(Too weird to live. Too rare to die. Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

We crossed our fingers and held our breath, but we were not able to stave off the inevitable. As first reported by MMAFighting, longtime UFC veteran Keith Jardine has been cut by the UFC following his fourth consecutive loss, a majority decision against Matt Hamill at the TUF 11 Finale.

Jardine has competed exclusively for the UFC since entering the organization through The Ultimate Fighter 2 in 2005. Since his stint on the reality show, Jardine has gone 6-7 in professional competition, scoring notable victories over Forrest Griffin, Chuck Liddell, and Brandon Vera. But in recent years, the Dean of Mean repeatedly fell short against the elite of the light-heavyweight division, suffering defeats at the hands of Quinton Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, and Thiago Silva, among others. Said Dana White of Jardine’s release: "It sucks. I have nothing but respect for him and I hope to see him back soon."

(Photo courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

The UFC paid out $506,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses for Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale event, with longtime Octagon veterans Chris Leben and Keith Jardine taking home the biggest checks. The complete payout list is below; keep in mind that the numbers don’t include additional income from sponsorships and undisclosed "locker room bonuses," or deductions for taxes, insurance, licensing fees, and antibiotics.

Court McGee: $41,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus, $25,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
def. Kris McCray: $8,000

Matt Hamill: $77,000 (includes $26,000 win bonus, $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Keith Jardine: $80,000 (includes $25,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Chris Leben: $95,000 (includes $35,000 win bonus, $25,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Aaron Simpson: $13,000

(Keith "Necro Reaper" Jardine, after his barbed-wire and fluorescent-light-tube death-match against Matt "Da Def Syco" Hamill. / Photo courtesy of the TUF 11 Finale gallery on MMAFighting.com)

Because you pansies get all red-faced when the Potato Index skips an event, we’ve brought back the beloved arbitrary numerical ranking system for a special two-fer installment. As for the recent complaints that the Potato Index’s scores have gotten less arbitrary, we have passed the feedback onto the Index and hope that the scores are now sufficiently chaotic while still maintaining their accuracy and integrity…

Court McGee +518
Going from pantsless meth addict to Ultimate Fighter winner? Yeah, we’d call that an upgrade. But Court McGee is more than just an inspirational story. With his endless heart and skill with a choke-hold, he’s a legitimately valuable acquisition for the UFC. If they bring him along slowly, he could become a factor in the middleweight division someday.

Kris McCray -33.333 [repeating]
Sometimes, tough ain’t enough. McCray may be a little too green to compete at the UFC level, but as a season runner-up, he deserves one more fight — ideally, against one of the TUF guys that scored victories on Saturday, like Chris Camozzi or Rich Attonito.

(Props: Hamill the Movie on Vimeo)

If for some reason that hot date of yours falls through this Saturday night, why not swing by CagePotato.com, as our weekend editor Chad Dundas will be running the liveblog of the Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale. The show starts at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Spike TV, so check your local listings and be wary of spoilers. (And join a MMA FightPicker pool if you haven’t already!)

Speaking of the finale, co-headliner Matt Hamill is now the subject of an inspirational biopic called Hamill, which follows the athlete’s life and career; you can check out the trailer above, and learn more about the film at hamillthemovie.com. The actor who plays Matt is Russell Harvard, who you may remember as the "bastard from a basket" in There Will Be Blood. Plus, Rich Franklin is in the flick as some sort of disapproving wrestling coach, I guess. Now if they would only make a movie based on Court McGee’s life…

(Keith Jardine: The love child of Michael Berryman and this thing. Photo courtesy of ESPN)

You know what time it is, Potato Nation — it’s time to steal some money from your girlfriend’s purse and wire it to a shady off-shore gambling site in the faint hope that A) You’ll win your bets, and B) They’ll eventually send you your profits. Lots of luck, suckers! As tradition dictates, here are the betting lines for Saturday’s TUF 11 Finale, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com 

