K1 Dynamite 2008. THIS is how men fight.) 

A lot has happened in the four years since Eddie Alvarez was heel-hooked by Shinya Aoki in the first round of their inaugural lightweight championship match back in December of 2008. Aoki has fought a remarkable 13 times since then, picking up notable wins over Marcus Aurelio and Rich Clementi as well as evening the score with DREAM rival Joachim Hansen. He has only gone 1-1 in the States, however, dropping a humiliating unanimous decision to current Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez and notching a quick neck crank submission over Lyle Beerbohm.

Alvarez, on the other hand, went on to become the Bellator lightweight champion after defeating Toby Imada at Bellator 12 in June of ’09, but defended the belt only once in the five fights that succeeded it. We last saw the Philadelphia Fight Factory standout lose said title via fourth round submission in an absolute war with Michael Chandler at Bellator 58 that was my personal pick for 2011′s Fight of the Year.

Well now it seems that these two are destined to collide ONCE AGAIN, in what will surely be…an absolute war (isn’t it funny how you can impersonate Mike Goldberg without even talking?).

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.

Bad news for Aoki: he may not be able to use those magic tights.

According to a report by Sherdog, Bellator is trying to wrangle a actual, no-shit SuperFight for Eddie Alvarez — a rematch against the Japanese submission wizard Shinya Aoki. The two met previously at Dynamite!!! 2008 for the DREAM lightweight championship, which Aoki won in just 92 seconds via heel hook.

The loss was Alvarez’s first (and only) loss at 155; he’s since reeled off seven straight wins in Bellator and DREAM, winning the Bellator lightweight strap along the way. Alvarez has seen his stock rise in the intervening years, while Aoki has suffered some humiliating losses, including an epic beatdown from Gilbert Melendez for Strikeforce and a hilarious KO loss to Yuichiro Nagashima at DREAM’s 2010 New Year’s Eve show.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Submissions101.com)

A long-awaited rematch of the 2003 Abu Dhabi Combat Club tournament bout between Eddie Bravo, 40, and Royler Gracie, 45, has been confirmed for September 25. The match will be contested at a 165-pound catchweight under ADCC tournament rules.

The first time the pair met in São Paulo, Brazil, Bravo, who was then a brown belt under Jean-Jacques Machado at the time, shocked everyone, (including Gracie) by locking in a triangle and eliciting a tapout from the decorated black belt. The win earned Bravo, who has not competed since the tournament, the respect of the BJJ community as well as his black belt from Machado. He would go on to start his own style of no-gi jiu-jitsu known as the 10th Planet system, which is centered around the Rubber Guard.

By Cage Potato correspondent Brian Dermody

The look on Frankie Edgar’s face said it all the second Bruce Buffer broke the news that his UFC 125 bout with Gray Maynard had ended in a stalemate.

Having just endured the worst beating of his life in a single round of MMA before roaring back to win more rounds, but earn the same amount of points than Maynard in the eyes of *some* of the judges (and most pundits and fans), he knew he was going to have to go to war again with "The Bully."

Edgar walked away from the bout with a nasal fracture, a few bruises and a bad taste in his mouth, considering Maynard, who took a unanimous decision the first time the pair met in 2008, was still up one fight to none.

On the mend and with a May 28 UFC 130 date in Las Vegas penciled in for the do-over, Edgar sat down with New York-based Cage Potato correspondent Brian Dermody to chat about a variety of topics including his last fight, immediate rematches, the contenders to his belt and oblivious reporters.

Check out what "The Answer" had to say after the jump.

Watch Frank Mir Talks About His Upcoming Fight with Brock Lesnar on RawVegas.tv

A little less than three months out from his rematch with Brock Lesnar at UFC 100, and Frank Mir is already starting in on the trash talk and mind games in this Raw Vegas interview.  He’s decided to go the self-deprecating route, which means Forrest Griffin has a royalty check coming.  Mir also isn’t afraid to toss a few little burns in there just for the hell of it, even commenting at one point on the "penis" tattooed on Lesnar’s chest.  You can thank Dave Farra for bringing that up.  Hey, we were all thinking it.

