By Elias Cepeda

Jon Anik’s silky voice talks us in to episode two of The Ultimate Fighter 15, telling us we’re less than an hour away from tonight’s live fight. We’re about to see what happened this past week in TUFlandia but right now there are two hooded fighters warming up with their backs to the camera in their respective lock rooms.

Could it be? Yes…those two (at present) nameless and faceless fighters will fight each other tonight but we will have to wait and see who they are. Cheesy, but kinda cool. Another new element of this debuting hybrid taped/live TUF format. Also, there’s a fight clock on the bottom right hand of the screen, ticking down.

The 16 winning fighters from last week’s elimination round pull up to the TUF mansion and once again we see a new crop of young fighters enthusiastically explore their new digs with the type of giddiness that can only lead us to believe that they’ve never watched past seasons and thus don’t realize how completely miserable it can be to be locked in that house. Happens every season.

Source: @Rampage4real

Looks like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is back on the energy drinks.

When he took to his Twitter page earlier this week to blast the UFC, many of us assumed he was just venting after a difficult loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 144. Well, Rampage is still venting, except now he’s asking for his release from the UFC. In a bizarre twist to an already strange situation, Rampage blames the UFC for the reason he’s lost his desire to fight. And he implies that the desire to keep fighting will somehow come back to him once he walks away from the biggest stage in MMA.

And if you thought that that was strange, consider his next two tweets, both of which in response to fans’ reactions to his initial announcement:

(Looks like Viacom is putting its cash behind its latest investment.)

Divorces can be so bitter, can’t they?

SPIKE is really rubbing in how much more they like their new wife’s kids than they do the ones they helped make. It must be hard for the UFC to  see them spending so much time with Bellator buying them ice cream and cotton candy, when they don’t even call them on their birthday or pay any child support.

They rubbed salt into the fresh wound this week when they announced their latest family outing: a new Bellator video game developed by their newly-formed SPIKE Games family.

Funny, they won’t even give their own kids their old home movies, yet they start a new company to help their stepkids prosper. That’s cold.

Kung-Fu Games, the group responsible for creating the somewhat underwhelming Supremacy MMA title, are helping with the project. They also worked on on the new Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat and Ugly Americans games released by 345 Games — the Viacom-owned collective made up of Spike Games and Comedy Central Games.

According to the release, the game, dubbed Bellator: Onslaught, should be out this summer.

Check out a sneak peek of the game after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/RootsofFight)

If you were to ask 100 MMA fans to define mixed martial arts in a word, their responses would differ greatly. If you asked the same census group to define the sport in a name, nearly all would give you the same answer: Gracie.

While some would likely say that Rorian and Royce — having respectively founded the Ultimate Fighting Championship and won three of its first four tournaments in decisive fashion — were the impetus behind their answer, most would likely point to Gracie jiu-jitsu originators Helio and Carlos Gracie as the reason for their response.

Carlos and Helio were innovators, who, although they didn’t invent the art of jujitsu, or it’s “successor,” judo,  they did arguably revolutionize the hybrid fighting art, making it more effective than both, especially when used by smaller combatants against larger opponents.

To the brothers, their variation of the centuries old  Japanese martial art form, now known universally as “Brazilian” or “Gracie” jiu-jitsu, was not just simply efficacious in competition; it was equally as useful in self-defense and street fighting scenarios — a point they have stressed since introducing it to the masses more than 80 years ago.

Decades before Rorian and Royce made history with the UFC, their father Helio represented the Gracie name and defended its honor in scores of challenge matches designed to prove that GJJ — an offshoot of Kodokan judo, which was taught to them by Japanese immigrant and judo master Mitsuyo Maeda, was more effective than any other form of martial art.

(Porier before his UFC debut)

With the recent run of awesome mixed martial arts documentaries we’ve been treated to the past few years like Renzo Gracie: Legacy, The Reem, Driven, Once I was a Champion and Like Water, there’s a pretty good chance that we’re in for a drought, especially if you consider that there was a six-plus-year span between the current block of flicks and The Smashing Machine.

