(Gentlemen, no need to show me the door, because THERE IT IS RIGHT THERE!) 

There aren’t many fighters in the UFC who have had longer layoffs in between fights than Carlos Eduardo Rocha. Well, maybe before this summer began, that is. Fighting just three times between November of 2010 and June of 2012, Rocha’s 1-2 UFC record included a submission via kneebar win over Kris McCray and a pair of close decision losses to Jake Ellenberger at UFC 126 and most recently, Mike Pierce at UFC on FX 3. The latter fight, which you may recall was originally scored a split decision victory for Pierce rather than a UD thanks to the general incompetency of Floridians, was a relatively lackluster affair that was dominated by Pierce’s clinch and wrestling game ala Couture vs. Vera.

It might surprise you to learn that Rocha, an incredibly decorated BJJ practitioner whose only trips to the scorecards have come in the UFC, was let go following the loss. As one might understand, Rocha was none too happy to learn of this news, and quickly vented his frustrations (mainly, those relating to Pierce’s performance) when interviewed by Tatame:

I went there to fight MMA and he wants to win by points. There were 15 minutes of pure stalling This is bullshit. And UFC fires me after a fight where the guy just stood there stalling. I had good performances and even so I was cut off. I didn’t expect this.

Ah, the Nick Diaz defense. Classy move, Mr. Rocha.

More from this interview after the jump. 

(We’re on your side, Joe, but blowing up Cecil Peoples’ house might have been taking it a little far.) 

It may be old news at this point, but the UFC’s recent trip to Florida, though rife with entertaining fights and exciting finishes, was basically a clusterfuck of refereeing and judging incompetence. MMAFighting’s Mike Chiappetta wrote a very thorough article detailing all of the things that went wrong that night, but here’s the basic run down for those of you who don’t like to have all of those pesky words get in the way of your reading:

-The Henry Martinez vs. Bernardo Magalhaes fight was originally scored a UD win for Martiniez, but was later changed to a split decision when the scorecards were looked over again.

-The Mike Pierce/Carlos Eduardo Rocha fight ran into the opposite problem. It was originally scored a SD for Pierce, a notion that was responsible for more blown minds than the ending of Saw. It took the judges some four days to realize that it was actually scored a unanimous decision for Pierce.

-Lance Benoist was able to illegally strike Seth Baczynski twice without being deducted a point.

-For some reason, the referee in the Jared Papazian/Dustin Pague fight told Papazian to “keep his feet off the cage” whilst he was attempting to push off and escape Pague’s submission.

-Tim Means, on the other hand, nearly beat Justin Salas to death before the ref decided to step in.

Aside from all of this, the commission also managed to drop the ball twice at the pre-fight weigh-ins, incorrectly announcing the weights of both Means and Benoist before realizing their errors. But we’d specifically like to focus on the staggering inadequacy of the judges. Because judging, unlike any other occupation, is seemingly non-performance based. Time after time we’ve seen the same familiar faces make royal asses of themselves on the job, always to find the same job waiting for them come Monday morning.

But thankfully, MMA’s patron saint of subjectivity, Joe Rogan, is here to lay it on the line for these inept jackasses who seem to be actively trying to ruin the sport.

(Highlights from the Silva-Brenneman bout, courtesy of Fox Sports)

Six hours of free televised fights seems like a gift from Zod, unless of course the first three hours suck. A few plodding decisions, amateur officiating, a never-ending commercial loop, and the requisite botched score cards marred the prelim bouts on Fuel. It was enough to stifle what little hope some had for the rest of the evening.

But for those who flipped the channel to FX still harboring the post-prelim blues, undercard openers Scott Jorgensen and Eddie Wineland took little time to erase any ill will and set the stage for an exciting night of action. After settling into the bout, Wineland began finding a home for his hands, sitting “Young Guns” down with a sharp jab. He’d plant Jorgesen on his back briefly with a trip before landing several more blows to close out the first frame. Having had his fill of leather in round one, Jorgensen turned it on in the second frame, hustling for takedowns and opening up a hatchet wound over Wineland’s eye with a glancing knee. But the extra effort and billowing blood only brought out the fire in Wineland, who stuffed several shots while looking for the knockout. He’d find it at the end of a big right hand uncorked in the last minute of the second round. Jorgensen was stunned as he hit the floor, unable to defend himself from the final blows Wineland rained down as the ref stepped in to wave him off. Wineland’s win reversed a two fight skid against two top opponents; now Jorgensen has his own pair of losses to shake off. The extra cash from the “Fight of the Night” bonus should make that task a little easier.

For some reason, “IT’S CHARLIE TIME!” just didn’t have the same ring to it. Care to guess who deserves credit for this image?

