Apparently lot can change in a few years.

Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich had a change of heart and has re-signed lightweight Drew Fickett to a multi-fight deal with the Edmonton, Alberta promotion. The news wouldn’t be as interesting if Pavelich hadn’t proclaimed in 2008 that "Knight Rider" would never fight in the MFC.

To recap what led up to Pavelich’s assertion that Fickett’s days as an MFC fighter were numbered before he ever cashed a paycheck from the promotion, it all started when "The Master" breached a clause in his 2008 contract by taking a fight within two months of a scheduled MFC bout.

But that’s not the reason he was banned by Pavelich.

When the promoter read online that Fickett had agreed to fill in for an injured Joe Riggs on a Strikeforce challengers card last-minute participation, he attempted to contact the fighter’s camp to tell them that he would be breaching his contract if he took the fight as he had an MFC bout less than a month later. When his calls and messages went unanswered, he contacted Scott Coker to tell him that Drew couldn’t fight on the card and the Strikeforce promptly rescinded the offer to Fickett.

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAPromo)

When Chuck Liddell isn’t looped on Nyquil and ether, or teary-eyed from announcing his retirement, he’s actually pretty well spoken and has incomparable knowledge about the sport of MMA.

In this interview with HDNet’s Mike Straka, The Iceman talked about his recently announced retirement, reflected on his career and talked about about how he can’t stand when non-fighters and reporters criticize the men who put it on the line in the ring or cage.

Well, that explains why he refused to do an interview with us last summer…that or he’s read the site.

Hopefully Chuck’s fancy new position with the UFC doesn’t entail him "having a word with" bloggers who aren’t a friend of theirs.

Part two is after the jump.

(Now that MMA is legal in Ontario, the bandwagon will undoubtedly carry in a glut of Dana White wannabes. Let’s hope the OAC knows how to weed out the legit promoters from the scumbags.)

It looks like the UFC might get beaten to the proverbial punch when it comes to holding the inaugural sanctioned MMA event in Ontario.

CagePotato.com has learned from a source close to the situation that several promotions, including San Jose-based Strikeforce and Edmonton’s Maximum Fighting Championship have applied for promoter’s licenses in Ontario and pending approval by the Ontario Athletic Commission, at least three shows have been penciled in ahead of the UFC’s April 29 show in Toronto.

Although none of the shows have been given the go-ahead by the province as of time of writing, a number of venues have been tentatively reserved — some by first-time promoters — across the province in such locales as Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and Orillia. 

(Somehow we see this tournament going down before Strikeforce’s HW GP.)

With the current buzz surrounding the recently announced Strikeforce 2011 heavyweight grand prix, we figured we’d take a look at what kind of tournament the UFC could put on if they were so inclined.

Contrary to popular opinion, the calibre of the UFC’s HW GP would be just as good, if not better than Strikeforce’s. The only noticeable difference is that there really wouldn’t be any mismatches in Zuffa’s heavyweightpalooza.

Even if Joe Silva decided not to put the matches together that we hypothesized in order to save some of the more anticipated pairings for the sem-final and final rounds, shuffling the card around would not cause a great disparity in the calibre of opponents.

(Video courtesy Vimeo/MMANews.se)

Our Swedish friends from MMANews.se caught up with Chuck Liddell following the UFC’s announcement yesterday that "The Iceman" retired and effective immediately would be taking on the role of Executive Vice President of Business Development with Zuffa LLC and it seems that the former UFC light heavyweight champion is unsure about what his job will entail.

Chuck attempted to explain his role as diplomatically as he could from what little details he had been given about the job, but the iconic UFC fighter admitted he wasn’t quite sure what he would be doing from day to day.

"Well, we’re gonna get more into the details of it, but it’s business development, so I’m gonna be working with all the new projects and different things trying to help and promote the sport and the UFC. I’m gonna be doing that. I need something. I’m competitive and I need something to keep me driven. I need something to go after and do. I think this is probably the best way that I can keep continuing to grow the sport."

