(You see, Shamar, MMA is a lot like dodgeball – the fat guys always get knocked out first.) 

By Jared Jones

After the WEC merged with the UFC in early 2011, most MMA fans were quick to write off the competitors in its lightweight division, claiming that they would simply be outmatched by their UFC counterparts. The success of current lightweight champ Ben Henderson, along with that of guys like Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis quickly disproved this notion, but one fighter who has gone almost completely unnoticed at 155 has been that of Danny Castillo. The Team Alpha Male standout’s record currently stands at 3-1 in the UFC, including a win over former number one contender Joe Stevenson in his promotional debut. On the heels of a split decision victory over noted striker Anthony Njokuani at UFC 141 in December, Castillo will be looking to build on his current two-fight win streak against Strikeforce veteran and submission savant John Cholish on the preliminary card of next weekend’s UFC on FOX 3 event. We were recently able to snag an interview with “Last Call,” who dished on everything from TRT to his stance on teammates fighting teammates. Enjoy, and make sure to follow Danny and all his Alpha Male cohorts on Twitter.

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Thanks for interview opportunity, Danny. I was wondering if we could first talk about your UFC 141 victory over Anthony Njokuani. How would you assess your performance in that fight?

Danny Castillo: “I would rate my performance about a D+. It wasn’t the best fight of my career. I was able to get a victory on four weeks of training, and I had just fought prior to that in November against Shamar Bailey. I pretty much went in there with the gameplan to wrestle the whole time; I knew that that was one of the flaws in [Njokuani's] game. He’s a dangerous fighter. He was one of the most exciting fighters in the WEC, and he’s probably one of the top five strikers inside the UFC. On four weeks notice, I wasn’t prepared to necessarily stand with him or to sit in the pocket against his strengths. His ground game was greatly improved, and now that I’ve done some training with him I understand why; he’s got a phenomenal Jiu-Jitsu coach in Sergio Penha. As far as I’m concerned, I think I won the first and the third round. I probably had about six takedowns throughout the fight, and I think I did enough to win the fight.”

Follow us after the jump for Castillo’s thoughts on the TRT debate, the possibility of fighting a teammate, and more. 

(Props: youtube.com/fueltv)

Chael Sonnen is back with more surreal statements in his latest Chael’s Corner segment for Fuel’s UFC Tonight. Here a sampling of Sonnen’s sincere and deep thoughts:

“Fighters have recently seen it as their quasi-job to continually put out misinformation.”

Recently? Naw that’s nothing new, Chael. Fighters have never had a problem, say, screaming in pain and tapping out to a submission, and then claiming that they did not. Heck, some guys have even gone on pr campaigns questioning the professionalism of refs who save fighters who ask for fights to be stopped. Maybe it doesn’t count as misinformation if the obvious truth is caught on live national television.

“[Some fighters] just refuse to answer a question, head on.”

True. Like, for example, answering questions with non-sequitor quotes ripped off from western movies and pro wrestling promos.

“There’s a tremendous difference between what fighters say vs. what fighters mean.”

(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.”

Five years ago a Cameroon national judo team member by the name of “Sokoudjou” shocked the world by taking out highly-touted PRIDE veterans Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona. One fight prior to his coming out party, “The African Assassin” met up with an equally tough Brazilian named Glover Texeira, who at the time was training with UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell at “The Pit” in San Luis Obispo, CA. Texeira utilized his superior stand-up to test Sokoudjou’s chin and let’s just say that Rameau’s jaw wasn’t prepared for the pop quiz.

Texeira has been on the UFC’s radar for some time. Chuck Liddell told me a year ago that the light heavyweight, who sometimes moonlights as a heavyweight would likely be Octagon-bound as soon as he sorted out his visa issues, but he’s been stuck in holding pattern fighting on regional Brazilian cards. Hopefully the 31-year-old makes it Stateside some time soon. The UFC’s light heavyweight class could use a shake-up.

