(Oh, come on, Vinny. You know that a belt is worthless once it has been in the bathroom! Photo courtesy of @VinnyMMA) 

Although we feel like we didn’t really get to know Vinny Magalhaes that well during his run on TUF 8 that took him all the way to the show’s finals, watching how he’s responded to his whole M-1 contract debacle has only endeared us to the guy all the more.

If you’re not familiar with the story, we’ll give you the gist: After winning the M-1 Light Heavyweight title back in October of 2011, Magalhaes got fed up with the promotion after they failed to offer him a single title defense under his contract, opting to attempt and resign him under a new one instead. M-1 Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan began a “he said/she said” contract dispute with Magalhaes that left the ADCC champion on the shelf for the rest of 2011 and all of 2012 to this point. After finally being told that he has been released from his contract, Vinny decided to put his belt up for sale on Ebay, figuring that it would at least sell for the 20 dollars worth of scrap metal it was composed of.

The bidding officially began on May 13th, and at a steal of just nine cents. It now stands at 14,600 dollars. 

What. The. Shit.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/TwisterEddie)

Renato Laranja is back with another one of his instant classic interviews. This time around our hero sits down with M-1 light heavyweight champion Vinny Magalhaes and the interview goes well until the former TUF 8 finalist starts to get a gay vibe from the 27-time Mundials champion. Magalhaes accuses Laranja of becoming “weird” since he moved to the U.S. and hints that he may have picked up some homosexual tendencies — not that there’s anything wrong with that, right Vinny?

First Big Nog’ and now Vinny. What’s next? Is Anderson going to stop wearing pink shirts and dancing with Justin Bieber?

It’s been a while since the finals of this year’s ADCC tournament went down, but it wasn’t until recently that a couple of videos surfaced, and we decided to let you in on ‘em. Just because it’s Wednesday. The first comes from the end of TUF 8 finalist Vinny Magalhaes‘ Over 99kg gold earning effort over Strikeforce/UFC veteran Fabricio Werdum. After controlling the action for the majority of the fight, Magalhaes quickly found himself on the wrong end of a Werdum armbar.

And holy hell does Werdum crank that sucker. For about three minutes straight, “Vai Cavalo” bends Magalhaes’ arm from damn near every position, only taking breaks to re-position himself and inflict further torment. All the props in the world goes to Vinny, who manages to not only withstand the brutal hold for as long as he did, but free himself from it in as calm and collected a manner as possible. Speaking of calm and collected, let’s take a look at a man who has never, ever, been described as such.

Magalhaes’ finish of Zayats. Props: MiddleEasy

There may be nothing worse for an MMA promotion than a lackluster title fight. If you’re promoting two fighters as the best fighters your promotion has to offer at their respective weight class and they fail to deliver an entertaining fight, everyone looks bad. The promotion looks foolish for claiming that a sub-par fighter is the best it has to offer, all of the other fighters in that weight class look laughably incompetent by default (after all, they weren’t skilled enough to challenge for the title), and fans in attendance feel cheated. Just in case you can’t figure out where this is going: Kenny Garner vs. Maxim Grishin as an interim heavyweight championship fight all but canceled out the rest M-1 Challenge 27.

This isn’t to say that last night’s M-1 event didn’t deliver the exciting finishes we’ve come to expect from them. In fact, none of the fights from the main card went the distance. The night started off with three first round submissions from Daniel Madrid, Yasubey Enomoto and Arthur Guseinov, respectively. The combined amount of time it took these three to submit their opponents? Two minutes and forty five seconds. Very nice, gentlemen.

(As if I needed an excuse to use this photo.)

For those of you who were too busy watching Jon Jones outgun Rampage Jackson to retain his light heavyweight title or Ben Rothwell fall to 0-1 at the hands of Mark Hunt this weekend, you may have overlooked the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships, which transpired in Nottingham, England of all places.