(The hypogonadism is spreading like wildfire. PicProps: MMAClothingTrends)

So, we forgive you if you didn’t spend 2010 following Ricco Rodriguez’s career with the rapt and breathless attention you reserve for ex-UFC champs like, say, Tim Sylvia. If you’re just a youngling and/or aren’t a huge fan of Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab then it’s also sort of understandable if you read that headline and were like, “Ricco who?” (Seriously though kid, UFC 39, check it out sometime) In any case, you’ll have to excuse the rest us oldsters if we pause from massaging Tiger Balm into our arthritic hip and raise one hoary eyebrow at reports out this week that the former 265-pound-titlist-turned-tragic-cautionary-tale might be on the verge of returning to the UFC.

MMA Weekly got the water boiling with an interview published on Christmas Eve and on Monday Five Ounces of Pain inserted the standard “learned from a source close to the fighter” qualification to the story that Rodriguez has been "negotiating" with our Octagon Overlords about a brand new three-fight, six-figure deal. To this we say: Huh. Weird.

UFC Ultimate Insider: Best of Unguarded – Watch more Funny Videos

If you want to see the best segment of the UFC’s Ultimate Insider series, you fast forward to the "Unguarded" portion of the show which features fighter interviews conducted by the UFC’s best kept secret, a behind-the scenes interviewer named Elizabeth who’s putting Ariel Helwani on notice.

Fortunately for those of you who don’t want to have to go through each episode they missed, the fine folks at the UFC took the time  to splice together the highlights from the season in the 13-minute video above that includes Randy Couture retelling the story of his first ass-kicking,  Josh Koscheck recalling how he "became" a dick, Carlos Condit talking about why he became a fighter and Dan Hardy explaining that he doesn’t like getting punched in the face.

(No, really, I love it. It’s much better than something practical like a new hoodie or pair of glasses.")

Since it’s the holidays and we haven’t been spitting out as many Photoshops as we used to, we figured it would be appropriate to put together a collection of illustrations depicting what a handful of fighters and MMA luminaries are angling for this Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa or putting up with obnoxious relatives just so you can get a crappy token gift day.

The possibilities were pretty much endless, but these are the best we could come up with on an hour’s notice.

Enjoy.

Junior dos Santos interview – Watch more Funny Videos

CagePotato video correspondent Brian D’Souza braved the X-Gym in Rio De Janeiro recently and nabbed some interview time with the No. 1 contender to the UFC heavyweight title (and recent Playboy Mag fashion model) Junior dos Santos. First off, please accept our assurances that things went way better than when BDS tried to conversate in English with the middleweight champ this week. In fact, unless you’re just an out-and-out dick we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at dos Santos’ English, which appears to be coming along nicely. Secondly, no that’s not a weed shirt he’s wearing. We don’t think.

While no official date has yet been set for his shot at the 265-pound gold, dos Santos says he expects a March or April showdown with Cain Velasquez and is already working out down in Rio with the likes of the Nogueira brothers, Anderson Silva and Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante to get ready. Dos Santos and D’ Souza cover a number of topics in their short time together, including what Cigano thought of Velasquez’s recent win over Brock Lesnar. Sounds like he enjoyed it as much as the rest of us.

“That fight was very interesting,” says dos Santos with a chuckle. “Brock Lesnar tried to fight like a monster, like what he is. I think in my mind Cain was perfect, because he just waited (out) that initial pressure from Brock Lensar. (He) waited for the right moment to change the fight and win. Cain Velasquez was perfect in that fight.”

(
(Wait, you guys FIGHT in this thing?)

Earlier this week, Dana White mentioned that his promotion was in talks to add Japanese featherweight Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto to the mix of the UFC’s top notch 145-pound class.

Well, according to the UFC president, the popular 33-year-old Japanese fighter has come to terms with the Zuffa-owned organization.

White tweeted the news last night.

(Propers: YouTube/ShoSports)

If you insist on framing Saturday night’s dueling MMA action as a head-to-head matchup between Strikeforce and the UFC – and we do, since we’re media types, meaning we can always be counted on to find the easiest storyline and absolutely beat it to death – then you have to consider it a victory for Scott Coker and Co. Strikeforce came into the evening with the better card on paper and on this night the chalk held up. By virtue of back-to-back-to-back-to-back knockouts (if you count Antonio Silva’s TKO over Mike Kyle, which we do), last night Strikeforce was the metaphorical broken clock that turns up right twice a day, the dog’s ass that finally catches some sun. Meanwhile, every live fight on the UFC’s broadcast of the “Ultimate Fighter” season 12 finale went the distance. Both shows were decent, but after months of incessant bitching we should know by now that MMA fans will take a night full of stoppages over a night of scorecard verdicts every time.