By CagePotato contributor Jason Moles

During the illustrious eighteen-year history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, we’ve witnessed countless brutal beatings, killer knockouts, and spectacular submissions. Simply put, we’ve witnessed a ton of holy $&*% moments!

I’m sure you have your favorites that you’ll share with your grandkids when you’re sitting in the old man’s chair. But have you ever stopped and asked yourself which moments in the past two decades were the biggest on a large scale? Well I did and I went to the largest scale imaginable: the almighty Google and here’s what I found. Remember, Google doesn’t have emotional or monetary interest at stake here. These moments are the ones that have generated the most web traffic via searches, not which ones impacted the sport the most.

5.) St. Pierre Beats Shields at UFC 129 – 04/30/2011

Why it’s ranked: Jake Shields left Strikeforce as champion so essentially casual fans and mainstream media alike viewed this as the first major inter-promotional, champion vs. champion fight. Georges St. Pierre, reigning UFC Welterweight champion and winner of nine straight came out on top of Shields who was riding a fifteen-fight win streak over the past five years.

The UFC went all in on this one hyping this event with the normal Countdown shows in addition to a pretty sweet commercial, the Primetime series, and a flyer in my mailbox reminding me to order the PPV. It was a huge moment in both men’s career primarily because it was the first tough competition either had faced in quite some time up to that point.  The underlying reason this mattered so much is that we all wanted to see the GSP vs. Silva super fight.

(“Get a load of this guy. He calls himself ‘Money.’”)

The UFC moved swiftly to find a replacement opponent for number one UFC featherweight contender Chad Mendes when 145-pound champ Jose Aldo bowed out of a planned late summer match-up with the 26-year-old Hanford, California native earlier in the week. According to MMAJunkie, the promotion has inked Rani Yahya to face Mendes at UFC 133 August 6 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(Thanks for the, uh, memories? PicProps: CagedInsider)

Tonight we finally find out what happens on the series finale of the WEC (Spoiler alert: They all die and go to heaven together). Obviously, trying to cook the nine-year history of a promotion that became synonymous with mind-blowing action down to fewer than a half dozen highlights is totally impossible. Certainly we’ll have omitted some of your favorites here. Be sure to let us know which ones we forgot in the comments. As if we had to remind you.

Also, props to our man Ariel Helwani for furnishing most of the following vid clips in his own WEC retrospective over on Versus.com. Now here’s a quick look at some of the moments we’ll think fondly upon in future days, when we put on our Sarah McLachlan mix tape and dreamily stare at faded photographs of Brittany Palmer and Todd Harris, trying not to wonder how we’ll ever go on.
 

(Propers: Versus.com)

Nineteen-year-old bantamweight phenom Michael McDonald officially became the youngest fighter on the Zuffa, LLC roster on Thursday night with his debut on the undercard of WEC 52. The results no doubt raised some eyebrows in the soon-to-be UFC 135-pound division. If not for Cub Swanson’s epic battle with Mackens Semerzier, this one would’ve been a shoe-in for some TV time. McDonald rolled into this bout with seven straight T/KO victories and a record that would seem to indicate he’s been fighting as a pro since age 16. Is that shit even legal? Anyway, his most recent back-to-back victories over WEC vets Manny Tapia and Cole Escovedo at Taichi Palace were good enough to score him a contract with the big show and the kid doesn’t disappoint here.

McDonald looks a little bit like a very emaciated Joe Riggs during his pre-fight interviews, as he laughs off opponent Clint Godfrey’s suggestion that he won’t be ready for this level of competition. The South Dakota boy Godfrey — who trusty CagePotato commenter Karma Ate My Cat told us not to sleep on before we started taping this week’s Bum Rush – looks game, but ultimately overmatched in his second fight in the big blue cage. Obviously you know who wins but some play-by-play spoilers are after the jump, so if you’re gonna pitch a bitch about that watch the video before reading on.