Aside from the Lesnar talk, Mir offers the best response yet to the inevitable Fedor questions.  Instead of doubting his credentials and just refusing to talk about the guy, Mir says it’s "not fair" that other heavyweights have gotten a chance to feel how hard Fedor hits and he might never get that opportunity.  You have to admit he has a point.  It’s about time somebody called Fedor out on his discriminatory punching practices.

(Via Dreamofficial.com)

Need a reason to continue living until April 5?  How about Dream 8, which will feature the rematch between crazy-talking, tights-wearing submissions wiz Shinya Aoki, and amateur porn star Hayato "Mach" Sakurai.  It has now been officially announced.  So step in off that ledge (we knew you weren’t going to jump anyway, you pansy) and get through the next couple of weeks.  You will be rewarded with what should be one hell of a fight.

If you need help passing the time, watch what happens when dudes try to get funny with Aoki on their back.  It’s not funny ‘ha-ha,’ more like funny ‘you’re a moron.’

Yeah, Brock Lesnar and I are friends on Facebook.  We’re also both friends with Fedor Emelianenko, and probably a lot of people we went to high school with who we were never friends with in real life, but that’s Facebook, isn’t it?  The point here is, check out Brock’s status.  If nothing else, this thing that claims to be his Facebook page thinks he is now officially fighting Frank Mir at UFC 98 in May, as previous rumors have suggested.

Fortunately, Brock has helpful friends like Paul Wallin there, who livens all of our days with a cute little Mir-is-a-pussy joke that’s straight out of eighth grade.  Real nice.  Nothing says, "I have no actual experience with women or their genitalia" quite like that old classic.

And don’t worry, one of Brock’s other Facebook friends has already warned him to beware of the "angle lock."  Hear that, Mir?  Looks like someone just gave away your whole game plan.  Now what?

In our recent talk with him, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson said it wasn’t his idea to take on Wanderlei Silva in his first fight back in the UFC since losing his title in July.  The fight he asked for?  A rematch with Forrest Griffin.  The UFC, apparently, had other plans for him.

“Fighting is my job.  That’s how I look at it. I didn’t ask for Wanderlei.  I wanted a rematch with Forrest.  But I don’t get to pick my fights.  I fight the ones they give me, and they’re giving me Wanderlei.”

After everything that’s happened, Rampage seems more convinced than ever that he deserved to win the fight against Griffin.

“I still think I won that fight.  I was the champ, and I think I did enough in that fight to stay the champ.  You’re supposed to have to take the title away from the champion, and he didn’t do that.  Even though it goes down on my record as a loss, I feel like I won that fight.

“I don’t see how anyone could give him that first round.  I don’t know how a guy can get dropped and win the round.  The judges must have been picking their noses or something, but I still feel like I won.”

(See, this is why we don’t hang out any more, Alistair. You get three beers in you and boom, the shirt’s off and you’re flexing again. It gets old, man.)

Adamantly refusing to play the role of the good guy in this feud, Alistair Overeem is once more accusing Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic of faking his injuries in their fight and ducking a rematch.  The Dutch fighter tells Fighters Only that Cro Cop signing to face Hong Man Choi is another sign that he doesn’t want any part of “The Demolition Man” after getting abused in their first meeting, before it was eventually stopped due to severe testicular damage brought on my Overeem’s misplaced knee strikes:

“Like I’ve always said, he doesn’t want to fight me… CroCop faked his injuries in our previous fight and now he has chosen not to fight me and instead fight Choi. He knows very well he doesn’t stand a chance against me… I would love to have a rematch but I seriously doubt if he will ever accept. For me he is not a objective anymore.”

While it’s true that Overeem was beating Cro Cop soundly before the illegal blows, calling the man a faker seems contrary to the video evidence we’ve seen, which clearly shows a hard shot in the pills.  The word after the fight was that one of Cro Cop’s testicles was possibly seriously injured after being forced inside his body.  You just can’t fake that.

Cro Cop swears he wants this rematch, and has even invited Overeem to his own special basement cage to settle the deal.  Overeem understandably turned down this offer to fight for free in his enemy’s home gym, but something is keeping this rematch from happening.  If it’s truly the people at FEG, they should have their heads examined.  Probably not by the same doctor who examined Cro Cop’s balls, though.  I hear he hasn’t been the same since.

(Yeah, we definitely need to see this again.)

