(Click chart for full-size version. For previous Databombs, click here.)

By Reed Kuhn, @Fightnomics

We’ve saved the biggest fighters for last in the striking assessment series. Heavyweights end 57% of fights by (T)KO, far more than any other weight class. They also have the highest average power head striking accuracy, possibly because defense is harder when you’re that big.

So let’s see how the whole division stacks up against each other, then look at the winners and losers in each category. A full explanation of the chart and variables is included at the end of this post.

THE WINNERS

Sniper Award: Relative newcomer Shawn Jordan has been a highly accurate striker to date, though he has lacked knockdown power. So let’s focus on the trio of Pat Barry, Dave Herman, and Mark Hunt, who each have four or more UFC appearances and have maintained power head striking accuracy of 38% or more. These are big guys who can also hit their target.

Energizer Bunny Award: Monstrous southpaw Todd Duffee has almost quadrupled the striking output of his opponents with three fights to date in the Octagon, none of which have gone the distance. But with far greater Octagon experience, veterans Cheick Kongo and former champion Junior Dos Santos have managed to almost double the volume of opponents, all while maintain accuracy well above the division average.

Opinions that fans and pundits have on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and its place in MMA are about as varied as the search engine terms that brought you here. With Dana White promising to “test the shit out of” fighters on testosterone replacement therapy to Vitor Belfort lashing out at his critics on Twitter over his own TRT usage, we’ve seen two different extremes over the course of this weekend alone. It’s a complicated issue that has many different ways of being interpreted; possibly none of which are entirely right or wrong by themselves. With that in mind, here’s an attempt at condensing the plethora of opposing views on the issue into nine different ways to look at it, arranged in no particular order.

1.) It’s Incredibly Dangerous For Both Fighters Involved.

Perhaps the most common criticism I’ve heard and read regarding testosterone replacement therapy in MMA is that it makes an already dangerous occupation even more hazardous. This is easy to observe through the perspective of the user’s opponent. It’s one thing if Barry Bonds wants to hit longer home runs, or if Hedo Turkoglu wants to flop harder — their opponents are not physically hurt by their actions in either example. However, if an MMA fighter takes testosterone to become more aggressive and punch harder, the likelihood of his opponent suffering irreparable brain damage increases dramatically.

Often neglected, however, are the additional long-term risks that the TRT user opens himself up to. Testosterone may make a fighter faster and stronger, but it doesn’t exactly undo brain damage. Prolonging a fighter’s physical prime also elongates the amount of time he’s receiving blows to the head. Imagine if boxers like Meldrick Taylor and Riddick Bowe – who showed signs of dementia pugilistica by the ends of their careers yet didn’t retire until they couldn’t stay in shape — had access to testosterone replacement therapy. Giving aging fighters the illusion that they can keep taking shots to the head because they’re still in good physical condition is bound to end in disaster.

2.) TRT Isn’t Nearly The Advantage It’s Made Out to Be.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

By Elias Cepeda

With a somewhat forgettable year thankfully coming to an end, UFC 155 looked to excite fans, promote contenders and get everybody ready for a new year. This card did exactly that. Not to reach into our bag of clichés so early into the aftermath, but UFC 155 really sent 2012 out with a bang, and set the bar high for upcoming cards in 2013.

With as many solid fights as took place Saturday in Las Vegas at UFC 155, Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon’s three round battle was recognized by the UFC brass as the Fight of The Night and each man earned an extra $65,000 for their effort. The lightweight contenders should also be in consideration for Fight of The Year lists everywhere.

If it is, Lauzon will be competing with himself for his incredible fight last August against Jamie Varner. JLau may have lost the decision against Miller on the judge’s score cards, two rounds to one, but deserves credit for coming back from being bullied, beaten and bloodied badly in the first round by Miller in the first round and finishing stronger in the final two rounds.

On the strength of his aggressiveness and multiple submission attempts to close out the second and third rounds, this writer believes that a very reasonable judge could have scored the bout Lauzon’s way instead of Miller’s. As it stands, both men were impressive in their own ways and, *reaches back into the bag of applicable clichés* there simply were no “losers” in this one.

Miller has always shown excellent boxing skills but he may have been sharper than ever before against Lauzon in the first and second rounds, scoring almost at will with shots to the body and head, as well as knocking Joe down repeatedly with a nasty inside leg kick. His dirty boxing from the clinch was masterful, using punches, knees and elbows to hurt and cut open Lauzon over and again.

