For the last time, Joe: One of these guys is a fictional character and the other one has a shoulder injury.

At this point, do we even need to update our most cursed MMA events of all time list to include UFC 149? Calling this card “injury plagued” is as brilliant of an observation as saying that airline food is typically not of high quality. For those of you who have lost track of the fighters who have pulled out of bouts on this card due to injury, allow me to quickly refresh your memory: Vitor Belfort, Thiago Silva, Thiago Alves, and Michael Bisping.

And now you can add UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo to that list as well.

By Elias Cepeda

This final episode of the TUF 15 season included perhaps more out-of-the-ring action than any prior episode. We got more of Cruz and Faber cracking wise at each other, but also legit blows thrown inside of the house and a surprise announcement or two.

The winning fighter and coach will each win a Harley Davidson motorcycle and so the guys are taken to a Harley super store to try bikes on and leather for size. They are hosted by Theo “Juice” Rossi, who has inexplicably still managed to survive cooperation with the government (Watch Sons of Anarchy to get the reference. And yes, I have trouble telling the difference between quality screenplay and reality.)

Back in the house, Tickle decides to throw a water bottle on the balls of a sleeping Daron. Daron, with weeks of pent up aggression from being eliminated, wakes up into a sprint like a Navy Seal or something, finds Tickle and fires off a punch and kick combination on the goofball.

Tickle acts outraged, like he doesn’t understand that getting awoken from slumber by getting hit in the balls absolutely deserves an ass-kicking. Daron worries that he might get kicked off of the show for fighting in the house because that’s what has happened in past seasons.

Naw, its cool, dawg, says UFC President Dana White. Well, not really. But he does announce to the guys in the gym, later that all of them will be fighting on next week’s finale in Vegas. All, except for Mike Rio, who busted his rib, and Andy Ogle, who is on medical suspension after his last KO loss.

The passionate Ogle is distraught at the idea that he won’t get to fight after making it so far. White assures him that he will “be back.” That isn’t good for everyone’s favorite warrior-poet, who literally runs after White as the Prez is leaving the building, wraps his arm around him and asks to be put on the Nottingham card in September.

By Elias Cepeda

We’ve got two quarter final match ups today so let’s jump right in. From Coach Dominick Cruz’ team we have Vinc Pichel taking on Coach Urijah Faber’s Chris Saunders. After that, Team Faber teammates Al Iaquinta and Andy Ogle lock up. At the end of the episode, injured Cruz’ replacement to face Faber at UFC 148 for the interim bantamweight title will also be announced.

(Tard face: For when punch face just doesn’t describe it.) 

It’s looking like Renan Barao might be getting a phone call from the UFC after all.

According to Dave Meltzer, bantamweight powerhouse Michael “Mayday” McDonald will not be the man to step up against Urijah Faber in Dominick Cruz’s absence, as he has suffered a hand injury that will keep him out of action for the unexpected future. Meltzer reported in his infamous publication, The Wrestling Observer, that the news came from none other than UFC President Dana White, although McDonald has yet to confirm it himself.

The news comes after the current bantamweight champion was forced to pull out of his heated trilogy match with Faber, scheduled for UFC 148, due to a torn ACL. Dana White announced during last week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter 15 that Faber’s new opponent would be announced on tonight’s episode, and the general consensus was that it would be the Californian-born slugger, who is coming off a huge win over former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres, would be the mystery opponent in question. The fact that the other most probable contender, Renan Barao, was already scheduled to face Ivan Menjivar at the same event only confirmed this notion.

If Barao is not the man to claim the empty spot, who else do you think could, Potato Nation? One thing’s for sure, we expect that tonight’s episode of TUF might finally bounce back from the ratings disaster it has been thus far.

We will have more on this story as it continues to develop.

-J. Jones

(Holy shit! That dude looks tough!) 

