Recently there's been a lot of talk by the MMA media christening Chael Sonnen as the best talker in MMA history. But have they lost their historical perspective? Perhaps they have forgotten the hilarious off-the-cuff rants of former UFC Heavyweight Champ and perennial patriotic tough guy, Don "The Predator" Frye, possessor of not only the craziest fight in MMA History (vs Takayama) but also the most outrageous comments. But if Frye's past entertaining remarks have been forgotten in our what-have-you-done-for-me-lately fan culture, never fear! There's more to come! Frye has just been selected, along with colorful interview hottie Karyn Bryant and Ron Kruck, as part of the WMMASports broadcast team. Whether you have any interest in the fight card, it will be worth tuning in just to hear The Predator's delightful growl. Personally, I think he should throw his hat into the Republican Primary race. Not only would he add spice to the campaign trail, we'd finally have a candidate in this race who says what he really thinks (and then some). Here are a few gems that would make wonderful soundbites on CNN.

Read some of Don's greatest quotes (so far) after the jump...."if you think you won't soil yourselves, you bunch o' pinko pansies!"

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Its no secret in the MMA world that Chael Sonnen has had a lot to say to UFC pound-for-pound great, Anderson Silva. Over the years Chael has accused Silva of being a coward, a puppet, a fraud, a phony, a liar, and has questioned his manhood, insulted his family, berated his mentors, and belittled his accomplishments....all in an effort to goad the long-time Middleweight Champion into a fight, one which Sonnen claimed Silva was ducking long before any of us even knew who Chael was. But now that that fight seems to finally be on the table, is Sonnen changing his toon? (spelling intentional.) In a special appearance on FUEL's "UFC TONIGHT" Chael read a letter that he wrote to Anderson expressing his regret for his disrespectful treatment of the sport's most renowned icon, and tenders his resignation. Surprising? Hear it for yourself below!

FanPost edited and promoted by MMAmania.com.

With UFC 143 in the books, many fight fans are bemoaning the loss of the much-anticipated match-up between UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre and former Strikeforce Champion Nick Diaz, but is it because they've been blinded by the emotional build-up and the Diaz mystique?

An unbiased comparison of the resumes between the Stockton slugger and new Interim 170-pound champion, Carlos Condit, clearly shows what St. Pierre himself said in the now-infamous Diaz no-show press conference: "The Natural Born Killer" is a tougher challenge for him.

And a more deserving contender.

Condit may not have the polarizing charisma to sell as many tickets as Diaz, but realistically, he poses a much more serious threat to the throne. This is also a better fight. As a die-hard St. Pierre fan, this fight makes me nervous, whereas the Diaz fight looked like a cakewalk, comparatively.

Lets look at some key facts the Diaz bandwagon seems to overlook:

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Well, the iconic UFC Gladiator has been downsized and the PPV has a shiny new opening sequence. It's a sort of chronicle of the evolution of the UFC, featuring its biggest stars down through the ages. What did you guys think of it? Anyone miss the Gladiator? Also sound off on what you think about the battling robots thing.

(if anyone can find a working link to it, please post a link and I'll add it to the thread.)

On the fateful night of Oct 14, 2006, fans witnessed two of the greatest tragedies in UFC history. First, we saw fan-favorite Rich Franklin’s nose relocated to the side of his head, (where it clearly did not belong) and we haven’t seen his stunning wife Beth at ringside since. And far worse than this, we saw one of MMA’s most noble and gentlemanly champions replaced by the biggest fraud ever to wear gold in the UFC. Bold words? Perhaps, but lets look at the facts.

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Jimmy Kimmel is a brave man, inviting Rampage Jackson and Jon Jones on stage at the same time.  But Kimmel had the foresight to bring in Dr. Phil McGraw  to keep the peace and tries to convince these two rivals to "make nice" and even gets them to compliment each other.  But Dr. Phil seems more interested in trying to stir the pot.

There's been a little smack talk between former champion Rampage Jackson and current 205 kingpin Jon Bones Jones.  And in recent press conferences, Rampage has been his usual wise-cracking self, while Jones has been stiff and awkward, seemingly unable to take a joke or manage a smile, let alone a comeback.  But last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jones seemed to finally have grown a funny "Bone" and be able to roll with the punches as he sat on the couch with his nemesis and Dr. Phil.  "Phil, you're a doctor, what's WRONG with this man?" Jones also described this stylistic matchup as "Spider-man vs Frankenstein".   And of course, Rampage had no shortage of witty retorts.   After seeing this fun lighthearted banter between them, it's hard to imagine that Rampage and Jones won't be friends after this fight.  See the full 3-way interview after the jump.