(DuffMan!)

Heavyweight Todd Duffee’s career has been a strange mixed bag of extreme highs and lows. As a 23 year-old, Duffee became a sensation by knocking out Tim Hague in just seven seconds in his UFC debut back back in 2009. A host of injuries delayed his second fight in the organization for nearly a year.

When he did make his return, against Mike Russow, Duffee fell victim to one of the most surprising come from behind KO victories in UFC history. Duffee outclassed Russow for twelve minutes before getting caught and knocked out cold.

He was then released by the UFC, took a short notice fight against fellow He-Man impersonator Alistair Overeem (because short noticed fights against over-matched opponents was just how Ubereem got down in those days before he could keep himself occupied with running from and failing drug tests) , got shellacked, and then didn’t fight again for about a year and a half.

When he did, last April, Duffee stopped Neil Grove inside one round. He hasn’t fought since then but evidently the fickle matchmaking overlords (Happy Thanksgiving, Joe) at the UFC have been satisfied and it was announced Wednesday that the Duff Man will be back in the Octagon at UFC 155.

“Duffee (7-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) will meet Phil De Fries (9-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at UFC 155, this year’s version of the annual New Year’s Eve weekend card in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena,” Case Keefer of The Las Vegas Sun reports.

Are you happy to see Todd back in the big leagues after being dumped a couple years ago, nation? We are. Win or lose, he’s exciting. After the jump, let’s look back at our favorite Duffee moments so far.

(Whatever happened to Harold Howard anyway? The man was athletic and explosive.)

A few weeks ago, we ran down the crappiest fighters to ever be crowned “champion.” In this week’s installment of the CagePotato Roundtable, we’re sort of doing the opposite of that — discussing fighters who had all the talent in the world (and actually were champions in some cases), but screwed themselves out of glory thanks to their own poor decisions. So who was the biggest waste of potential in MMA history? Who made chicken shit out of chicken salad? Read on and we’ll tell you. As usual, if you have a topic suggestion for the Roundtable, please send it to tips@cagepotato.com.

Seth Falvo — as dictated from a hospital bed. Long story.

“Personal Demons.” It’s arguably the most annoying phrase in sports journalism. The phrase is nothing more than a cop-out; what we use to show that an athlete’s performance has been sub-par due to his life outside the sport, while concurrently admitting that we have no business going there. Rather than just say that someone’s career is in a rut due to a crippling addiction or reckless antisocial behavior, we say that they have “personal demons.” Because it’s trashy to say it, but it’s somehow professional to imply it.

Yet “personal demons” is the perfect phrase to describe our sport’s biggest waste of potential — and the only WEC Middleweight Champion to defend the belt — Paulo Filho.

In his prime, “Ely” had all the tools that a future UFC champion would need. Even today, a fighter with Filho’s credentials would be heralded as one of the UFC’s elite middleweights before even throwing a punch in the Octagon. Filho had black belts in Judo and Jiu-jitsu, a major organization’s title, and a flawless 16-0 record with wins over guys like Murilo Rua, Ryo Chonan, Chael Sonnen, and Minowaman. This is a guy who beat Anderson Silva while training with him, who turned down an opportunity to train with Chuck Liddell (after the Iceman sought his help). He had it all.

(Take it easy, Todd, it’s not like you’re Anthony Johnson or somethin’.) 

We’ll give the fellas behind Super Fight League this, aside from their overly-lavish-yet-somehow-clusterfucked-production, their motocross-sized ring, and their pants-shittingly terrible theme song, they manage to book some intriguing matchups every now and again. Considering how green of a promotion SFL is, we’d almost consider throwing our support behind them if they didn’t insist on cancelling out those interesting matchups with ones involving Bob Sapp or Bobby Lashley on every other card. But today, we can put another check in the “You have our attention” column for the Indian promotion, as it has been announced that former UFC slugger Todd Duffee and Heavyweight submission/anarchy specialist Jeff Monson have been booked to throw down in the headlining bout of SFL’s fourth event.

Okay, so it’s not a match that will likely make your butthole pucker with excitement, but it’s a huge step up from their last headliner, and that counts for something, right?

We last saw the “official” record holder for fastest UFC knockout in action at Super Fight League’s second event, where he successfully knocked the poop out of Neil Grove in just over 30 seconds, snapping a two fight skidmark in the process. In case you haven’t noticed, the overarching theme of this article is all things related to feces. Just go with it.

