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Gambling Addiction Enabler: UFC 116 Edition

UFC 116 Lesnar Carwin poster

Well, we’ve got a big UFC event coming up this weekend, which means you should all head over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com (or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker) and make your predictions for UFC 116: Lesnar vs. Carwin. Congrats to FightPicker Grandmaster Aaron Rampey for becoming the first player to crack the 10,000 chip mark. Well done, buddy. That’s gonna look awesome on your CV.

Of course, if you had some balls you’d bet actual money on the fights, and not silly-ass "PotatoChips." As usual, we’d like to help you win some cash for Saturday’s event — or at the very least not take heavy losses. Betting lines are below, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com; if you don’t know what this stuff means, read this first.

MAIN CARD
Brock Lesnar (-130) vs. Shane Carwin (+140)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (-200) vs. Chris Leben (+185)
Chris Lytle (-195) vs. Matt Brown (+160)
Krzysztof Soszynski (-218) vs. Stephan Bonnar (+195)
George Sotiropoulos (-195) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (+160)

SPIKE TV PRELIMS
Brendan Schaub (-295) vs. Chris Tuchscherer (+264)
Ricardo Romero (-145) vs. Seth Petruzelli (+120)

PRELIMINARY CARD
Goran Reljic (-155) vs. Kendall Grove (+145)
Gerald Harris (-245) vs. Dave Branch (+200)
Daniel Roberts (-170) vs. Forrest Petz (+145)
Karlos Vemola (-160) vs. Jon Madsen (+150)

Read on to get that paper…

Fedor Emelianenko vs. King Mo Is the Fight That Needs to Happen

("I weighed in at 219 pounds for this fight. That’s *British* pounds, homey. Moneyweight, what." / Props: allelbows.com)
It’s natural to think that Fedor Emelianenko’s loss to Fabricio Werdum on Saturday night was an absolute…

("I weighed in at 219 pounds for this fight. That’s *British* pounds, homey. Moneyweight, what." / Props: allelbows.com)

It’s natural to think that Fedor Emelianenko’s loss to Fabricio Werdum on Saturday night was an absolute disaster, both for his career and for Strikeforce, who had their pay-per-view hopes riding on a heavyweight title clash between Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem. The shocking upset left fans scratching their heads and wondering what could be next for the Last Emperor. An immediate rematch with Werdum, as Werdum himself suggested after the fight? A tune-up match against someone further down the ladder like Antonio Silva? Retirement?

One name that doesn’t seem to be getting any consideration in the fight’s aftermath is, to me, the most obvious one — Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, Strikeforce’s reigning light-heavyweight champion. And if Strikeforce wants to pull anything positive out of their current situation, they’ll book Fedor vs. King Mo as quickly as possible. Here’s why:

The Potato Index: TUF 11 Finale + WEC 49

(Keith "Necro Reaper" Jardine, after his barbed-wire and fluorescent-light-tube death-match against Matt "Da Def Syco" Hamill. / Photo courtesy of the TUF 11 Finale gallery on MMAFighting.com)
Because you pansies get all red-faced…

(Keith "Necro Reaper" Jardine, after his barbed-wire and fluorescent-light-tube death-match against Matt "Da Def Syco" Hamill. / Photo courtesy of the TUF 11 Finale gallery on MMAFighting.com)

Because you pansies get all red-faced when the Potato Index skips an event, we’ve brought back the beloved arbitrary numerical ranking system for a special two-fer installment. As for the recent complaints that the Potato Index’s scores have gotten less arbitrary, we have passed the feedback onto the Index and hope that the scores are now sufficiently chaotic while still maintaining their accuracy and integrity…

Court McGee +518
Going from pantsless meth addict to Ultimate Fighter winner? Yeah, we’d call that an upgrade. But Court McGee is more than just an inspirational story. With his endless heart and skill with a choke-hold, he’s a legitimately valuable acquisition for the UFC. If they bring him along slowly, he could become a factor in the middleweight division someday.

Kris McCray -33.333 [repeating]
Sometimes, tough ain’t enough. McCray may be a little too green to compete at the UFC level, but as a season runner-up, he deserves one more fight — ideally, against one of the TUF guys that scored victories on Saturday, like Chris Camozzi or Rich Attonito.

Guest Column: To Cancel or Not to Cancel, TUF Is the Question.