Before we enter into our next six years of obscure docs loosely-related to MMA like Joe Son’s Prison Diaries and Gus Johnson at LeCage, we still have one fantastic looking one to look forward to: Fightville.

The film, which is set for limited theatrical release and for On Demand viewing by select cable and satellite providers April 20, follows the lives of a number of Louisiana-based fighters, most notably fast-rising UFC featherweight Dustin Poirier and his coach and mentor, TUF 7 and UFC vet Tim Credeur.

Check out the trailer after the jump.

(“Does it matter that I’m no longer an MMA fighter? I can still analyticate what went down on the show, can’t I?”)

SPIKE TV announced today that it has hired UFC washout, and arguably the promotion’s biggest fringe draw next to Brock Lesnar, Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, to host its new weekly Friday night TUF repeat show, “The Ultimate Fighter Fridays.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/CagePotato)

The three-hour premiere episode will air March 9, which, not coincidentally is opposite  episode 1 of FX’s The Ultimate Fighter Live, at 9:00 pm ET on SPIKE, and will feature Slice’s recollections from his six weeks in the fighter house.

(The future is wide open for “The Flash.”)

Bibiano Fernandes contacted us today via email to clear up any controversy that may have arisen from a mistranslated quote from TATAME that we reported on this morning.

According to the Brazilian website,  the DREAM bantamweight champ allegedly revealed during a recent interview that he had turned down the UFC in favor of re-signing with the struggling Japanese promotion after his contract expired following his 2011 DREAM Bantamweight tournament final win over Antonio Banuelos on New Year’s Eve.

(“Medium rare? What the f*ck is that supposed to mean and why is that your answer to every one of my questions?”)

With all of his WWE-esque posturing the past few years it’s been tough to discern who the real “Chael P. Sonnen” is. Thankfully we have Dr. Phil to get to the bottom of things.

Check out Chael in his most candid interview like you’ve never seen him before being open and honest with Oprah’s BFF after the jump.

(“Who says you can’t face-mask? Well the commissioner is an idiot.”)

If there is an MMA fighter who is qualified to give us some analysis on Sunday’s Super Bowl XLV match-ups, it’s Matt Mitrione.

A standout defensive tackle at Purdue University, Mitrione made the New York Giants as a walk-on. He spent four years in the NFL with the Giants and the Minnesota Vikings before trading in his gridiron aspirations for his dream to one day fight in the Octagon, which he again made a reality through determination and hard work in spite of the odds stacked against him.

Although the brunt of his time these days is split between his new gym in Indianapolis and at home with his family, ‘Meathead’ still follows the sport that he first fell in love with as a boy.

In this exclusive video breakdown he did for us through his main sponsor, our friends at Hayabusa, Mitrione details which team he thinks will take the trophy on Sunday.

Check it out after the jump.

(“It doesn’t surprise me. It’s typical of them to look a gift horse in the mouth.”)

Alistair Overeem’s legal counsel, Kent Goss sent out a press release last night to members of the MMA media to address the current $151,000 lawsuit against Golden Glory’s parent company, Knock Out Investments and counter-litigation between his client and his former management team. According to the release, in spite of a series of calculated moves by Golden Glory to discredit Overeem and to affect him psychologically heading into his UFC debut against Brock Lesnar in December, the former Strikeforce, DREAM and K-1 heavyweight champion has opted not to return fire against them. Instead, Goss says, Alistair has waited for the right time to speak out about the claims by Golden Glory and that the time for him to do so is rapidly approaching.

(Screen Cap of UFC.com)

It looks like ESPN and the FTC aren’t the only entities with the UFC in their crosshairs. Sometime around 5pm EST the UFC homepage was taken over by a group identifying themselves as the “Underground Nazi H4ck3rGr0up”. The splash page featured a bizarre anime-style sketch of Adolf Hitler with the names of the guilty parties. Streaming in the background was some song so god awful that even Shazam refused to identify it.. The site is still hijacked as of the posting of this story.

The hack is likely to be in retaliation for UFC Executive VP Lawrence Epstein’s interview with the LVRJ in support of SOPA.