During any given week on this website we give Strikeforce an unending raft of shit on the basis of its general incompetence, so it only seems fair to hand out some props on the rare occasion when the company doesn’t screw up in any obvious way. Good job, Strikeforce. We’d love to sit here and tell you last night’s show was indicative of the promotion “figuring it out” somehow, but frankly it seems like it just got lucky with a bunch of dynamic knockouts. Still, the fact this show went off as well as it did after the original fight card got scrambled by late injuries is sort of remarkable. Now it just remains to be seen how many people actually watched it.

I always figured that calling MMA "the world’s fastest-growing sport" was mainly a promotional slogan, based more on allegorical evidence than actual numbers. So is the title deserved, or is it hot air? Using data mined from the Simmons Research Database, MMAPayout.com has published a new report breaking down the growth of the UFC in the United States over the past three years, compared to other major sports leagues — as well as information on age and gender demographics. We recommend checking out the whole thing if you have time, but here are some highlights:

– The UFC actually is the fastest-growing sports league in the country, pretty much by default. From 2007-2009, the NFL, MLB, NBA, NASCAR, and MLS (that’s soccer, you guys) actually suffered losses in their fan bases. The NHL’s fan base grew very slightly. By comparison, the UFC increasing their total number of fans by about 14% (and 30% among "avid" fans) seems like a monumental achievement.

(Creepy pale guy is thinking how great he would look in a jumpsuit made from Chael’s skin.)

CagesideSeats.com has an interesting story they scooped from Yahoo! Sports MMA reporter Dave Meltzer’s paid subscription f4wonline message board that sheds some light on the Chael Sonnen PED case.

According to the story, Sonnen has been undergoing hormone replacement therapy since before his fight with Yushin Okami, which he reported to and was given clearance to fight by the California State Athletic Commission prior to the the bout. Because it is a permanent treatment  Sonnen allegedly assumed his doctor prescribed required testosterone treatment would be on file, and thus never re-reported it to the commission.

Testosterone levels can drop off for various reasons, including age, hereditary reasons or because of stress the endocrine system is due to a number of variables,  not limited to repeated weight fluctuation and dehydration caused by weight cutting.

Here’s what Meltzer had to say about the case in the latest edition of  his Wrestling Observer newsletter:

"Chael Sonnen’s hearing before the California State Athletic Commission regarding testing positive for testosterone is scheduled for 12/2 in Sacramento. Josh Barnett will also be applying to get licensed on that date. The talk was Sonnen would argue based on being medically prescribed testosterone due to a low level in his system. The issue would be whether or not he informed the commission ahead of time, because in cases like that, at least in Nevada, you have to ask for an exemption well in advance, have the commission doctors and your doctors talk and get it approved, and you still can’t have a higher than normal level in your system when being tested which requires additional lab work. Those type of exemptions being approved are rare."

CS dug a little further and came up with a conversation between Meltzer and UFC.com writer/German UFC commentator Oliver Copp on the F4WOnline messageboard

("Read it? No, I *signed* it. We’re dealing with fight promoters here, I assumed they were on the level." Props: MMAConvert.com)

Well, this is embarrassing: As it turns out, UFC heavyweight contender Roy Nelson is allegedly still under contract to another fighting organization and has been during his entire UFC career, including three previous fights in the Octagon as well as his run to the championship of “The Ultimate Fighter” season 10. According to multiple internet reports, Nelson perhaps didn’t read all the fine print in the deal he signed with Roy Jones Jr.’s Square Ring, Inc., prior to his questionble decision loss to Jeff Monson in March, 2009. Now UFC President Dana White says “Big Country” will be on the shelf until the matter is resolved.     

See, this is what happens when fighters don’t have lawyers. Obviously, Nelson should’ve known his own contractual status but instead of just blaming the big guy, let’s be honest: This can only be considered a fuck-up of colossal proportions on the part UFC’s massive and notoriously aggressive legal team. It’s hard to fathom how they missed this, especially since legal documents obtained by The Fight Lawyer allege that UFC Vice President Marc Ratner knew about Nelson’s contract with Square Ring. Fortunately for Zuffa, The Fight Lawyer also assumes the company will just end up billing Nelson for any losses it incurs while sorting this mess out. Man, must be nice.

