By CagePotato contributor Jason Moles

During the illustrious eighteen-year history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, we’ve witnessed countless brutal beatings, killer knockouts, and spectacular submissions. Simply put, we’ve witnessed a ton of holy $&*% moments!

I’m sure you have your favorites that you’ll share with your grandkids when you’re sitting in the old man’s chair. But have you ever stopped and asked yourself which moments in the past two decades were the biggest on a large scale? Well I did and I went to the largest scale imaginable: the almighty Google and here’s what I found. Remember, Google doesn’t have emotional or monetary interest at stake here. These moments are the ones that have generated the most web traffic via searches, not which ones impacted the sport the most.

5.) St. Pierre Beats Shields at UFC 129 – 04/30/2011

Why it’s ranked: Jake Shields left Strikeforce as champion so essentially casual fans and mainstream media alike viewed this as the first major inter-promotional, champion vs. champion fight. Georges St. Pierre, reigning UFC Welterweight champion and winner of nine straight came out on top of Shields who was riding a fifteen-fight win streak over the past five years.

The UFC went all in on this one hyping this event with the normal Countdown shows in addition to a pretty sweet commercial, the Primetime series, and a flyer in my mailbox reminding me to order the PPV. It was a huge moment in both men’s career primarily because it was the first tough competition either had faced in quite some time up to that point.  The underlying reason this mattered so much is that we all wanted to see the GSP vs. Silva super fight.

(When Romero says his grill has been "iced out" for the last couple months, he means that literally. PicProps: MMA Bay)

For a pro fighter, a lot of things seem atypical about Ricardo Romero. First off, as he tells Old Dad in an interview with MMA Fighting on Monday, Romero’s MMA career still plays second fiddle to his day job as an energy derivatives broker on Wall Street. Secondly, he admits he only started training to fight as a way to get over the depression of breaking up with his baby mama. Lastly, and most of interest to us here at the Potato, Romero managed to overcome a laundry list of injuries suffered during his UFC debut in July to defeat Seth Petruzelli by second-round arm bar.

Romero pretty much got the tar beat out of him for the first five-plus minutes of his bout against Petruzelli. Despite a 10-1 record compiled fighting on New Jersey’s independent scene – including victories over some known names like the UFC’s James McSweeney as well as TUF washouts Constantinos Phillippou and Karen Grigoryan  – Romero looked completely unprepared for UFC action. He was “Octagon jitters” personified and his honesty on that subject is something else that is refreshing about the former Rutgers wrestler.

(I understand having to run in the cold, but why do I have to wear these thrift store clothes to do it?) 

Prior to his UFC 116 bout with George Sotiropoulos, Kurt Pellegrino raised a lot of eyebrows when he proclaimed that if he lost the fight, he would promptly retire from the sport. 

At only 31-years of age, it isn’t like Pellegrino’s best years were behind him — in fact, some might argue that he is better than he ever was, which made his vow even more newsworthy.

Following the fight, Pellegrino, who held his own in the bout and nearly finished Sotiropoulos at the final bell, revealed that he had torn his meniscus and ACL in the first round of the fight and that he wasn’t goin’ out on a loss that just didn’t sit well.

We spoke to Kurt yesterday to discuss the fight, the injury and the surgery he has to undergo as well as his roles as a fighter and family man and his future in the sport.

(Rosenthal, WTF? You made me dump my adrenaline with your sweet talk.)

When Shane Carwin went from the being on the brink of dominantly beating UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar in the first round of their title tilt last Saturday night to feebly succumbing to an arm triangle choke in the second frame, many people were left wondering,"What the hell happened?"

Carwin, who originally claimed that his body locked up as a result of lactic acidosis, now says that his lack of energy to finish Lesnar was a result of a massive adrenaline dump, caused by the instruction of referee Josh Rosenthal. 

(This girl is on the podcast too. They kicked me off before I got a chance to talk to her. It’s probably for the best.)

Our new friends at HammerFisted.com were kind enough to invite me onto their podcast last night, where we ran down UFC 116‘s highlights and lowlights — including referee Josh Rosenthal’s performance in the Lesnar/Carwin match, Stephan Bonnar’s weird celebratory pose, and Chris Lytle getting screwed out of bonus money. Plus, I reveal whose life I would save if I found Mike Russell and Ben Fowlkes hanging off a cliff. The answer may surprise you! After my segment, foxy writer Hunter Jones comes on to talk dating advice, douchebags, and MMA. You can listen to the whole shebang right here. Don’t forget to come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow to listen to episode three of The Bum Rush, in which Mike and I cover many of the same topics, in a nearly identical format.

(BG)

(You ever get the feeling that Eddie developed his style of jiu-jitsu specifically to put hot chicks in uncomfortable positions?)