(Take a good look, people. It’s the last time you’ll be seeing stuff like this for free. PicProps: InsideHoops.com)

OK, wait just a goddamned minute. There’s some sleight of hand going on here, isn’t there? Ever since Dana White organized another of his can’t-miss, super-special, earth-shattering, blow-your-fuckin’-mind announcement conference calls yesterday to let us know that the insatiable goatsucker that is the UFC will soon devour the scared gazelle of the WEC, people have been blowing nonstop smoke up our asses about how great this is going to be. And yeah, in a lot of ways it will be great. Specifically, it’ll be great for the fighters – except most WEC lightweights, who’ll certainly be fired as soon as they lose their first UFC fights — since the little guys finally get the long overdue opportunity to be UFC fighters, get UFC groupies and bank UFC paychecks. That’s all fine and good. Seriously, those guys deserve it.

But what about us? What about the hardcore fans who have been religiously tuning in to the WEC over the last couple of years to see what have consistently been the best shows in the industry? I mean, we’re kinda getting screwed on this deal, right? Granted, we’re no mathematicians, but it’s unclear how Zuffa reducing its programming on Versus from nine shows during 2010 to four shows during 2011 means anything other than fewer free fights for the fans. And let’s be honest, the UFC is absorbing the WEC for one reason only: So it can charge us for something we used to get for free.

(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."

(Hominick may be next in line to try to crack Aldo’s seemingly impenetrable armor in January.)

WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo revealed in an interview with Tatame over the weekend that his next scheduled bout will be against former TKO featherweight champion Mark Hominick in January.

"Whoever it is, [I] always respect everyone," Aldo said. "We already have a defense in January, [and it] will be against Mark Hominick, a Canadian [who is] very good at kickboxing."

Aldo seemed a bit unsure about whether or not the fight with "The Machine" is a sure thing so we contacted Hominick’s longtime mentor and trainer Shawn Tompkins today to find out if the fight is a go.

Tompkins tells us that his charge is still in a cast recovering from a broken hand he suffered training for his impressive victory over Leonard Garcia at WEC 51 last month.

(Don’t you know who my cousin is, bro?)

Now, I know fighters sometimes say ludicrous things in the heat of the moment when hyping upcoming fights, like Mir saying he wanted Brock to suffer the first Octagon-related death and Mike Tyson saying he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis’ children, but for some reason none of those remarks seem as asinine to me as something Manny Gamburyan said during an interview with MMAWeekly radio yesterday.

When asked about his upcoming WEC 51 fight Thursday night with featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who has drawn comparisons to Anderson Silva for his dangerous and flashy muay thai skills, Gamburyan had the following to say:

“If they’re comparing him to Anderson Silva, they should compare me with Fedor," Gamburyan said without cracking up. "If he’s Anderson Silva, most definitely, I’m Fedor.”

Sure you’re Fedor, Manny — if Fedor wasn’t as good as he is, if he dropped a decision to Thiago Tavares and if he got KTFO by Rob Emerson.

(‘Razor’ is looking to get back to the top, no matter what it takes.)

Three years ago “Razor” Rob McCullough was on top of the world. The WEC champion was riding a nine-fight winning streak of which eight were finishes and there seemed to be no end to his run.

Then it happened.

In the third round of his second title defense, it seemed like McCullough was close to finishing Jamie Varner. Before he could go for the kill, Varner spit out his mouthgard and got a timeout to rinse it off, which allowed him to recover. Soon after, “The Worm” caught “Razor” with a handful of punches and won via TKO.

Four fights later McCullough was fired from the WEC without much explanation, in spite of the fact that he split them 2-2.

Since being unceremoniously dropped by the promotion, Razor Rob has gone 2-0 under the Tachi Palace Fights banner and most recently defeated UFC veteran Corey Hill last weekend by unanimous decision.

According to the former WEC lightweight champ, who is enjoying life sober, married and as a father of a six-month-old son, says he’s doing what he has to do to get back on the roster of a major organization, which he reveals is likely to happen soon and he says he’ll fight anyone who wants to fight him.

We caught up with Razor this week and spoke candidly and at length about a variety of topics including his childhood, his life, his family, his new goals as a fighter and the business of MMA.