(There’s only one thing a male nurse hates worse than paperwork: Armenians. PicProps: MMAConvert)

Here’s one for all you morons who fire off those clever “If he doesn’t like it, he shouldn’t be a fighter!” message board posts every time a guy (or girl) utters a discontented word about payment, injury and/or the all-around shittiness of how MMA treats its athletes: “TUF 8” finalist Phillipe Nover is taking your advice. The kid Dana White once prematurely ejaculated all over by comparing him to Georges St. Pierre tells Sherdog this week that he’s taking a break from fighting in order to pursue the assumedly more lucrative, stable and less dangerous career as a technician in a cardiac lab at a hospital in New York.

It seems Nover – who at just 26 comes off as far, far too reasonable for the MMA industry here – would rather enjoy the perks of health insurance, a pension plan, a steady paycheck and the protection of his labor union than toil on the independent circuit after being cut from the UFC following his loss to Rob “The Lord of South County” Emerson at UFC 109. We know, what a pussy, right?

(Since Brocktober was a bust, maybe SuperBrock weekend in February will be better.)

Well, Brock Lesnar and Roy Nelson made Joe Silva’s job much easier by all but setting up a bout between each other today. Now all the UFC has to do is squeeze the heavyweights onto a card and we’ll have Lesnar’s first post-title-loss match-up.

Superbowl weekend seems like a likely date, considering Brock is hunting and Nelson is rehabbing his knee, so we’re going to go ahead and pencil it in.

According to Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online, Lesnar has asked the UFC if he can fight Nelson next, but the promotion for some reason is stuck on a rubber match with Frank Mir, so it’s not guaranteed to happen.

"I could tell you this for pretty much 100 percent certainty Brock Lesnar wants that fight. I mean, he has asked for that fight and I would presume at some point  that fight is probably going to happen. I think the idea…Dana — as of a couple of days ago at least — had not talked to Lesnar yet, but he was planning on doing it," Alvarez revealed. "I think the first fight they’re probably going to offer [Brock] is a third fight with Frank Mir."

(Video courtesy YouTube/MMA30)

For all of you worrywarts who upon hearing about the pending UFC-WEC merger immediately became concerned about the future of WEC Octagon Girl^tm Brittney Palmer, you can sleep well tonight knowing that she too will become a UFC employee as of January 2011.

Fighters Only confirmed the news today with UFC president Dana White that Palmer will join the UFC’s current duo, UFC  Playboy Playmate Arianny Celeste and Roger Murtaugh Chandella Powell as the promotion’s female presence at events.

White stated during today’s press conference that the outside apron of the Octagon will be as close as any females will get to being inside the UFC cage as there aren’t enough good female fighters to make any decent division for them in his organization.

For those of you who don’t know who Palmer is, what the hell is wrong with you?

For everyone else, here are some photos and a video to remind you after the jump.

("I know, dude. Twins. We’re feeling pretty fucking blessed right now.")

The UFC sent out a short but provocative notice to members of the press earlier today, declaring that UFC President Dana White will make a "major announcement" during a media conference call this Thursday at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET. And that’s pretty much it; no hints as to the nature of this announcement were given whatsoever. Which means that, being responsible bloggers, it is now time to speculate wildly.

In a broadcastingcable.com interview published yesterday, White was pressed on his company’s upcoming television strategy, to which he responded "we are working on a couple moves now and should be in a billion homes around the world in the next couple months." A billion, you guys. Though he wouldn’t share details, he promised that the UFC would be on network television for the first time in 2011 — maybe on Fox, maybe on NBC, maybe both — and that the UFC could start its own network "within the next couple years."

(…so I can’t accept the fight right now…Hello?….Dana…Are you there?)

Ever since John Alessio was cut lose by the WEC following a DQ loss to Brock Larson at WEC 33 in 2008, the Vancouver, BC native has been vocal about his desire to get back to fighting for the promotion. Part of the 31-year-old fighter’s motivation was the fact that, besides the loss to Larson, he had only technically lost to the promotion’s champion Carlos Condit in the WEC. He wanted the opportunity to avenge the loss and also because he had won three in a row prior to his final bout and didn’t think his firing was justified.

When the WEC dropped its welterweight class in 2009, Alessio turned his sights on the organization’s big brother promotion, the UFC, where he first fought in 2006.