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…

– Vadim Finkelstein: Fedor Emelianenko’s agreement with the UFC is still possible (LowKick)

– Falling Action: Winners and Losers in the Aftermath of UFC 116 (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin Exclusive Photos (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Maybe the next time you see Ubereem, you should just move out of his way lady [GIF] (MiddleEasy)

– FIGHT! Life: José Aldo – The Beautiful Game [VIDEO] (Fight! Magazine)

– WEC 50 ‘Benavidez vs Cruz’ Trailer (MMA Scraps)

– Your UFC 116 MVP and Maybe MVP of 2010… (Watch Kalib Run)

– Spencer Fisher vs. Kurt Warburton booked for UFC 120 (Five Ounces of Pain)

(Gerald Harris: One finger for each of ‘em. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com)

The UFC paid out $1,373,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses to the fighters at UFC 116, with Brock Lesnar taking home over a third of the total payroll with his $400,000 salary and $75,000 Submission of the Night bump. Chris Leben, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Stephan Bonnar also cracked the six-figure mark after their Fight of the Night bonuses were factored in. The full payout list is below. Keep in mind that these numbers don’t include additional income from sponsorships, undisclosed "locker room" bonuses, or percentages of the pay-per-view gross that some of the UFC’s stars (i.e., Brock Lesnar) are entitled to.

Brock Lesnar: $475,000 (no win bonus; includes $75,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
def. Shane Carwin: $40,000

Chris Leben: $161,000 (includes $43,000 win bonus, $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Yoshihiro Akiyama: $120,000 (includes $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Chris Lytle: $52,000 (includes $26,000 win bonus)
def. Matt Brown: $10,000

(Chris Leben wades through punches at UFC 116 like a drunk man on steroids. Oh. Sorry, dude. Bad choice of words. / Photo courtesy of LasVegasSun.com)

Brock Lesnar already has a date with Cain Velasquez — potentially at UFC 119 in September — but the fates of all the other winners and losers from Saturday night are still up in the air. So let’s run down a few of the notables and try to determine who they should take on next. You’re really gonna have to start paying us, Joe.

Shane Carwin: Word on the street is that the winner of Junior Dos Santos vs. Roy Nelson at UFC 117 will receive the next heavyweight title shot after Velasquez, which means the loser could be a good opponent for Carwin’s return fight. Cigano and Big Country are both skilled enough to drag Carwin into round 2, where he’ll either crumble again, or prove to everyone that cardio is not his achilles heel.

Chris Leben: He called out Wanderlei Silva following his unbelievable submission victory over Yoshihiro Akiyama, and the Axe Murderer is down with it. Seems like a no-brainer to us. Who wouldn’t want to see two of the UFC’s most beloved brawlers beat the stuffing out of each other? Dana White says he wants to have Leben fight again soon rather than have him sit out the rest of the year while Silva’s knee heals up. But after two fights in two weeks (and $100,000 in bonus money), we think Leben could use a nice vacation.

(Many fans in attendance at the MGM Grand were given giant foam fists adorned with UFC gloves, which they drunkenly used to … oh, wait. PicProps: LA Times.)

When last we saw the UFC heavyweight champion on Saturday night he was slapping fives and doing bro grabs with his homies Stone Cold, Paul E. and Good Ol’ JR. And why not? The Dark Lord certainly had reason to celebrate: Though his face was scratched and his forehead bruised, the newly unified 265-pound strap was still around his waist. Maybe he’d even garnered some new fans with the gritty performance he’d just turned in, battling back from an early deficit to emerge victorious in the toughest fight of his career.

But damn it, just barely.

In fact, it’s difficult to know what to make of Brock Lesnar after a showing like this. The victory over Shane Carwin was definitely the most impressive moment of his short MMA career and it admittedly capped the best UFC pay-per-view we’ve seen in a long while. From Lesnar’s comeback to surprising wins from Stephan Bonnar and Chris Leben to the great scraps put on by Chris Lytle, Matt Brown, George Sotiropoulos and Kurt Pellegrino, UFC 116 delivered.

But Lesnar himself? Did he look great en route to the win? The real answer is both yes and no.

(“And, presto! The dove vanishes before your very eyes. Now, if I may have a volunteer from the audience, I will amaze you with a trick learned during my extensive travels in the orient …” PicProps: Sherdog.)

There are two ways to look at this: Either the extensive knowledge gleaned from their years of training and competing in mixed martial arts leads a majority of professional fighters to believe Shane Carwin will defeat Brock Lesnar tonight at UFC 116 … or Lesnar’s peers are even more sick of this a-hole than we are and they don’t care who knows it.

Either way, a kind of astonishing 62 percent of pros surveyed by Sherdog.com for its recurring “Pros Pick” piece on Saturday tabbed Carwin to unseat Lesnar, despite the fact he remains a slight betting underdog. Judging from the voter turnout – 61 athletes participated in the super-scientific polling process – The Dog didn’t have to try too hard to get the pros to come out of their shells and voice their opinions, either.

