(He thought wearing the t-shirt would bring him joy, but still he felt a profound melancholy. Props: FiveOuncesofPain)

MMA Cube passes along a translation of a recent blog post by Aleksander Emelianenko, in which the ex-Red Devil fighter talks about his plans for the future, while denying rumors of his criminal history and health issues. No surprises there, really. Though this part was kind of interesting:

UFC, huh? Of course Aleksander would have to complete his three-fight U.S.-exclusive contract with Affliction first, and he’s fulfilled zero of those three fights so far. But you have to believe that Dana White would want to sign Aleks to the UFC as a thumb in the eye to his brother Fedor. Oh! Delicious! By the way, not to beat a dead horse, but Aleks could totally compete in America if it came down to it:

(Images courtesy of MoSpace)

So, Maggie from Cage Writer came across the top photo of Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal‘s amazing new tattoo, which she found on his MySpace page. A cursory visit to that page reveals a nearly non-stop cavalcade of awesomeness — honestly, such a welcome and uplifting change of pace from the reliable sadness of myspace.com/warmachine170nhb. I mean, just look at Lawal’s "About Me" essay:

  
(Thanks Joe! Click pics for larger images.)

At ease, Potato Nation. As some of you might remember, we announced a contest on the site a couple weeks back where we asked you to creatively place our name in a public place, with $200 hard cash as the grand prize. Unfortunately, we had to sort-of unofficially discontinue the contest due to legal issues (long story), but we did get a couple of great entries that we wanted to share with you. Well, one of them is great. The other’s more shocking and insane (and therefore is the contest’s official winner). First the runner up, shown above, which was sent to us from loyal reader Joe V. He writes:

Awesome!  For your efforts, you get a CagePotato Mystery Prize Pack, which consists of a "Hall of Fame" t-shirt (or multiple shirts, if you need them), plus other stuff to be named later. Basically, we have nothing else to give you right now, but as soon as we do, we’ll hook you up.

The winner? Well, it’s not exactly in a public place, per se, but I think you’ll all agree that this is worth a hell of a lot more than $200. Have a seat, then click that "Read More" link…

(Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson got himself a new tattoo to celebrate his win over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92.  And look, it has a religious theme.  That’s…that’s good.  For those of you unfamiliar with Christianity, that’s Rampage’s The Lord’s Prayer inked on the old forearm there.  Just as long as he’s getting his eight hours of sleep a night and three squares a day, have at it, big guy.

Also, remember in the great article on Rampage in The Atlantic where David Samuels describes Jackson’s endearing habit of slapping people, just as a goof?  Seems like he’s still doing that.

Former pro wrestler and NFL failure Brock Lesnar will be on a Los Angeles radio morning show tomorrow (Friday, January 25th). The Kevin & Bean Show on 106.7 KROQ will have the phallic tattoo-sporting meathead on the air to promote UFC 81 and talk about his MMA future. Lesnar will be facing Frank Mir in a heavyweight battle on February 2nd at the aforementioned event.

If you aren’t in the L.A.-listening area, you can listen on-line.