Racking up an impressive 8-2 (all finishes) record and current  six-fight winning streak since being dropped by the WEC, Alessio (30-13) revealed today that he finally got his wish, but had to turn down the offer by the UFC to fight on the upcoming Montreal card in December due to contractual obligations to the Dutch-based United Glory promotion. "The Natural" earned a berth in the second round of the Golden Glory-owned organization’s $150,000 welterweight tournament which will take place on January 30 by submitting Sergey Golyaev October 16 in Amsterdam. He will face Golden Glory standout Siyar Bahadurzada in round two of the competition.

(Kingmaker. Lip-licker.)

…at least according to our friends at AskMen who released their Top 49 Most Influential Men of 2010 list today. Although the UFC president placed a lot higher last year, White’s #32 ranking puts him ahead of such notable males as Justin Timberlake (#33) and Kobe Bryant (#45). Unfortunately, he’s still two spots behind the freaking Old Spice Dude.

To determine the rankings, over 500,000 votes were cast by AskMen readers, who were asked to decide "which male figures have made the biggest impact, and ultimately, shaped what it means to be a modern man in 2010." Of course, when you leave this sort of thing up to popular vote, the results always wind up a little disassociated from logic. For example, President Barack Obama is only the 21st most influential man this year (down from #3 last year). James Franco is #7. Sure. Why not.

To see this year’s full "Influential Men" list and find out who ended up at #1, click here.

(Well that explains why he’s so vicious. Apparently Dede keeps Aldo chained up in the basement and feeds him nothing but raw meat between fights.)

Jose Aldo revealed to Tatame today that he turned down the opportunity to move up a weight class to take on UFC lightweight Kenny Florian in December.

According to Aldo, who has fought as a lightweight before, after talking it over with his managers, Ed Soares and Joinha and his coach, Andre Pederneiras they came to the conclusion that the timing wasn’t right for him to make the move up to 155, partially because it takes time to put on the mass required to move up a weight class and also because he doesn’t want to have to fight any of his Nova Uniao teammates.

"Actually I started in a lighter division, then changed to this one and tried the division above, but it’s up to [Andre] Dedé [Pederneiras] and he knows better," Aldo explained. "When I was fighting on the division above he thought there were many people of the gym on that division, and on my division there’s me and Marlon [Sandro] and I can play pretty hard on this one and I’m the champion, so I think it’s best for me to stay on this weight division."

(I don’t do this for everybody, but I’m willing to drop my asking price to $250,000 and a 10% stake in the UFC. Have you seen my fight with Fedor?)

According to Ricardo Arona, he is only one win away from getting an invite to the UFC, but finding a promotion to fight for hasn’t been easy for the former PRIDE middleweight champion.

"That conversation with Dana White was basically about it, that I’d fight again in other event to recover my rhythm, and it’d be a good thing for me. I’d like to fight on UFC, I feel like I’m ready for it, but if I have to fight again first, there’s no problem with that, too," he recently told Tatame’s Guilherme Cruz. "[War on the Mainland] called me about fighting [at one of their] events, but there’re nothing set. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I want to fight abroad, not in Brazil."

(VidProps: UK Telegraph)

The UK Telegraph posted part two of its video interview with Dan Hardy this week, leading up to Hardy’s clash with Carlos Condit on Saturday night at UFC 120. Though the video is titled “My secret weapon after losing to Georges St. Pierre,” Hardy doesn’t mention anything about GSP or his secret weapon here. Hopefully, that’s coming in part three. What Hardy does do in the above video is a bit of clarification about what he meant to say while he was ripping into wrestlers in a recent column he penned for his hometown newspaper. Once again – as we’ve already discussed –  Hardy seems far more sensible when you hear the words come out of his mouth than when your read them on paper.

The five-time UFC vet explains that even though he actually wrote the words, “the problem is there’s beginning to be too much wrestling in UFC Octagon,” he didn’t mean it as an insult to wrestlers, per se. Like, what would give you that idea?

(Video courtesy YouTube/JoeRogan.net)

In a segment he recorded with K-1 and HDNet commentator, Michael "The Voice" Schiavello for his podcast last week, UFC color analyst, Joe Rogan gave his thoughts on the UFC partnering with other organizations to bring fans the best fights possible.

