Welcome to this week's installment of "The Fighter We'd Most Like To...". Thanks to everyone who voted last week in our "The Fighter We'd Most Like To Have Our Back In A Bar Fight" poll. The winner with 33% of the vote was Bas Rutten. Congrats!

Families are important. Your own family can be a pillar of support as you make your way through life. They also might be kinda lame. In that case, you might decide that another family would be better to support you as you go through life. Sometimes the family of a friend or boy/girlfriend can be almost like having another wonderful, crazy, supportive, endearing family without having to actually be related. If you had to choose a fighter whose family you would like to meet to decide if they might be your new BFF (Best Family Forever), who would you choose? Whose family do you think might have exactly what you need in the way of a surrogate family? Check out our thoughts on the topic and let us know what you think, too!

Knitty: Jon Jones because his family sounds pretty fun. Two NFL players in that family? Yes please. We'd have feats of strength, touch football games that turn into rough and tumble football games, and massive feasts...

Lizzie: I want to go home with Rafael Feijao Cavalcante. It's imperiative that I meet the family to get their blessing.

Kat: I need to stop choosing Chael Sonnen for everything so I'm going with Dan Miller or Jim Miller. The Miller family seems the nicest family ever in the history of MMA so I would like to meet them and give them all hugs and then talk about how much I love them.

Midge: Nick Diaz! He's got nunchucks, a variety of bongs, and Gilbert Melendez waiting for you. That's a good home to go to.

Beth: Amir Sadollah Because if someone takes me home to meet their family then it must mean that someone loves me very, very much. Oh how I want Amir to love me very, very much.

Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas! We are back in sin city once again for a big UFC event. I mean big, literally. It's huge and full of heavyweights. That means either fabulous finishes or some potential really tired dudes waiting out a decision. In any case, drink up and it will be fabulous! It seems that the Facebook prelims for UFC 146 will be starting at 6:45 PM ET/3:45 PM PT on Saturday, followed by the prelims on FX at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT, and then the big pay-per-view show at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT. Be sure to check it out. Now, let's get to the picks!

Main Card (PPV)

Junior dos Santos vs. Frank Mir (Heavyweight Championship Fight)

Beth: Oh man. What to do here? Call me a hopeless optimist but I'd like to think that Frank Mir has a chance here. It would sure be fun to see him on top even if it's just for a little while. I'm doing it! Mir by Submission.

Kat: I like Frank Mir but I adore Junior Dos Santos. In addition to adoring the adorable Junior Dos Santos, I also think he's a beast and that he will strike Mir down before Mir has a chance to do much damage. Junior Do Santos by KO.

Cory: Let's pretend we know nothing about either fighter and had to look up from scratch how they've managed to win and lose fights. Frank has beaten the following people by TKO: Wes Sims (not a very good fighter), Antonio Noguiera (had a staph infection at the time, not bad, though) and Mirko Filipovic (way, WAY past his prime). Not a fantastic list; there's a couple nice names, but they have large asterisks that should be noted. Frank has also beat the following people by submission: Noguiera, Cheick Kongo, Brock Lesnar, Antoni Hardonk, Tim Sylvia, Tank Abbott, Pete Williams, Roberto Travern and Dan Quinn (yes that Dan Quinn). That's a much better list. Lesnar was green and Pete was on the end of his career, but Timmay was in his prime, and Nog has been widely regarded as one of the best HW BJJ practitioners ever.

On the other side of the ledger: Frank loses only one way: getting punched in the face. Now there's no shame in losing when Brock Lesnar or Shane Carwin punch you in the face, but he's also lost to such heavyweight *ahem* luminaries like Marcio Cruz, Brandon Vera and Ian Freeman. The Cruz fight gets one of those asterisks, as he was coming back from the accident, but that isn't an inspiring list. Add to the fact that Nog made him stanky-legged with a jab and the questions about his chin are more like dissertations. It's bad.

