UFC Fight Night

(It was either this or another picture of Bader. Photos courtesy of twitpic.com/photos/ariannyceleste.)

— TUF 8 winner Ryan Bader may have suffered serious knee damage during his unanimous decision win over Carmelo Marrero on Wednesday. As Bader told MMA Weekly, "The doctor said I blew my MCL out and maybe the ACL...One of the first takedowns, I was passing from half-guard trying to pass to side control and I just heard my knee pop, which isn't a big deal because they pop every once in a while. I stood back up and I felt that it was really, really loose. It didn't really do too much as far as impeding me in the fight or anything like that, but it was starting to swell up a little bit. Hopefully the ACL is fine. I don't really want to deal with that." In a worst-case scenario, the injury would require surgery and a long recovery period.

— Bader's Arizona Combat Sports teammate Steve Steinbeiss was reportedly paid his to-show money as well as his win bonus for Wednesday's event, even though his opponent Ryan Jensen was yanked from the fight following a positive test for Adderall.

— I think I got up to take a piss during this particular commercial break, but during a Burger King-sponsored/Amir Sadollah-hosted segment in the season premierewww.cagepotato.com/tuf-91-quick-recap-team-uk-gets-its-elite-8, TUF 9Forrest Griffin confirmed that he'll be coming back to face Thiago Silva at UFC 101 (August 8th, Philadelphia). Griffin hasn't fought since his UFC 92 title fight against Rashad Evans in December, in which he lost his belt and broke his hand. Sadollah also revealed that he'll be making his first post-TUF appearance (as a welterweight) at the August event, though an opponent was not named.

(Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann)

Last night's "Condit vs. Kampmann" card brought in a live gate of $626,077, thanks to its 10,267 spectators — which made it the most well-attended Fight Night show in UFC history. $120,000 was re-distributed to the fighters in the form of $30,000 end-of-night bonuses. Taking home the extra cash were...

Fight of the Night: Tyson Griffin and Rafael Dos Anjos, as mentioned earlier. Don't ask us why their sloppy slugfest got the nod over the technical back-and-forth battle of the main event.

Knockout of the Night: Aaron Simpson's first-round stoppage of Tim McKenzie in the night's opening bout turned out to be the only TKO on the card, so he scored the bonus by default.

Submission of the Night: Rob Kimmons earned the bump with his first-round guillotine choke victory over Joe Vedepo, which put Vedepo to sleep for the second time in his short UFC career. It was nice knowing you, buddy.

More videos from the main card after the jump...

(Ooh-rah! Proud Marine Luigi Fioravanti stomps the crap out of bark-eating hippie Luke Cummo. Photo courtesy of FightwireImages.)

MMA Mania is reporting that the UFC will hold a free SpikeTV event for the troops at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on December 10th. The event will be free for military personnel to attend and will likely feature former members of the armed services who are now fighters. It will be the first time the UFC has been in North Carolina since UFC 5 (Charlotte, 4/7/95), and just the second UFC event to be held on a military base (after UFC Fight Night 7 in December '06).

The addition of this Fight Night card means that the UFC will be holding three events in December — the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale will take place just three days later on December 13th, and UFC 92 will go down two weeks after that on December 27th. Besides a WEC event rumored for 12/3, no other major MMA promotions have announced events for December yet, so the holiday season could be completely Zuffa-dominated.

CagePotato took part in the UFC press conference held today in advance of Wednesday's UFC Fight Night. Headliners Mike "Quick" Swick and Josh "The People's Warrior" Burkman answered questions from the press along with Patrick Cote and Drew McFedries.

A recap:

-Dana White "couldn't make it". Hangover or jet lag. Or both.

-Mike Swick was asked if he has concerns about dropping to welterweight: "Not really, I feel really good right now." He hasn't gotten down to this weight since 1997. His walk-around weight is 185. How'd he do it? Diet and exercise - who knew those two could help you lose weight?

-Patrick Cote has ADD.

-Game Day routine for Mike Swick: He starts focusing on the fight when he wakes up and really starts focusing on it when he leaves the locker room.

-Game Day routine for Patrick Cote: Sleeps late, hangs out and doesn't get nervous. Secrets revealed!

-Game Day routine for Josh Burkman: Listens to his headphones and doesn't think about the fight too much. Oh, and hanging out, of course.