Author: Matt Erickson [matt-erickson]

Devin Cole has some kind of a weird understanding with the gods of mixed martial arts.

And those gods apparently like “The Godfather III,” because just when he thought he was out, they pull him back in.

Cole headlines World Series of Fighting 1 on Saturday night against former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, and it’s the latest opportunity for the heavyweight to make a push in the sport after thinking maybe he was done.

If not for Greg Jackson, who knows what Andrei Arlovski might be doing right now.

Maybe he’d be bouncing along, headlining regional shows. Maybe he’d be retired. Maybe he’d have a few more movie roles.

For sure, though, it doesn’t sound like he believes he’d be be headlining a card like World Series of Fighting 1.

In September, it was Rolling Stone giving Ronda Rousey her next taste of the mainstream spotlight. Now it’s Sports Illustrated.

The 58-year-old magazine, which has a circulation in excess of 3.2 million and a reported weekly readership of 23 million people, features the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion in its Nov. 5 issue.

And on Saturday, the “Sports Illustrated Show” will feature a segment on Rousey. The show airs Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Replays air next week on NBC Sports Network.

The UFC’s “Primetime” series returned on Friday, featuring the upcoming welterweight title unification bout between Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit.

The first episode of “UFC 154 Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Condit” now is available to view online following its premiere on FX.

UFC 154 takes place Nov. 17 and features 170-pound champion St-Pierre vs. interim champ Condit in the main event to unify their titles.

Bellator next week will debut an interactive feature that will allow fans to pick the first fight on the promotion’s debut on Spike TV.

The promotion on Friday announced “Vote for the Fight” during the MTV2 broadcast of Bellator 79, which took place at Canada’s Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario.

Bellator events currently air Fridays on MTV2 through the remainder of Season 7, but will move to Spike TV starting in January 2013.

Miguel Torres said the Tristar Gym where he’s gone for virtually every fight camp in his recent career is usually packed.

These days, it’s a traffic jam. He estimates there are at least five fighters training for the upcoming UFC 154, which takes place Nov. 17 in Montreal, and another 10 fighting in gym head Firas Zahabi’s new event 13 days later. Another 10 or 12 are competing elsewhere.

Hence, Zahabi wasn’t available to corner Torres for his next fight, which takes place Saturday at World Series of Fighting 1.