Let's drop the facade. JDS has a ton of knockout wins and hits very, very hard. His one loss is to submission early on in his career, but he also managed to avoid the takedowns of Carwin and annihilated Werdum before he could even try (spoiler warning: he blasted both of them). JDS wins this 49 times out of 50. Junior by Mir doing an in-ring planking.

Jackie: I'd really like to pretend that there is a chance that JDS will be careless enough to let Mir take him down, which would end badly for Junior. But I just can't kid myself. So, Dana, Joe Silva, when Frank loses this fight, go ahead and schedule Mir/Barnett and make me a happy girl! JDS by KO/TKO

Rachel: Dos Santos is relatively untested on the ground. As much as I love Mir's grappling, I doubt that Mir will be able to take the fight to the ground or hold Dos Santos there. On top of that Junior is arguably one of the best heavyweight strikers in the world and FRANKly (see what I did there ;) ) Mir's chin isn't made of iron. JDS via Decision.

Keren: Junior's striking is miles ahead of Mir's, but I'm sure Mir's grappling is miles ahead of Junior's, however, I doubt Mir will be able to get JDS down and if he attempts to come in close he'll get KO'd. JDS by TKO/KO.

Knitty: I'm with Jackie 110%. I don't think JDS will let himself get into an awkward position on the ground, and he'll be able to find a way to win this fight, and then when can get our Mir/Barnett on. JDS by decision.

More picks and genius after the jump!

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Here's another video from Nick The Face - woo hoo! This one is all about UFC 151 and features Jon Jones and Dan Henderson since, you know, they'll be fighting at that event. In one part, Jones is working out with the heavy bag wearing the exact same tight workout pants that I often wear. Honestly, he's probably got the better legs to be pulling off that look. There are the great Jones fight highlights you'd expect (you know, the ones where he never looks tired) and Herb Dean looks particularly adorable in one scene.Then, we see Hendo with a giant American flag. Hendo also gets some great highlights that include some of his Pride stuff. And, we see him KO Michael Bisping, like, a million times in a row. It's pretty awesome. The rest is all super fun and exhilarating hype and enough to get me pretty excited for this event. Unfortunately, we have to wait until September 1 but this should get us by until then. Enjoy!

Welcome to this week's installment of "The Fighter We'd Most Like To...". Thanks to everyone who voted last week in our "The Fighter We'd Most Like To Quit Fighting To Become Our Personal Assistant" poll. It was a really close contest but the winner of last week's poll was Nick Diaz who got 20% of the vote. Congrats!

Here at Gal's Guide, we would never condone violence outside of a legally sanctioned and regulated arena because that would be just be stupid and unsafe. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try to avoid trouble, trouble will still find you. Sometimes this happens in bars because we all know how alcohol can affect someone who would otherwise make completely rational decisions and have decent judgment. There is often little you can do when some drunk with bad judgment is in your face being all fighty and ridiculous. Of course you'd want to say no to fighting but if you absolutely just could not avoid it, which fighter would you like to have heading into battle next to you? Who would you want to have your back against that drunk guy (or girl) and whatever friends he or she can rally to join them in the fight against you? Check out our thoughts on the topic and let us know what you think, too!

Beth: Bas Rutten. I really just think that I'd want Bas Rutten around in anything that has to do with a bar. Can you imagine the joy of just sitting around and drinking all day and listening to his stories? Delightful. And then to top it all of with a bar fight? I can't imagine anything better.

Knitty: NOT Tito Ortiz. But If I were to pick, I want Forrest Griffin. He just has that "I'm down for anything" look.

Jackie: Ruslan Karaev. First of all, it would be nice to see him fighting again, even if it's just destroying a bunch of thugs in a bar. Second, if I'm drunk, it won't matter that I can't understand a word he says.

Donna: Ronda Rousey! Because I can't imagine that there's anyone that she can't take down and you know she's the kind of gal that could meet you shot for shot.