If the abysmal ratings of The Ultimate Fighter 15 are any indication (hint: they are), then most of you are likely not up to speed on the happenings of this season, and I’m no exception. For instance, I couldn’t even name one of the participants still competing (Steve Sicilia?), nor could I tell you which phase of the tournament we are currently in. I chalk up my lack of enthusiasm over TUF 15 to the show’s shift to Friday nights, because personally, I’d rather get bombed on a mixture of hand grenades and PBR and hit on a mid-30′s divorcee with lowered self-esteem then watch Team Faber strip down and get a good sweat on in Team Cruz’s locker room, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But this Friday’s episode may mark the first time in the season that you and I might actually want to hold off on the brain damage and sexual harassment lawsuits for the time being.

After it was revealed that Dominick Cruz had suffered an ACL injury and would be forced out of his trilogy fight with Urijah Faber in last week’s episode, Dana White announced that during this week’s episode, he would reveal Cruz’s replacement. The mystery opponent will square off against Faber at UFC 148 for the interim bantamweight title, because the UFC simply can’t have enough interim champs at one time.

Join us after the jump for more on this story. 

By Elias Cepeda

Coach Dominick Cruz and his coaches are giddy on how good they think James Vick will be. At one point they are off in a corner of the gym almost snickering at how no one but them knows how good the lanky young fighter is.

“He’s making it to the finals,” Cruz says.

Cruz says that Vick listens well and is an open book.

Dana White comes in and for some reason is the one to make the announcement that Cruz has torn his ACL and is out of the fight with Faber, though he will stay on as coach. We all knew at this point that Cruz had injured himself this week, but I guess I expected that this week’s episode would have footage and put a little more drama into it.

It is just as well because we need all the time we can get for tonight’s two matchups of Cruz’ James Vick vs. Joe Proctor and Justin Lawrence vs. Faber’s Mike Chiesa.

(The truth is, Ronda walked into the gym and Dominick’s knees buckled on their own. / Photo via @RondaRousey)

In light of the sly gamesmanship in that recent Urijah Faber video, UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz went on MMAFighting’s The MMA (After) Hour to explain how his knee injury came about, and that it wasn’t the result of being beat up by a girl. Here’s what he had to say, as transcribed by MMAMania:

“I was in training camp, I had just gotten done with TUF, and I usually get done about 11. I got to practice at 11:30 and I was sparring that day with kickboxing and takedowns and a guy got behind me in a scramble and he went for a trip, the trip, his hips went in on my knee and it just buckled my knee right then and there. I sat out the rest of the round, threw some ice on my knee, it was pretty painful. I was just kind of hoping for the best to be honest. I was hoping and praying that it was nothing crazy because it was a very, very loud pop. I kind of went into denial mode for the rest of that day saying ‘Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine.’ So I took some ibuprofen and that night I went in to get my normal workout in and I go to move around and get my shadowboxing going to warm up and me knee just pops right out. And I just knew right then and there that I needed to go get an MRI and get this checked out because me knee wasn’t stable and it kind of felt like I was walking on ice. I went in and got an MRI that day and got the bad results, the bad news…

Just to shut down some rumors that Faber thinks is funny to start and makes jokes about an Olympic bronze medalist and her taking out my knees. To me it’s not really funny, it’s just another way to know, for the world to know why me and Faber don’t get along. I wasn’t training with her at all. I brought her in to help my team on TUF…

(Former featherweight champion Urijah Faber will get another crack at the bantamweight title.)

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz may be out of his UFC 148 fight with Urijah Faber on July 7th, but “The California Kid” will still get a title bout that night, according to UFC President Dana White. “So what’s going to happen is Urijah Faber will, he’s going to fight still. He’s going to fight on the same card. Now, I’m looking for the right opponent. The guy who deserves this shot at Urijah Faber,” White said on Tuesday’s episode of UFC Tonight, according to MMA Weekly.

Faber, who was also interviewed on UFC Tonight, said he imagines that either Renan Barao, Ivan Menjivar or Michael McDonald will get a crack at him but does not know for certain. Barao is riding a seven-year win streak and is currently slated to face Menjivar at UFC 148. McDonald knocked out former champion Miguel Torres last month.