I’ll warn you that the interview is very lengthy, but it’s worth the read if you have time as it reveals a personal, thoughtful and mature side of McCullough that fans rarely get a glimpse of in his pre-fight interviews.

(Listen, man. I’m gonna make this up to ya’. I won’t kill ya’ and I’ll be your date for my afterparty.)

In the future, like most major corporations, the UFC and WEC will likely hand out employee handbooks to new signees that list behavioural expectations.
On the "DO" list will be things like:

"Hype a fight at all costs, no matter how uninteresting. You may call your opponent a bitch and mention that you want to hurt him if it helps to hype the fight."

"Sit out a year if it means you will hold your place in line for the next title shot when the injured champion of your division returns."

On the "DON’T" list will be things like:

"Pull out of a fight due to injury and agree to appear in a movie, no matter how much you need the money and if that is the case, don’t talk about how poor you may be."

"Mention in an interview that you want your opponent to die inside the Octagon or insinuate or proclaim that he is a homosexual."

Until they start handing out the manual, they are no doubt going to have to keep apologizing for not only the bad behavior, but also the stupid remarks made by their fighters like Frank Mir and Donald Cerrone.

(Kamal Shalorus vehemently objects to your plans to watch “Cold Case” tonight. PicProps: Sherdog)

Sure, after UFC 115, Strikeforce: LA, Bellator 22 and the “TUF 11” Finale, it’ll be the fifth MMA show in fewer than 10 days but that doesn’t make WEC 49 any less deserving of your attention, does it? I mean, it’s Sunday night, what else are you going to do? Tuck in at a decent hour so you can get started being “FIRST!” in the comment section bright and early Monday morning?

After a litany of injuries, a loss to current champ Ben Henderson and a significant number of fans calling him a faker following his bout with Donald Cerrone last January, former WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner is pretty much in a must-win situation against Kamal Shalorus tonight. Officially, Varner is 5-1 in his last six fights but his reputation has seen better days. Unfortunately, Shalorus — the former Olympic wrestler and undefeated MMA prospect — will provide a pretty stiff test. Toss in the return of featherweight phenom Josh Grispi from injury and this starts shaping up as a decent show. Besides, yours truly will be doing a “live Twitter” thing of this event for @VsMMA, so I know you’ll be following that …

(That’s the fight game, Jens. You turn your back for one second, and your wife has her hands all over Monte Cox’s enormous stomach. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

For the second time in his 11-year fight career, Jens Pulver‘s relationship with Zuffa has ended. Dana White confirmed over the weekend that Pulver has been released by the WEC, following five consecutive losses over the last two years. Though there were rumors that Lil’ Evil would be taking over color commentary duties for the organization in the wake of Frank Mir’s departure, that’s not the case either. "We had talked about Jens being a part of the WEC somehow, but he’s not broadcasting," White said. For the WEC’s upcoming "Varner vs. Shalorus" event (June 20, Edmonton), the fighter-commentator spot will be filled by Kenny Florian.

Unfortunately, Jens isn’t one of those guys who can simply retire. A father of two children, he needs to fight to make a living. As he told CagedIn: “I’m a fighter. Fact is, I’ve been around a lot longer than these guys today, and I don’t make as much money [as] them. I’m 0-5, and that’s something I’ve got to fix with me, but I can’t take a year off to work on it. I’ve gotta fight.” The first 155-pound champion in UFC history, Pulver’s sole victory in the last four years was his quick choke-out of Cub Swanson at WEC 31 back in December 2007.

(Rematches? Bendo don’t need no stinkin’ rematches.)

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun following his second win in a row over Donald Cerrone at the generic Aldo vs. Faber event in Sacramento, CA this past weekend WEC lightweight champ Ben Henderson says that he isn’t interested in fighting any of the guys he has faced in the past. If he has his way, which is very unlikely given the WEC’s penchant for rematches (see Faber vs. Brown or Faber vs. Pulver), it would mean that the promotion would have to bring in a new roster of talent, considering his list of former opponents include the top contenders in the division like former champ Jamie Varner, Anthony Njokuani and Shane Roller.