Rachel: Jeff Monson. Being 240 pounds of anarchy tend to discourage bar brawls in the first place. Plus he looks like he could give an awesome piggy back ride to safety.

Welcome to this week's installment of "The Fighter We'd Most Like To...". Thanks to everyone who voted last week in our "The Fighter We'd Most Like To Tattoo Our Name Onto Their Body" poll. The winner of last week's poll was Nick Diaz who got 36% of the vote. Congrats!

We have talked previously about which fighter we would like to quit fighting to become an announcer. This was, of course, a completely selfless effort on our part because we were really just thinking about the greater good and the enjoyment of MMA fans all over the world. We're really good people like that. This time around, however, we are taking a completely selfish approach and discussing which fighter we'd like to quit fighting to become our personal assistant, devoted only to us and available to do whatever we ask of them. I know I would enjoy having someone at my beck and call to handle all those little and big things I can't be bothered with. If you had to choose a fighter to fill this position, who would it be? Check out our thoughts on the topic and let us know what you think, too!

Lizzie: I'll say Junior Dos Santos, I need someone who speaks Portuguese and he seems very, very nice.

Keren: It's a toss-up between Ronda Rousey and Marloes Coenen. If someone is going to be my personal assistant they better be cool, smart and kickass. I guess they'll have to fight it out!

Midge: Easy. Kimbo Slice. He not only brings his own 40 hours a week of assistance, but his 8 man posse's assistance as well! Not to mention that his Reality Kings posse happens to be pretty big in the porn industry, which of course, comes with it's own special kind of assistance! You can't beat that.

Mounty: Gina Carano? Sure. She's already quit fighting, so she can be my beautiful amazonian assistant! I'll have another mojito by the poolside, Ms. Carano!

Rachel: I really need a better hype man in my life. I assume this is part of what a personal assistant does. I just want Chael Sonnen to enter the room before I come in and talk about all my wonderful attributes and general awesomeness.

Welcome to this week's installment of "The Fighter We'd Most Like To...". Thanks to everyone who voted last week in our "The Fighter We'd Most Like To Come To Our Rescue When We Have Car Trouble" poll. The contest was close but Dan Hardy edged out a victory getting 28% of the vote. Congrats!

It's probably no secret that we like tattoos around here. How fortunate for us that the world of MMA is chock full of fighters donning a huge array of body ink so that we have lots to look at. As gorgeous and intriguing as some of these creations are, doesn't every girl (or guy) really just want to see their name in ink on someone of their choosing who is deemed acceptable? I say yes. So, when put to the task to choose the body canvas that is most deserving of our name, who would we choose? Check out our thoughts on the topic and let us know what you think, too!

Beth: You know, I was torn between picking someone who's loaded up with tattoos already versus someone who has absolutely no tattoos at all. Then I remembered that I'm kind of obsessed with myself so of course I'll pick someone with no tattoos at all. Duh! How special will I feel when my beloved Amir Sadollah gets Beth tattooed front and center on his chest. Oh wait! How about something classy like "Property of Beth" right above his penis. Nice!

Donna: This one's easy peasy: Roger Huerta. To imagine my name lying on the flesh of the hottest MMA fighters ever for all eternity is almost too much to bear. We'll put it right on his chest, so the ladies recognize his undying love and devotion for me and die of jealously. It'll be awesome.

Kat: I want a blank slate. I don't just want "KatGirl" to be stuck on someone amidst pit bulls, suns, a phoenix, giant illustrated last names, tribal markings and Johnny Cash. I also want it to be on someone who everyone will be pretty sure was not simply wasted and decided to get a tattoo because he was caught up in the moment. It must be meaningful and sincere and blah blah blah. So, I pick Chael Sonnen. Who better personifies "meaningful and sincere and blah blah blah"? And, I don't think he drinks so y'all would know he was sober when he got it.

Midge: I'm going to go with "our name" meaning GG2MMA, cuz the thought of someone tattooing MY name onto themselves is giving me the creep out. I'll go with Junie Browning solely to make this choice seem realistic, and cause you to vote for my pick simply for its plausibility.

