(Steve Mazzagatti never could decide when it was the right time to pull the old hat-over-the-eyes prank.) 

In an interview Monday during The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, recently re-signed UFC light heavyweight Brandon “The Truth” Vera had some less than positive things to say about the last man he faced in the octagon, Thiago Silva.

It has been nearly 10 months since Vera and Silva threw down at UFC 125: Resolution, with Silva coming away the victor by unanimous decision and handing Vera his walking papers. However, when the drug tests came back, it was revealed that Silva had altered the results of his urine in an effort to mask the steroids he had been taking for back pain. Silva was then fined over 33 grand for the incident, and suspended a year. Vera was invited back to the UFC, and is fighting for the first time since the incident against Elliot Marshall at UFC 137, barring any last second injuries.

When asked about the Silva fight, Vera lived up to his nickname, not holding any of his feelings back in regards to Silva.

(“Oh God, why did I chug that gallon of Pop Rocks and coke before the fight?” Photo courtesy of ESPN)

Heading into his highly anticipated face-off with Wanderlei Silva tomorrow night at UFC 132, Chris Leben was bound to hear the inevitable question about his last performance against Brian Stann: What went wrong? After all, Leben went into that match with the momentum of an impressive three-fight win streak, and wound up getting flattened within one round. Well, the explanation is simple, and it’s so perfectly Chris that all you can do is nod in sympathy. As he tells Ben Fowlkes:

“I ate a bunch of candy, dude. I’m not lying…I didn’t eat sugar for like two months. Then after I made weight I went and bought gummy bears and chocolate and ice cream, and I ate that. My body hadn’t had sugar, so I was backstage puking, sh—ing and puking when I was on-deck for that fight. That’s not a lie; that’s the truth. And Brian Stann fought an amazing fight, but hindsight’s 20/20. No gummy bears for me this fight.”

Hey, we’ve all been there before, right? I mean, certainly not in our adult lives, but as eight-year-olds on Halloween, yeah we could have totally related to that. Anyway, it’s a good thing that Leben is one of those guys who never, ever repeats his mistakes.

(Video courtesy of SPIKETV)

Here’s an interesting preview for UFC 130 where Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard give two decidedly different perspectives of how their UFC 125 split draw went down.

The rubber match is set for May 28 and it’s going to be a doozy.

(Not so fast, buddy: Silva’s big win could cost him dearly. Photoprops: MMAGospel)

Reports about Thiago Silva‘s sketchy UFC 125 drug test results have been swirling since last month, and were allegedly the cause for Silva’s removal from a slated bout with Quinton Jackson at UFC 130, as well as Brandon Vera’s sudden un-firing. And even though Silva’s camp promised us that the light-heavyweight’s drug test would come back normal, the Nevada State Athletic Commission is telling a different story today. As the NSAC confirmed with FightersOnly and MMAJunkie, Silva is being accused of supplying a urine sample that was not from a human source.

(“Oh God! His tiny, shriveled balls are digging into my back!” / Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly)

After taking his third-straight loss against a bitch-slappin’ Thiago Silva at UFC 125 on New Year’s Day, light-heavyweight Brandon Vera was given his walking papers by the promotion. But according to FiveOuncesofPain and MMAJunkie, the UFC has had a change of heart, and has reinstated Vera’s contract. The reason for the flip-flop seems to be Silva’s mysterious drug test from that fight, which is still under scrutiny by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The result of the Vera/Silva bout is expected to be changed to a “no contest,” and Silva will be facing a fine and suspension if the reports are accurate.

Last week, Vera went on The Ryan Loco Show and responded to the recent rumors of Silva’s ‘roid-usage. As he explained, it wouldn’t surprise him, and he wants revenge:

(“What was in that drink your cornerman gave me at the weigh-ins? It made me feel stronger than ever, bro.”)

As reports surfaced yesterday that a planned UFC 130 bout between Quinton Jackson and Thiago Silva was inexplicably scrapped and that Rashad Evans would instead face “Rampage” on the May 28 card, rumors started swirling why the Brazilian had been yanked from the card.

