(*crickets*)

From the Toronto Sun via BloodyElbow:

Just eight months after 55,000 fight fans filled the Rogers Centre for the mixed martial arts company’s first ever Ontario show, Toronto will host UFC 140 on Saturday night. The fanfare for the event has paled in comparison to last April’s spectacle when the city had been buzzing for months about UFC 129, which was headlined by Canada’s own Georges St. Pierre. But this time around, it is being held at the much smaller Air Canada Centre…Despite the great line-up, there’s been little hoopla over the city’s second ever UFC event, which still has tickets available.

What the hell happened, Toronto? How did you go from a record-destroying immediate sellout in April to a “Good seats still available!” situation in December? On the surface, it doesn’t make much sense. So let’s throw some excuses around…

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ BlahBlahBlah2145)

While in attendance at the UFC press conference in which the promotion announced announced that it would be making it’s long-awaited debut in Ontario last year, I asked the company’s newly-appointed Canadian director of operations, Tom Wright, whether or not there were plans to implement any community-based programs such as in-school anti-bullying initiatives. Although it was early in his tenure, Wright told me that it was definitely something that they would be looking at and that programs such as these were some of the most rewarding he experienced as the head of the Canadian Football League Commissioner.

It’s been 19 months since Wright was hired and Zuffa announced this week that it’s planning on working with local schools in the Greater Toronto Area, where it’s Canadian branch is located, to implement a mentoring program for youth who have experienced bullying. Though it’s too early to tell, there are indications that a regular stream of fighters could speak to Toronto kids about their own experiences with bullying as youth, teachers and parents and if all goes well, it could become a implemented in schools across the country.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Just a friendly reminder that the UFC will be holding a press conference in Toronto today at the Air Canada — the site of UFC 140 in December — and we will have the live feed for you right here starting at 1:00 pm ET.

(The UFC’s second Toronto card is coming together nicely.)

Keeping with it’s latest trend of beating reporters to the punch when it comes to breaking news of fight bookings, the UFC announced that a pair of welterweight bouts have been added to UFC 140 on December 10 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto today, via UFC.com.

British Columbia-born wunderkind Rory “Ares” MacDonald (12-1) will take on “Hairrow” stylist and cartwheel-kick aficionado Brian “The White Anderson Silva”  Ebersole (48-14-1, 1 NC) on the card, while former CagePotato TUF 11 guest blogger Rich “The Raging Bull” Attonito (10-4) will see action against durable Toronto-based fighter Claude “The Prince” Patrick (14-1).

(Prepare to mobilize, Potato Nation North…)

Following the UFC’s record-shattering first visit to Toronto in April, the promotion plans on heading back to Canada’s largest city by the year’s end. According to an ESPN report, UFC 140 will take place at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on December 10th. No fights have been announced for the card yet, and since Georges St. Pierre is already booked to fight Nick Diaz on October 29th, the country’s biggest star almost certainly won’t be showing up for an encore performance.

That should help explain why the event is somewhat scaled down compared to UFC 129, which hosted over 55,000 fans at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. The capacity of the Air Canada Centre is about 20,000, meaning that a sellout would put the attendance on par with the UFC’s hugely successful events at Montreal’s Bell Centre — still nothing to sneeze at.

For the benefit of those who couldn’t make it, here are some of the notable faces (and other body parts) in attendance at last weekend’s UFC Fan Expo in Toronto. Check it out, if only to see Chan Sung Jung‘s #1 fan at the 0:04-0:06 mark. Those eyes haunt my dreams.

(You’re lucky you’re not a fat ugly bully, Jake. PicProps: Tracy Lee/CombatLifestyle.com)

If you missed the UFC 129 press conference, have no fear, we’ve got you covered with the short and sweet version of what went down today in Toronto.

If you want to waste 45 minutes watching the whole shebang, we will have the video up within the hour. Alternatively, you can watch it on UFC.com.

For the rest of us that have shit to do tonight, the Cliff’s Notes are after the jump.

They may have blocked us from having a booth at next weekend’s UFC Fan Expo, but that won’t stop us from trucking up to Toronto and hangin’ with our Canadian fans. If you’ll be in town for the UFC 129 festivities, we cordially invite you to the CagePotato.com UFC 129 ‘Banned’ Meetup Extravaganza (!), which goes down at Shoeless Joe’s (276 King St. West), next Thursday, April 28th, from 7-10 p.m.

While there will be many different parties and events happening around Toronto on Thursday night, ours is different in one very important way: OPEN FREAKIN’ BAR. That’s right, CagePotato will be covering beer, well drinks, and appetizers until our money runs out, so be sure to get there early. You’ll also get a “Free CagePotato” t-shirt (as supplies last), as long as you can look us directly in the eyes and promise that you’ll wear it to at least one day of the UFC Fan Expo on Friday or Saturday. (And if you see Sammie Black there with his silly little fake-ass jump rope, please make sure to make fun of him as hard as we did in Boston.)