Court McGee (-180) vs. Kris McCray (+175)
Matt Hamill (-138) vs. Keith Jardine (+125)
Aaron Simpson (-334) vs. Chris Leben (+292)
Spencer Fisher (-175) vs. Dennis Siver (+163)
Jamie Yager (-105) vs. Rich Attonito (+105)

John Gunderson (-245) vs. Mark Holst (+285)
Brad Tavares (-205) vs. Seth Baczynski (+200)
Kyle Noke (-185) vs. Josh Bryant (+170)
Chris Camozzi (-125) vs. James Hammortree (even)
Travis Browne (-185) vs. James McSweeney (+155)

So how can we beat the bookmakers on Saturday? Pull up a chair and I’ll lay it all out for you…

(Travis Browne’s knockout of Brian Campbell)

(Travis Browne’s knockout of Abe Wagner)

Along with the six TUF 11 castmembers getting a shot on the preliminary card of this Saturday’s Finale show, two Octagon first-timers will also be trying to make a big impression. Get to know them below, and tell us how you think they’ll fare in the comments section…

TRAVIS BROWNE (HW)
Experience: 9-0 record with appearances in Bellator, King of the Cage, and Gladiator Challenge. Five of his wins came within the first minute of the fight. Most recently scored a 35-second knockout of Aaron Brink at a GC event in February, which followed an eight-second knockout of Abe Wagner two weeks earlier and a nine-second knockout of Brian Campbell last November.
Will be facing: James McSweeney (4-4, 1-0 UFC)
Lowdown: At 6’6", 250 pounds, and with a Carwin-like habit of ending fights early, Travis Browne could make a very nice addition to the UFC’s heavyweight roster. Based out of the Alliance Training Center in San Diego, "Hapa" works as a professional dog trainer when he’s not knocking people unconscious. Browne was exposed to drug and gang culture in his native Hawaii at an early age, but escaped his rough upbringing and found a positive outlet for his aggression in jiu-jitsu. He was not selected to appear on Bully Beatdown, which really bothered him.

MMA fans have their work cut out for them this week, with three notable events featured on cable TV. Tomorrow night, Strikeforce: Los Angeles airs on Showtime (11 p.m. ET/PT), headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Renato Sobral. On Saturday, the TUF 11 Finale goes down in Las Vegas (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET/PT), with Court McGee and Kris McCray battling for the weird glass trophy, and Matt Hamill and Keith Jardine meeting in a light-heavyweight scrap. And on Sunday, Jamie Varner and Kamal Shalorus face off in a potential #1 lightweight contender’s match at WEC 49 in Edmonton (Versus, 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT). 

This week’s MMA FightPicker pools focus on the TUF 11 Finale, but we’ve also thrown in three matchups from the WEC card just to keep you on your toes. Feeling lucky? Then join some pools and show everybody how smart you really are. The current questions are after the jump…

You already know that Court McGee vs. Kris McCray will be the co-headliner at next Saturday’s TUF 11 Finale show (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET/PT), and we also told you that Rich Attonito won the "who gets to kick Jamie Yager’s ass" sweepstakes. So who else will join them at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas? Spike has confirmed the following bouts for the event…

Josh Bryant vs. Kyle Noke: No, Bryant won’t be facing off with fellow semi-finalist Brad Tavares in a third-place match. Instead, he has drawn Kyle Noke, the Australian veteran who was upset by Kris McCray in the TUF 11 quarterfinals.

Brad Tavares vs. Seth Baczynski: You see what they did there? Tavares and Baczynski get to have a rematch after their quarterfinal match ended abruptly via soccer kick disqualification.

