(Oh my…when did they take the gloves off?)

By now, you’re all familiar with the story of – and the controversy behind – transgender MMA fighter, Fallon Fox. Debates on whether or not Fox should be allowed to compete against women in the first place have quickly devolved into both sides lobbing reactionary rants and petty insults at each other – and not just here at Cage Potato.

Naturally, the folks at TMZ.com decided that in these tumultuous times, the world needs Hulk Hogan to be the voice of reason, because even they are affected by slow news days every once in a while. Hogan reminds everyone that in his business, anyone who trains, eats their vitamins and says their prayers is capable of stepping into the ring with him. Yes, Hulk Hogan is now the latest person to declare willingness to compete against Fallon Fox, and he did so with all the enthusiasm you’d expect from a famous aging wrestler being asked questions about a transgender MMA fighter instead of his own career.

When we sat down with the lovely Felice Herrig just over a month ago, we talked about everything from the suspicious, last minute withdrawal of her opponent from Bellator 84 to the likelihood of seeing Felice fighting for the all female promotion InvictaFC down the line. But as any conversation with a woman as beautiful as Felice will inevitably touch upon, we ended up discussing sex, sex appeal, and the role of sex appeal in women’s MMA. As you can probably tell from a quick Google search of her name, Felice resides strongly in the “sex appeal as a positive” camp, not only because it boosts her marketability, but because it opens up completely new doors outside of the fight game that could provide a future career for Herrig down the line.

Taking that into account, Felice recently appeared on TMZ Live, of all places, to defend the role of sex appeal in female sports, and in the professional world in general. And for a show that usually spends 30 minutes insulting psuedo-celebrities for being fat and wearing people clothes, the discussion was honestly rather straightforward. I mean, it wasn’t Ronda Rousey and friends talking about Kat Dennings’ awesome boobage, but it was intriguing nonetheless. In short, Felice feels that as long as you can back up your looks with actual skill, then you’d be pretty foolish not to utilize both.

So check out the video above and let us know where you stand on the issue in the comments section. But we beg you, try and stifle your blatant misogyny just this once.

-J. Jones

Finally, a Sensei Seagal claim that I don’t immediately label as bullshit.

As hard as we’ve been trying, we just can’t change the subject from holier-than-thou hypocrites around here. At least not in the comments sections of our articles. It seems like the comments sections of every article we’ve written since Thursday have deflated into a bunch of angry, semi-literate geeks who possibly don’t even like MMA calling each other the worst names they can think of before accusing each other of being hypocrites. Coincidentally, I just started reading the comments section of our articles on Thursday morning.

So in that spirit, I’m relaying news to you about a certain lawman who seems to actually fancy himself as Above the Law. It appears that UFC trainer/Actor/CIA agent/Energy Drink Salesman Steven Seagal owes a boat load of money to the State of California. As in, more money than training playing patty-cake with Rafael Cavalcante can possibly be bringing in. To hear it from TMZ.com:

Taking out a boatful of terrorists hell-bent on nuking Honolulu does not mean you can skip out on paying your taxes … so the State of California has filed a giant tax lien against action film star Steven Seagal, TMZ has learned.

“I used to kind of have the opposite problem whenever I’d visit Thailand. Long story.”

And now for something completely different.

It’s 2012, yet I’m about to tell you that Ken Shamrock did something of relevance yesterday. Before you start to guess what he did: Yes, it was actually winning a fight – even though his opponent was just some random tubbaguts. No, it wasn’t a sanctioned MMA fight that he won. And obviously, it was pretty damn embarrassing for everyone involved. Give up yet? Brace yourselves…

Ken Shamrock, while breaking up a fight, got arrested for hitting a woman. His justification for hitting the woman wasn’t so much “She attacked me first, and I was simply defending myself” as it was the rock-solid “Wait, THAT’S a chick? For real? GET OUT!” defense.

Not that I think any of you are surprised by this, but let’s read what TMZ.com wrote about the incident after the jump:

I’m not touching this one. *Innocently whistles* *Walks Away* Props to reader Johnnyozone22 for the tip.

This doesn’t look good, folks. Initially reported by TMZ.com and confirmed by Josh Gross, UFC Light-Heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been arrested in Binghamton, New York on DUI charges after totaling his Bentley. From TMZ:

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Jones was involved in an accident at around 5:00 AM in Binghamton, NY. We’re told the car — which Jones crashed into a pole — was totaled and cops arrested Jones on the scene for DUI.

According to our sources, Jones was taken into custody by Broome County Sheriff and bailed out a few hours later … by his mom. Jones is from nearby Ithaca.

Fortunately for Jones, it appears that he only suffered minor injuries, and it does not appear that anyone else was injured from this accident. It is unclear whether or not there were any passengers in the car at the time of the accident.

(“Don’t you ever dismiss Katy Perry as an empty vessel for pop drivel again! ‘Teenage Dream’ is this generation’s ‘Sounds of Silence’!”)

TMZ is usually just good for catching Quinton “Rampage” Jackson monster truck racing police, Chuck Liddell drunk off his ass, or Dan Henderson corralling comely young ladies into cars. But recently their camera-creeps ran into the very well-behaved and incredibly friendly UFC heavyweight champ, Junior Dos Santos. As you’ll see, Dos Santos is becoming the new Wanderlei Silva — nightmare-inducing inside the ring but completely disarming and approachable outside of it.

