(Props: IronForgesIron)

FUEL TV aired the latest UFC Countdown special last night, previewing next Friday’s UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem pay-per-view card. The stuff about Brock Lesnar‘s latest recovery from diverticulitis and new love of swimming is fairly straightforward — once again, Pat Barry is on hand talk about what a monster Brock is — but if you’re a fan of Alistair Overeem, the look back at his rise in the sport and his career rebirth after a rough stretch in his personal/professional life is worth watching. Overeem’s sights are now set on a UFC belt to complete his collection; of course, Brock Lesnar is just as motivated to defend his turf and play the spoiler in the Reem’s Octagon debut.

Part two of the special is after the jump, featuring more tough talk from Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Nate “Not Your Friend, Buddy” Diaz, and a look at the redneck paradise of Cerrone’s New Mexico ranch.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/FederalPremiumAmmo)

Brock Lesnar had a lawyer in Manitoba plead guilty on his behalf for a hunting infraction he was charged with in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada stemming from an incident that occurred back in December, 2010.

Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers charged Lesnar and his guide, Chad Styker with three counts each of contravening the Alberta Fish and Wildlife Act, including improper affixation of tags, spoilage of skin and edible flesh and possession of a controlled animal.

(“What, this officer? No, it’s just a deer mask I wear when I hunt to fool the little buggers.”)

Alistair Overeem has met the first of three required stipulations of his conditional licensing in Nevada today as he passed his pre-fight urine test administered a few weeks ago in Holland.

UFC president Dana White tweeted the news today.

(“So do they make horse jerky, too?”)

During today’s UFC 141 conference call, Alistair Overeem was asked to address the steroid allegations that have plagued him for most of his career and have intensified since his latest incident with NSAC, in which the former Strikeforce heavyweight champion failed to submit to a pre-fight drug testing when requested by the Nevada commission. His answer to the question was basically the same reason why he turned in his urine and blood samples more than two weeks late for his upcoming December 30 bout with Brock Lesnar: he’s simply too busy to deal with them.

“Everybody has a right to ask whatever they want and I have a right to respond or to ignore. The thing is, I’m very busy with my career — it’s not only just training, it’s a lot of other stuff on top of it, which is assembling the team, PR, doing all these interviews — so I’m very occupied with that,” Overeem explained matter-of-factly. “I simply don’t have the time to get into all these allegations. Usually they’re done over [the] Internet, [by] people I don’t even know and have never even met.”

(Hey amigo, don’t forget to bag the stool. I’ll be making salad as a side tonight.) 

One minute it’s an emergency NSAC meeting, and now this. Don’t worry folks, the charges facing former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar will not affect his December 30th battle with Alistair Overeem at UFC 141, but Lesnar is now a fugitive in a country where sodomy is legal nonetheless. The charges aimed at Brock stem from a recent hunting trip he took to Alberta; I’ll let CJCYFM.com explain:

A recent hunting trip to Alberta has landed former WWE and Ultimate Fighting Champion Brock Lesnar in some trouble.

Fish and Wildlife officers confirmed the international celebrity has been charged with three counts in contravention to the Alberta Fish and Wildlife Act.  The charges came before Medicine Hat Provincial Court Thursday morning and include improper affixation of tags, spoilage of skin and edible flesh and possession of a controlled animal.

Neither Lesnar, nor his co-accused Chad Stryker, appeared in person in court.  Their matter has been put over until January 19th.

Phew. At first, the charges don’t sound that bad. That is, until you consider the fact that the controlled animal in question was a Garthok.

(Video via MMA Mania)

Brock Lesnar: “He’s in over his head. He doesn’t really understand the beast that he’s gonna enter the Octagon with…I’m gonna defeat Alistair Overeem. That’s the bottom line, and there’s nothing else to say…At the end of the day, he’s gonna get his ass beat…it’s gonna come down to will, and who wants this fight more, and Brock Lesnar wants this fight more than Alistair Overeem.”

Alistair Overeem: “I’m gonna tear this guy apart, piece by piece…I’m gonna beat up Brock Lesnar, and it’s gonna take me no more than two rounds to do that…Brock definitely doesn’t like to get hit. I’m gonna hit him, and I’m gonna hit him as hard as I can. And I’m pretty good at it…I would put my money on a knockout in the first round, but personally I can guarantee a knockout in the second…If you guys think Cain Velasquez hits hard, wait ’til you see what I’m gonna do to him.”