Andre Galvao easily had the best night of the bunch, taking gold in both the Under 88kg and Absolute tournaments, defeating Rousimar Palhares and Pablo Papovitch, respectively. Speaking of “Paul Harris”, he continued to prove that his mind is a fragile, ticking time bomb in his submission victory over David Avellan in their quarterfinal match. Things began to go off the rails when Palhares dove for his signature heel-hook-of-death on Avellan, and continued to crank it after the two rolled out of bounds and the referee yelled for a restart. I’ll let David’s brother Marcos, via his Facebook, explain the rest after the jump:

(YouTube/OfficialM1)

One of the many reasons this video from Thursday’s M-1 Challenge 25 event is handy is because a guy with a reverb-y announcer voice actually explains who Vinny Magalhaes and Viktor Nemkov are before they fight for the organization’s vacant light heavyweight title. Sure, maybe they use an “alternate” spelling of Magalhaes’ name in the graphic at the beginning, but we’re not sweating the small stuff. The other cool thing is that the play-by-play announcers just carry on a conversation with each other, almost as if they don’t know we’re listening. And did we mention the pre-fight choreography? Simply amazing.

The bad news is that all that silliness means the actual fight doesn’t even start until the 7:50 mark. But whoa, holy shit, check out that M-1 belt being toted around the ring at 6:22. Shit looks like they just glued some scrap metal onto an old piece of leather.

There may be photos from the fights out there, but who cares?

Last night, Norfolk, VA played home to M-1 Global’s first solo endeavor on Showtime. Many fans look upon M-1 as nothing more than a small stain on the MMA landscape, like that thing on Gorbachev’s head. But there’s no need to rehash any of M-1’s previous dealings and maneuvers, as we now have an actual body of work to dissect and discuss. This event marked their first notable attempt to make a splash in North American MMA alone. No Fedor, no Strikeforce, no co-promotion. No one to blame for their shortcomings and no one to steal credit for their success.

With Zuffa’s purchase of Strikeforce, there’s a surplus of promotions striving to claim the #2 spot in the MMA food chain. So was this M-1’s Sputnik moment, or more of a Chernobyl style disaster? Am I done with these terrible Russian analogies? Keep reading to find out.

(Unconfirmed reports say the guy on the left is Jose Figueroa, who fights in the main event of a televised show this weekend. Care to guess which one? Pic: Sherdog)

Holy bejesus, there’s a lot of fighting on television this weekend. We already pulled your coat to the fact Bobby Lashley is fighting a middleweight at Titan FC on HDNet tonight. We assume you also already know that one of the most exciting young lions of the light heavyweight division (no, not Jon Jones, but close) will fight an old school warrior of the bygone Pride days (no, not Shogun Rua, but close) Saturday night in the UFC cage on SpikeTV. On the other hand, we totally forgive you if you forgot M-1 Global is also set to make its debut on Showtime on Friday night while Bellator offers up another show on MTV2 on Saturday. God knows we did, until we saw it on some random dude’s Twitter this afternoon.

It kind of begs the question: We know you really, really like MMA, but doesn’t four shows in two days seem kind of … dunno … excessive? After the jump, some things you’ll need to know to make an informed choice about where to set your DVR during this weekend’s other two shows …

(Video courtesy YouTube/TheNewYorkBadAss)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- If Stann can’t get Wand, he’ll settle for Bisping or Belfort  (LowKick)

– Five lessons we learned for UFC Fight for the Troops II (Versus MMA Beat)

Herschel Walker: ’This is not a gimmick for me. This is life.’  (FiveOuncesofPain)

– Ricco Rodriguez to begin his road back to the UFC against James McSweeney at BAMMA 5 (MiddleEasy)

- A tribute to Chuck Liddell (WMMMALC newcomers ProFighting-Fans)

– Watch Hatsu Hioki choke Mark Hominick unconscious (MMAScraps)

– Tito Ortiz prepared to resume career outside UFC when if he loses to Lil’ Nog’ (5thRound)

– Both UFC and Strikeforce planning 2011 events in Japan (MMAConvert)

– In poll of favorite sports, MMA is overlooked (MMAFighting)

– M-1 Global signs UFC vet Vinny Magalhaes (FightMagazine)

– Elimination round for TUF 13 nixed by UFC and Spike (SBNation/MMA)

(Sonnen gives Paulo Filho an intervention, Team Quest-style. Photo courtesy of BaltimoreSun.com.)

Although initial reports claimed that Ed Herman would be stepping in for the injured Yushin Okami against Dan Miller at UFC 98 (May 23rd, Las Vegas), there’s been another change in plans. It seems that Herman has declined the fight — likely because he just competed at UFC 97 and the five-week turnaround would be too short — and Okami’s actual replacement will be Herman’s Team Quest teammate Chael Sonnen.