Welcome to my new thing! I've decided it would be wonderfully gratuitous to carefully pair a relevant cocktail to upcoming MMA events, make and test said cocktail, and report back to all of you with my test findings. Depending on how interesting and exciting the major elements of a cocktail are, I might provide a little background on the subject and I will naturally be providing the recipe so you can make it yourself at home (or for a fight party!). Let's begin at UFC on Fox 3, which is happening Saturday night in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The Garden State of New Jersey is actually really beautiful, despite what they show you in Newark to try and get you to keep out. It is also chock full of history which happens to include that of America's oldest native distillery. The Laird distillery was founded by Robert Laird, a descendent of Scottish immigrants, in Colts Neck, New Jersey and got its first commercial distillery license in 1860 to officially begin cranking out gallons of deliciousness called Applejack. But, the Lairds were making their special potion way before that. In fact, George Washington was such a fan of Applejack that he requested that the Laird family keep his troops in supply of the stuff and even asked for the recipe so he could make it himself.

Applejack is a blend of apple brandy and neutral spirits. It's an 80-proof liquor but it tastes like pretty strong stuff. You may have heard of its French sister, calvados, which is a fiery apple brandy. The production of Applejack made lots of sense back in colonial times when they wanted liquor and needed to make it from something plentiful and readily available like apples.

I hadn't tried Applejack until I was preparing for this but I had been curious about it ever since learning that it was served at a White House cocktail party recently where the mixologist made a traditional cocktail called a Stone Fence. According to everything I've read, the colonials called it a Stone Fence because you feel like you ran into a stone fence the next day. It's basically Applejack (booze), hard cider (more booze) and a dash of bitters that I added for depth (even more booze). How can you miss? When I first tasted the Applejack on its own, I immediately thought, "Wow, this is gonna knock me on my a$$", but after I mixed up the cocktail I decided it would just give me a hard shove. The hard cider I used was J.K.'s Scrumpy (6% alcohol) and I chose it because I knew it to be not as sweet as most other ciders. After sufficiently sampling my cocktail, I highly recommend the Stone Fence. I must also warn that they go down like water and they're really potent (try not to run into the stone fence). I blame any and all typos, misspellings and improper use of grammar on the Stone Fences I consumed before and during writing it. They were delicious!

Check out the recipe and few other Apple Jack drinks after the jump.

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Welcome to this week's installment of "The Fighter We'd Most Like To...". Thanks to everyone who voted last week in our "The Fighter We'd Most Like To See Change Weight Classes" poll. It was a really close contest that ended with Rashad Evans eking out a win with 20% of the vote. Congrats!

Being the handy girl that I am, I would like to think that I am prepared for a wide variety of auto issues that might occur while I'm out cruising in my ride. But, sometimes it's just easier for someone else to show up and help. My default is to call AAA to bail me out but I still dream of a dreamy good Samaritan-type to magically appear and help me out. Naturally, this could be a fighter, but who would be the ideal fighter to help us in our time of need? Check out our thoughts on this topic and let us know what you think, too!

Beth: Clay Guida. It's all about the RV with me. Apparently I'm a big old slut for an RV. But let's think about this. Besides the fact that I imagine that Clay would be able to deal with 70% of car issues without having to call anyone, if we do have to wait for the cavalry, we get to do it in his killer RV. I call that a win/win, people.

Kat: Georges St. Pierre. I don't think he'd be able to fix the problem but he could give me a lift to get some help and calm me down by telling me everything he had for breakfast. I could listen to that all day.

Lizzie: Nick Diaz, we could both sit in the car and get high and wait for AAA.

Keren: Clay Guida. He literally seems like the kind of guy that would pull over, help you out and fix your car -- and if he can't fix it, he'll call AAA for you. He'd probably also tell some awesome stories while fixing my car and he might even let me braid his hair (hee hee).