The UFC 141 video trailer also previews the lightweight feature between Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone. It seems there’s already a bit of tension between the two (starting at the 6:53 mark)…

(“Who nearly f*cked up our end-of-year show main event? This f*cking guy, that’s who.”)

During a scheduled Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting Monday, NSAC announced that Alistair Overeem failed to undergo a random drug test ahead of his UFC 141 heavyweight bout with Brock Lesnar and as a result he was granted a “conditional license” by the governing body.

According to commission records, Lesnar attended a hospital within one day of being told to do so on November 17, where blood and urine samples were taken and the results came back negative for both drugs of abuse and anabolic agents. Overeem did not comply with its request to submit specimens on that date, but instead had one of the two requested samples taken one week later.

Prior to the agenda item, the announcement was foreshadowed as NSAC representatives spoke candidly about all of the issues that have arisen in the past when it comes to testing out of competition outside of North America for various reasons.

Props to @LayzietheSavage for the UStream feed of the proceedings.

Check out the timeline of what went down the past month after the jump.

If you don’t know who NickTheFace is by now, then allow us to introduce you to the man behind so many amazing fight promos and trailers that he deserves to be ranked among the likes of Ghengis Con. His video preview of the upcoming heavyweight number one contender clash between Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 is no different, offering some of the slickest editing this side of The French Connection that we’ve ever seen. We got goosebumps too Joe, we got goosebumps too.

UFC 141 goes down December 30th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

You know the deal, who you got for this one and how?

-Danga 

Jus a friendly reminder that there are a couple things left to help waste the remaining hours of your Friday.

First off, the UFC will be holding a press conference to announce UFC 141 featuring a main event number one heavyweight contender match-up between former Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem and former UFC champ Brock Lesnar.

We’ll finally get a first hand look at Lesnar’s physique so we can see just how big of a toll his latest bout of diverticulitis took on his body. We’ll also likely get some vague quotes from “The Demolition Man” about his current lawsuit against his former management team and why he chose Xtreme Couture for this camp.

Also on tap are the weigh-ins for tomorrow night’s UFC on Fox extravaganza. It should be interesting to see if the event has a FOX spin on it and if we’ll see any FOX personalities like Gus Johnson sashaying around in the background will full make-up.

Check out the stream after the jump.

(Cor Hemmers and Bas Boon minutes before they eyeballed their share of Alistair’s bag of K-1 purse money, you know, back when he still got it.)

TMZ is reporting that Alistair Overeem filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court today against Golden Glory — the management team he recently split from that handled his business affairs, not the fight team they are affiliated with.

Alistair Overeem was on MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani Monday afternoon and the former Strikeforce heavyweight fighter, who many speculated would be joining King’s MMA in Huntington Beach, Calif. after splitting with Golden Glory in the summer, revealed that he has instead decided to relocate to Las Vegas, Nev. where he will train at Xtreme Couture.

Although he wouldn’t reveal too much about the change in camps on the show, “The Demolition Man” gave more details of his decision to train stateside and what was behind his split with Bas Boon and company in the following episode of The Reem documentary, which was released minutes ago.

Check it out after the jump.

(They should have included a can of soda for size comparison.)

With Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem, the UFC will arguably be presenting the most dynamic wrestler vs. striker battle that the heavyweight division has ever seen — but if you really want to hook the casual fans, it’s a lot easier to say “gawd damn these sons-a-bitches are huuuuuge!”

Which they are, of course. This might be the first time that Lesnar will look out-sized in the cage. And after Brock’s year-long illness layoff, Alistair isn’t exactly the ideal return opponent. But hey, this is MMA, anything can happen, etc.

(Unless you have your last name and a dog’s face tattooed on your back, you really can’t call yourself “alpha.” / Photo courtesy of Heavy.com/MMA)

Following his UFC 137 Submission of the Night victory over Dennis Siver, Donald Cerrone — one of the gamest sons-of-bitches in MMA — made it known that he’d like another fight before the year is out. As confirmed by MMA Junkie, the UFC has granted his wish, sticking Cowboy on the UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem card (December 30th, Las Vegas) against lightweight mainstay Nate Diaz. You dodged a bullet, Nam Phan.

Cerrone is currently on a six-fight win streak, including a 4-0 stretch in the Octagon since debuting for the promotion in February. Picking up a fifth UFC victory inside a calendar year would be nearly unprecedented. (I know Roger Huerta did it in 2007; if there any MMA stats masters in the house who can provide other examples, please do so in the comments section.)