Previously: In Case You Missed It: Strikeforce’s Announcement of Fedor to the UFC Was A Hoax Posted By Hackers

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ESPN)

Remember three years ago when ESPN did this gushing segment on UFC president Dana White. Well, it looks like the UFC signing a major broadcast deal with its biggest rival and cherry-picking some of its on-air talent has irked the sports news giant and the gloves are coming off.

An upcoming episode of ESPN:60, which will feature interviews with UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and Ken Shamrock, who recently lost a lawsuit to the UFC, will examine whether or not critics are correct in calling Zuffa’s stranglehold on the MMA market “a monopoly.”

Translation: ESPN can likely kiss its UFC credentials goodbye. Trust us guys, you’re fucked.

Check out a clip from the soon-to-be-released segment after the jump.

This sculpture, made entirely of toothpicks and modelling clay, took first place at the Granger Elementary Art Fair. Congratulations to 3rd Grader Sarah M.

(Props to @robnashville for the tip on this story)

Brazilian MMA website Portal Do Vale Tudo is reporting that Antonio Silva already has a dance partner lined up for his UFC debut. “Bigfoot” will allegedly face former UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez in an April clash. A poorly translated version of their report credits Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with breaking the story in his weekly newspaper column [ed. note: please let it be the Portuguese version of “Dear Don”].

Silva has been recovering from a shoulder surgery that took place following his knock out loss to Daniel Cormier in the Strikeforce HWGP last September. It looks like the promotion’s heavyweight castoffs won’t be handled with kid gloves upon their arrival in the Octogon. This will be Cain’s first fight since his 64-second drubbing at the hands of Junior Dos Santos.

The match has not yet been announced or confirmed by the UFC. Silva’s manager, Alex Davis, initially denied the report, but somewhat changed his tune when he learned that “Minotauro” was the source of the rumor. According to Google Translate, he threatened Nogueira thusly: “Gee, I have to stick your ass it!”. Though we’re not exactly certain what that means, it sounds much more painful than any punishment John Dodson received for revealing Team Mayhem’s match-ups.

(Within 24 hours of touching that thing at a UFC Expo, Overeem will punch you in the face.)

Typically, UFC champions fight at least two to three times per year. This year, each strap was defended an average of 1.86 times because of a rash of injuries we chalk up to the UFC title curse.

13 title defenses for seven belts is a problem for any organization, especially one as big as the UFC. It’s tough to garner interest for your promotion’s champions when only a few are defending their titles more than once or twice a year.

(Days after Arianny presented Ali with theOctagon Girl
Championship belt, she was let go by the UFC. Coincidence?)

The question is, should there be a limit to the amount of time a champion can go without defending his or her leather and gold before an interim champ is declared?

Check out the breakdown of the 2011 UFC champion injury plague in order of lightest to heaviest weight class after the jump and judge for yourself if title fights are less interesting as a result of how infrequently they occur.

(Video courtesy of UStream/MMAFightCornerRadio)

Forrest Griffin was on MMA Fight Corner Radio this weekend and when asked whether or not he would entertain a third fight with Tito Ortiz, the former UFC light heavyweight champ didn’t hesitate in answering.

“If people would pay to see that fight, I’ll get paid to fight that fight,” Griffin said. “I care more about where the fight is; I don’t travel well. If that fight [with Tito] happens in the continental United States, I’m down.”

(Will MMA finally be able to overcome the mythical Friday Night Death Slot?)

By Jason Moles

Last week, it was announced that Bellator Fighting Championships would be changing the night they broadcast their weekly fights, beginning with their Season 6 tournaments in March 2012.

Instead of competing for an audience on Saturday nights, when most fans are preoccupied with UFC pay-per-views and college football, Bjorn Rebney in conjunction with Viacom, has determined the best night for the largest number of MMA fans to enjoy the show is Friday. Good choice? Perhaps.

Also airing on Friday nights starting in 2012 is the UFC’s flagship reality series, The Ultimate Fighter. In its fifteenth season, Zuffa decided to mix it up a bit in hopes of revitalizing fan interest and attracting new viewers by airing the fights live.