Somehow, the amicable Dos Santos was able to turn the asinine pestering questions from the TMZ crew into an adorable video of him signing pop songs, and putting the sport of MMA in a favorable light. Check out the video after the jump of Dos Santos “singing” Adele and professing his love for Katy Perry.

(Props: TMZ via MMAMania)

Of course, we already knew that. But when a director can’t even be bothered to come up with some spin about “managing expectations” and “making it up in the international market,” you know a film is pretty much fucked. As the jerkoff TMZ cameraman puts it, “all of ‘em can’t be great successes.” Very comforting. Does this mean Gina Carano is going back into hiding for another two years?

(Props: TMZ via MMAMania)

A: Two, which doesn’t sound so impressive, but when you include Dan Henderson himself and husky MLB pitcher Brad Penny, it’s still something of an accomplishment. Yes, Hendo and Brad are bros, and this is how bros roll on a Monday night in Hollywood. In a related story, paparazzi photographers are the cockroaches of humanity.

(Just bring the man his honey-mustard wings and nobody gets hurt.)

TMZ digs the dirt:

UFC Hall-of-Famer Matt Hughes is at the center of a police investigation … after a female bystander told cops she suffered a broken nose when the fighter went off on another man inside an Illinois bar.

TMZ has confirmed 37-year-old Hughes was named in a police report filed in Taylor Springs, IL … stemming from an April 23 incident at a place called Trails End Bar and Grill.

According to a source who was inside the bar, Hughes got into an argument with a male bar patron … which led to some forceful shoving.

“That’s who we are. If you don’t want it, don’t come out there. If you don’t want to be hit, don’t step on the field. When we step on the field, you’re going to be hit, and we’re going to hit you hard.” – Rashad Bobino possibly addressing his football opponents OR women who might go to a club he frequents called "The Field."

Remember in high school how great it was when a little guy who was fed up with being picked on went berserk on a much bigger bully and kicked his ass like Ralphie Parker did to Scut Farkus in A Christmas Story?

When Ralphie is former UFC lightweight contender Roger Huerta and Scut is a 240-pound former Texas Longhorn linebacker who sucker punched a woman in the face from behind, it ‘s no surprise that everyone is on the side of the little guy once again.

 
(Unless Huerta had plastic surgery recently, this isn’t him, which means he may not be the guy who TMZ says ‘can be seen finishing his attack on the other man … who is sprawled out on the street.’")

MMA journalists are accused all the time of being "TMZ-like" reporters — sensationalistic rumor-mongers who report on stories devoid of any real facts. Calling  a reporter that is just as bad as saying "you have no integrity and have no right to be in your chosen profession."

Rarely does the match that lit the flame of a story we helped fan into a blazing, fast-spreading inferno get traced back to the source of that most detested disparaging monicker, but when it does, although it isn’t surprising considering the source, it makes you look long and hard at your own journalistic practices.

Roger Huerta Street Fight – Watch more Funny Videos
(Video courtesy of TMZ.com)

As if he wasn’t already worshipped by enough women, Roger Huerta increased his hero points this weekend by stomping the crap out of some worthless coward who sucker punched a girl outside of a bar in Austin. Check out the video above and you will see…

0:04: The sucker punch in question. Watch as the perp just strolls away like a total bitch.

0:16: Former UFC lightweight contender Roger Huerta comes by. He’s not happy with what he’s just witnessed, and wants to regulate.

When we last discussed Zuffa’s lawsuit against Randy Couture, our only source was an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal. Now, thanks to TMZ, we’ve seen the lawsuit with our own eyes (it’s conveniently PDF’d for you here). And after reading it, we immediately remembered why we never went to law school. But we were able to pick up a few interesting details:

— The lawsuit is seeking damages in excess of $50,000, not $10,000.

— Zuffa has hired Donald J. Campbell and J. Colby Williams as their representation.

— The lawsuit implicates Sherdog as the medium by which Randy Couture first began “implementing a tortious scheme and artifice whereby he and others acting on his behalf [fabricated] a false and fictitious history of events in which Couture was purportedly lied to and otherwise purposefully abused by Zuffa in a series of bad faith acts and unfair dealings.” Bastards! They get all the publicity!

— The parties who conspired with Couture are the “Does and Roe Corporations LLC” I think that means “to be named later,” but I’m no lawyer, and Google comes up with nothing, so I’m not 100% clear. But anyway, the lawsuit is referring to the people who hooked him up with HDNet so he could air his grievances in a public (or at least cable TV) forum. The accused “sought to maximize the damage inflicted upon Plaintiffs by arranging with HD Net TV to broadcast Couture’s remarks live and to later rebroadcast them during the course of an MMA event being presented by an UFC competitor.”

— Part of the financial judgement the UFC is seeking is to repay the costs that they incurred when they had to hold their response press conference (satellite uplink, production trucks, personnel, etc.).

— “Zuffa will further suffer a loss of prestige within the MMA community which will produce the consequential effect of inducing others not to deal with Zuffa.” Well, they may have a point there…

— Zuffa seems to accept Couture’s resignation from the organization on October 11, 2007, but argues that a one-year Restricted Period — in which he isn’t allowed to promote any events, programs, products or services related to unarmed combat — immediately kicked in. Couture’s sponsorship of the IFL’s “Xtreme Couture Team” was “the most recent and notorious” beach of “his covenant.”

See? Even better than NyQuil!