(We’re guessing Brock is off of the Jack’s Links and Coors Light)

It looks like Roy Nelson isn’t the only UFC heavyweight who could stand to drop down a weight class. Unless they used some trick camerawork to make former WWE and UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar look smaller for this new WWE 12 video game promo for some unknown reason, the formerly massive 34-year-old Webster, South Dakota native has lost considerable mass since his last bout against Cain Velasquez a year ago.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/WWEGames)

Either his his reemerging diverticulitis caused him to lose weight or he has focused more on his cardio this time around. Whatever the reason is for his dramatically leaner look, hopefully his strength isn’t depleted from the transformation or else he could be in for a long (or short) night against Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 on December 30.

Check out the comparison photos after the jump.

(Image via TheCheapSeats)

By Anton Gurevich

Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem spoke to FightStar TV about his upcoming bout with Brock Lesnar, which will also mark the Dutchman’s debut inside the Octagon. According to Overeem, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion will not be able to get out of Round 1, despite being “a strong guy.”

The Demolition Man is currently in the middle of his training camp for UFC 141, which will take place on December 30, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Visit Lowkick.blitzcorner.com to watch Overeem’s latest interview about his upcoming match with Brock Lesnar.

(For you two, I’ll sacrifice my beauty-sleep. / ‘shop via blackbeltclub)

After pulling back their pay-per-view start times to 9 p.m. ET this year to cater to East Coast viewers, the UFC will be returning to their original 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT time-slot, beginning with UFC 141 on December 30th. The promotion confirmed the switch to USA Today yesterday, stating that their decision was based on “careful consideration and feedback from our fans.”

It appears that the 9 p.m. experiment didn’t have the intended effect. According to estimates from MMAPayout and the Wrestling Observer, UFC pay-per-views have been averaging 414,500 buys from January to August 2011, down 25% compared to the first eight months of 2010. In particular, it was reported that UFC 134 woefully underperformed, although that event’s totals were certainly affected by Hurricane Irene.

(Look at Brock hiding out up there so he doesn’t get hit. Art really does imitate life.)

Sometimes the best highlights and promos are the ones made by fans of the sport. Promotions tend to tell you what they think you should be excited about whereas fans just seem to know what is exciting.

Case in point, the UFC 141: Overeem vs. Lesnar trailer below from our friends who produce “The Reem” documentary series. If you saw the latest episode of the show, you’ve already seen this spot, but it’s worth re-watching even if you have.

It’s a toss-up whether this fight or the upcoming championship bout between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez on Fox is the more heavily anticipated heavyweight tilt, but no matter which one you’re most looking forward to, this video should get you pumped for Overeem vs. Lesnar, or horsemeat vs. beef jerky as we like to call it.

Check it out after the jump.

(“What is he doing with his face? Is that supposed to intimidate me?”)

According to a report by MMAMatrix.com, a welterweight match-up between Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez is in the works for UFC 141 December 30 in Las Vegas.

Ellenberger leapfrogged to the front of the line of UFC welterweight contenders with his first-round knockout of Jake Shields at UFC Fight Night: Shields vs. Ellenberger two weeks ago. As such, it’s likely that the winner of the bout, if it happens, will be second in line behind Nick Diaz to face the winner of the UFC 137 showdown between Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit on October 29.

A compelling light heavyweight matchup between former IFL champion Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko and rising star Alexander Gustaffson has just been booked for UFC 141. The match was originally intended to transpire at UFC 133 in Philadelphia, but Matyushenko was forced to pull out due to a last minute injury. Matt Hamill stepped in for “The Janitor” and was subsequently beat into retirement by Gustaffson, so it’s fair to say that Matyushenko has one of his toughest tests to date ahead of him. Well, other than that one guy, which I’m pretty sure was a fluke.

(“You’re shitting me, I get to leapfrog the line to a fight with Fitch?”)

Jon Fitch wanted a title shot. Instead, the 23-3-1 (1 NC) UFC welterweight fighter will get another “lose-lose situation” bout against Johny Hendricks (11-1). The news of the bout, which is said to be verbally agreed to by both sides for UFC 141 on Friday December 30 in Las Vegas, was first reported by ESPN.

Should Fitch lose the bout, there’s a pretty good chance his long-awaited second title shot would likely be put on hold much longer than the two years he’s already waited thus far. If he beats Hendricks, who is 2-1 in his last three outings, he likely won’t move up in the rankings, but at least he’ll be keeping busy, I guess.