So will Bellator gain any ground if they’re still competing with the world’s largest MMA promotion? Will the in-house shenanigans, trash-talking coaches, and UFC brand be able to attract a larger audience than an entire night of live fights, some of which have been classified as ‘Super‘? Not only can we not be in two places at once, we can’t watch two television programs at the same time either. So, who wins the ratings war?

(Apparently now the Zuffa is going to have to start trying again with Strikeforce.)

During today’s pre-UFC 140 press conference and media scrum UFC president Dana White revealed that his *other* MMA promotion will indeed be sticking around on Showtime and that he will lead the organization as it makes some changes in 2012.

“[Strikeforce is] staying, and hopefully I’ll have all the information for you next week,” White said. “Just sit and wait and watch what I do. Trust me, it’s going to be just fine. Like I said last time I talked to you guys about this, I’m getting into this, and I’m going to handle it. Watch and see. We’ll see what happens. I know I keep saying this every week, but that deal should be wrapped up any day now, and then I’ll make the decisions on who goes where and what’s going to happen. So we should know hopefully by Monday.”

(See, not *every* Octagon Girl hates our guts. Photo courtesy of Bill McCoy)

We caught up with Brittney Palmer at last weekend’s MMA Expo in Toronto and the UFC Octagon Girl, who will return from a brief hiatus from the sport at UFC 140 Saturday night, spoke to us about a variety of topics including art school, her fans, fighter Twitter beefs and how she felt about winning the “2011 CagePotato Hottest Women in MMA Grand Prix.”

Check out the interview with Ms. Palmer after the jump.

(Jimmo will trade his precious metal to finally test his mettle in the UFC)

The UFC announced today that it has signed Maximum Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion and CagePotato guest blogger Ryan Jimmo to face Czech wrestler Karlos Vemola on the inaugural UFC on FX 1 card January 20 in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The Big Deal” will put his 16-fight undefeated streak on the line as he steps into the Octagon for the first time against Vemola, who is 1-1 in two UFC starts.

(A PSP, a Marmaduke book, and fistful of dollars… Man, this cat really knows how to get down!)

By Jason Moles

While our wives and girlfriends are busy maxing out our credit cards in hopes of finding the perfect gift for everyone she knows, we should be reminded that money can’t buy everything — especially in the world of mixed martial arts. Follow us after the jump to discover the irony of the MMA Black Friday. I promise it will be better than the turkey sandwich and leftover pumpkin pie you’ll have for lunch.

1.) Resurrection

In June, Cheick Kongo did what no man has done since the Messiah some 2,000+ years ago — he defeated death. Alright, so maybe I’ve had a few too many turkey day cocktails and that’s not exactly how it went down, but you get the jist. Kongo was knocked unconscious not once but twice in his fight against fellow heavyweight Pat Barry and he still managed to win the fight! By KO nonetheless. No amount of Earthly money could ever buy a second (or third) chance to live again. If it were that easy, Steve Jobs would’ve made certain you increase your credit limit.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/TeflonMaster)

If you’ve followed MMA for more than a few years, you know who Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons is.

Anderson Silva — a longtime training partner of “Pele,” who lost to the Cuban-born fighter twice in muay thai competition — credits the original Chuteboxe team fighter with helping make him the dangerous fighter he is today.

Well, it appears that Pele is back to form after suffering a career threatening leg break back in 2008 and now the 38-year-old, who is undefeated in his four bouts since returning from the grisly injury, will take on Jorge “Macaco” Patino for the third time at MMA Combat 2 Kumite on January 20 in Brazil.

(Video courtesy of WNY)

New York State Assembly isn’t scheduled to resume until January, but that isn’t stopping politicians in the Empire State from rallying in the meantime for legalizing mixed martial arts when the next session starts.

Several senators and Assembly members have spoken out publicly in support of the sport in recent weeks, which could bring the issue to the forefront when Assembly is back in session in two months.

Buffalo Senator Mark Grisanti, who met with UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta yesterday, says that it’s ridiculous that New York is dragging its feet when it comes to sanctioning the sport that is regulated in all but a handful of states in the U.S. and less than a half dozen Canadian provinces. Grisanti pointed to the economic benefits of having MMA in the state, noting that it could create jobs and inject an influx of cash into the New York economy as one of the big reasons for giving the popular combat sport the nod.