In an interview with TATAME yesterday, Silva attempted to quash speculation that his post-UFC 125 urine sample was the one that Nevada State Athletic Commission Keith Kizer was speaking of when he told MMAJunkie that one fighter’s specimen was being closely examined after an anomaly was detected.

“Injured? Me? I’m very healthy. That’s not true. It looks like [NSAC] did two tests and one was positive and the other was negative,” he explained. “My blood is clean. I’m not worried. I took nothing.”

MMAJunkie went on to report later in the day yesterday that each of the other 11 fighters’s samples that were tested following the January 1 show came back clean, and that Kizer admitted that Silva was the only other fighter tested that night, which is basically admitting that Silva is the alleged wrongdoer.

By Cage Potato correspondent Brian Dermody

The look on Frankie Edgar’s face said it all the second Bruce Buffer broke the news that his UFC 125 bout with Gray Maynard had ended in a stalemate.

Having just endured the worst beating of his life in a single round of MMA before roaring back to win more rounds, but earn the same amount of points than Maynard in the eyes of *some* of the judges (and most pundits and fans), he knew he was going to have to go to war again with "The Bully."

Edgar walked away from the bout with a nasal fracture, a few bruises and a bad taste in his mouth, considering Maynard, who took a unanimous decision the first time the pair met in 2008, was still up one fight to none.

On the mend and with a May 28 UFC 130 date in Las Vegas penciled in for the do-over, Edgar sat down with New York-based Cage Potato correspondent Brian Dermody to chat about a variety of topics including his last fight, immediate rematches, the contenders to his belt and oblivious reporters.

Check out what "The Answer" had to say after the jump.

(Volkmann got Obama’ed on The Tonight Show)

Jacob Volkmann will likely think twice next time about cracking a joke about wanting to ground and pound the Commander in Chief of the United States.

The UFC lightweight, who made headlines when the Secret Service paid him a visit to question him about post-UFC 125 comments he made about wanting to go a few rounds with President Barack Obama so he could show him what he thought of his healthcare policy.

It now appears that the tongue-in-cheek soundbite he fed Ariel Helwani got him more than just a spot on The Tonight Show and Fox Business News. 

Volkmann was informed this week that he has been temporarily suspended with pay from his assistant wrestling coach position he has held for the past several years at White Bear Lake Area High School, pending an investigation of his remarks about Obama by the school administrators.

The 30-year-old Minnesota chiropractor who owns his own practice also serves as the volunteer head coach of the town’s elementary school wrestling team, but was told that his non-paid coaching position was not at risk.

Jacob Volkmann vs Barack Obama (with: Ariel Helwani, presented by: Jay Leno) from starglide1 on Vimeo.

(Above: Brandon Vera gets smashed up by Jon Jones in March. Below: Marcus Davis does his best Abobo impression during his fight with Nate Diaz.)

It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. After Phil Baroni and Antonio McKee lost their jobs, there was no way that the axe wasn’t going to drop again on UFC 125‘s other repeat-losers. Here’s the latest…

Brandon Vera: The Truth has been released from his UFC contract after his shutout decision loss to Thiago Silva, which represented Vera’s third consecutive defeat, and sixth loss in his last nine outings. Due to the nasty broken nose he suffered last weekend, Vera won’t be able to compete anywhere until March 3rd at the earliest.

Marcus Davis: The Irish Hand Grenade has also been bounced out of the Octagon. Davis’s knockout loss against Jeremy Stephens was his fifth loss in his last eight attempts, and second-straight defeat by stoppage. The TUF 2 vet was hoping to re-invent himself as a lightweight, and had controlled Stephens in the first two rounds before having his lights put out in the third. Davis is one of only eight UFC fighters who have earned five or more performance bonuses.