So, the South Florida Sun Suntinel has this story about how EliteXC’s collapse affects South Floridians (thanks for the tip, Fight Opinion), and it contains this rather amazing quote:

Rookie MMA fighter Kimbo Slice is already back in a local gym after his 14-second loss to last-minute replacement and UFC light heavyweight washout Seth Petruzelli in Sunrise.

Slice, who spent Thursday at one of his children’s school career day, is weighing his options with his agent Mike Imber. He may fight on the DREAM K-1 New Year’s Eve show in Japan, possibly a rematch with Petruzelli.

Oh man, career day? Poor Kevlar. I wonder if Kimbo was too embarrassed to talk about MMA following his recent loss, and instead delivered a five-minute speech about what it takes to be a porn company bodyguard.

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Finally, a little goddamned justice around here. MMA Junkie reports that Kevin Burns and Anthony Johnson — whose first fight at July’s “Silva vs. Irvin” event ended in a controversial TKO win for Burns after Johnson dropped in pain due to repeated eye-pokes — will get a do-over at the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale (December 13th, location TBA). Both fighters have agreed to the fight and it should be finalized in the next few days.

Burns was suffering from a hand injury at the time of his first meeting with Johnson, and was unable to strike with a closed fist, which led to his fingers finding their way into Johnson’s eyeball several times. As if the laser surgery and stitches required to fix his detached retina wasn’t agonizing enough, Johnson recently lost an appeal filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to have his loss to Burns overturned. So this is really good news. The only question is, will Steve Mazzagatti be reffing the rematch as well? Nah, too risky…

(This seems like something we should relive on network television, right?)

The rumor mill has been churning this week as to who Elite XC will get to take on Kimbo Slice on their October 4 CBS event, which is being called something of a make-or-break show for the organization. In a new article on Si.com, Josh Gross adds another name to the list: Sean freaking Gannon.

As in, the Boston cop who defeated Slice in an ugly, amateurish brawl back in 2004. As in, the guy who later got a shot in the UFC, only to be trounced by the unremarkable Brandon Lee Hinkle. As in, the guy who is officially 1-1 in MMA competition. That Sean Gannon.

Gross says that difficulty signing Ken Shamrock and concerns that undefeated heavyweight Brett Rogers would actually beat Kimbo (apparently that’s enough to nix an opponent for Slice) are making the Gannon bout a very real possibility at this point.

There are many, many reasons why this is an idiotic idea. To name just one, Gannon isn’t an MMA fighter. He hasn’t competed since 2005, doesn’t seem to be actively pursuing a career in the sport, and hasn’t done anything that would suggest he should be fighting professionally on CBS. He’s just a tough guy who once fought and outlasted Kimbo back in his street brawling days. In other words, this fight would be a major step back for MMA, not to mention one that would happen on network TV.

Let’s all hope that this is nothing more than a vicious, hateful rumor. Let’s hope that when Elite XC executives hear of it, they scoff out loud. Let’s hope that when Brett Rogers hears of it, he doesn’t murder whoever is closest to him. Let’s hope, but let’s not be too shocked if it turns out to be true.

(‘I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but one of us needs to lay off the tanning salon.’)

We all suspected it, but now it’s real. Dana White said he will give B.J. Penn the fight he wants against Georges St. Pierre some time in the coming months, although where it will go down is another question. When asked if the superfight would take place in Montreal, White answered “probably not”. He also said Penn wouldn’t vacate the lightweight title to fight St. Pierre.

So what does that mean for company man Kenny Florian, who was hoping for a once-promised shot at that title after his victory over Roger Huerta? Looks like he might have some vacation time coming, because St. Pierre and Penn get their wishes granted first. From MMA Weekly:

“They both really want that fight, they both want to fight each other,” said White. “I’m going to let that fight happen and then I’ll figure out what we’re going to do at 155.”

The Penn-St. Pierre rematch will most likely happen on December 27, or at least that’s the most prevalent rumor. That means Florian’s reward for toppling troublemaker Roger Huerta is that he maybe gets a shot at the lightweight strap six months from now. Maybe. Of course, odds are that if Penn beats GSP he’ll never darken the 155-pound doorway again, so we may be looking at a vacant title situation or, worse, another interim title while White waits for Penn to come to his senses and return to the weight class that loves him far more than he loves it.