Urijah Faber is a smooth media operator. After so many years being at the top of the sport, the “California Kid” knows how to handle himself in the public eye and promote himself.

Watch the above video for a case in point. Yesterday it was announced that bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz had torn his ACL and would be out of his July rubber match with Faber. In this reaction video released by Faber, he, almost at once, empathizes with the injured Cruz, dryly starts a rumor that a woman injured the champ, calls for an interim title bout between himself and somebody else, and plugs his new book. Hell, Faber even manages to offer his unsolicited ranking of the top three guys that deserve to fight him for the interim title.

(UFC bantamweight Dominick Cruz | Scott Hirano Low Kick)

Well, that sucks. Dana White has tweeted that Dominick Cruz is out of his UFC 148 title defense against TUF 15 opposing coach and arch nemesis Urijah Faber because of a torn ACL. “It’s true Cruz blew his ACL. Stay tuned for more info” White tweeted just a few minutes ago.

By Elias Cepeda

Mike Rio vs. Andy Ogle seems like a good enough fight for this week’s contest, but the Brit goes further in predicting what it will be like. “It’s going to be a very attractive fight,” Ogle jokes. “It’s going to be a sexy fight.”

But before we can get to that, we are shown Team Cruz’ Sam Sicilia being comforted in his locker room by Mike Chiesa, who is on Faber’s team but is Sam’s best friend from back home. Sam finished last week’s fight much stronger than Chris Saunders and its almost a crime that the fight didn’t go a third round.

In an interview, Sam is clearly devastated but hits the right note. “I’d rather lose that fight than have a killer day in sales,” he says.

That really is what The Ultimate Fighter is about for these guys – they are fighting to be able to spend their lives doing something they love.

Coaches’ Challenge

In past years we’ve seen TUF coaches compete for cash against one another in bowling and ping pong. This year turns out to be a tad different – Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz are competing at firing hand guns, rifles and grenade launches.

Yes, really.

(Urijah’s lowest moment as an MMA fan? One can only ponder…)

This weekend, the UFC will make its glorious return to the only network that can bash gay rights and advertise Glee within the same half hour. We’re talking about FOX, of course. Featuring Jim Miller vs. Nate Diaz in a probable number one lightweight contender bout, a grudge match between Josh Koscheck and Johny Hendricks (because every fight with Kos is inherently a grudge match), a fight that will more than likely require the use of a stretcher, and a heavyweight sure-to-be-slugfest between Pat Barry and Lavar Johnson, it’s looking like UFC on FOX 3 has the potential to erase the memories of a rather forgettable second event and a rather brief first one. Not that we were complaining, because free fights are free fights.

And to get us hyped for the event, Dana White recently released one of his patented Danavlogs in which he catches Urijah Faber ogling over himself while on the set of TUF 15. It makes TOTAL SENSE if you don’t think about it. We gotta admit though, watching The Baldfather giggle like a school girl at Urijah’s expense makes us long for the days of his shock pen pranks that we came to know and love. [*looks over shoulder nostalgically and sighs*] 

Check out the video after the jump. 

By Elias Cepeda

If Team Cruz’ Sam Sicilia was freaking out over the pressure of being a #2 pick, it may have intensified this week as he was set to face the last pick overall, Chris Saunders. At least Sam had an extra world champion along to help him prepare.

Dominick Cruz brought in Strikeforce 135 pound champion Ronda Rousey to the UFC training center to teach his team some of her devastating Judo techniques. Ronda admits to being nervous about going in to teach the guys but they all seem receptive, as they should be, to learning from the champ – even though she’s a girl.

Oh yeah, Chris Tickle says that Ronda damn near broke his ribs while demonstrating a throw on him. The chick is rough, for sure.

Dana White allows the fighters to watch Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans at the TUF mansion and Ronda joins them. Once more, her nervousness proves unfounded.