Sonnen was most recently submitted by Demian Maia in his UFC return fight in February, which dropped his overall Octagon record to 1-3. The WEC/Bodog vet was slated to face Wilson Gouveia at UFC 102 (August 29th; Portland, Oregon) and still hopes to take that fight if his scrap with Dan Miller goes well. Though considering Miller’s skill with submissions (and Sonnen’s tendency to get submitted), Sonnen may be out of a job by this summer.

In other news…

(Photo courtesy of this set on CombatLifestyle.com)

Spoilers after the jump…

(‘Now we go for ice cream!’  Photo courtesy of NBC Sports.)

It was an MMA-tastic week what with the “Fight for the Troops” and the Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale both within a few days of one another, plus a little Adrenaline thrown in the mix.  And while the big boys mostly sat this one out and let the young up-and-comers vie for the spotlight, there were still plenty of gains and losses made.  Now it’s time to sort through the wreckage and see who’s up and who’s down with our arbitrary numerical rating system.

Josh Koscheck +87

Even after putting a hurting on Yoshida, the future is uncertain for Kos.  Is he the best welterweight no one really wants to see all that badly?  

Ryan Bader +102

Wrestler-turned-TUF winner proves he’s got more than just takedowns in his arsenal, going upside Vinny’s head with a big right hand.  Satisfying ending, but let’s see what he can do against a real UFC fighter before we get too excited.

Vinny Magalhaes -48

Trying to prove you can do something other than the thing you do really, really well is admirable, though not all that bright.

Phillipe Nover -19

For a guy who does so many things well, there sure is a huge hole in his game.  I’d get that fixed if I was you.

(I owe you a beer, Efrain.)

This Yahoo! MMA Experts post about how favorite-playing bettors got killed at the TUF 8 finale inspired me to share my own experience from the event. On Friday, I opened a BetUS account to do my first-ever fight wagering with real money. (I’d already bet my esophagus on UFC 85, and took heavy losses.) I went easy for my first go-round, spreading $100 over five fights, and wound up losing $25 of it — not awesome for someone who claims to be an expert on this shit. Some highlights:

Biggest Win: Efrain Escudero ($20 bet for $55 profit)
Had we known that Phillipe Nover had no answer for Efrain’s takedowns, he obviously wouldn’t have been such a heavy favorite coming into the fight. Even with what we knew beforehand, I always thought that Nover/Escudero was a toss-up, with both guys carrying equal amounts of talent. I think the betting line fell prey to the "next Anderson Silva, next GSP" hype that was pumping up Nover, and EE’s +275 was too juicy not to take.

Worst “My Fault” Loss: $10 on Jules Bruchez
This kind of dumbassery is how sportsbooks make their money. My thought process was, “Eliot Marshall shouldn’t be -600 against anybody.” But that’s no reason to put cash on the other guy. Bruchez looked hopeless in his quarterfinal loss to Vinny on the show, and I should have known that he’d get owned by another BJJ ace. Still, the idea of turning my ten-spot into $40 was too seductive. What can I say, I’m a rube.

(Photos courtesy of UFC.com)

After a long, arduous, bodily-fluid-filled season of The Ultimate Fighter, we’ve finally made it to the end. It’s time to see who’s worthy of the hype, who’s ready for the big show, who’s taking home the six-figure contracts. If you’re not psyched for this, go watch Bromance you freakin’ fairy. For everyone else, hit that "Read More" link and refresh the page every few minutes for live round-by-round updates and commentary.

SPOILER ALERT: This liveblog kicks off at 9 p.m. ET, but the broadcast is tape-delayed on the West Coast (and possibly other parts of the country). Check your local listings, and keep in mind that we may be writing about things you haven’t seen yet. So if you’re coming in, scroll carefully.

(I love to see a man so bald and yet so happy.)

The Ultimate Fighter‘s Krzysztof Soszynski (known around these parts as K-Sos) came up short in his semifinals match-up with Vinny Magalhaes on last night’s show, but his skills certainly caught Dana White’s eye enough to land him a fight against Shane Primm on next weekend’s finale.