Monson, on the other hand, is coming off a first round submission via North-South choke over Denis Komkin at the same M-1 Global event that saw Fedor Emelianenko nearly retire Pedro Rizzo from the waking world before announcing his own retirement from the sport shortly thereafter. Perhaps the most interesting angle of this match is that Monson has never been truly KO’d before, unless you count that time his ex-girlfriend nearly knocked him out of MMA competition for a decade by leaking those photos of him desecrating the Washington State Capitol building. In fact, Monson hasn’t even been finished in over 5 years (a third round TKO loss to Pedro Rizzo back in September of 2007), so Duffee can really make a statement if he is able to put away a guy like “The Snowman” considering not even Daniel Cormier was able to do so.

Videos of both fighter’s most recent performances are after the jump. 

(Minowaman vs. Shlemenko. Sorry Seth, this is what you get for taking the weekend off.) 

At the minimum, last night’s Super Fight League 2 card was a small, albeit significant, improvement over the upstart promotion’s first card. The fact that Bob Sapp was not participating already ensured this. Yes, it was still riddled with the goofy, often laughably bad commentary of Phil Baroni and some other guy who I don’t really care to look up at the moment, but overall, it was able to deliver more action and dramatic finishes than this weekend’s Bellator card could account for, and considering it was free, who are we to complain? If only they could get rid of those awkward crowd shots.

But before we get to the most exciting finish, perhaps we could focus on the oddest one– Alexander Shlemenko’s first round TKO of Ikuhisa Minowa. Minowa continued his rough streak against recognizable-named opponents this morning, and it looks like he could be on the shelve for a little longer than usual this time around. For the first couple of minutes, the fight was vintage Shlemenko, featuring more spinning death attacks than a tornado in an axe factory. Minowa simply had no answer for “The Storm” on the feet, and was stalked around the cage until around the two minute mark, when Shlemenko was able to land a well timed knee to Minowa’s skull that sent him reeling backward.

Minowa seemed to be alright, reaching for a leg log in the moments afterward, but when Shlemenko was able to pull out from danger, Minowa suddenly curled up in the fetal position with an apparent rib injury. No word yet on exactly how bad he is hurt, but we’re going to guess that the injury was more, you know, real, than the quad injury that felled Sapp in his main event clash against James Thompson at SFL 1. The announcer not named Phil Baroni was kind enough to inform us that Shlemenko has now fought 13 times in the past two years. That is fucking insane. And speaking of insane, Shlemenko’s thirst for his well deserved rematch against Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard might just be driving him a bit loony. After defeating Minowa, Shlemenko gave what was perhaps the greatest post fighting interview of all time, calmly stating, ”Hey India. Hector, I kill you.” If only Lombard could come to an agreement with the Bellator brass, perhaps we could watch these two throw down again.

The Duffee/Grove video, along with the full results are after the jump. 

(Contrary to what this painting implies, Minowa will not be taking on Gabe “Godzilla” Rudiger. Seems like a wasted opportunity to us.) 

India-based promotion Super Fight League is quickly making waves in the MMA landscape. Aside from being the first promotion to sign an exclusive broadcast deal with Youtube, they’ve managed to sign UFC veterans Todd Duffee and Trevor Prangley and held a mildly successful first event earlier this month. Sure, Bob Sapp was there, a sentiment we are getting sicker and sicker of typing, but just listen to SFL’s theme song and tell us that these gentlemen are not on the short path to success. Go ahead. We’ll be right here. Haaaaangin out.

But if you weren’t convinced by Super Fight League’s first event, then you will be more than happy to learn that they’ve decided to move on from the undisputed queen of freak show fights in Sapp to the undisputed king of freak show fights in Ikuhisa Minowa for their next event. Oh yes, one of the greatest fighters to never hold a major title will be taking on two time Bellator middleweight tournament winner Alexander Shlemenko at SFL 2, which goes down on April 7th from Chandigarh, India.

We last saw Minowaman in action at the “meh” ProElite 3 event, where he was outpointed by TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove. True to form, Minowa rebounded from the loss by picking up a first round submission over a 1-6 fighter that I am not going to bother looking up again because I already closed the tab. The Super Hulk Champion could be in for a long night against Shlemenko, a 44-7 kickboxing expert who showcased an improved submission game in his Bellator 50 guillotine joke victory over Zelg Galesic. If this fight features anything less than ten spinning backfists and a dropkick we will eat our hats.