When asked by Brett Okamoto whether he was impressed by Roller’s first round submission win over Njokuani (who, in an  interview prior to the event told the reporter that he was in talks to face the winner of Henderson-Cerrone) Saturday night, Henderson replied, “I did catch Shane’s performance (Saturday) and he had a smart game plan. But I’m not looking to rematch people I’ve fought before. If I fight somebody and knock him out in a minute-thirty, do I want to fight him again? No; not so much.”

 
(Urijah Faber’s Jose Aldo-inflicted case of elephantiasis of the leg.)

Remember  after the Machida-Shogun fight when UFC judge Cecil Peoples made the asinine comment that leg kicks don’t win fights?

Despite the fact last night that the fight between Urijah Faber and Jose Aldo went to a decision, it was obvious that "The California Kid" was done midway through the bout due to the damaged he sustained to his legs from the trauma inflicted by the feet and shins of the champion. In the final two frames of the bout, Faber could barely stand on his lead leg and had to be helped back to the stool between rounds.

(Video courtesy Youtube/Zuffa LLC)

Zuffa president Dana White’s latest WEC: Aldo vs. Faber video blog is up, and besides the obligatory Pinkberry stop and hugs and handshakes with fighters, there are actually a few funny moments in this edition.

Here are the video’s Cliffs Notes highlights for anyone too Emo to bother to watch:

It looks like Round 5 is trying to get Dana to okay a prototype of an action figure version of him they did for their line of incredibly bad action figures. I’m not sure if they have the same guy who does caricatures at the mall do the concept drawings for these things or if maybe they commissioned the supposed award-winning sculptor from New Jersey that did chocolate Dana White to do up this non-likeness, but I doubt we’ll be seeing this version of DW immortalized in plastic on store shelves any time soon.

If you fast forward through to the end of the vid, you’ll see that contrary to popular belief about its demographic, the UFC’s reach extends far beyond Affliction-wearing, 20-something douchebags and has jumped the shark to the BDSM community. Seriously, who puts on a get-up like that, looks in the mirror and thinks, “Damn, I look good. I’m gonna go hang out at Pinkberry and see if I can’t meet Dana White.”
 

(Chin up, Jens. At least you get to keep the awesome t-shirt.)

You know whose job I don’t envy? Well, pretty much anyone who has to actually do stuff for a living rather than just write about stuff. Honestly, I don’t know where you people find the energy. But more specifically, it occurs to me that the photographer who does these before and after shots of fighters that were posted to the UFC website has a deceptively tough gig.

Taking the actual picture seems easy enough, sure, but in order to get to that point he has to ask the fighter to take a second and pose for it. When he asks before the bout, the fighter is brimming with confidence fiery optimism. But afterwards? Particularly after he’s suffered what is most likely a career-ending defeat? That’s the last time I’d want to walk up to him with that camera in my hand and say, ‘Do you have a second, Jens?’

Once you’ve become numb to the desperation and vulnerability in Jens Pulver’s eyes and find yourself craving more of other people’s pain, continue on after the jump to see Miguel Torres trying to keep cool even as blood from an enormous gash trickles down his face.

The newest episode of ESPN’s "MMA Live" wasted no time in exploring the question that’s on everybody’s minds, ‘Is Brian Bowles a total pussy for giving up his title because of a broken hand at WEC 47?’  Okay, maybe they didn’t put it exactly like that, but hey, I guess something about wearing a suit makes you feel like you can’t say the word pussy directly into a camera.  Rashad Evans says he wouldn’t have thrown in the towel and relinquished his belt over some measly broken bones, while Pat Miletich plays it a little closer to the vest, opting to keep his mind on his money and his money on his mind.  That’s when the new champ, Dominick Cruz, shows up to give his two cents:

"To me, if I break my hand, if I break my foot, I’m fighting until I…you have to push a button on me or put me to sleep to get me to stop. I ain’t going to stop for nothin’."