Instead of piling on the abuse, let’s remember Vera and Davis for the dangerous, exciting fighters they used to be before their luck abruptly ran out. Video proof is after the jump…

(Oh boy. This is really going to affect his position as "baddest N-word on the planet." / Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

“I feel like I’m the Muhammad Ali of MMA. I feel like I’m the Don King of MMA. I feel like I’m the Tupac Shakur of MMA. I’m the mouth, the talent, the brains, and I’m also the business side. Where does that put me? That puts me as one of the all-time greatest black mixed martial arts fighters.” — Antonio McKee 

"I feel sad for the opponents, you know? I hope maybe they’ll just let me submit them, because I really don’t want to hurt them. What are they going to do, stop me from taking them down? Stop me from ground-and-pounding them? Stop me from hitting them with the elbows? Come on, you serious?" — Antonio McKee 

"GSP needs to be compared to *me*." — Antonio McKee

"You’re fucking fired." — Dana White

(And the first nomination for 2011′s Corey Hill Award is… / Photo courtesy of the DREAM Dynamite!! Photo Gallery on FightMagazine.com)

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…

– Five Lessons: UFC 125 (Versus MMA Beat)

– Antonio McKee: Loss in UFC Debut Was a ‘Humbling Experience’ (MMA Fighting)

– UFC 125 Aftermath: Clay Guida’s Enthusiasm For Fighting Is A Draw For New MMA Fans (SBNation.com/MMA)

– 11 Fighters The UFC Should Sign In 2011 (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Video: Hatsu Hioki vs. Marlon Sandro Featherweight Title Fight From Sengoku ‘Soul of Fight’ (MMA Scraps)

– Watch Dana White Give Snoop Dogg $20,000 in Unmarked Bills (MiddleEasy)

– UFC 126: Silva vs Belfort Official Trailer (LowKick)

– Miesha Tate Targeting March 5 in Ohio for Welterweight Title-Shot (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Brock Lesnar Wants You to Read His New Book (MMA Convert)

(The record shows he took the blows / and did it hiiiiiiiis waaaaaaaay. Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

After suffering a first-round knockout at the hands of Brad Tavares at UFC 125 — his second-consecutive loss since returning to the UFC in November 2009, and his third-straight loss overall — it appears that Phil Baroni‘s latest stint in the UFC has officially ended. Versus’s MMA Beat passed along confirmation of his release last night. The firing was no surprise to Baroni, who intends to stay very active in 2011 and work his way back to the big leagues.

The 34-year-old currently holds an MMA record of 13-13, with a 3-7 lifetime record in the UFC. Baroni hasn’t tasted victory in the Octagon since declaring himself "the man" after storming Dave Menne at UFC 39 in September 2002. Tough break for the NYBA, but maybe we’ll finally get to see that rubber match with Minowaman.

Semi-related: Matt Brown, who has lost his last three fights in the UFC, all by second-round submission, is reportedly getting another shot against British welterweight Mark Scanlon (7-1, 0-1 UFC) at UFC on Versus 3 in March. Go figure.

(Sit back there and say Clay Guida’s hair ain’t luxurious, when you know it is, bitch. / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting)

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has released the payout list for UFC 125, with the total fighter payroll topping out at $1,112,000 in disclosed salaries and bonuses. MMA Junkie reports that despite the main event ending in a draw, both Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard were given their win bonus money — which insured that they were two of the night’s top earners, since they also picked up the event’s Fight of the Night bonuses.

Other six-figure earners included Clay Guida ($122,000) and Thiago Silva ($110,000). The complete UFC 125 salary list is below, and continues after the jump. Keep in mind that the figures do not include additional income from sponsorships or undisclosed "locker room bonuses," or deductions for taxes, insurance, and licensing fees.

Frankie Edgar: $162,000 (includes $51,000 win bonus, $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
vs. Gray Maynard: $112,000 (includes $26,000 win bonus, $60,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Brian Stann: $42,000 (includes $21,000 win bonus)
def. Chris Leben: $46,000

Thiago Silva: $110,000 (includes $55,000 win bonus)
def. Brandon Vera: $60,000

("Damn, those NyQuil shooters Chuck bought me last night seemed like a good idea at the time." Photo props ESPN.)