Also set for SFL 2…

CagePotato Roundtable is a new recurring column in which the CagePotato writing staff (and some of our friends) share their opinions on an MMA-related topic, and hopefully inspire some discussion among our readers as well. For the inaugural installment, we took inspiration from Joe Rogan’s enthusiastic crowning of last weekend’s Tim Boetch vs. Yushin Okami fight as “the greatest comeback in the history of the UFC.” That’s debatable, to say the least — but isn’t everything? So what *was* the greatest comeback fight in MMA history?

Seth Falvo
When Joe Rogan first called The Barbarian’s victory the greatest comeback in UFC history, my first thought was “Come on, Joe, are you seriously the only MMA fan who hasn’t seen Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Bob Sapp?” That comeback exposed Sapp for the overhyped freak that he was while establishing the legend of Big Nog and his ability to come from behind to win fights. Hell, we at Cagepotato consider it to be the best freak show fight to ever come out of Japan. But in fairness to Joe Rogan, that fight didn’t take place in the UFC. So my second thought was “Come on, Joe, are you seriously the only UFC fan who hasn’t seen Mike Russow vs. Todd Duffee?”

What makes this comeback so great was the fact that Todd Duffee and Mike Russow were essentially photo negatives of each other. Before this fight, Duffee was destined to be the next big thing in the UFC’s heavyweight division, having just tied the record for the fastest knockout in UFC history in his promotional debut against Tim Hague. Duffee was on the cover of Muscle & Fitness, the poster boy for Muscletech and seemingly in every men’s magazine on the planet — no matter how loosely the content was related to sports. Meanwhile, Russow was quietly coming off of a unanimous decision victory over Justin McCully in his UFC debut and had more fat in his left bicep than Todd Duffee had in his entire body. Everything about this fight seemed like it was a squash match.

(Incredible falling tree knockout of the day, via Reddit MMA)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere…

- UFC on FX 2 Open Media Workout Photos Gallery for ‘Alves vs. Kampmann’ in Australia (MMA Mania)

- Manager: Frankie Edgar Wants Ben Henderson Rematch, Not A Move To Featherweight (MMA Convert)

- Georges St-Pierre Gets Schooled in Japanese Martial Arts (The Fight Nerd)

- Forgotten Champion: Tim Sylvia’s Desperate Ploy to Get Back in the UFC Octagon (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- King Mo Back In The Hospital In Severe Condition (FightLine)

- Dan Henderson Has Harsh Words for Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (5th Round)

- Todd Duffee vs. Neil Grove Booked for Super Fight League 2 (MiddleEasy)

- UFC Japan: A Wonderful Show & A Pyrrhic Victory? (Fight Opinion)

- Pat Healy: The Road to Columbus (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Miesha Tate vs. Ronda Rousey: Greatest Hits (Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com)

- UFC 144: Payout Perspective (MMA Payout)

(Big stakes for both fighters if this one happens.)

We’ll preface this story with the disclaimer that it’s simply a rumor at this point, but word on the street is that Todd Duffee may be the next opponent in line for Fedor Emelianenko.

According to a post on Fedor’s official website, “The Last Emperor” has been taking some time off to  nurse a thigh injury and likely won’t fight until the summer against a “former UFC legend.” Sure it’s a stretch to say that Duffee is a UFC legend, but remember that these are those Crazy Russians talking and what else are they going to advertise him as, the ripped dude that got knocked out by that flabby Mike Russow guy?

(Why does Keith have to be such a mean old Grinch? Pic props Getty Images)

Dana White put out a short and sweet edition of his UFC 141 video blogs today so he could explain the UFC’s decision to award Duane Ludwig with the fastest KO in UFC history.

Previously, Todd Duffee held the distinction for his :07 routing of Tim Hague at UFC 102 back in 2009 and it was believed that Chan-Sung Jung mirrored The Duffman’s time earlier this month when he knocked out Mark Hominick at UFC 140.

On closer inspection it seems that neither fighter really holds the record as it really belongs to Ludwig, whose 2006 knockout over Jonathan Goulet at UFN 3 was previously in the books at :11.

(Video courtesy of Vimeo/THE REEM)

Our favorite web documentary series is back with another episode just intime for its protagonist’s biggest fight of his career.