“There are going to be a lot of guys to fend off at once,” she laughs while being hot.

(She taught you well, Urijah.) 

Whether or not you’re a fan of former WEC featherweight champion and current number one bantamweight contender Urijah Faber, you’ve got to admit that the guy is one tough son of a bitch, figuratively speaking of course. Aside from his story involving an insane run-in with members of the (an?) Indonesian mob, the dude single-handedly tore a hole in Cecil People’s bullshit “leg kicks don’t hurt” argument by offering his first pair of legs as a sacrifice to Jose Aldo at WEC 48. In fact, Faber might just be the toughest kid in all of California, considering that, when he isn’t beating the shit out of people, he’s bustin’ caps in their dreams.

And apparently it runs in the family. Not only is his sister recovering smoothly from the November car accident that left her in a coma for eight days, it appears that his mother, Suzanne, is now helping rid California of cat burglars. Yes, cat burglars are a thing.

Check out the full story, complete with photos, after the jump. 

(Click for full-size version.)

“Two grudges will end” at UFC 148, you guys. After the main event, Chael Sonnen is going to pull Anderson Silva aside and personally apologize for that wife-groping steak-cooking stuff, in addition to his general lambasting of the Brazilian people, and Silva will be like, “I understand about the trash-talk, baby bubba, but we’re still friends.” And then Urijah Faber will catch up to Dominick Cruz backstage and explain that when Cruz signed his name over Faber’s face on a poster five years ago, it didn’t really bother him, because really, who would actually hold a grudge over something like that, you know? And then they’ll hug. And hug. And keep hugging. These are things that will happen.

(Props: YouTube.com/TrashTalkinKids)

The wait is finally over. After keeping you guys on pins and needles for like a full month, we have a winner in our Urijah Faber t-shirt design contest with Punch Buddies. Watch the stunning conclusion above, in which Urijah, Stephan Bonnar, and Rachelle Leah take the finalists out to the desert and eliminate the losers one by one in the most hardcore way possible.

When the dust settles, they’re left with two designs that they can’t decide between — so Punch Buddies is producing both of them. Since the surfing California Kid shirt was created by one of PB’s own artists, our congrats really go to CagePotato reader Peter Starwalt, who went all the way with his beach/shark-themed design. Congrats, man! Your design is going to be on an actual MMA t-shirt, and you might actually see Faber wearing it someday! We’ll be dropping you a line shortly, because your wild ride is only getting started.

Also: Remember when I said we had a surprise for everybody whose design was featured in this contest? Well check it out: Urijah printed out and signed all your designs, and I’ll be sending them out to you guys over the next couple weeks. Keep an eye on your inboxes; we’ll be in touch.

By Elias Cepeda

This week’s episode essentially begins with Coach Dominick Cruz lambasting last week’s losing fighter Chris Tickle. Faber gloats after his team’s second consecutive win.

“Cruz is trying to hold it together but he’s a poor loser. I know. I beat him before.” Oh snap.

Sure enough, Cruz appears to be losing it. “We had one thing to do; stuff the takedown,” Cruz tells Tickle in the locker room immediately after his submission loss to Joe Proctor. “We were telling you in the corner, turn you back to the mat. He didn’t have the choke in…that loss shouldn’t have happened.”

Then Tickle tries to say something. Cruz responds, “shut up and listen.”

Cruz continues to lecture Tickle outside of their locker room. Faber notices this and shouts out to Chris, “Great job, Tickle. You did good. Don’t let anybody get you down. Don’t let anybody get you down.”

Cruz loses it. “Faber, nobody cares what you have to say. Just get out of here,” he says. Then Cruz proceeds to insult Faber’s fashion sense. Really.

On to this week’s matchup – Team Cruz’ Vinc Pincel vs. Team Faber’s John Cofer. Faber offers simple advice to the former division I wrestler Cofer. “Weather the storm. When he comes in hard, go for the takedown.”

Faber says that he feels that Pincel has terrible takedown defense. Let’s see if Pincel makes him a liar.