Cruz goes on to reveal that his foot was initially thought to be broken, but isn’t, and he’s also currently sporting a cast for what may or may not turn out to be a fractured wrist.  In other words, he’s not calling Bowles a pussy, he’s just saying that it’s not something he would have done, on account of he is not a total pussy.  Tough, but fair.  

(Brian Bowles: kicking ass, letting his personal assistant take the names.)

All fighters made weight for the WEC 47 in lovely Columbus, Ohio this afternoon. While the spray tan crowd at the Arnold Classic won’t have UFC action to look forward to this weekend, as they have in previous years, at least there’s guys like Brian Bowles and Miguel Torres there to hurt people for their entertainment. Check out the official weigh-in results below.

By the way, you made your FightPicker picks yet? You know, this isn’t like buying a Mother’s Day gift. You can’t keep waiting until the last minute and trusting that the kindness of the gesture will pull you though.

Brian Bowles (134.5) vs. Dominick Cruz (134)
Miguel Torres (134.5) vs. Joseph Benavidez (135)
Jens Pulver (145.5) vs. Javier Vazquez (145)
Deividas Taurosevicius (145) vs. L.C. Davis (144.5)
Bart Palaszewski (155) vs. Karen Darabedyan (156)

By CagePotato contributor Jonathan Snowden

Thousands of MMA fans will turn on their television Saturday night, looking for some manly action like WEC 47 or Road House and come up empty. That’s probably because they foolishly purchased DirecTV, not knowing that the provider would soon cut Versus, home to ice hockey, second-rate racing leagues, rodeo, and cage fighting.

Luckily, that’s about to change. Sources close to the situation tell CagePotato that the dispute will come quietly to an end next week, with DirecTV subscribers once again able to purchase Versus as part of a special sports tier. While it won’t come in time for this weekend’s WEC card, MMA fans with DirecTV should have the opportunity to purchase the channel by the time the UFC runs its first event on the network later this month.

(You know that fight we let you see for free last October? Any interest in paying a lot of money to see it again? Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

After threatening the move for a year-and-a-half, the WEC announced today that it will officially be putting an event on pay-per-view in April, seriously, for real this time. WEC 48 (April 24th, Sacramento), will be headlined by the featherweight title fight between reigning champion Jose Aldo and former champ Urijah Faber, with the lightweight title rematch between Benson Henderson and Donald Cerrone in the co-headlining spot; also, Mike Brown will continue his path back up the 145-pound ladder with a scrap against Manny Gamburyan.

In return, the WEC is boldly asking that you shell out $44.99, or four cents more than the standard price for a UFC PPV show – which feels a little presumptuous, considering the promotion is low on genuine stars and it’s the first time that a WEC broadcast hasn’t been free. Of course, if there’s any WEC event that’s worthy of your money, it’s this one, and hardcore MMA fans know that the WEC may put on the most consistently entertaining events on the planet. Still, is that enough to justify a $45 reaming? In this economy? Check out the poll on the right side of the homepage, and let us know how you feel. Any predictions for how many buys this card will take in?

(Photo courtesy of vegasnews.com.)

By CagePotato.com contributor Elias Cepeda

CAGEPOTATO: Jens, you’re fighting March 6th in Columbus, Ohio. You’ve lost four straight to some very good opponents. Any word yet on who you are fighting?
JENS PULVER: Nope. I don’t know yet. I told them I don’t even want to know.

You actually asked not to know?
Not until they really have to tell me. Who cares who I’m fighting? Opponents don’t beat me, I’m beating me. You’ve got all these guys saying I’m getting punchy. I got hit on the head against Leonard but the other two of my last three losses were chokes. With Faber I ate everything, Lauzon clipped me on the chin. I’ve never been knocked out to the point of four minutes later they are waking me up and I’m trying to figure out what happened, saying ‘shit, what happened?’ I’ve been clipped. I might get punchy at some point but come on, it’s not happening now. Let me get mine. What fucking part of guillotine chokes don’t people understand? I appreciate their concern all the same but people don’t pay attention. Where does most of the damage fighters take come from? Not from fights but from when we are sparring with pillows on our hands and we take hours of brain rattling. Fights are five to twenty five minutes long; the brain damage comes from sparring. You don’t ever hear people saying we should quit sparring. So I’m not really worried about who I’m fighting. I’m fighting me right now. I’m fighting against myself, trying to be the old me. I’m trying to beat myself.