In this episode of The Reem, Alistair Overeem does some PR work in L.A. ahead of his UFC 141 bout with Brock Lesnar this Friday and spends some time training with Mark Munoz and company at Reign Training Center.

Shame on HDNet and the Octagon Nation Tour for jacking our swagger (6:08 mark) and props to Overeem for punking the last fan in line at the signing. The dude looked like he was going to cry.

(Maurice Smith? I thought he was dead.)

Twice fired UFC heavyweight Tim Hague is determined to get back to the Octagon, but his choice of opponent for his upcoming fight likely won’t garner him another invite to the big show from matchmaker Joe Silva.

Hague (13-5), who spent a week at Brock Lesnar’s Death Clutch gym to help the former UFC heavyweight champion prepare for his UFC 141 fight with Alistair Overeem is slated to take on aging UFC veteran Maurice Smith (12-13) in Brazil on January 20 under the Kumite Combate banner.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/CP)

MMA flick Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown got its DVD release last week, which means it’s time to find out if Todd Duffee’s Oscar buzz is legit. We sent CagePotato L.A. correspondent Scott Palmer to a ‘NBD2‘ media event at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu West L.A. earlier this month, where he spoke to director/star Michael Jai White and co-star and one of the film’s fight choreographer’s Scottie “Einstein” Epstein about the movie-making process. Some highlights and an incredible GIF of the thespian version of The Duffman in action are after the jump; for more killer flicks, check out the latest Sony Action Unleashed DVDs.

(Don’t feel bad, Todd — that’s still 18 more seconds than we would have lasted.)

After four years of whipping heavyweights around the world, Alistair Overeem has finally signed with the UFC, and will fight Brock Lesnar on December 30th. (*Pause for happy-dance*) Though Overeem has more submission victories on his MMA record than knockouts (19 compared to 14), the Demolition Man has become infamous for the destructive power of his fists and knees — which he’s also showcased to brutal effect during his parallel career in K-1. So in honor of his new gig as a UFC fighter, we decided to rank our ten favorite Alistair Overeem knockouts of all time. Enjoy, and let us know your personal favorite in the comments section…

#10: Alistair Overeem vs. Lee Tae-Hyun
DREAM.4, 6/15/08

Overeem got an easy draw for his DREAM debut — South Korean ssireum wrestler Lee Tae-Hyun, who came into the fight with a 1-1 MMA record. Thirty-six seconds later, Tae-Hyun had a 1-2 record and a fresh concussion.

#9: Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers
Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery, 5/15/10

In his first Strikeforce heavyweight title defense in two-and-a-half years, Overeem completely outclassed the Grim, ragdolling him just part the one-minute mark, then smashing Rogers with ground-and-pound until the challenger crumbled.

(Hendo’s friends knew something was wrong with him, but it took a doctor to figure out his T levels were really low.)

Rumor had it for a while that Dan Henderson was one of the fighters with an approved testosterone replacement therapy exemption, but until now there was no concrete evidence that he was in the same company as Chael Sonnen, Todd Duffee, Nate Marquardt and Dennis Hallman (who we know about). It’s not that he was hiding it, it’s just that no one asked.

In an interview Hendo did with ESPN this week, the Strikeforce light heavyweight champion ,who revealed that he has been using TRT since 2007, spoke openly and candidly about the reason he required the therapeutic exemption and the effect it has on his health. Among other things, Henderson called for stricter year-round testing  for anyone who requires hormone replacement to ensure that he or she isn’t upping their dosages to give them an edge in the off-season.

VidProps: BabaluJack/YouTube

We’re referring, of course, to DREAM’s Fight for Japan Bantamweight Grand Prix Final, which for whatever reason was not neatly numbered and filed like most decent MMA events. “DREAM.17″ would have looked just fine in the headline, but we can’t type all that out as an article title, and “DREAM.FFJBWGPF” looks like the most jacked-up file extension ever.

This just in: apparently the official designation is “Fight for Japan: DREAM Japan GP Final 2011 Bantamweight Japan Tournament Final”. Wait, for real? DREAM is just screwing with us now, right? That whole phrase can probably be conveyed by just a few kanji on a Japanese fight poster, but our puny Western alphabet is not equal to that much event namingness. So FFJ:DREAM.JGPF-2011BWJTF is official? Jesus. If your Norton software started pinging like a methed-out dolphin when you logged on, we’re sorry. Blame FEG for not naming their events in a reasonable manner.