In this exclusive interview, K-Sos recounts his experience, discusses life with Junie Browning, and what we can expect when he gets in the Octagon next Saturday night and fights to keep his dream alive.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for talking with me Krzysztof.  Watching the show, it seemed like you were one of the few guys who didn’t get too bothered by being in the house.  Did it ever get to you like it did with some of the other guys?

Oh, absolutely.  To be honest, it’s a mental game more than anything while you’re there.  It’s a six-week mental challenge.  That’s what it is.  The physical part was easy.  You’re only training about four hours a day.  You can go when you want, you can miss practice if you need to rest, but you’re in that house for twenty hours a day no matter what.  That was the real challenge.  Those who passed will probably go on to do well.  Those who didn’t, they might have some problems down the road.  

It sounds like we’re talking about Junie there, so I’ll just ask, did you think he should have been kicked off?  Did you guys really want him to stay, or did Dana White kind of talk everybody into that?

To be honest, everybody expected him to get kicked off.  We expected him to get kicked off the first day he got in when he became the crazy drunk kid.  But when he threw that glass, we thought for sure that one of the other guys was going to get a shot at Efrain.  So it was very surprising that Dana didn’t kick him off.  

We kind of understood that the kid wanted to be gone, he wanted to leave on a good note so he could say, ‘I didn’t lose.  I would have been the best fighter, but Dana White kicked me off.’  So I see Dana White’s point.  And, we all wanted to see him lose.  I think everyone in that house wanted to see him lose.  Justice was served.

("Okay, my turn next," said Stankie, taking off his pants.)

Efrain‘s guest blog is going to be a little late this week, but we wanted to get up at least a small post about last night’s TUF double-header so you could discuss it, if you wanted to, in the comments section. Basically, here’s what happened:

Ryan Bader def. Eliot Marshall via boring fucking wrestling
Phillipe Nover def. George Roop via storm/kimura
Vinny Magalhaes def. K-Sos via scary, scary, high-level jiu-jitsu
Efrain Escudero def. Junie Browning via submission (punishment)

Of course, Browning actually competing in his semi-final match was a story in itself. Discouraged by his performance in practice, Browning announced to Frank Mir that he was quitting the competition; Mir had no objection. Back at the house, Browning threw a coffee mug at Shane Primm and started swinging at him. When the dust settled, Dana White stopped by to play psychologist, asked the guys if they wanted to kick Junie off or beat him off — we’d assume that Tom Lawlor voted "beat him off" — and convinced Junie to stay. Oh, and the best part? Junie is going to be on the main card of the TUF 8 finale, solely on the basis of being a ridiculous head-case. (Fittingly, he’ll be fighting Dave Kaplan, the runner-up to Junie’s reality-show dumbass crown.)

For the record, Junie places most of the blame for his loss to Efrain on having awful cardio. As he writes in his final blog entry for UFC.com:

During this week of The Ultimate Fighter, we start off with the Junie fight recap. This guy ran his mouth and couldn’t finish Rolando. In my eyes Rolando could have beat Junie if he would have kept behind his jab. I really wanted to jump the cage and ask him how it feels!!! I had to stop myself because knowing Junie he would have gone absolutely crazy, but oh well, I’ll just have to wait and see what the semi-finals have in store for me.

We started having some fun in practice, even though our practices were always different. We played some games on couple of the days which made me forget about fighting for a while. It reminded me that I was there to enjoy my time there and train hard; there is a time to have fun and a time to work. I really needed it at the time. Meanwhile the other team continued to get upset at us because we were enjoying ourselves and they were miserable.

Then we have Coach Nogueira’s birthday. He could have gone out and had a great time — after all, it is Las Vegas — but he decided to come to the house and hang out with us. We cooked dinner and baked him a cake which was a pretty good time I was glad I could be a part of it, and you see that it really meant a lot to him. Once again the blue team hated on us for this. Let’s face it, that’s all they know how to do at this point. In the house guys talk, that’s a given, but then Vinny started saying that he was better on the ground than Coach Nogueria!!! Word got out to Nogueira, and he didn’t take to it kindly. Coach confronted Vinny, which caused a big scene around the house. Me personally, I would never say that about any of my coaches because I think that my coach is there to help me; not for me to prove anything.