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OK, before those of you who've seen this film jump down my throat, let me start by saying. I LOVED this movie and will not be at all surprised if it gets some Oscar nominations, particularly for the actors.  The storytelling of this film was brilliantly done and the acting was superb all around. The three main characters, played by Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, and Nick Nolte, were all brought to life with vivid poignancy and their stories were fleshed out by the script with just the right amount of detail, just the right amount left implied but unsaid.  They were believable and engaging and the film does a great job of sucking you into their lives and making you really care what happens to them.  The pace of the plot feels a tad rushed and, like most sports movies, there are some improbable coincidences.  But Jennifer Morrison's legs alone are enough to make you forget all that, even if the story and characters weren't as engrossing as they are.  But they are thoroughly engrossing, as are the themes of this film, which is largely a story about forgiveness.  Make no mistake, I HIGHLY recommend this film and think it is a beautiful story, masterfully told. 

So why then would I say that this movie, one of the best "sports films" I've ever seen, is doing no favors for the sport it depicts?  Read on....

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For those who missed UFC 134, you not only missed the spectacle of the Spider doing his thing, or the shocking "upset" by Minotauro, you also missed a supernatural phenomenon never before seen in the Octogon.  It went something like this:...

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In addition to being the cradle of MMA civilization, Brazil is home to the world's largest river, the world's largest rain-forest, the world's....yadda yadda yadda!  THE WORLD'S HOTTEST WOMEN!  Let's take a closer look at these amazing scantily clad wonders of nature, shall we.

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Four-time World BJJ Champion, Two-time Abu-Dhabi World Champ, and breathtaking (literally) hottie, Kyra Gracie, niece of MMA Legend Renzo Gracie, and the first female Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt is finally ready to make her MMA debut!  Is she the new face of the sport? Cast your votes, Maniacs.

What do you think, Mania?  Does Gina Carano have a new rival for "The Face of Women's MMA"???  While it is highly unlikely the two would ever fight due to the significant size discrepancy, it seems certain that there will be much comparison made between these two stunning female gladiatresses.  (Is that a real word?)  Cast your vote for the Queen of the Cage after the jump. 

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

Well, Maniacs, the summer of super-heroes is upon us, and with X-men: First Class out this weekend, I thought this would be the perfect time to pay tribute to our favorite Wonder Women and Marvel Girls.  So whether your weakness is for Wonder Booty, Canadian Mutant Milk-bags, Uber-ass, Super-human Curves, or Ninja Knockers, make your case with pictures.  Show us why your favorite Heroine or Villainess is the undisputed Queen of Kickass. 

Unknown Super-babes are also welcome, along with other Sci-Fi/Fantasy Costumued Cuties.  But don’t tell us who they are, SHOW us!   And we'd LOVE to see your photo-shopped casting choices for who YOU'd like to see playing your favorite super-chicks on the big screen.

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Ok guys, lets be real, it's weeks till the next major MMA event and we've had 4 consecutive posts about the Lesnar dropout/substitution.  Sounds like a great time to break up the monotony with a little eye-candy.  So lets have a little show-n-tell.  Tell us what gets you up in the morning, what turns you on. Is it a girl in a sports jersey, long legs in boots, denim & diamonds, ballerinas, cowgirls, indians, redheads, nurses, cheerleaders, angels, girls in uniform, girls in glasses, boots, socks, neckties?   Let's try to keep it PG-13, but we are looking for serious contributors here, not just commentary. Don't just tell us what you like, show us!  So bring your best picks and let's Keep Mania Beautiful!

No more need to debate or speculate, folks, matching the two greatest fighters of all time is now completely within Zuffa's power.  Let's demand that they give it to us.  Dana has been claiming for years that Anderson Silva is better than Fedor Emilianenko.  Well, guess what, Anderson Silva also walks around within 10 lbs of Fedor's size and they are both now under contract with Zuffa.  So it's time for Dana to put up or shut up.  No more of this bullshit of Anderson calling out Welterweights or Bispings.  Time for him to man up and earn his place in history against the only man with a record and reign comparable to his own. They say to be a legend you have to beat a legend...time for The Spider to finally do just that.