If you can make it out, all we ask is one thing: Please RSVP by e-mailing cpbanned@breakmedia.com with your real name, commenter name (if you have one), and the number of guests you plan on bringing along. We need to get a head-count for this thing by Tuesday, or else Shoeless Joe himself is going to kick our asses. To summarize…

(The ‘Free CagePotato’ t-shirt — coming soon.)

Got some bad news, folks. Our grand plans to bring love, positivity, and a punch-machine to the Toronto UFC Fan Expo (April 29-30, Direct Energy Centre) have been officially shot down by the UFC top brass.

We should have seen this coming. After UFC president Dana White personally promised to ruin us following our leak of Arianny Celeste‘s Playboy photos, CagePotato.com has been blocked from all UFC media events, most notably the MMA legalization press conference at Madison Square Garden in January. (We were initially approved for attendance by MSG organizers, but then told we had been vetoed “due to a recent leaked magazine cover.”) A shame, considering we’ve been one of the foremost online supporters of the MMA in NY regulation efforts.

Still, we held out hope that this wouldn’t affect our appearance at the upcoming UFC Fan Expo in Toronto, considering that we had (without exaggeration) one of the most popular booths at the last UFC expo in Boston, and we were paying a couple grand for the privilege of being there. It turns out the UFC doesn’t even want our money anymore. That’s how you know things have spun out of control.

(FYI: If you shine this signal into the sky, Bruce Buffer shows up at your door with a carload of chicks and some party favors.)

It looks like the UFC may be saving Toronto for big money superfights in the future based on the record sellout of April’s upcoming UFC 129 event — the promotion’s first in the Canadian province of Ontario.

With a pre-estimated 55,000+ attendance and more than $11-million live gate that blows away the previous record of $8-million set by a 2008 regular season Buffalo Bills game, it’s no surprise that Dana White and co. would want to bring their marquee fights back to the city’s Rogers Centre in the future.

White told Yahoo’s Dave Meltzer that “Hogtown” has hopped to the front of the line of go-to stadium venue locations ahead of Dallas, Texas where Zuffa will likely host superfights like the proposed Georges St-Pierre-Anderson Silva bout that the promotion is hoping to make before the end of 2011.

Sure, I name all my Ferraris. This one? I call this one “Tuesday”.

The latest news surrounding ticket sales for the UFC’s debut in Toronto is staggering, particularly to those Americans under the impression that Canada’s economy still operates on the bartering system. After all 42,000 tickets for the April 30^th card, headlined by the Welterweight championship bout between Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields, sold out on day one, the layout in the Rogers Center was reconfigured to accommodate additional seating. The results of that prompt adjustment are in, and the figures now being tossed around are better than Dana himself could have expected.

(Even the cornermen are considering scalping their passes for this one.)

CP 24 is reporting that just over three hour after tickets went on sale Thursday for UFC 129 – Zuffa’s landmark first show in Ontario, fans snapped up each of the 42,000 tickets, prompting the promotion to open up more seats for the Rogers Centre show to ensure that there are tickets available to the plethora of fans waiting for Friday’s UFC newsletter pre-sale and Saturday’s general sale. Although the UFC’s director of Canadian Operations, Tom Wright selling 50,000 seats for the April 30 event, which will feature a pair of championship bouts, may be “pushing it,” judging by the response, the event could very well exceed the WWE’s record attendance mark for the venue of just south of 68,000.

Jake Shields talks UFC 129 vs Georges St. Pierre – Watch more Funny Videos

By CagePotato contributor Brian J. D’Souza

The April 30th UFC event at the Rogers Centre in Toronto will play host to pound-for-pound king Georges St. Pierre, a French-Canadian superstar who helps move everything from action figures to videogames for his UFC bosses. Jake Shields hasn’t quite reached that level of mainstream acclaim, but when he faces off with GSP at UFC 129, he’ll be carrying a 15-fight win streak thanks to an arsenal of tools that could be the wildcard against an experienced champion who has yet to show any stylistic weaknesses nor signs of decline.

Catching up with Shields during a tour of Ontario, the friendly Cesar Gracie team member seems to effortlessly surmount a packed schedule of seminars, media appearances, interviews, photo shoots and autograph requests with a smile and his positive attitude. A former welterweight champion in Elite XC and middleweight champion in Strikeforce, Jake wants to add the most important belt to his collection — the UFC 170-pound title.

Shields won’t play into a war of words with St. Pierre in the grand tradition of B.J. Penn, Dan Hardy and Josh Koscheck. “He’s a great guy. I don’t know him that well, so I’d have no reason to suspect him as being fake,” Shields says.

As he once told FIGHT! magazine’s Danny Acosta, “When you’ve been in fights, fighting 10 people at once, people with knives and bats and guns and whatnot, it definitely takes fear away in the cage,” however, on this day, Shields shied away from elaborating too much on his tumultuous youth.

(Video courtesy YouTube/TheFightNetwork)

Despite the growing hype surrounding a fight between him and outspoken former number one UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen, Wanderlei Silva says he’s still hoping he will be matched up with fellow slugger Chris Leben for his return bout following knee surgery. Silva mentioned a couple months back that he would be fighting Leben in Toronto, which seems like it must have been in the works, at least at the time considering "The Axe Murderer" was privy to the info that the UFC was likely holding a show in the Canadian city in the spring before it was announced.