For example, the ever diplomatic Seth Petruzelli weighed-in thusly : “Please, Shane, smash that overgrown non-veggie eating poop stick.”

We assume he meant Lesnar.

(VidProps: MMA Weekly)

Brock Lesnar could have a lot of things working against him when he climbs into the cage tonight for UFC 116 – a long layoff, possible lingering effects of a career-threatening disease, his most dangerous challenger to date and the concentrated hatred of all the good and decent people of the world, just to name a few. With so much already on his plate, it was a little weird earlier this week when Lesnar disclosed that he used some of the extra time off he had while recovering from that hole God put in his stomach lining to switch from an orthodox striking stance to southpaw for his fight with Shane Carwin.

Maybe it’s the smirk on Lesnar’s face during the opening seconds of the above video, but it’s hard not to wonder: Is Brock just fucking with us? Does he really intend to try to fight Carwin as a lefty tonight? Or is this just some gamesmanship on the part of the former WWE wrestler?

(Video courtesy YouTube/k4BOSH; footage courtesy ZUFFA LLC)

Just a friendly CP reminder that the weigh-ins for UFC 116 are live at 7:00pm ET tonight.

If watching the UFC’s pre-fight presser at 6:30 doesn’t float your boat, there are some videos to help you kill some time after the jump, including one of Brock Lesnar’s college wrestling matches, a light heavyweight version of Brock in his early days with the WWE and a highlight featuring early and recent clips of Shane Carwin’s bouts and the backstage interviews from the weigh-ins.

Remember to check in with us tomorrow for our UFC 116 liveblog at 10pm ET. If you’ve never joined in the festivities, give it a try. The Potato nation knows how to party like it’s 1999.

(Will Shane bring the pain, or does Brock have this on lock? Anybody want a peanut?)

UFC president Dana White, heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, interim champ Shane Carwin, and middleweights Chris Leben and Yoshihiro Akiyama are all about to take the stage at the MGM Grand Garden Arena’s Hollywood Theatre for a UFC 116 press-conference. You can follow the presser live on CagePotato.com via the media-player after the jump, starting at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT. If you’re watching, let us know your thoughts in the comments section…

By CagePotato contributor Dallas Winston

For a match-up of such epic proportions, both literally and figuratively, Lesnar vs. Carwin does not offer a ton of evidence to analyze.

In the grand scheme of the MMA heavyweight scene, both Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin are relative newcomers, as their total career fights combined equates to a number one-half of former god Fedor Emelianenko’s times at bat. In only five fights, Lesnar has shown marked improvement and new aspects of an evolving game in each outing, and even though Carwin specified that his focus is becoming a well-rounded fighter, his right hand alone has left a trail of twelve motionless cadavers in its wake.

My team of MMA scientists submitted the official report from their pre-fight ceremonial ritual — in which bits of evidence are fed into the “MMA Math Machine” to extrapolate key factors that assist in fight predictions — and the findings for both read: Big. Strong. Wrestle good. Punch hard.

As much I’d like to over-glorify things, that’s really what this fight boils down to.

Well, we’ve got a big UFC event coming up this weekend, which means you should all head over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com (or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker) and make your predictions for UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin. Congrats to FightPicker Grandmaster Aaron Rampey for becoming the first player to crack the 10,000 chip mark. Well done, buddy. That’s gonna look awesome on your CV.

Of course, if you had some balls you’d bet actual money on the fights, and not silly-ass "PotatoChips." As usual, we’d like to help you win some cash for Saturday’s event — or at the very least not take heavy losses. Betting lines are below, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com; if you don’t know what this stuff means, read this first.

MAIN CARD
Brock Lesnar (-130) vs. Shane Carwin (+140)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (-200) vs. Chris Leben (+185)
Chris Lytle (-195) vs. Matt Brown (+160)
Krzysztof Soszynski (-218) vs. Stephan Bonnar (+195)
George Sotiropoulos (-195) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (+160)

SPIKE TV PRELIMS
Brendan Schaub (-295) vs. Chris Tuchscherer (+264)
Ricardo Romero (-145) vs. Seth Petruzelli (+120)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Goran Reljic (-155) vs. Kendall Grove (+145)
Gerald Harris (-245) vs. Dave Branch (+200)
Daniel Roberts (-170) vs. Forrest Petz (+145)
Karlos Vemola (-160) vs. Jon Madsen (+150)

Read on to get that paper…

(Props: UFC.com/JamesToney)

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…

– Was Fedor Another Victim of EA’s Cover Curse? (MiddleEasy)

– Shane Carwin: ‘One of Us Will Need Help Leaving the Octagon’ at UFC 116 (MMA Fighting)

– Spike To Telecast Weigh-Ins For UFC 116 Lesnar-Carwin (Watch Kalib Run)

- George Sotiropoulos Will Fight Anyone (Heavy.com/MMA)

- Three Strikes and You’re Out: How Groin Shots Are Changing the Outcome of Fights (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Photo Gallery: M-1/Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum (FightMagazine)

- Fedor Emelianenko’s Career in 69 Seconds (MMA Scraps)

(Video courtesy YouTube/Zuffa)

Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin have really stepped up the trash talk in the week leading up to their heavyweight title clash Saturday night at UFC 116.