Rachel: Dan Hardy. Can you imagine leaning on the trunk of your crappy car in the middle of nowhere and then seeing the glint of a foxy muscle car in the distance. Screw your own ride, Dan Hardy's will always be cooler.

UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre has been in New York this week to promote a new instant cooling towel and he stopped by CNN to talk about it on Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien. While he was on the show, O'Brien also asked GSP about his experiences being bullied as a child. He has previously posted on his blog about his experiences and has made an effort to help people who are being bullied.

In the videos below, St. Pierre describes how he got into martial arts as a result of being bullied and that his father taught him karate to defend himself before he started officially training. He looks completely adorable as he continues on to talk about MMA being a violent sport but with restrictions. He also explains to Soledad and the other dudes on the show that UFC is not staged (as some non-fans might think it is) but says that because he has things like a PPV bonus to consider, it's in his best interest to make people want to see him fight. As would be expected, the three dudes and Soledad look like they totally have crushes on GSP because that is his effect on people. The first video is below and then the video discusses the new cooling product is after the jump.

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Here's another promo video made by Nick The Face. Woo hoo! This is a shorty and it's all about UFC 146: Junior Dos Santos vs. Frank Mir, which is happening on May 26, 2012 in Las Vegas. It basically boils down to the fact that JDS really looks up to Big Nog and that he didn't really like it when Frank Mir snapped his arm. He would like to avenge that incident. The video tactfully does not replay the actual arm breaking moment and that's fine because I think that one won't be out of our heads for a long time to come. Even though Mir is stepping in to replace Alistair Overeem against JDS in what was a very highly anticipated match-up, this fight between Dos Santos and Mir could still be alright. Maybe it will last longer than Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez, anyway. I'll still pay attention. Enjoy the video!

A comment in the post about the Business Insider story on the evils of the UFC got me thinking about what is my most successful recruitment effort where I turned someone into an MMA fan. I have a few recruits of whom I am particularly proud and I was wondering if any other BE folks had success stories they'd like to share. I know that not everyone is out to win people over as fans, and I really don't feel like I am on a mission to do that, either, but when I see an opportunity to introduce an open-minded friend to MMA, I usually take it. My target demographic is generally women who are friends of mine (for obvious reasons) but I certainly won't discriminate.

I went to UFC 145 last weekend with two friends who I recently recruited (one male, one female). Both were known to be fans of other sports and had previously watched televised UFC events with me (he had watched UFC 139 with me and she had watched UFC 143). The event on Saturday only strengthened their fandom, especially for her (she was already talking about how we should go to Vegas for another event soon).

Despite how well things went with those two, I'm especially proud of my efforts with a different friend this past weekend at UFC 145. I have a very good friend who is always open to new and different things, but had never even watched MMA. She hates sports, in general, so I figured she would be a hard sell. But, I also knew that she was available during the day on Friday and that she likes to take pictures, so I invited her to go to the weigh-ins with me. She was game for it even though I couldn't really tell her what to expect since I had never been to weigh-ins before, either.

I warned her about Chael Sonnen before we got there. I basically told her she'd probably hate him but that she could leave if it was too terrible. And, amazingly, she didn't hate Chael at all. She actually said she could tell that he was just talking trash and didn't really mean it all because he kept smiling and laughing after he said anything (and then he was super nice with fans after the Q&A so that sealed the deal - she wanted a pic with him but we missed out on that). When the weigh-ins finally started, she was totally into it. I love weigh-ins and I was glad she got why I liked it, too. She was very fired up after Jon Jones and Rashad Evans had their staredown, and then she wanted to go and see the fighters outside when they were leaving (which we did - that's her photo of GSP above). After everything was done, we went for tacos and tequila drinks and she told me that she had to see the fights on Saturday because she had to see who won. She ordered the pay-per-view at her house and was tweeting about the fights while she was watching! I was so proud! I can't wait to make her watch more fights with me.

So, that's one of my favorite conversion stories. I'd love to hear if y'all have some, too!