You’re talking about the old vs. new you.
I’m not talking about the young bullet-proof me. I’m talking about the middle me that has gotten his ass handed to him. I don’t complain to people, I don’t bitch about income. Of how there are all these other guys who have made a lot of money. Maybe I’m not that savvy with business. I’ve had a rebirth with meeting my wife, having my son and my daughter getting older. The biggest thing for me was how we moved training camps, finally. This one in Boise, I’ve designed. You can see it at DrivenTC.com. Just little things with this gym are going to make a lot of difference for me, I can’t even tell you. Our supposed great leader back in Iowa who didn’t even have a boxing ring or a cage — what kind of people fight in MMA and have never even sparred or trained in a cage? I’ve brought in Tony Fryklund and all positives happen with him around. That right there is leaps and bounds better.

(Faber works out on a public tennis court and scares the hell out of the local kids in Fight Magazine’s latest video project.)

Urijah Faber had a rough 2009.  He rebounded from his shocking upset loss to Mike Brown with a submission win over the increasingly beatable Jens Pulver, then lost a second fight to Brown that resulted in some seriously messed up mitts.  A 1-1 year with a little hand surgery might be no biggie to some fighters, but considering that Faber had beaten the hell out of everyone in his path from October of 2005 up through June of 2008, you can see how that many bummers in a row might have been a new and unpleasant experience for him. 

This Sunday Faber jumps back in against 27-year-old Brazilian Rafael Assuncao, who is 15-1 and currently riding a nice little six-fight winning streak of his own.  His only loss so far was a somewhat suspect decision against Jeff Curran who, it should be noted, Faber beat by submission back in 2007.  Obviously, the WEC has to be hoping for a Faber renaissance in 2010, since he’s still one of the most recognizable names they have.  Assuncao is not exactly an easy win for anybody at this point, but Faber needs a victory like Mizuto Hirota needs a cast and some Vicodin right now.

After the jump, relive Assuncao’s scrap with Curran and ask yourself, could this man get Urijah’s year off to a very bad start, or is he fodder for a brand new "California Kid" highlight reel?

IF YOU MISSED KNOCKOUTS #25-13, CLICK HERE.

#12: Fedor Emelianenko adds Brett Rogers to his vast collection of scalps at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers (11/7/09).

#11: Brian Bowles shocks the world, earns the WEC’s bantamweight title, and breaks Miguel Torres‘s 17-fight win streak at WEC 42 (8/9/09).

#10: Lyoto Machida makes Rashad Evans do the stanky leg at UFC 98. (5/23/09)

#9: Dan Hornbuckle starches Akihiro Gono with a kick to the face at Sengoku 9 — then takes a moment to think about what he’s done (8/2/09).

#8: Scott Smith pulls off the greatest comeback knockout of the year against Cung Le at Strikeforce: Evolution (12/19/09).

#7: Dan Henderson shuts Michael Bisping‘s big spotted-dick-eating mouth at UFC 100 (7/11/09).

#6 (tie): Marius Zaromskis high-kicks Hayato Sakurai into a living death at the DREAM welterweight GP semi-finals; later that same night, Marius Zaromskis does the same exact thing to Jason High (7/20/09). Congrats, Jason, you’re on the wrong end of this list twice.

#5: Yahir Reyes cracks Estevan Payan with what might be the nastiest spinning-backfist in MMA history at Bellator 6. (5/8/09)

#4: Jose Aldo needs just 8 seconds and a well-timed flying knee to wreck Cub Swanson — and earn a title shot — at WEC 41 (6/7/09).