So is this title freeze a screw job for every 155-pounder in the UFC whose name doesn’t rhyme with T.A. Kenn? Probably. But as long as it means we get to see Penn-St. Pierre II, nobody else seems to mind. Including GSP:

“I want to be a real champion, I want to be the best in the world,” St. Pierre stated. “And to be the best in the world you need to fight the best in the world and I want to give a shot to everybody that deserves it. B.J. Penn deserves it, he’s an incredible fighter.”

Translation: Game on, suckers.

Here’s an interesting trend in MMA: a guy beats you in a fight through either a decision or somewhat questionable stoppage. You immediately demand a rematch, but he’d rather not do that because he wants to move on with his career and continue climbing the ladder in the division. So you do what any rational person would do. You accuse him of being scared to fight you again.

Nate Marquardt is the newest member of the ‘Don’t be scared, homey‘ club ever since he told Sherdog recently that Thales Leites is ducking a rematch of their UFC 85 cheat-fest. Marquardt seems to be seizing on the fact that his point deduction for striking to the back of the head was unjustified and conveniently forgetting the other completely illegal stuff he did in that fight, such as the knee to the head of a downed Leites and the piledriver at the end of the fight:

“I’ve never seen a fight like that, never have I had a point taken away for me in any other fight. I believe this was my first,” said Marquardt. “It’s disappointing. Actually he got warned three times for grabbing my glove, the fence and elbowing the back of my head.”

“I’m happy with the way I performed. I know the fans loved it. Honestly, all the controversy over the point deductions and me losing a split decision, everybody who saw the fight knows that I won the fight,” Marquardt said. “In a way it’s been a blessing in disguise. It’s kind of made my popularity go up because everyone is talking about it.”

“I would love a rematch and I asked for it. I doubt he’s going to give me a rematch. I think he’s kind of scared to be honest,” Marquardt said. “He got lucky and knocked me down right away and mounted me. That’s his game, to get to the mount position. What better position for him to land up in? I was able to escape, get back up to my feet and have him rocked by the end of the round. I think he knows that he was kind of outclassed.”

Isn’t it great how MMA fighters are so often convinced that anything effective their opponent managed to do was “lucky”, while their own offense was all skill and superior technique? Maybe that’s the mindset you need to have to fight at that level, but it sure is a very selective thought process. If Marquardt really wants to force that rematch, he may have to up his antics. Derogatory t-shirt calling out Leites, perhaps? I know a place in the mall that could do it cheap.

(“Do I look like a junkie?”)

Tatame.com is quoting Paulo Filho‘s boxing coach, Josuel Distak, as saying that the WEC middleweight champ will next fight real estate agent Chael Sonnen in a rematch of their December ’07 fight (WEC 31). The last fight ended with Chael Sonnen submitting and claiming he didn’t. Distak claims Paulo “wasn’t well” in that fight and “Sonnen asked for a revenge and we accepted.” We’ll get to see if Chael really has turned a corner – since he was bitch-slapping Paulo for two rounds until the submission – or if Paulo truly “wasn’t well”. That fight made us look a little closer at Filho and the rematch will be very telling.

The excuse coming out of the champ’s camp for his ass-dragging at WEC 31 is that he had some difficulty making the 185 lbs for the fight. Distak is saying they’ll remedy this by moving the fighter up to a light heavy.

“Thanks God this will be Paulão’s last fight at 84 category. After this fight he’ll go up to 93kg category.”

For all you non-metric system Americans, 93kg is 205 pounds. And at light heavyweight, Filho might be a little outsized. Nothing a little juice won’t cure, according to Dan Henderson in a recent MMANews interview.

MMANews.com:What are your thoughts on Paulo Filho?

Dan Henderson: I don’t think he has been very impressive in his last two performances since coming to the US but I think that’s what not being able to use Steroids will do to you.

MMANews.com:Are you saying Filho may be a juicer?

Dan Henderson: Well that’s my opinion anyway. He hasn’t looked good since he left Pride.

MMANews.com: Was steroid abuse a problem in Pride?

Dan Henderson: People didn’t get tested.

MMANews.com: So I suppose if you can get away with it why not.

Dan Henderson: Exactly.