From a business perspective, Rogan says he can’t see it happening, but from a fan perspective, he says he wishes his employer would just periodically forget about the competition and money for the sake of the sport.

"That’s a big problem to me that there’s all of these organizations. If there was just the UFC, Alistair would fight Brock. But Alistair would not have gotten to become Alistair if it wasn’t for fighting in all of these other organizations. There’s not enough fights in the UFC. There’s not enough shows. There’s only so many shows," Rogan explained. "We need other organizations. I just wish they could fucking figure out a way to work it out so they could get to fight each other. For one night. The problem is, it would have to be..The problem is the UFC is such a much bigger name and they’re worth so much more money and it would lend respectability to Strikeforce and like build up the enemy. You couldn’t really do it, unfortunately, business-wise, but FUUUCK!"

(The face of an angel. PicProps: Boston Globe)

One of the more hilarious (and largely overlooked) aspects of the UFC’s response to the recent Chael Sonnen steroid fiasco was that whenever anybody asked Dana White about drug testing in MMA he basically threw his hands up and said the company couldn’t have anything to do with it, because “The Government” is in charge of that. For example, when White discussed the topic with Ariel Helwani before UFC 119 he took on a wide-eyed reverence that was so un-Dana it was clear he was just sticking to the company-approved talking points: “Everybody has this belief that, ‘Oh, Dana White has the commissions in (his pocket).’ Listen, the commission doesn’t give a shit what I think — what I think, what I say, nothing,” White said. “You’re dealing with the government, OK? That’s like thinking Dana White can tell the IRS what to do. It’s never gonna happen.”

Now, either DW is the only millionaire businessman in America who thinks “The Government” is doing a great job regulating his industry … or he’s bullshitting us. Obviously, his equating state athletic commissions with the IRS is laughable, but the assertion that a billion dollar company like the UFC couldn’t possibly get involved with “The Government” is also pretty clearly not true. In fact, according to reports out this week, Zuffa, LLC would very much like to take an active role in helping New York state pick its next governor, and this is certainly not the first time the UFC has dipped into its pockets to help sway “The Government” to its way of thinking.

(Denial, anger, bargaining, plyometrics – Duffee has been through it all. PicProps: Sherdog)

It’s been almost a month and if you’re still having trouble wrapping your head around how Todd Duffee managed to get himself fired from the UFC after just one kind of fluky loss, you’re not alone. Duffee doesn’t seem to know exactly what to make of it, either. We’ve heard rumors of him faking injuries, turning down fights and having an all around piss-poor attitude, but the actual facts of the situation are still murky at best. One thing we know is true, however: At this point Duffee seems legitimately bummed about it. In a new article from Old Dad over on MMA Fighting, Duffee (and a few others) discuss the hard realities of getting fired from the only job they’ve ever really wanted. This MMA can be a pretty harsh mistress, fellas.  

(“I refuse to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.” PicProps: Connect.in.com)

The simple fact that MMA Fighting.com got stuck talking to Randy Couture’s attorney/manager this week instead of the man himself is probably very telling about what’s going on in Couture’s world these days. Most fighters can barely scrape it together to hire a halfway-legitimate agent or manger (again, just having your girlfriend do it doesn’t count), while “The Natural” is able to dispatch this guy Sam Spira, who we assume has graduated not only from college but then took the LSAT, then graduated from law school, then passed the bar in Nevada. When you consider the sad truth that a lot of fighters don’t even know a lawyer – and no, War Machine, your public defender doesn’t qualify — that’s pretty pimp.

Especially if you can send him out to handle the media obligations you don’t want to do yourself. Hence, we actually kind of believe Spira when he tells AOL on Wednesday that it’s sort of 50-50 whether the 47-year-old Couture will be too busy and too famous trying to balance his new career as an actor (and entertaining "other opportunities") ever to compete in MMA again.

(Where’s your glass trophy now, playboy? Props: thesun.co.uk)

By CagePotato contributor Jim Genia

In a perfect world, The Ultimate Fighter would give us an up close and personal look at some of the most promising mixed martial artists out there, vying for greatness in the crucible of combat. But in reality, it’s become a perversion of manufactured drama and prefabricated stars — stars made bright not by the depth of the competition they must face but by the trouncing of whatever hapless wannabes a SpikeTV producer chose at the tryouts. You see, it stopped being about “who’s the best” a long time ago, and was twisted into “who makes for the best TV,” so what we get now is more Jersey Shore than Ultimate Fighting Championship, only instead of Snooki and JWoww’s cleavage we get an IFL champ or Sengoku veteran beating the ever-loving crap out of people with maybe a handful (if that) of fights.