(Ah, the good ol’ days…)
As the 11th season of The Ultimate Fighter officially comes to a close this Saturday, we’re left with the same complaints we have nearly every season: The format is stale. The fighters aren’t UFC-level. Hey, weren’t the coa…

(Ah, the good ol’ days…)

As the 11th season of The Ultimate Fighter officially comes to a close this Saturday, we’re left with the same complaints we have nearly every season: The format is stale. The fighters aren’t UFC-level. Hey, weren’t the coaches supposed to fight each over? And while any asshole with an opinion can say that something needs to change, notable CagePotato commenter Chris "Viva Hate" Morse actually sent us some concrete ideas on how to fix the show. Read his thoughts below and let us know what you think. So crazy they just might work? Or so crazy that Viva Hate should go back to trolling the comments section?

*****

With yet another dismal season of TUF winding down and fans once against asking if the show has run its course, it is obviously time for some improvements. The past two seasons have featured numerous fights that turned out to be large men hugging and slobbering all over each other due to a lack of cardio. The show that partially helped launch MMA into the mainstream is now weaker and weaker by the episode. Here is a list of ways that could help revitalize and reenergize this dying beast.

Season 4 of TUF was the "Comeback" season featuring UFC castoffs trying to get one more chance at glory. Why not take this one step further with TUF 13: The OGs? Bring back early fighters to train with current fighters for the contract. This would be great for two reasons. One, it would show just how far the sport has progressed from the early days. Two, who doesn’t enjoy a little nostalgia? At least we know Tom Lawlor would be glued to the TV. There is a list of guys who would most likely take the shot based on attempts in recent years to get back into MMA. A few names that come to mind are Dan “The Beast” Severn and Oleg “The Russian Bear” Taktarov. Even giving Royce Gracie the invite which would bring in guaranteed ratings. Sadly, Joe Son and Harold Howard will not be available.

Serious Question: Is It Possible That Chael Sonnen Suffers From Multiple Personality Disorder?

(Props: SNETCF)
It’s one thing to deny responsibility for your own Twitter page when your creative insults start to draw attention on mainstream news outlets — particularly when you’re trying to lead a double-life as a shit-stirring heel and…

(Props: SNETCF)

It’s one thing to deny responsibility for your own Twitter page when your creative insults start to draw attention on mainstream news outlets — particularly when you’re trying to lead a double-life as a shit-stirring heel and a respectable business owner and candidate for the Oregon State Legislature. Sure, it’s a lie that’s easily disproven, but at least we understand the motivation. What we can’t understand is the way Chael Sonnen constantly lies about everything. His record, his opponents, general details about things that happen to him in his daily life, you name it. Obvious, shameless lies. My God, they just keep coming.

So far, I’ve been a fan of Sonnen’s verbal abuse of Anderson Silva, because Silva kind of deserves it, and nobody else has had the stones to disrespect the Spider the way Sonnen has. But watching the above MMA Connected clip this morning, I couldn’t help but feel that Sonnen’s schtick has officially jumped the shark — and that he might not even be in control of himself anymore. Let’s run down this interview appearance, point-by-point…

Dissection by Dallas: Liddell vs. Franklin

By CagePotato contributor Dallas Winston To see past installments of Dallas’s incredibly thorough (and usually accurate) fight breakdowns, click here.
The UFC’s infusion of Pride and other overseas fighters had a significant impact on the near…

By CagePotato contributor Dallas Winston
To see past installments of Dallas’s incredibly thorough (and usually accurate) fight breakdowns, click here.

The UFC’s infusion of Pride and other overseas fighters had a significant impact on the nearly invincible aura surrounding Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin.

Only a few short years ago, the duo had thoroughly cleaned out their respective divisions as UFC champions, shellacking any and all takers with unorthodox striking that commonly ended in highlight-reel knockouts, until Pride’s demise opened the flood gates for an influx of hungry new blood.

Before first meeting Anderson Silva in 2006, Franklin boasted a stout 20-1-1 clip, ending all contests but one by stoppage — fourteen of which were handled in the opening frame — with some mysterious karate guy accounting for his only stain on the carpet. Since that dark eve of the profoundly deviated septum at UFC 64, Franklin has notched a mediocre 5-4 run, checkered by three brutal first-round beatings and one tight decision loss, all dealt by former Pride fighters (although Vitor Belfort’s classification should remain amorphous).