Remember in grade school when your team would win a game of baseball at recess and without fail there was one shlub who would say that the winning run didn’t count because the sun was in his eyes or the batter didn’t touch second base?

Well Chris Leben’s shlub is Burton Richardson, the head trainer at the Ultimate Training School in Hawaii who claims that "The Crippler" had a fever and chills and was vomiting in the locker room in the hours leading up to his UFC 125 fight with Brian Stann.

Richardson posted the following excuse explanation on mixedmartialarts.com’s underground forum:

"First, great job by Brian Stann. He never looked better. Many have commented that Chris was very slow and looked off last night. The truth is that Chris was sick. He had a fever and chills when he stepped into the cage. He was vomiting in the lockeroom before the fight, and after a hard warm up he didn’t have a drop of sweat. Big heart to fight like that, but he was moving slow motion. He was very sharp in training. He will be back."

("Look, Brandon, I’m sorry. If you take your hand away, I promise I won’t slap you in the face again." / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting)

UPDATE: A clip of Silva playing Vera like a bongo has been added to the end of this post…check it out while it lasts.

The third round of Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera at UFC 125 represented one of the most humiliating beat-downs in recent MMA history, as Silva seemingly got tired of punching Vera about midway through the round and just started slapping him in the face until the fight was over. With Vera’s job likely on the line that night, it was the worst possible final impression to leave with his bosses — as if that mangled schnozz wasn’t enough.

After the fight, top light-heavyweight contender Jon Jones fired up Twitter and posted the following: "Wow that slapping was so disrespectful.. id love to give him a slap in the face…Dominating someone in a fight is 1 thing, looking to simply humiliate them is another..Traditional martial artist always seemed to show honor and respect.. Anyways what’s done is done, I’m headed to the gym to make sure nothing like that ever happens to me."

We say: Eff the haters, Thiago. You’ve just joined a very select group of MMA fighters who have demonstrated their dominance through slapping and spanking. The other members of the MMA Bitch-Slap Hall of Fame are after the jump…

("Whaddya mean we got four more rounds? I thought this fight was supposed to be a boring wrestlefest.")

Well, UFC 125 is in the books and to say fans got a few surprises from the card that many had written off as being an inevitable snoozefest would be an understatement.

The main event lightweight championship bout between champ Frankie Edgar and apt challenger Gray Maynard, which ended in a hotly debated split draw, delivered the goods earning well-deserved Fight of the Night honors.

According to UFC president Dana White, because the fight, which he admitted could have been stopped in the opening frame, was so close and because so many fans want to see the rubber match, he reversed the announcement made by UFC vice president Craig Borsari at the post-fight press conference that Anthony Pettis is next in line for a shot at Edgar’s crown and says he will instead be slotting in Edgar-Maynard III for some time in early 2011.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAFighting)

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

UFC 125 goes down tonight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and CagePotato will be posting live results beginning with the ION prelims at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT. I’m sure most of you are still nursing crippling hangovers, so let’s ease into the New Year gently: Above, some of tonight’s fighters share their resolutions for 2011, and Dong Hyun Kim re-invents himself as a trash-talker. (Ed. note: KEEP THE 209 OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, SON.) After the jump, the very same dudes warm up and discuss their matchups at Thursday’s open workout.

Just a friendly reminder that you can blow off a couple hours of work or time with your family on this New Year’s Eve day by watching the UFC 125 fan Q&A with UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez at 3:00 pm ET followed by the weigh-ins at 5:00.

Cross your fingers that someone asks Cain what he thinks about Junior Dos Santos questioning the legitimacy of his torn rotator cuff injury. We might actually get to see "Sugar" Cain (as he’s known by at AKA) show some emotion for once if they do.