The next DREAM card (much easier) was shaping up to be an entertaining show, and we were particularly interested to see Duffee return to the ring after getting manhandled by Alistair Overeem last December. A matchup with Nick Gaston, the XXL Muay Thai specialist more popularly known as AfroZilla, was just one of the intriguing bouts set for the event this Saturday, but the Duffman has suffered an undisclosed injury and withdrew from the fight. Multiple sources are reporting that Gaston has been pulled from the card as well, since an opponent could not be found in time for the KOTC prospect. While six days sounds like a normal time span for FEG to put fights together (especially when foreigners are involved), they probably didn’t have anyone looking to jump up and take on “AfroJira” on such short notice.

Luckily, this guy on YouTube either didn’t include the heavyweight bout on his homemade promo, or he quickly re-cut it last night after hearing the news about Duffee (or…he knew all along!!!). Either way, it’ll give you a quick preview of the fights that will be going down this weekend. Enjoy, and let us know what you’re looking forward to Saturday night in the comments.

It’s the only way we know you care.

[RX]

(How the hell could a Michael Jai White joint go straight to DVD?)

The world will have to wait a little longer for the big screen debuts of Todd Duffee, Lyoto Machida, Eddie Bravo and Scott Epstein.

Apparently the production company for Never Back Down 2, Baumgarten Management and Productions were unable to secure the backing of a major studio and as a result the sequel to the 2008 MMA-themed movie that grossed just south of $24,000,000 will be released straight to DVD September 13.

The dearth of awesome fan-made promos does not bode well for DREAM. VidProps: DREAM

DREAM returns for the final round of the Japan Bantamweight Grand Prix on July 16, and there are a few interesting matchups on the card (which is apparently *not* DREAM.17 as we’d been thinking). Even if there weren’t, it’s smack in the middle of the summer MMA doldrums, and there’s not much else going on. Even if there were something else going on, jesus, don’t you assholes care about Japan?

Come on in past the jump and we’ll fill you in on the bouts slated for the event, with a few notes for your enlightenment and/or entertainment. Just call us the love child of the Buddha and Louis CK.

(Duffee vs. Overeem at Dynamite!! 2010. Match starts around the 5:15 mark. Props: sidiro55)

Bulky UFC vet Todd Duffee has been a ghost since getting stormed by Alistair Overeem last New Year’s Eve in Saitama. But he finally has his next fight booked, and once again it’ll be in front of a Japanese audience. According to Nightmare of Battle, Duffee will compete on the Dream.17 card against undefeated KOTC standout Nick “Afrozilla” Gaston, who had to have been signed at least partly for his nickname.

(For those of you who were just struck by a weird feeling of deja-vu, let us clarify: Dream.17 is the event coming up on July 16th at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo. The Dream event that happened on May 29th was known alternately as “Fight for Japan!” and “Japan GP – 2011 Bantamweight Japan Tournament,” even though many people, including ourselves, referred to it as Dream.17. Anyway, we’re back to the numbers now, which are always easier to deal with.)

(Aoki is not impressed by DREAM’s choices of opponents)

DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki will reportedly take on either former World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight champion Jamie Varner or former Maximum Fighting Championship lightweight champion Antonio McKee at DREAM’s “Fight for Japan” disaster relief benefit show on May 29 in Tokyo.

According to MMAWeekly, Aoki’s original opponent, UFC and Shooto veteran Williamy Freire, was unable to secure a visa to fight in Japan, so the promotion offered the bout to McKee, who was inexplicably stripped of his MFC belt earlier this month and learned of the news from a press release put out by the Edmonton, Alberta-based promotion announcing that Drew Fickett and Hermes Franca would be competing in its next show for “Mandingo’s” strap. His opportunity to contend for DREAM gold, however has hit a snag as he too does not have a visa to fight in Asia. As a precaution, DREAM has now offered Varner the bout, but it is unclear at this point which of the two former champions will be taking on Aoki in three weeks.

THE REEM 2 EPISODE 1: COMING TO AMERICA from THE REEM on Vimeo.

It’s been a while, but Alistair Overeem’s web-based mini-documentary series “The Reem” is back with another season. Season 2 picks up with Alistair getting the invite to appear on K-1′s NYE  Dynamite! card opposite last-minute replacement Todd Duffee. Following the impressive KO win, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker approaches Overeem and offers him a slot on the promotion’s planned heavyweight grand prix and “The Demolition Man” immediately requests a rematch with Fabrisco Werdum in the opening round. So much for his detractors saying he only takes easy fights.