Some of you are probably saying, "Why now? Fedor is irrellevant now that he's lost 2-in-a row."  But lets be honest about who Fedor lost to.  Essentially he lost to a 245 lbs version of Demian Maia and a 300 lb Gargantuan. I think there's plenty of room for debate about how Anderson would have fared against those guys, especially given how he got bullied by Chael Sonnen and the fact that in his whole career Forrest Griffin is the only guy he's fought that he didn't enjoy a size and reach advantage over.  By all reports and his own admission Anderson walks around between 220 and 230, Fedor between 230 and 235.  Fedor went 29 fights without a real loss, Anderson 17.   This fight may have lost some of it's luster since Fedor's losses, but it's still THE most historically significant matchup in MMA history, (and unlike Silva/GSP, actually a fair fight) and without those losses Zuffa never could have acquired Strikeforce and this match could never have been possible. Now it is.  Let's Tweet the hell out of Dana till he makes this happen.  I know Fedor would love this fight. The fans would love this fight. Hell, if Dana really believes what he's been saying all these years, he should love this fight. The only question is, would Silva ever agree to it?

Of course, the main thing we all wanted was to see the best fighters from StrikeForce fight top UFC talent and settle the question indisputably of who really is the best in the world in each weight class, but will we really get that?  Let's take a closer look at what we, the fans, realistically stand to gain and lose from this buyout.

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The top UFC Middleweight contender was exonerated of substance abuse charges before the California State Athletic Commission in his appeal hearing on Thursday, and his sentence was reduced to 6 months for violations of CSAC notification protocols. 

To the shock of the the MMA world back in August, Sonnen delivered on his seemingly laughable promise to dominate the longstanding 185 lbs Champion.  "It's not gonna be a fight; it's gonna be a one-sided pounding, and I'm swingin' the hammer."  Though Sonnen kept his promise, dominating Silva on the feet and on the ground for 23 minutes, he lost the fight to a last-minute triangle choke by the battered Champion. After the fight, Sonnen's post-fight drug test revealed elevated levels of testosterone in his blood and he was suspended for 1 year by the California State Athletic Commission. 

The Commission voted 3-1 on Thursday to reduce that sentence to 6 months from the date of the original ruling, which would allow Sonnen to fight again as early as March 3.

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Why isn't Ricco back in the UFC?

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Ricco Rodriguez has quietly racked up an astonishing 16 wins in the past 2 years, and is currently on a 10 fight win streak in the past 16 months, with a 70% finishing ratio. That's more wins in the past year than Cain has in his whole career!!!  Ricco was the first Latino (1/2 Mex, 1/2 PuertoRican) Heavyweight Champion and the first man to legitimately beat Randy Couture in the Octogon.  Isn't it  time for Ricco to come home! Lets Tweet-bomb Dana and get Ricco back in the UFC!

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When I first heard about this matchup between Toney and Couture, I was nervous.  Of course, I think Randy has more ways to win and Toney has absolutely no answer to Randy's grappling skills.  But Randy's chin is certainly not impenetrable.  He was KOd twice by Liddell, another unorthodox striker.  And in my opinion, Randy's biggest weakness has always been his overconfidence in his own boxing skills.  And lets face it, James Toney has KO'd more guys than Randy has even fought....and those weren't MMA KOs where he could follow up a knockdown with more damage. Those were "Dude-went-down-so-hard-I-stepped-back-and-watched-him-sleep-through-a-10-count." KOs...with pillows on his hands....against professional boxers, the least of which has better striking defense than Couture.  I still think Randy will probably win, but I don't think it's a foregone conclusion or a cake-walk by any stretch.

I thought...this is a lose/lose situation for MMA fans.  If our most decorated hero falls at the hands of a loudmouth braggart in his MMA debut, boxing fans will never let us live it down.  And if Randy wins, they will just say, "Well, it was Toney's first MMA fight" "Toney's way past his prime" etc etc ad nauseum.  After all, Randy is heavily favored to win this fight by both Vegas oddmakers, and even several prominent boxers have spoken up saying Toney is a fool and will get clobbered.  So Randy and MMA fans have nothing to gain and everything to lose.

But today I had an epiphany.  I realized that we've already won!  "How's that?" you ask.  Answer: because 5-10 years ago if you asked anybody in the Sports world, or anybody on the street, who would win a "real fight", a street fight/bar fight/playground fight between an MMA champ and a Boxing champ, the consensus would have been overwhelmingly of the opinion that the Boxer would win easily.  Why? Because 5 years ago, the average Joe, the average Sports fan, indeed the average Sports Commentator, considered Boxers to be Elite Combat-sport Professionals and MMA to be little more than a caged cock-fight between two Kimbo/Tank Abbot-esque thugs.  So the fact that most of the Sports World (including much of the Boxing World) think Toney is in way over his head fighting a 47 year old MMA guy shows a dramatic shift in public opinion about the nature of our beloved sport and the skills of it's combatants. The fact that Vegas oddsmakers, guys who stand to make or lose millions on their prediction, have set the MMA guy as the overwhelming favorite, and Sports analysts and fans largely agree, shows that the perception of our sport and it's participants has already changed.  Everyone knows an MMA fight is much more like a "real fight" than a boxing match, and the fact that Couture is expected by most to win this fight easily shows that MMA has already won, that our fighters are now perceived as Elite Combat-sports Professionals capable of beating even the best practitioners of "The Sweet Science" in a real fight.  In other words, the world already knows that Boxing's Heavyweight Champion of the World is no longer the Best Fighter On Earth, the Toughest Man On The Planet, or any of those other titles historically reserved for Boxing's best.  People now know there's a new game in town and that the guys who play it aren't schoolyard bullies, but Elite Professionals entirely capable of mopping the floor with the best Boxers on Earth.