#3: Anderson Silva shows Forrest Griffin the true power of a Jedi at UFC 101 (8/8/09).

#2: Fedor Emelianenko shoots Andrei Arlovski out of the air at Affliction: Day of Reckoning (1/24/09).

Fedor vs. Arlovski – Watch more Funny Videos

#1: Marcus "Lelo" Aurelio proves that Capoeira is MMA’s most effective style — at least for one night — against Keegan Marshall at North American Challenge 24 (4/4/09).

MMA Minute #2 – Watch more Funny Videos

Good news (for those of you who like watching a dude talk into a camera for short periods of time)! “The MMA Minute” is back for another episode, breaking down all the action from this busy weekend and giving you more insight than you probably needed into my personal life. This time I discuss which organization came out looking like the winner in the showdown between Strikeforce and the WEC, and then I more or less stare awkwardly into the camera until the strain of all the attention becomes too much for me and I burst into tears. That’s what it felt like anyway. Hope you enjoy it.

(Anthony Morrison vs. Patrick Upton, 4/28/07)

Less than eight weeks after he had his WEC featherweight title ripped from his waist by Jose Aldo, Mike Brown will return to the cage to start rebuilding. According to MMA Weekly, Brown competes next at WEC 46 (January 10th, Sacramento) against Anthony "Mean Machine" Morrison, a 14-6 veteran of various regional promotions who most recently scored a 69-second TKO over UFC vet Alvin Robinson at a Ring of Fire event in Denver earlier this month. With all the big names currently in the WEC’s 145-pound division, you’d think the former champ would draw one of them for his next fight. This is clearly one of those "get your confidence back as quickly as possible" kind of matchups — let’s hope Brown’s impatience doesn’t come back to bite him in the ass. WEC 46′s rather-stacked lineup currently looks like this:

MAIN CARD
Jamie Varner vs. Ben Henderson (for unified lightweight title)
Urijah Faber vs. Raphael Assuncao (FW)
Mike Brown vs. Anthony Morrison (FW)
Dave Jansen vs. Kamal Shalorus (LW)
Mackens Semerzier vs. Deividas Taurosevicius (FW)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Charlie Valencia vs. Akitoshi Tamura (BW)
Wagnney Fabiano vs. Frank Gomez (BW)
Eddie Wineland vs. Rafael Rebello (BW)
Coty Wheeler vs. Will Campuzano (BW)

After the jump: Morrison’s pro debut against Will Loushin, 6/30/06.

(You know Donald, at some point the hat ceases to be an accessory and starts being a prop.)

MMA fans face a very minor conundrum this weekend. On Saturday night both the WEC and Strikeforce will venture back into the cage and onto TV screens, and even in the age of the DVR that allows us to never miss a fight or a re-run of “Designing Women” ever again, we still have to decide which is worth watching live and which gets mostly fast-forwarded on Sunday morning.

But again, this is only a minor conundrum. One look at the respective fight cards tells us that Strikeforce has more must-see quality fights, although the WEC still has a couple of scraps worth watching and maybe even losing some money on, assuming your gambling habit has been upgraded from ‘problematic’ to ‘compulsive’ by now, and we have every reason to believe that it has. Why don’t we look at some odds then, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:

Donald Cerrone (-370) vs. Ed Ratcliff (+375)
Anthony Njokuani (-177) vs. Chris Horodecki (+160)
Joseph Benavidez (-180) vs. Rani Yahya (+180)
Takeya Mizugaki (-150) vs. Scott Jorgensen (+140)
Bart Palaszewski (+160) vs. Anthony Pettis (-195)
Muhsin Corbbrey (-245) vs. Zack Micklewright (+210)
John Hosman (-245) vs. Chad George (+200)
Brandon Visher (-600) vs. Courtney Buck (+500)
Brad Pickett (-190) vs. Kyle Dietz (+165)
Jameel Massouh (-165) vs. Erik Koch (+145)

The breakdown…