Gotta love that big, murderous bastard. Lots more greatness after the jump.

(Overeem sporting his belts clockwise in order of importance.)

Alistair Overeem earned more than the uber paycheck and the interim DREAM heavyweight belt in Japan at the K-1 Dynamite!! 2010 New Year’s Eve event. The DREAM, Strikeforce and K-1 Open Weight Grand Prix champion also secured a spot in the Guinness Book of World Record as the only fighter to consecutively hold three championship belts.

If it’s any consolation to Todd Duffee, who reportedly made $60,000 for the 19-second pounding he took from "The Demolition Man," his name will also be inscribed in the tome as the fighter who Overeem beat to set the record. At least there’s that.

(Alistair Overeem vs. Todd Duffee. Fight starts at the 3:41 mark and ends 19 seconds later. Good night Ireeeene.)

Full results from today’s New Year’s Eve event in Saitama, Japan, are after the jump, along with a few must-see videos courtesy of ZP420MMA. Note: Bob Sapp apparently backed out of his IGF slap-fight-rules bout with Shinichi Suzukawa at the last minute.

(Video courtesy YouTube/lookoutawhale)

If lookoutawhale doesn’t do video editing for a living, he has to be one of the best weekend warriors out there making MMA-themed comedy classics. His Knee to Crotch Party, GSP is Not Impressed at Awards and the History of the Nipple Tweak videos are must sees.

In honor of K-1′s surprise announcement that Todd Duffee will be taking on K-1 OWGP winner and Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem, Whale put together this sweet little Sega Genesis Mortal Combat throwback that should help make it a bit easier for you to trudge through hump day.

(That shouldn’t be a problem, Todd. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting)

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…

- Helwani VS Dundas: UFC 125 Edition (Versus MMA Beat)

- Our Top UFC Photos of 2010 (MMA Fighting)

- Tim Sylvia replacing Todd Duffee at Titan Fighting Championships 16 (Five Ounces of Pain)

- The Best of Japanese MMA in 2010 (MMA Scraps)

- Brock Lesnar Looking For A Way Out Of MMA And Back To Pro-Wrestling? (SBNation.com/MMA)

- Sean McCorkle Returns Against Christian Morecraft at Fight Night 24 (Heavy.com/MMA)

- Pat Miletich Has Sold His Miletich Fighting Systems Gym (MiddleEasy)

- Exclusive Interview: Daniel Gracie talks Bellator, Georges St. Pierre and Frankie Edgar (LowKick)

- Dana White’s UFC 125 Video Blog, Part 1 (MMA Convert)

- Behind the Lens: Rich Franklin (FightMagazine)

(No, really, I love it. It’s much better than something practical like a new hoodie or pair of glasses.")

Since it’s the holidays and we haven’t been spitting out as many Photoshops as we used to, we figured it would be appropriate to put together a collection of illustrations depicting what a handful of fighters and MMA luminaries are angling for this Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa or putting up with obnoxious relatives just so you can get a crappy token gift day.

The possibilities were pretty much endless, but these are the best we could come up with on an hour’s notice.

Enjoy.

(Todd Duffee does curls for the girls and testosterone replacement therapy for his opponents. PicProps: XPE Sports)

Alistair Overeem’s New Year’s Eve bout with recently exiled UFC malcontent Todd Duffee is officially going down, according to a report out Thursday morning from MMA Fighting.com’s Ariel Helwani. Overeem’s status for the event was confirmed yesterday as rumors of the Duffee fight simultaneously began to percolate. At first it appeared the honchos at FEG wanted to keep the identity of The Reem’s opponent secret – at least until they’d, we don’t know, slipped Duffee through customs in a giant duffle bag marked “Perishable Goods” or something like that – but then the fighter himself let the cat out of the bag by posting (and immediately deleting) a message on his Facebook page.

Smooth move, T-Duff. Hey, since it’s the holiday season, please allow us to express our heartfelt thanks for social media and the unfettered opportunity it provides fighters to broadcast the worst parts of their personalities and prematurely release time-sensitive information to the public without checking with anyone (anyone at all) beforehand. Without you, beloved Facebook and Twitter, this sport wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Isn’t that right, Marcus Davis?