By Elias Cepeda

This week’s matchup between Joe Proctor and Chris Tickle seems to be a study in contrast. Proctor has been quiet thus far, with his nose to the grindstone in training. Tickle has been loud, full of bravado, while annoying his coaches by finding ways not to train during practices.

Similarly, both sides seem to agree that Proctor is the more technical fighter, with the ability to finish on the ground while Tickle is a powerful brawler that needs to avoid the ground. But before we can get to that fight, Tickle showed up drunk to last week’s.

After his teammate loses and he is selected to fight Proctor, we see Tickle giggling, talking smack and pushing his coach Dominick Cruz over the edge. We are told, and its not hard to believe, that Tickle got crunk prior to the bout.

Coach Cruz is in no mood for jokes after losing his second straight in the locker room and tells Tickle to “shut up. Shut up.” “What are you doing?” Cruz asks Tickle.

“Nothing,” Tickle replies. “I’m being me.”

Coach Cruz, and perhaps the viewing nation, simply replies, “why?”

Last week’s episode ended with Tickle getting in Urijah Faber and Proctor’s face when the match up was announced. Proctor teammate Al Iaqunita, fresh off his own win, believes that Tickle’s courage is liquid-based.

(Props: YouTube.com/TrashTalkinKids)

At this point, I’m willing to admit that our t-shirt design contest with Punch Buddies and Urijah Faber has gone completely off the rails. In case you were wondering why the quarterfinal round didn’t happen last week, it’s because Faber and Stephan Bonnar were working on a unique method of separating the winners from the losers, and it involved firing assault rifles in the desert with UFC Octagon Girl hall-of-famer Rachelle Leah. See, isn’t this better than just having you dummies pick the winner?

P.S.: We also have a really cool surprise for everybody whose design was featured in the contest. Stay tuned for details, and please follow Punch Buddies on Facebook and Twitter!

By Elias Cepeda

After the normal celebrating and gloating from last week’s winning Faber team, attention is turned to this week’s matchup of Team Cruz’ Jeremy Larsen and Team Faber’s Mike Chiesa. Remember when a few weeks back Mike’s father died just after seeing him fight and win on national television, and we learned that Mike and Sam Sicilia are best friends and training partners back home.

Well, on this year’s TUF, the two lightweights have found themselves on opposing teams, but are trying to find a balance between not betraying their team and not betraying one another. They call themselves “Team purple,” as in a combination of Faber’s blue team and Cruz’ red team. That’s adorable. Really.

In the final opening-round matchup of our epic t-shirt design tournament with Punch Buddies, UFC talent judges Stephan Bonnar and Urijah Faber send one more of your designs to the quarterfinals. Their choices are:

“Captain Butt Chin” by Bobby [who's misidentified in the vid, but whatevs]
vs.
“Urologist Faber” by Toby N.

As you’ll see in the video, both Stephan and Urijah fail to recognize Nazi pedophile Brandon Saling on the Captain Butt Chin shirt. We’re not sure if that affected Bobby’s chances, but it’s worth mentioning. Still, I think they made the right choice, simply based on Toby’s chin-placement.

The competition is only going to get tougher next week as we enter the quarterfinals. Catch up on our previous t-shirt tournament videos here, follow Punch Buddies on Twitter and Facebook, and let us know who you think is going all the way!

It’s day 3 of our Punch Buddies t-shirt design tournament, and the competition is only getting hairier and more intense. In today’s installment, your hosts Stephan Bonnar and Urijah Faber evaluate a pair of movie tributes — Michael P.’s “Fast Times” tee vs. Toby N.’s “Karate Kid” design — and Carlos G. does battle with himself in two Faber-on-a-bear designs. Which talented Potato Nation artist is going all the way? And how can I get my hands on one of those Diego “Dirty” Sanchez shirts? Stay tuned, and browse through some of PB’s classic t-shirts at PunchBuddies.com.