(Photo courtesy of MMA Junkie)

By Elias Cepeda for CagePotato

After an impressive seven-year career competing around the Northwest and as a member of the Nevada Lions in the IFL, John Gunderson (22-7) finally got his ticket to the big show when we was invited to fight Rafaello Oliveira as a late replacement at UFC 108. Though he lost that match by decision, his performance was enough to earn him a second shot — and that’s when things got tricky. A scheduled meeting with Paul Taylor fell apart when Taylor withdrew from the match not once but twice. Luckily, Canadian newcomer Mark Holst has agreed to replace Taylor at the TUF 11 Finale on June 19th. Gunderson took some time to update us on his upcoming redemption-match, and his quest to find success in the UFC while juggling his other two jobs — personal trainer and soccer dad.

CAGEPOTATO.COM: After taking your first UFC fight on short notice you had a full camp and were set to fight Paul Taylor in April at UFC 112 but then the bout didn’t happen because he pulled out. What happened there?

JOHN GUNDERSON: I got the fight with Paul Taylor in Abu Dhabi and flew all the way out there, weighed in and apparently that night Taylor started having problems. He had migraines and got real sick and wasn’t able to compete. The UFC turned around right away and put me on the finale card against Taylor again. But about three or four weeks ago I found out that Paul Taylor pulled out again and now I’m fighting Mark Holst. They didn’t tell me why and I didn’t even ask.

Let’s back up for a second and talk about what it was like to have gone through an entire camp, then go all the way to Abu Dhabi and have your opponent not compete. When did you find out and how disruptive was it?

Oh yeah, I’ve never gone through anything like that. The day of the fight we actually got on the bus to take us from the hotel to the event center which was literally five minutes away. So I was an hour, hour and a half out from fighting and that’s when they told us. You can imagine, go all the way out to Abu Dhabi after losing my first UFC fight. In the back of your head you are thinking that if you don’t win this one, that’s it. So leaving the hotel, I was ready. I felt like it was taken from me but the UFC gave me another opportunity right away so…

Wait, you were on the bus and that’s when you found out? Did you have a period of denial at first, like did you think there was still some chance that you would get to fight?

(Roy vs. Fedor, rib-eating contest, no wet-naps allowed. MAKE IT HAPPEN, DANA.)

— Spike TV has confirmed that the previously reported matchup between Matt Hamill and Keith Jardine will headline the TUF 11 finale (June 19th, Las Vegas). Hamill is coming off his DQ "victory" over Jon Jones via 12-to-6 elbow annihilation, while Jardine has eaten three straight losses against Quinton Jackson, Thiago Silva, and Ryan Bader; you’d have to assume that this is his last chance to score a victory if he wants to keep his gig with the UFC. Not sure if the match deserves a headlining spot, but we’re interested to see what happens.

— According to a recent Twitter post, Roy Nelson will likely be taking on Cheick Kongo in his next match, which early reports are pegging to UFC 116 (July 3rd, Las Vegas). Nelson most recently scored a 39-second knockout of Stefen Struve at "Florian vs. Gomi," while Cheick Kongo snapped a two-fight losing streak by beating down Paul Buentello at "Vera vs. Jones." Which means that Junior Dos Santos is now completely out of opponents.

— Speaking of UFC 116, Sportsnet‘s Showdown Joe Ferraro first passed along rumors that the stacked event will also host bouts between Nate Marquardt and Alessio Sakara, and Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer. MMA Junkie has since confirmed those reports. UFC 116′s current lineup is after the jump; kill whoever you have to in order to get tickets.

Though it’s been in the works since late last year, a middleweight meeting between Wanderlei Silva (33-10-1, 1 no-contest) and Korean sex-symbol Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-1, 2 no-contests) is finally going to happen at UFC 116 (July 3rd, Las Vegas), according to a new report from Fighters Only. The Axe Murderer has had a rocky road in the Octagon, but he’s 1-0 as a 185-pounder, thanks to his unanimous decision win over Michael Bisping at UFC 110. Akiyama hasn’t competed since his UFC debut at #100, where he scratched out a split-decision win against Alan Belcher. Akiyama hasn’t suffered an official defeat since his second MMA fight back in March 2005, when he was paired up against heavyweight kickboxer Jerome LeBanner and subsequently KTFO’d.