That’s why, when a TUF winner loses in Octagon — sometimes after facing real UFC-level competition for the first time — it’s totally awesome! Because, sure, Michael Bisping, Joe Stevenson and Mac Danzig are tough, likeable guys, but don’t try to fool us into thinking they’re the definition of “badass” just because they defeated a personal trainer from New Orleans, a boxer from Maine and some kid who should be working on a farm. We’re not the ignorant general public flicking through the channels, we’re knowledgeable MMA fans. We know better!

Therefore, here, in no particular order, is a list of the ten greatest TUF winner fails of all time. It’s a list based not on animosity towards any particular fighter, but on animosity towards the Spike TV executive who skipped over the few hundred fighter hopefuls with real talent and real skill, and instead chose the clown with the funky hair, the drinking problem and the propensity for trashing houses…

Michael Bisping vs. Dan Henderson, UFC 100
British fighter Michael Bisping was a stud in the UK MMA scene (which is a lot like saying you’re a gold medalist in the Special Olympics) when he got the call to compete on TUF, and he took Season 3 top honors after beating, well, pretty much no one of note. But he continued to rack up wins on the pay-per-views, defeating such marginables as Elvis Sinosic, Charles McCarthy and Jason Day. However, TUF 9 saw him pitted against Dan Henderson as an opposing coach, and we were supposed to believe the inevitable Octagon conflict between them would be competitive. It wasn’t, and fans everywhere rejoiced over a knockout so devastating Bisping has no recollection of anything to do with the weekend of July 11, 2009 and about nine days before and after.

(Whatever could have been done to prevent this terrible tragedy?!? PicProps: Fightertrends.com)

One of the more interesting side effects of the report this week that Chael Sonnen’s urine tested way, way too manly at UFC 117 is that pretty much everybody in the industry got the chance to weigh in on MMA’s “steroid problem.” From Bloody Elbow’s suggestion that the sport just “accept” steroids in order to regulate them to Kevin Iole’s idea that promoters start funneling money to state athletic commissions for better testing to Bas Rutten saying he’s “blown away” that guys continue to look for unfair advantages, nearly everyone old enough to have a Twitter account tossed out an opinion.

For his part, Dana White told Iole that the UFC already shells out “literally millions of dollars a year to try to prevent the steroid problem” and the promotion brings in DEA officials to “speak to the fighters about the ramification of performance enhancing drugs” at its annual fighter summit. Iole writes that White was “exasperated” to learn over the weekend that Sonnen had tested positive and Big DW sounds downright at-his-wits-end when he moans: “What else do I do?” during the article.

Hey, I’m glad he asked. What the UFC should do about steroids in MMA is actually incredibly simple (Spoiler alert: It’s not spend “literal millions” to hold an annual summit where fighters get a stern lecture) …

(Video courtesy YouTube/Fight!Mag)

I’ve always been amazed with the fact that "Big" John McCarthy is as, or more famous than a lot of MMA fighters. Think about it. How many football referees or baseball umpires can you name, let alone who you would want an autograph from?

I worked with BJM at The Fight Network a few years ago and no matter if he was at an event doing color commentary or just hanging out at the station, he would get requests non-stop for photos and autographs. It’s crazy to think that besides guys like Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, Big John is more recognized than a lot of marquee fighters for his involvement in the sport and his regulation of landmark bouts over the years.

He has his own gym, MMA refereeing and judging certification course, his own Xtreme Couture signature shirt and will be releasing an autobiography, "Let’s Get it On!" which he has spent the last few years writing with MMA journalist Loretta Hunt, who also wrote Randy Couture’s "Becoming the Natural.".

The videos above and after the jump shot by Fight! Magazine give some insight into the stories that will be shared in the book and if they are any indication, the tome will be well worth picking up.

In the clips he talks a bit about his time with the LAPD, the origin of his fight-starting catchphrase and the fateful favor he did for his then-jiu-jitsu teacher, Rorian Gracie that would lead to his career as one of the most respected and recognizable officials to ever call a fight.