Prior to this point, Lesnar has been uncharacteristically sedate in his pre-fight posturing and seemed almost respectful towards Carwin during a conference call two weeks ago.

Well, apparently Brock got the itch to flip the script and went "WWE" on Shane in the above video.

"I feel no threat by him whatsoever. I don’t feel any threats by anybody."

Considering Carwin has yet to be defeated and has never fought outside of round one in any of his bouts, he may want to consider him a threat.

Cognizant that Lesnar is likely speaking out of his ass, Carwin calls him on the remark as well.

"Brock can talk all the garbage he wants for this fight. When they close that cage and I see Brock across from me, I want to tear him apart."

I know one thing: Somebody is getting hurt in this one.

("The fine print specifically says no opponents with the word "cat" in their nicknames.")

Yoshihiro Akiyama’s proclamation that he may not agree to face Chris Leben at UFC 116 made me think that maybe Japanese MMA fans are right about him when they say he has no Budo.

Now before you put on your mean mug and warm up your angry typing fingers to tell me I’m an idiot, hear me out.

(Akiyama’s next fight just went from "Beauty and the Beast" to "Beauty and the Average-Looking Guy." *You* try to sell that. / Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

If you’re heartbroken that Wanderlei Silva won’t be competing at UFC 116 next Saturday due to injury, well, Yoshihiro Akiyama feels your pain. In fact, he’s so unimpressed by the idea of Chris Leben coming in as a replacement that he doesn’t even want to fight anymore. From daum.net via BloodyElbow:

"I am not pleased with the change. There are just ten days left until the contest for me to determine [Chris Leben’s] threats and the time is insufficient to establish a tailored gameplan. Leben is also not as high-profile as [Wanderlei] Silva and that does not help me."

"If there is to be a replacement I was hoping for a big name. I spent one year preparing hard for this fight and this news has come as a big disappointment, my motivation has waned. I do not know yet what will happen…In the worst case, I will not take part in the [UFC 116] event. We are working hard to resolve this issue."

(Anyone who isn’t a fan of Wand, isn’t a fan of MMA.)

Fighters Only spoke to Wanderlei Silva last night about his painful decision to pull out of his UFC 116 bout with Yoshihiro Akiyama. "The Axe Murderer" revealed that he  had torn ligaments in his knee a few weeks ago, but said he was planning to fight with the injured joint anyway. He says that the combination of his knee injury and a trio of broken ribs he sustained while training on Friday made it impossible to continue his camp, let alone fight in a week and a half.

“I tried training more upper body and boxing; I kept losing weight and I was gonna fight no matter what. Last Friday, during sparring, I injured my rib. It was very painful and the next day I had an x-ray and an MRI. I discovered I had three broken ribs.

(Rule #17 of the Fighter Fist Pose: Never rest your head on the shoulder of a chubby man in a floral-print shirt, as it will completely negate the fist-pose’s power. / Photo courtesy of the TUF 11 Finale: Afterparty pics gallery on CombatLifestyle.com.)

Want your highly entertaining and incredibly popular MMA site to be part of the Wednesday morning link club? E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details…

– Fabricio Werdum: ‘I will choke Fedor in the first round’ (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Jan Finney Isn’t Going to “Cuddle” Cris Cyborg (FightMagazine)

– Ten Things We Learned From WEC 49 (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Biggest Story Heading Into UFC 116 Is Not Brock Lesnar, It’s Shane Carwin (WatchKalibRun)

– ‘Strikeforce: Los Angeles’ Fighter Salaries (MMA Fighting)

– Kendall Grove Says Spike TV Controls ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, Not the UFC (MiddleEasy)

– MMAScraps Radio: Cain Velasquez, Ben Rothwell and Chris Barnett (MMA Scraps)

(Old Brock: I hope you choke on that you @$$hole. New Brock:  You have some blood on your face, Frank. Let me get you a wet nap.)

The UFC held a conference call today that featured the promotion’s heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar and interim title-holder Shane Carwin in advance of the pair’s UFC 116 clash July 3.

The most notable quotes, as usual, came from Lesnar, who spoke at length about his battle with diverticulitis and how the near death experience changed him as a person.

From his opening remarks, it was immediately clear that something was different, perhaps even likeable about this version of Brock.