In this video from UFC Ultimate insider on Fuel TV (which I still don't have), Georges St. Pierre discusses the knee injury that has kept him sidelined since last December. GSP takes responsibility for the torn ACL he suffered because he says he rushed to return from a different injury that wasn't completely healed and, in doing so, overcompensated for that weakness which resulted in the new and much more severe injury.

His doctors describe what happened with the injury and what the surgery did while using some very nifty graphics. We see him doing his rehab on a fitness ball, much like the one I sit on at my desk every day. They talk a lot about how Tom Brady had the same injury and how similar the wear-and-tear on a knee is for a fighter like GSP and a quarterback like Brady. Brady made a very complete and successful return from his injury so GSP is clearly optimistic about his own chances. I'll have you know that he is still completely ripped and that he can still do exercises that I couldn't do when i was young and flexible and unconcerned with my own well-being. GSP says his most difficult challenge now is to not overdo things because he is so anxious to progress with his recovery. The therapist who works with him says he has to be monitored all the time to make sure he doesn't misbehave. The doctor says the same thing. But, they will start challenging him more soon, all in due time. The doctor also says that he would not be surprised if GSP felt ready to fight this fall, but that he doesn't know if it's the wisest thing to do. And, GSP talks about wanting to stay ahead of schedule on his recovery and his therapist talks about the need to hold him back. Then GSP says that he WILL fight in 2012. Uh oh.

In this fun little video produced by the UFC, we see heavyweight champion, Junior Dos Santos, as he heads out on the water near Rio (past all sorts of cute swimming ducks) to do some wake boarding. Dos Santos tells host Paula Sack (and all of us) that he's never been wake boarding, skateboarding or surfing before, and he seems to be viewing it with a fair amount of trepidation. But, he's a champ so I'm sure he'll be fine. And, of course, he is adorable as always.

Dos Santos totally sucks at first. I've never been wake boarding but I'm guessing it's really hard if JDS can't do it right away. He is sort of looking like me when I learned to water ski, except that I was an 8-year-old. He's doing what everyone does, which is to lean forward too much when the rope starts to pull you up. But, then he starts to improve! And, then he's up and boarding and you can see his statuesque physique glistening in the sunlight. He says it tired his arms out. I can see that.

Then, Paula Sack is a total show-off because she's super good at wake boarding and she's whipping around all over the place and looking like she's not tired. Yawn. She has really nice teeth, though.

Despite the major shake-up with the UFC 147 fight card yesterday that is sending Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen to UFC 148 and Las Vegas to face each other rather than sending a soccer arena full of Brazilian MMA fans into complete hysteria, UFC 147 will still take place in Brazil and will feature a rematch between Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort. My favorite Youtuber, Nick The Face, has produced another excellent promotional video that showcases the match-up between The Axe Murderer and The Phenom with wonderful highlights (and Donald Trump at 1:14 - do you see him?). Of course there are highlights from their first meeting, back in 1998, where Belfort earned a knockout victory over Silva in just 44 seconds. If this video doesn't get you excited to watch a rematch 14 YEARS IN THE MAKING, then I don't know what will. I'm excited! And, I enjoy the shots of Vitor with big hair, too.

The highly anticipated rematch between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and challenger Chael Sonnen was supposed to be taking place in June in a soccer stadium in Brazil as the main event for UFC 147. Everyone was very much looking forward to the fan reaction that would be caused by the mere appearance of Sonnen in a cage in Brazil against the beloved Brazilian champion, much less what would happen with whatever final outcome actually was. Sadly, it seems we'll not get to see all the fun that would ensue because the fight has been moved to UFC 148 in Las Vegas on July 7.

In a press conference in Brazil where both fighters were present, Dana White made the announcement and also announced some other fights that would be happening in Brazil. White stated that Anderson Silva was very upset about not fighting in Brazil but that he was ultimately able to persuade him to take the fight in Las Vegas. He also stated that there were many factors for why they could not have the fight in Brazil as intended but that it came down to a timing issue as they couldn't over come all the obstacles that kept presenting themselves.