The main card of the UFC’s third card on FX is almost upon us, and we’re sure that you’re almost just as interested as we are. But don’t let the lack of big men and big names get you down- we still have some interesting fights on our hands. Eddie Wineland battles Scott Jorgensen for bantamweight relevance, Josh Neer looks to maintain his momentum in the welterweight division against Mike Pyle, Erick Silva looks to establish himself as The Next Next Big Thing against Charlie Brenneman and Ian McCall meets Demetrious Johnson in The Most Anticipated Rematch of the Night to determine who advances in the UFC’s Flyweight tournament.

Okay, so on paper it’s nothing to write home about. But it’s free fights on a Friday night, okay? Look, we know you don’t have plans or anything, so stop pretending to be Mr. Popular and join us after the jump for round-by-round results and commentary. Handling tonight’s action will be Seth Falvo, who promises that there will be no more obscure professional wrestling references this evening. Please stand by.

(Props: fueltv)

…and I’m not talking about that lame-ass Christian Bale movie. Ian McCall‘s greatest victory has come against a drug addiction that previously resulted in arrests, motorcycle accidents, and a near-death experience during a fateful tattooing session. Now, he has more to fight for than a UFC flyweight title shot. “I’ve now become a husband and a father,” he says. “That stuff has just added to the fire where now I can’t screw up.” And so, we have one more reason to be sort-of interested in tonight’s UFC on FX 3 card. Any of y’all plan on watching?

After the jump: Ariel Helwani interviews McCall and Demetrious Johnson following yesterday’s weigh-ins. To be honest, the most interesting part of the video is Ariel’s jacket. Lookin’ slick, my dude.

(You see this, right here? It’s like pedophilia gold, son.) 

The weigh-ins for tomorrow night’s UFC on FX 3 card kick off in just a few minutes, so join us after the jump for live results, won’t you? Featuring a rematch of the bodged flyweight tournament semifinal between Ian McCall and Demetrious Johnson, as well as a sure to be slugfest between Josh Neer and Mike Pyle, the UFC’s return to FX can only exceed our expectations, and might just become one of the sleeper cards of the year.

Bullshit hype aside, come check out the weigh-ins and see what happens.

(Props: ThePeoplesCecil via MMAFanMade. Click for full-size version.)

The UFC makes a stop in Sunrise, Florida, tomorrow night for their latest UFC on FX event, featuring a flyweight rerun, a handful of veterans on the main card, and a murderer’s row of nobodies on the prelims. But is it skippable? Maybe not. After studying the card, we’ve found a few somewhat credible reasons to watch this thing. Read on, and if you’re around tomorrow night, be sure to come back to CagePotato.com for our liveblog of the “Johnson vs. McCall” main card, which kicks off at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.

#1: It’s make-or-break time for Leonard Garcia.
The last time that “Bad Boy” beat anybody decisively was his first-round TKO of Jens Pulver at WEC 36, back in November 2008. That was ten fights ago. Since then, Garcia has gone 3-5-1, with all three of those wins coming by split-decision. Two of those wins are widely considered to be bullshit robberies, and were later avenged in rematches with the “losing” fighters, Chan Sung Jung and Nam Phan. Basically, Garcia’s record since 2009 should really be 1-7-1, and even that lone legit victory (against Jameel Massouh at WEC 42) could have easily gone the other way.

Now, Garcia finds himself on the preliminary card of an FX show, against Matt Grice, whose overall UFC record stands at 1-4, including the first-round TKO loss that Grice suffered against Ricardo Lamas in his last fight. Garcia vs. Grice has all the markings of a “win or go home” match. It doesn’t matter if Leonard turns it into an exciting brawl — if he loses, he’s on extremely thin ice, and we may not see him back again.

(Wait, now I’m fighting who?) 

Maybe it’s because we’ve been burned many, many times before, but we’re not exactly sold on Dana White’s recent claims that the upcoming TUF 15 Finale headlining match between Martin Kampmann and Jake Ellenberger will be for the next title shot. You see, “number one contender” is a term that is so loosely used and abused by the Zuffa brass these days that it might as well be Rampage Jackson.

But be that as it may, a press release sent out by the UFC this morning, quoting the almighty DW nonetheless, has stated that the victor of Kampmann/Ellenberger will indeed get the winner of Condit/GSP, whenever the hell that happens:

The welterweight division is stacked and Jake Ellenberger and Martin Kampmann are going to fight for the chance to earn a title shot. They will headline the season finale of TUF Live on FX to crown the next Ultimate Fighter. There’s a lot at stake for the guys competing on this card at the Palms.