Hopefully you all have more planned for tonight than sitting in your underwear and CP shirt watching K-1 Dynamite!! videos from last night, eating cold pizza and drinking beer. *Apparently* that’s not a cool way to ring in New Year’s. Women…

Anyway, as always, the UFC media player is after the jump.

Happy New Year’s, Potato Nation.

(Antonio McKee, pictured here with the script he soon plans to flip. PicProps: amam-magazine.com)

Got to admit, when we brought you the news earlier this week that leading up to his UFC debut on Saturday Antonio McKee was comparing himself to Muhammad Ali, Don King and Tupac, we pretty much assumed our McKee reporting duties were done for the year. No dice, P-Nation. Lo and behold, not three days later McKee is back in an interview with Old Dad at MMA Fighting that strikes us as even crazier than the one before. During this latest conversation with Our Former Ben, McKee adopts a strategy of making a point, then immediately contradicting himself all while tossing in the prerequisite insane claims about his own greatness and occasionally referring to himself in the third person. Seriously, when you go third person and it starts looking like you might actually have a split personality? Shit is disconcerting.

In the course of this interview, McKee pretty well talks himself in circles, among other things contending that: Upcoming opponent Jacob Volkmann is either a really tough dude or just some poor sap he’s about to run out of the UFC; now that he’s scored a four-fight deal in the Octagon he’ll either go back to his conservative, decision-oriented game planning or he’ll keep busting heads as quickly as possible; and he’s still morally opposed to hurting his opponents, but will totally do it if the money’s right.

A few things McKee is unwavering about, though: He’ll be UFC lightweight champion by the end of 2011, at 40 years old age won’t be a problem because he’s “made from better stuff than Randy (Couture)” and he thinks MMA fans are barbaric and distasteful. C’mon, follow the jump to find out what a disgusting animal you are.

(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)

("Sorry about the fit, Frankie. We had it ready to go for BJ to wear home.")

You would think that at the very least, besides winning the UFC 155-pound strap, beating continual top five lightweight BJ Penn twice would raise Frankie Edgar’s stock in the eyes of oddsmakers.

Apparently they just can’t seem to get past the UFN 13 loss the UFC lightweight champ suffered against Gray Maynard and it seems that the only thing that will erase the blemish from his record would be for the Toms River, New Jersey native to beat the only man to ever beat him.

He’ll get his chance Saturday night at UFC 125 in Las Vegas as he attempts to retain his belt in his second title defense, but the 5’6" perennial underdog says he isn’t put off by the fact that he’s rarely the favorite and that Maynard is the odds-on fighter to walk away with the belt this weekend.

“[Being the underdog has] been working good for me, so why change it?" Edgar recently asked the hosts of MMAWeekly Radio. "I’m assuming sooner or later I’ll not be the underdog, but I’ll take it. It makes sense [that Gray is the favorite]. Heads-up he beat me, so he should be the favorite.”

 
(Marcus Davis and Ion: A match made in…convenience?)

Less than a week before UFC 125 goes down in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White has revealed that there will be a "Prelims" broadcast before the pay-per-view card – good news, since it’s one of the most interesting undercards in recent memory. But it won’t be aired on Spike TV. For the first time, the UFC will put a broadcast on Ion Television, which is apparently cause for celebration, even though we only had a vague knowledge of the channel’s existence until this morning. Said Dana White: "These guys are considered a network. The FCC calls them a network. This is the first time we’ve ever been on network television, and the prelims are going to be aired. It’s a big deal. It’s in over 100 million homes."

Three fights will be scheduled for the broadcast – Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens, Josh Grispi vs. Dustin Poirier, and Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares – which is unprecedented in itself. "The prelims we do air, there’s only supposed to be two," White said. "Time-wise, it’s impossible to pull off three if they all go to the distance. I’m going to roll the dice on this thing. Not only are we going to bring the prelims to the fans, but everybody has been hammering me for the Phil Baroni-Brad Tavares fight, so I’m going to do three fights. I’m going to give them that fight, too."