If you receive an error message, click the black background and video will open directly from Youtube in a new screen.

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It's Friday  Bring on the hotties!

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About a year ago, my nephew introduced me to an animated series filled with martial arts action, Asian philosophy, and far-eastern mythology.  I was blown away by the intellectual and mythic depth of the show, especially by it's attention to detail in areas like philosophy, cultural anthropology, and martial arts choreography.  I wasn't the only one.  Famed writer/director, M.Night Shyamalan said it was "the coolest mythology I'd ever seen" and put his own work on hold for the next 6 years in order to dedicate himself to bringing this story to the big screen with live action.  The first installment "The Last Airbender" hits theaters in 3-D this summer. 

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It's recently come to our attention that Maniacs seem to have evolved across a wider geographic spectrum than we'd previously thought.  So we got to wondering, just how many countries are represented on Mania and which countries or world areas are most culpable for creating the daily drivel to which we've all become so addicted?  So here's your chance to sound off for your homeland, Maniacs.  Beneath the poll, feel free to elaborate or clarify, or to align yourself with or distinguish yourself from fighters/fans from your country.

The site only allows one poll per FanPost, but in your posts, please answer the following follow-up mini-poll:

Does NATIONALITY or ETHNICITY ever affect who you root for in fights?
A: Yes
B: No
C: Only in fights involving exotic babes in bikinis

PLEASE READ ALL OPTIONS BEFORE CHOOSING

Most of us die-hard MMA fans are fully aware of the fact that Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro Noguiera is probably the most skilled Heavyweight ever to fight in the UFC.   So why then, in his two and a half years in the UFC, has he not yet fought for the real UFC Heavyweight belt?  And why is he stuck fighting up-n-comers like Velasquez while lesser men like Carwin and Mir get title shots?  There are many possible ways of explaining this away but the fact remains that despite being the most accomplished and proven fighter in the division, he hasn't had a shot at the title.  I expect this pattern to continue indefinitely.  When Nog was interim champ during Randy's absence,  he was passed over in favor of 1-1 Lesnar.  Then for inexplicable reasons, he had to defend his interim title, even though the real title had already changed hands.  Now he is fighting Cain Velasquez and it's not even being called a No 1 contender fight.  Why?? 

The answer is simple MMA math.  Dana White will not allow Nog to fight for the title because Nog has already lost twice to Strikeforce-posterboy-&-Dana-nemesis, Fedor Emelianenko.  After all his trash talking about Fedor, Dana cannot afford to have his most prestigious belt worn by a man whom Strikeforce's goldenboy has already bested on more than one occasion.   If Nog were to win the title, no amount of DW spin would be able to counter SF's simple factual claim that "Our Champ beat your champ" (Assuming Overeem will lose or be stripped.) Dana can't risk that kind of delegitimization of his claim to having the best fighters in the world.

Dana will never come out and tell us this, because he wants to hang on to Nog and his fans.  But if you're thinking that beating Cain will finally get Nog his long-overdue title shot, don't hold your breath.  To get a shot at Brock, Nog will have to beat every other contender worth mentioning, and probably some that aren't .  

I pray that I'm wrong about this, but I doubt it.   Knowing Dana, he wont give Nog a shot until Fedor loses or leaves SF, or until there is simply no one else left in the UFC to throw at Brock.

Here are a few of the celebrity lookalikes that just jump out at me. I thought it'd be fun to hear what dopplegangers the rest of you have spotted.

• Rich Franklin = Jim Carey
• Dustin Hazelett  =  Justin Timberlake
• Houston Alexander = Damon Wayans
• Matt Lindland = John Malkovich
• Chael Sonnen = Ray Liotta
• Wanderlei Silva = Clyde the Orangutan (from the Clint Eastwood movies)
• Kenny Florian  = Cher

You guys who are good with gifs and photoshop feel free to post pics supporting your pairs.