Semi-related video after the jump: Forrest Griffin does the monkey-face in his “Furious Forrest” Punch Buddies t-shirt.

After yesterday’s opening ceremonies, Stephan Bonnar and Urijah Faber are back to evaluate four more of your Punch Buddies t-shirt contest designs. Today’s opening-round matchups are…

- Ben S.’s California Kid action figure vs. Mandy M.’s “No Shirt Nation”
and in the ultra-violence division:
- Erik F.’s “Chucky Faber” vs. Dante F.’s Cruz-decapitation

Congrats to everybody who made it this far, and thanks to Punch Buddies for hooking us up with these videos! Be sure to check in with CagePotato every day through the rest of the week to see how the opening round of March T-Shirt Madness plays out. Was your design good enough to earn a pair of tickets to UFC 148 and a potential spot on Urijah’s torso?

(Bonnar and Faber — the Reynolds and Boosler of MMA.)

When we sent all of your Urijah Faber t-shirt design contest submissions to Punch Buddies last week, we figured they’d just pick a winner and shoot us a cold, impersonal text message (“not the 1 w/the intestines, thx”). We weren’t expecting Urijah Faber and Stephan Bonnar to film a video series where they evaluate your submissions, tournament-bracket-style. Holy crap, thanks guys!

After the jump, in episode one: The boys give a bye to one of our frontrunners, and introduce a design by one of their hot-shot illustrators. Can our Potato Nation scribblers defeat the seasoned camel-toe-drawing professionals? We’ll be posting a new video every day until the winner is revealed, so stay tuned. Massive props to Punch Buddies, Urijah, and Stephan!

(It was like this, but even more terrifying.) 

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from former Strikeforce Women’s featherweight champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. In the fallout of her sixteen second destruction of Hiroko Yamanaka and subsequent positive steroid test that saw her stripped of her title, “Cyborg” has been laying low, quietly awaiting her April 9th appeal and the chance to smash Ronda Rousey for her insolence.

In the meantime, it looks like the former champ has decided to broaden her training horizons, if you will, now incorporating a regular diet of Japanese game show hosts and comedians to satiate her overwhelming desire to kill. In fact, she recently appeared on the Japanese show Honoo no Taiikukai to demonstrate that she is just as strong without anabolic steroids coursing through her veins by taking on a…male Japanese comedian? Believe it or not, the match was surprisingly competitive for the most part, until Cyborg decided to go all Courtney Korpela on the poor bastard.

Join us after the jump for the full video, along with the Sergei Kharitonov/Mark Miller match from last weekend’s United Glory 15 card, and much more. 

By Elias Cepeda

This season’s TUF features live fights each week but everything before that are taped highlights of how the fighters and their teams and coaches have spent the past week. By the looks of what we saw on episode 3, a good amount of what Team Cruz did before getting ready for the next bout was making fun of how Dominick Cruz mind fucked the whole of Team Faber last week.

Cruz coach Lloyd Irvin gleefully recounted how, after choosing overall number one pick Justin Lawrence to fight this week, Dominick Cruz told Faber that he could choose who, from his team wanted to fight. Faber was shocked by Cruz giving up matchmaking power that he had earned after James Vick KO’s Daron Cruickshank and asked his team who wanted to fight.

No one raised their hands. And, as Irvin pointed out, many of them were all but looking up at the sky, whistling. A flustered Faber gave the pick back to Cruz, who chose the most accomplished fighter in the house, Cristian Marcello.

Faber lets us know, during an interview, that he really is trying to contain his rage at Cruz. “I’m doing my best to hold it together,” he says. “But, you know, I want to punch the guy right in the face,” bro. Ok, I added the “bro,” in. But no matter what Faber is saying, his surferspeak always makes it sound like he’s inviting you to go catch a few waves or telling you about the killer party he’s throwing next weekend, and could you please pitch in for the keg.

From the little we’d seen thus from Lawrence, the fact that he trains at Blackhouse, and Marcello’s pedigree and experience, this seemed more like a TUF Final than a first round bout.