(You know it’s crazy when Antonio McKee makes a face like someone *else* is out their damn mind. Props: ProMMANow)

Antonio McKee’s long awaited (by McKee himself) and briefly rumored (by McKee himself) Octagon debut is scheduled to go down this weekend at UFC 125. The 40-year-old motormouth will take on Jacob Volkmann on the undercard of Saturday’s "Resolution" card in Vegas and it’s a fight he frankly better win, lest his years of trash-talk appear all for naught. Luckily for us, the grapple-first, ask-questions-later McKee isn’t letting his impending UFC entry get in the way of his on-going monologue with the world at large. Nope, he wastes little time this week making some typically farfetched comparrisons to Todd Martin in a sprawling and fairly entertaining long-form narrative at Sherdog.com.

“I feel like I’m the Muhammad Ali of MMA,” McKee says within the first three or four paragraphs. “I feel like I’m the Don King of MMA. I feel like I’m the Tupac Shakur of MMA. I’m the mouth, the talent, the brains, and I’m also the business side. Where does that put me? That puts me as one of the all-time greatest black mixed martial arts fighters.”

Huh, “greatest black MMA fighters” is a Top 10 list we’ve never even considered before. Consider that one tucked away for a rainy day.

("What’s so hard to remember about ‘Hold the anchovies?’" PicProps: Connect.in)

Man, why are we totally not surprised that Frankie Edgar’s boxing coach owns a pizzeria? When you’re talking about a bunch of guys from New Jersey it might sound culturally insensitive to make that assumption but at least according to MMA Weekly, it’s also true. The man responsible for Edgar reaching zenith of his stand-up game in recent fights is one Mark Henry – no, not that Mark Henry – a former member of the US Boxing team who has also owned and operated a place called Pino’s Pizza in the Jerz for nearly two decades. Frankly, it sounds like a bad place to try to rob unless you’re bringing a gang of homies and a whole lot of firepower.

Henry has been working with Edgar for some time, but says they only really got serious about pugilism after he watched Edgar suffer his lone career loss to Gray Maynard in April, 2008. Coincidentally, this interview comes to us just as Edgar is preparing to defend his 155-pound title in a rematch against Maynard at UFC 125 on Jan. 1. See, that’s just good storytelling from the Gray Lady of MMA Journalism. But we digress …

With the holidays nearly upon us and your work week winding down, we figured we’d give you something to do while you drink your bourbon spiked coffee alone in your office today.

This is our twelfth and final episode of the year, but it’s a good one.

Besides our "expert" breakdown of UFC 125, we opened the phone lines up again for this show to hear from the Potato Nation one last time before heading into 2011.

At approximately the :79 minute mark (for those of you who can’t stand our hodgepodge of Canadian and American accents) UFC lightweight contender George Sotiropoulos stops by to talk about a number of topics, including his upcoming fight with Dennis Siver at UFC 127, the lightweight title bout between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard coming up on New Year’s day, the hate towards 10th Planet jiu-jitsu and the controversy surrounding his competition legwear.

*We apologize in advance for a fragment of latent audio from a past episode that somehow made it into the intro by Ben when he’s talking about our pal Dallas Winston. We’re in the process of uploading the new version of the show with the soundbite removed, but it likely will take an hour or so to complete the process.

As always, we suggest that you subscribe to The Bum Rush on iTunes if for nothing else but simplicity’s sake, but if you’re still against all things Apple, you can download the episode by right-clicking HERE.

The first UFC title fight of 2011 is just eleven days away, which means it’s time to drag out some stats and see who holds the advantages in the Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard rematch — on paper, at least. As we all know, anything can happen in the cage. Seriously. This one could end in a unanimous decision, it could end in a split decision, a majority decision…you just never know.