"I want to make my next fight for here in Toronto, maybe in April. I started my rehab for my knee right now and I started to lift weights, but I don’t train martial arts right now. I’m gonna wait two weeks to see what’s gonna happen with my knee," Wand explains. "If it feels better I’m gonna fight on the first show in Toronto. [Chris Leben] is a really good opponent. His style’s like my style. He likes to fight. He’s no afraid to fight toe-to-toe, so he’s a good opponent. He’s going to fight right now in one of the next UFCs, but I want to fight against him."

As far as a possible fight with Sonnen goes, Silva thinks that unlike Anderson Silva, he’ll have the upper hand if the bout comes to fruition, citing a certain sparring session he had in Vegas with the testosterone deficient, smack talk abundant middleweight to support his opinion.

"Sonnen, he’s more of a wrestler. I think that’s a good fight for me, too," Silva says. "I trained with him one time at [Xtreme Couture] and I killed him there, you know? I think he’s a good opponent too. He’s tough.

(The Octagon will touch down for the first time in Toronto in April.)

During a press conference in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre today, UFC president Dana White announced that the promotion will make it’s first foray into Ontario when it hosts UFC 131 in the city on April 30 at the Rogers Centre.

Although no match-ups were revealed for the spring card, but White may have thrown out a clue about one possible participant of the event during the presser when he reiterated his statement that UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre is the most popular athlete to come out of Canada.

White also announced that the city will also be treated to a UFC Fan Expo that weekend and that the event will be held at the Direct Energy Centre. CagePotato.com is in the process of planning a booth for the show to try to eclipse the popularity our extremely popular Boston UFC Fan Expo spot.

(The UFC should make it interesting and let Leben get hammered for the bout)

UFC middleweight Wanderlei Silva is pretty sure his next opponent will be Chris Leben and that the fight will take place in Toronto in April.

The Brazilian MMA icon revealed the news in a recent interview he did with Fighters Only.

“I think I want to fight in April in Canada — I want to fight in Toronto. I think against Chris Leben. I want to fight with him next,” Silva informed Fighters Only when asked about his eventual return to the Octagon.

“I think he is interesting, he is my size, he is aggressive, he fights to the front (comes forward)," he explained. I think we are going to make an interesting fight.”

Will they be announcing an unlockable Harold Howard police chase sequence for UFC Undisputed 2010?

Has the UFC bought Ontario?

Will Kalib Starnes be the latest inductee into the UFC Hall of Fame?

Will Zuffa be holding an event in Toronto in the near future?

Tune in here live at 1:00 ET to find out.

(Video player after the jump)

Dana White UFC 97 Video Blog – 4/16/09 – Watch more Funny Videos

Well, it looks like we’re back in the regular rotation for these things. In this 4/16 edition of the Danavlog, Dana swings by the the Bell Centre for a UFC 97 press conference, shoots the shit with an Iraq War vet who he hooked up for the event, and does some high-stakes rock ‘n’ bowling with employee Marty Cordova. "You know he’s Mexican, right, he’s gonna try to pay me in pesos," Dana says at the 11:25 mark. Man, it’s like he won’t be happy until everybody hates him. Though it wasn’t shown in the video, DW gave a fairly interesting quote at the press conference about the UFC’s continued campaign of global (and local) domination:

Yesterday, Kenny Florian and Marc Ratner were at the Massachusetts State House fighting for the cause of MMA regulation, and things look promising. The battle continues in Ontario, and New York is still waiting for its MMA regulation bill to be voted on in the State Assembly. (Step on it, guys!)

(He’s wearing a hockey jersey! What more do Canadians want?)

So you thought you could keep the UFC out forever, eh, Toronto? You and the whole province of Ontario, just hanging out, watching hockey and that bullshit Canadian football, thinking you’re safe from MMA just because it’s technically illegal there. Well there’s one thing you didn’t plan on: Dana fucking White. And now he’s coming for you, and he won’t take no for an answer:

“I’m going after Canada after (I get approval in) New York and Massachusetts. I’m attacking Canada. I’m going to spend so much time in Canada I’ll have to buy a house. I’m going to live here until it’s done. I’m going to be sitting on the porch every day they come to work.”

You see what you’ve done, Toronto? You’ve forced Dana White to start stalking you. It’s like you’re Heather Locklear and White is me circa 1995. What can I say, it was a phase. Then she got old and starting appreciating the attention and I moved on with my life. It’s a whole thing I’d rather not get into. The point is, Toronto, I doubt you’ll be so lucky.

As much as Canadians seem to love MMA, it’s hard to understand the resistance to it at this point. But I guess you could say the same thing for New York. Eventually they’ll all give in, and they know it, so why not just quit stop screwing around and accept it. Unless this is all an elaborate ploy to see if Dana White will really buy that house. And he will. But damn, is the real estate market that bad even in Canada?