But before we get to the fight itself – Chris Tickle’s annoying ass, ladies and gentlemen. Episode 3 featured the Team Cruz fighter, being a smart ass in teasing Team Faber members, acting all sensitive when teased him, trying to spar with ear rings in, destroying parking lot signs, using perhaps the most quickly passing case of diarrhea to avoid training and (yes, really) wearing a fucking gas mask during an interview.

Back in the house, Tickle worked hard to tell Team Faber members how stupid they looked in not raising their hands when their coach asked them who they wanted to fight. But Justin Lawrence made it clear that it wasn’t just Team Faber guys who were annoyed by Tickle.

As reels ran showing Tickle’s hilarious, totally disruptive and incredibly creative “prank” of pulling out Urijah Faber’s parking space sign out of the ground, Lawrence delivered the play by play with about as much excitement as one could imagine him having to describe clipping his own toe nails. Lawrence says Tickle is “obnoxious.”

(Don’t forget: Submissions for our Urijah Faber t-shirt design contest with Punch Buddies must be sent to contest@cagepotato.com by the end of today. Good luck! / California Kid action figure via Ben S.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere…

- TUF 15: Number One Pick Justin Lawrence Looks to Back Up the Hype Against Cristiano Marcello (MMA Mania)

- Inside Dominick Cruz’s Training Camp for UFC 148 Fight With Urijah Faber (Video) (Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com)

- Dan Hardy Wants To Fight ‘That Blood Thirsty Kill Freak’ Matt Hughes (MMA Convert)

- Remember the Guy Who Got Choked Out by a Girl? Tosh.0 Is Giving Him a Shot at Redemption (MiddleEasy)

- Jon Jones On Rashad Evans Having His Number: ‘He Doesn’t Even Have My Area Code’ (FightLine)

- Bryan Caraway Wouldn’t Be First Guy Ronda Rousey Has Beaten Up (Video) (5th Round)

- Jose Aldo Says He Will Move to 155 Pounds If Frankie Edgar Doesn’t Drop Down (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Josh Barnett Feels TRT Exemptions Don’t Make Sense (The Fight Nerd)

- Cameras Follow “Mayhem” Miller for Morgan Spurlock Documentary (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Hitman-TapouT Lawsuit Heating Up (MMA Payout)

- Mike Kogan Has Had Enough of Rampage’s UFC Complaints (Fight Opinion)

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.

(Props: Peter S. / Click above for larger version, brah!)

Just a reminder to all you aspiring t-shirt designers who might want a pair of free tickets to UFC 148: Cruz vs. Faber 3 — the submission period for our design contest with Punch Buddies ends a week from today, March 21st! So if you have an idea for a clever Urijah Faber t-shirt, and you have a dash of artistic talent, get your head out of your ass and send it to contest@cagepotato.com. For inspiration, we’ve posted our three favorite entries so far, which continue after the jump. Let us know what you think, and be sure to follow Punch Buddies on Facebook and Twitter!

By Elias Cepeda

Over the better part of a decade, The Ultimate Fighter reality fighting competition show has seen a number of different format changes and gimmicks, from coaches set to fight for titles and nominally famous singer eye candy hosts, to veterans given a second chance in the UFC with title shots as the prizes. But three things have always stayed constant – the show airing on Spike, seasons being taped months before airing, and fighters in the house being treated to all you could drink liquor buffets while simultaneously being asked to maintain the UFC’s high standards of sober living.

We can only hope that the last item doesn’t change this year, but the first two already have. With the new season of TUF being aired on FX, the UFC has decided to try something new and air all fights live every Friday night. Friday night 32 UFC hopefuls, TUF head coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, Prez Dana White and a variety of other Nevada judges, referees and oddly placed celebrities in the crowd, gathered in the UFC training center in Las Vegas for 16 fights to determine who got to be in the TUF house for the next three months.

Here’s the action, tater nation, in the present tense, as fast as we could type it all.