“Being that we’re so close to Toronto and southern Ontario, I would suspect that we would get a lot of that draw from our neighboring country [as well],” Grisanti explained.

(Sources say the new show will have 75% less bodily fluid ingestion in each season.)

A couple weeks back on The Bum Rush Radio Show we predicted that SPIKE TV would pick up the slack left by the exit of The Ultimate Fighter by putting together a different MMA-based reality show, likely with Bellator fighters. Considering they are all technically employees of the Viacom-owned channel since the media conglomerate purchased a majority stake in the promotion last month, it would make sense.

In our reality, they would put all of the upcoming opponents from a scheduled card in the same fighter house, which we know would never happen, but we can still dream, right?

Well, according to a report by SI’s Loretta Hunt we were half right.

(Oh Brittney, how we’ve missed you.)

In what is easily the greatest decision the UFC has ever made, our 2011 Hottest Woman in MMA winner, Brittney Palmer, has been brought back to the UFC. How you ask? Well, as we all know, Ms. Palmer stepped out of the limelight last year to pursue an art career, and had already completed a summer semester at an anonymous California based art school. And though her work was pretty damn impressive, Brittney clearly came to revelation that you don’t need to produce art, when you are art. And I would like to take this moment to speak on behalf of the general population and thank her for said revalation.

All kidding aside, it turns out the reason for her return began when just a few hours ago, Dana White sent out the following tweet:

(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.

(I can already hear her voice, caressing me like a newborn and telling me that everything will be OK.) 

When Dana White first announced that the UFC planned to hold both a live event in Japan and Las Vegas on the same night, many of us sat back and scratched our heads, wondering what in the hell “The Baldfather” was hoping to achieve with such a maneuver and more importantly, how he would pull it off. When we found out we would be treated to a free Japan card followed by a Vegas PPV card, most of us rejoiced, but still found ourselves doubting the likelihood of such a exorbitant event actually coming to fruition. Well, we hate to say we told you so, but as it turns out, you won’t have to roll out of bed at 10 a.m. to catch the free Japan card. Matter of fact, you won’t be getting a free card at all.

UFC on Fox Primetime: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos is an upcoming special to be aired on October 30th, and features an in-depth look at the Nov. 12 showdown between UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior Dos Santos. And to get you hyped for that, here is a brief preview of the special, which includes some press conference snipets ala Creed vs. Drago, some behind-the-scenes training footage ala Marciano vs. Lewis, and even squeezes in some of the lovable, rags-to-riches story of Junior Dos Santos in just over 3 minutes. Enjoy.

-Danga 

(Well, at least *some* of the inevitable changes will be good.)

When it was announced today that media giant Viacom had purchased Bellator Fighting Championships, most of us probably overlooked the bigger picture of what the deal means to the landscape of MMA. At a glance, better financial backing and being on a more popular channel like Spike means better fights and bigger paychecks for fighters, but behind the scenes the scope of the deal is likely much bigger than we know and the aftershocks will be felt for some time.

Check out four of the biggest likelihoods that will come out of the purchase after the jump.

(“I would have picked Joey Beltran or Pat Barry but they both just fought.”)

If you’ve been following the story on other MMA websites — and I don’t know why you would be since we thought you were our bros — Fabricio Werdum was rumored to be headed back to the UFC, but then he sort of denied the rumors and sort of didn’t by saying he couldn’t talk about it. Well, “Vai Cavalo” may have let the cat out of the bag that he’s Octagon-bound today since he’s now calling out UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub — an interesting choice for a guy who beat Fedor Emelianenko and went to a decision against Alistair Overeem in his past two bouts.

(Props to IronForgesIron.com) 

Fresh of his various appearances in our Hayabusa Cameo Contest, former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell popped up on Hawaii Five-0 recently, showcasing an entirely different side of his acting abilities, this time playing “cage fighter.” I’ll give all due credit to Alex O’Loughlin for not only fighting up a couple of weight classes, but for taking part in the most brutal charity match this side of Rocky vs. Thunderlips. And is it just us, or does Chucky boy have “that look” in his eyes yet again?