BIGGEST CAREER WIN
Edgar: Defended his lightweight title in a 50-45 x 3 shutout against BJ Penn at UFC 118.
Maynard: Routed Kenny Florian the same night to win the #1 lightweight contender spot.
Advantage: Edgar

MOST PAINFUL LOSS
Edgar: His UFC Fight Night 13 decision loss against, you guessed it, Gray Maynard. It’s still the only loss on Edgar’s record.
Maynard: He’s never lost in professional competition, though he was submitted by Nate Diaz on TUF 5 (a loss he avenged later at UFC Fight Night 20) and accidentally knocked himself out in a no-contest against Rob Emerson.
Advantage: Maynard

UFC FINISHING RATIO
Edgar: 22% (2 stoppage wins in 9 fights)
Maynard: 11% (1 stoppage win in 9 fights)
Advantage: Edgar

("My fellow Americans …" Props: MMA Badass.com)

Try not to look too shocked, y’all: Chris Leben went on Ariel Helwani’s "The MMA Hour" radio show yesterday and made a number of incredible statements about his October arrest on suspicion of drunk driving in Hawaii. And when we say “incredible,” we mean it in the most literal sense, as in, not credible. Among other things, Leben said he doesn’t believe his latest DUI arrest is “going to be a big deal,” that “nothing is going to happen with it” and – if you want to know the truth – he’s not 100 percent sure he’ll even be formally charged with DUI after the truth comes out at his upcoming February court date. Oh, and he also compared himself to the former president of the United States.

"George (W.) Bush got a DUI and he ended up being the president," Leben said. "I really feel as though nothing’s really going to happen with it, honestly. I don’t want to talk about it too much, and it’s still in the works. But I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal."

Obviously, Leben comparing himself to the leader of the free world – even a really, really bad one – is a bit of a stretch. Also, forgive us here at CagePotato Legal Services if we can’t take such an optimistic view of his upcoming court appearance. Let’s review some facts.

("I’ve been doing this too long to take things for granted. I’ve seen it happen too often where a guy loses and then comes back and wins." Photo courtesy of UFC.com)

By CagePotato.com contributor Elias Cepeda

There’s a fun game you can play with undefeated UFC lightweight Gray Maynard: Ask him to name, let alone talk about, someone he’s beaten. He can’t do it.

It should be easy for the #1 title contender — he’s had just eleven fights in his four-and-a-half year MMA career, and hasn’t lost a single one. He has many more wins to choose from if you include his entire amateur wrestling career that dates back to his childhood.

Still, as he sits during some downtime between training on the Saturday exactly two weeks before he will face UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 125 in Las Vegas, Maynard’s brain freezes when asked about his wins. Gray isn’t difficult to speak with, and his mind is sound. It just works a bit differently than most of ours.

Ask Maynard who he’s lost to and he can rattle ten names off in a row. “People say, ‘oh, you’ve never lost.’ Sure I have. I’ve been in combat sports since I was a kid and have lost lots of times from when I was three all the way through college.”

Gray seems to remember every time he’s come up short on the mats — recalling even grade-school losses with gritted teeth. “They still irk me today,” he says.

("COME AT ME, BRO!")

Happy Thanksgiving, Potato Nation! If you’re reading this right now, you should probably consider disconnecting from the Internet and spending time with your family. If you came here to escape those horrible people, brother we can relate. (*Pours another glass of scotch*) Let us know what you’re thankful for in the comments section, and keep up-to-date with this grab-bag of UFC headlines…

– Replacing the unfortunately injured Jose Aldo at UFC 125 against Josh Grispi will be Dustin Poirier, an 8-1 featherweight prospect who just knocked out Zach Micklewright in 53 seconds earlier this month at WEC 52: Faber vs. Mizugaki. Chris Leben vs. Brian Stann will now be the event’s co-headliner, in support of the Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard lightweight title fight.

– Coming off an ugly knockout loss against George Roop at WEC 51, "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung has his win-or-go-home fight booked, as he’ll be taking on Rani Yahya at Fight for the Troops 2 on January 22nd. It’ll be the only fight on the card where you won’t be able to chant "U!S!A!" in support of at least one of the fighters. Expect a lot of fans in the arena to make trips to the bathroom.