You see how they did that? “For the chance to earn a title shot,” is about as brilliant a non-commitment as we’ve ever seen. Dan Henderson would be impressed by such a classic Dana White misdirection, and would undoubtedly have a better response than the one you are about to read. But if you feel tricked, hoodwinked, or even bamboozled by such a statement, then you’re not alone. We’re not going to take it anymore, and are calling shenanigans on this right now before things get out of hand. Here’s why.

Photo courtesy of fighthousemanagement.com

Yesterday, the UFC announced that top bantamweights Renan Barao and Ivan Menjivar are now scheduled to meet at UFC 148. Barao, who was initially scheduled to meet Jeff Hougland at the event, confirmed the switch on his Twitter account by saying “Menjivar is my new opponent at UFC 148. I know him.” Brevity is the soul of wit, people.

Don’t be surprised if the winner of this fight meets the winner of UFC 148′s (expected) main event clash between Urijah Faber and champion Dominick Cruz. Both fighters are 3-0 in the octagon, with Menjivar coming off of a wild, back and forth fight against John Albert at UFC on FUEL, which saw “The Pride of El Salvador” take home a first round rear-naked choke victory and Submission of the Night honors. Meanwhile, Barao has gone twenty nine straight fights without a loss. His most recent fight was a dominant performance against Scott Jorgensen at UFC 143, which saw him take home a unanimous decision victory.

As for Barao’s initial opponent? Jeff Hougland will step in for an injured Mike Easton to fight Yves Jabouin at UFC on FUEL 3.

(As Mighty Mouse looked into the crowd to see his wife flirting with another man, a deep seated rage began to boil inside him.) 

After a judging error in the UFC’s first ever flyweight match between Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall robbed us of a much needed sudden death fourth round at UFC on FX 2: Kampmann vs. Alves, many of us took it as a sign that the 125 lb. division was ultimately doomed to fail. Perhaps that was a bit of an overreaction, but now we can all rest at ease, because the rematch between these two scrappy contenders has officially been booked for UFC on FX 3, which goes down on June 8th from a location TBD.

Now, we here at CP understand more than anyone that mistakes can happen, but for fuck’s sake, someone please assign a judge who can count to 30 this time around. As we’ve all griped over, the first meeting between McCall and Johnson was originally scored a split decison victory for “Mighty Mouse.” Considering how badly he was dominated by “Uncle Creepy” in the third round, this decision seemed as if it was destined to go down as one of the worst robberies in the history of the sport. Again, maybe we were overreacting, but thankfully, the error was quickly overturned, and the fight was declared a draw. Its good to know that we can now move past this debacle in as timely a manner as possible, lest we end up with a Strikeforce Heavyweight tournament situation again.

Join us after the jump for more fight booking news.

Vera can’t stand to even look at that “Juice Monkey“. (Pic: MMAFighting.com)

The report we filed two days ago on the Brandon Vera-Thiago Silva grudge match is already woefully out of date. According to “The Truth”, he was so eager to ‘welcome’ Silva back to the Octagon that he jumped the gun and accepted the rematch before discussing the bout with his coaches or doctors. A consultation with his physician revealed that he wouldn’t be recovered from an injury in time for the May 15^th fight.

The bad blood stems back to their UFC 125 bout. Silva showed incredible disrespect toward Vera, bitch slapping him repeatedly before playing him like a pair of bloody bongos. The humiliating loss earned Vera his walking papers, at least until he was un-fired when Silva’s post-fight urine sample tested positive for steroids.

Silva eventually copped to ‘roiding and was himself slapped with a hefty fine and one-year suspension. The rematch with Vera, scheduled to go down on the UFC on FX 3 card, would have been his first fight back from that suspension. Following a successful nose transplant, Vera rebounded with a unanimous decision win over Eliott Marshall at UFC 137, but he’ll now spend a little more time on the sidelines. Zuffa is currently looking for an alternate dance partner for the Brazilian.

(Dude. Don’t even get me started about mustard water. / Props: hypeordie)

After knocking out Christian Morecraft at UFC on FX 1 last month, Pat Barry has booked his next fight. The heavyweight kickboxer will face Lavar Johnson on the main card of UFC on FOX 3, May 5th in New Jersey, which will officially be headlined by a five-round lightweight contest between Nate Diaz and Jim Miller.

Lavar Johnson scored the Knockout of the Night during last weekend’s UFC on FOX 2 card, by smashing Joey Beltran in the first round of their preliminary card meeting. The win snapped a two-fight losing streak that Johnson had carried over from his stint in Strikeforce. His upcoming scrap with Barry seems like a way for the UFC to guarantee some much-needed excitement for their next FOX broadcast. As for Barry, it’s an opportunity to bump his UFC record over .500 and secure back-to-back victories for the first time in his UFC career.

In other May booking news…