(Don’t worry, Leonard, the worst is over!) 

It’s been a rough couple of years for Leonard Garcia to say the least. Sure, he was able to remain employed with the UFC despite five straight losses, but Garcia isn’t the type of guy to take his job, let alone a losing streak, lightly. At least, he wasn’t. But somewhere along the line, Garcia became stagnant, he became complacent. He knew all the ins and outs of Team Jackson — one of the highest-acclaimed martial arts gyms in the world — yet he didn’t seem to be progressing as a fighter in the slightest.

But all of that changed when he was finally released from his Zuffa contract following a lackluster decision loss to Cody McKenzie at UFC 159 last month. Realizing that a change was not only necessary, but critical if he were to ever attempt a third run in the UFC, the 33-year old recently told MMAFighting that phase two (phase 3?) of his career will start with a new training camp and a new organization:

I’m going to go out to Team Alpha Male for a little while. My cousin (Ed note: Like, actual cousin or like how Donald Cerrone is “your brother?”) Duane Ludwig is out there, and I talked it over with Greg (Jackson). Greg said, ‘Yeah, the problem is guys that can take you down and hold you down.’ And now I’m going to go to a whole team of guys who are really, really good at that.

Just being the new guy in the room is going to help me a lot, because it’s something different. It’s a style I’ve never seen. Their style is unfamiliar to me. I don’t know all their tricks like I do at Jackson’s. Like, we know each other so well at Jackson’s, and I think that’s caused me to become flat.

I talked it over with both camps and they’re both okay with it. I feel like this is a move that should’ve been a long time ago, but it takes situations like this to make it happen.

Team Alpha Male consists of several of Garcia’s former WEC cohorts; Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez, Chad Mendes — who have all either held titles or fought for them in their WEC or UFC careers, often both. The move is undoubtedly a sound idea for Garcia, and the ultra-aggressive yet cardio-heavy style Team Alpha Male has become known for should meld with him nicely.

As for the organization Garcia will likely call home next? The answer might surprise you.

(Well. . . . . . . Is a mugshot really necessary?)

If you Google search the phrase “alpha male back door” the results include things about a jealous monkey attacking a man as well as something about a she-male’s back door. You can thank me later for not linking the Potato Nation to the latter but former #1 contender Chad Mendes, a member of Team Alpha Male, is being sought by Hanford, California authorities after he “allegedly sucker punched a patron in the face and took off running out the back door” according to the Hanford Sentinel.

As many as 40 people were involved in an inebriated fracas (or as I like to call it – a SHITSTORM) at the Lacy Inn Bar. By all accounts, a police officer was on patrol and drove past the business where he/she witnessed two men fighting. When the cop stopped to break up the scuffle, one of the combatants turned their aggression towards the officer. When johnny law called for back-up a multitude of presumably drunken patrons came spilling out of the bar like they were entering a big box electronics store on Black Friday. I thought this shit only happened in old Clint Eastwood movies starring an orangutan.

(You see, Shamar, MMA is a lot like dodgeball – the fat guys always get knocked out first.) 

By Jared Jones

After the WEC merged with the UFC in early 2011, most MMA fans were quick to write off the competitors in its lightweight division, claiming that they would simply be outmatched by their UFC counterparts. The success of current lightweight champ Ben Henderson, along with that of guys like Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis quickly disproved this notion, but one fighter who has gone almost completely unnoticed at 155 has been that of Danny Castillo. The Team Alpha Male standout’s record currently stands at 3-1 in the UFC, including a win over former number one contender Joe Stevenson in his promotional debut. On the heels of a split decision victory over noted striker Anthony Njokuani at UFC 141 in December, Castillo will be looking to build on his current two-fight win streak against Strikeforce veteran and submission savant John Cholish on the preliminary card of next weekend’s UFC on FOX 3 event. We were recently able to snag an interview with “Last Call,” who dished on everything from TRT to his stance on teammates fighting teammates. Enjoy, and make sure to follow Danny and all his Alpha Male cohorts on Twitter.

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Thanks for interview opportunity, Danny. I was wondering if we could first talk about your UFC 141 victory over Anthony Njokuani. How would you assess your performance in that fight?

Danny Castillo: “I would rate my performance about a D+. It wasn’t the best fight of my career. I was able to get a victory on four weeks of training, and I had just fought prior to that in November against Shamar Bailey. I pretty much went in there with the gameplan to wrestle the whole time; I knew that that was one of the flaws in [Njokuani's] game. He’s a dangerous fighter. He was one of the most exciting fighters in the WEC, and he’s probably one of the top five strikers inside the UFC. On four weeks notice, I wasn’t prepared to necessarily stand with him or to sit in the pocket against his strengths. His ground game was greatly improved, and now that I’ve done some training with him I understand why; he’s got a phenomenal Jiu-Jitsu coach in Sergio Penha. As far as I’m concerned, I think I won the first and the third round. I probably had about six takedowns throughout the fight, and I think I did enough to win the fight.”

Follow us after the jump for Castillo’s thoughts on the TRT debate, the possibility of fighting a teammate, and more. 

For a guy nicknamed “The Party”, you’d think that he’d have a hotter chick.

At this time last year, MMA pundits were intrigued by Lance Palmer’s announcement that he intended to move to Sacramento to pursue a career in MMA. Lance Palmer was a four time Ohio High School State Champion, the subject of the documentary Pinned and a four time NCAA All-American at Ohio State, so we all dropped what we were doing to…okay fine. We were all busy covering the freak show that was Sylvia vs. Pudzianowski. It seemed important at the time. Anyway, Palmer moved to Sacramento in August of 2010 to join Team Alpha Male, and made his professional MMA debut last night at Fight for Wrestling 3 in Bakersfield California. By the way, the event was a fundraiser for Cal State Bakersfield’s wrestling program, which no longer receives support from the school.

His opponent, Emelio Gonzales, made his professional debut at the beginning of the month, losing by a first round rear naked choke. Predictably, Lance Palmer wasted little time getting this one to the ground. After securing an earlier takedown, Palmer was careful to avoid submission attempts from Gonzales. After a failed armbar attempt by Gonzales, Palmer took his back and sunk in a rear naked choke.

After the jump, be sure to watch the video of the fight with your sound on. Normally, spectators who yell out instructions at the fighters are extremely annoying. However, there’s something equally tragic and hilarious about assuming the woman yelling instructions at Emelio Gonzales throughout the fight is his mother.

(Obviously the body of a man with a severe testosterone deficiency. Pic: Team Quest)

This is a tricky thing, trying to rank the best fight camps in mixed martial arts. With so many top level fighters constantly on the move and the teams themselves ceaselessly forging, then breaking alliances with the speed and bitterness of your average Tito-Jenna Twitter spat, it’s hard to keep it all straight in your head. Take welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre, for instance. Obviously a feather in the cap for any MMA gym, but how do we consider GSP – the prototypical camp-jumper — for the purposes of our precious little lists? Is he a Team Jackson guy? A TriStar guy? A (*snort*) Freddie Roach guy? Hard to know. Still, in the face of this uncertainty we soldier on. Why? Because of our commitment to you, P-Nation. And our commitment to making you mad with our off-base picks …