There is still no venue for The Ultimate Fighter Brazil finale but that card may also feature a Jose Aldo fight and it is planned for June 23 in Brazil. Aldo would potentially be moved from the UFC 149 card in Calgary and there is the possibility of having Jon Jones fight Dan Henderson at UFC 149.

Chael Sonnen put on a bit of a show during the press conference by loudly fake snoring while Silva spoke, dissing the Nogueiras and making such statements as:

I don't have anything against the Brazilian people just with the Brazilian next to me. Your women are all okay with me.

Chael also said that his offer to retire if he lost a second fight to Silva has expired and that he'll still fight anyone.

Welcome to this week's installment of "The Fighter We'd Most Like To...". Thanks to everyone who voted last week in our "The Fighter We'd Most Like To Sing Karaoke With Us" poll. It was a really close contest that ended in a tie between two co-winners Yoshihiro Akiyama and Nick Diaz with 22% of the vote each. Congrats!

There is often discussion about fighters changing weight classes, particularly when it begins to seem like a champion has already cleaned out his weight class or after a #1 contender gets their shot, loses and doesn't seem to have another title shot coming soon. There has even been quite a bit of chatter in the past few days about whether Jon Jones and/or Rashad Evans should fight at new weights (for obviously respective reasons). But, who is the fighter you most would like to fight at a different weight? Who do you think needs to change it up to gain success or cement their legacy? And, you can't say Dan Henderson because he changes weight classes like I change nail polish. Check out our thoughts on this topic and let us know what you think, too!

Christie: Roy Nelson, he's pretty damned good at heavy weight and we could diet together, we could both stand to drop a few weight classes and then we'd be effin awesome!

Donna: Georges St. Pierre or Anderson Silva. I don't care who goes to which weight class, as long as they're in a position to fight each other.

Jackie: Matt Serra. While he's still able to fight, can you imagine what a monster he would be at lightweight? Of course, I'll be honest, I just want to see him fight again, and a move to lightweight would make it much more interesting.

Midge: Jon Jones. I can't wait til this kid starts to weight train to move up to heavyweight. If he eventually clears out 205, it's the logical solution. His frame can hold 265 for sure. Oh yaaaah.

Nolan: Frankie Edgar. Take the title shot at featherweight, dude! If you lose, go back to lightweight.

Despite the fact that UFC 145 took place on Saturday in Atlanta, GA, the coverage of the event by Atlanta media was pretty sparse. Everyone in the city seemed to be well aware of the event but it was still largely ignored by media here. The local paper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, did post a story about it online the day after the fight but it was missing from the print editions on Sunday and on Saturday. On Saturdays (and every other day), the sports section has an "On The Air" column that lists everything you can catch on the radio or TV that day. This past Saturday showed the usual listings of baseball, softball, golf, soccer, auto racing, lacrosse, etc. but no MMA.

Fortunately, Creative Loafing Atlanta, a free alternative newspaper, took up the slack and posted some good things. They were also giving out wristbands for weigh-ins via Twitter on Friday morning so they seemed to be pretty on-board with the UFC being in town. The first story that Creative Loafing published was called "Fight City" and was a really good break down of the match-up between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones, particularly for those who don't really follow MMA closely but knew that there was a fight happening. It also gave a shout-out to Bloody Elbow as an especally good MMA site, so it's got that going for it. Unfortunately, the Creative Loafing reader base is maybe not the ideal target crowd to sell on MMA and the comments section for the story reflect that. But, as an Atlantan, I was very appreciative of a story that went above and beyond just a blurb about there being a UFC event on Saturday. I enjoyed it.

The next feature from Creative Loafing came out this morning. It is a video of fighter interviews from the open workout session last Thursday at Georgia State. The description for the video stated:

Last week, we took you into the inner-workings of the UFC in our cover story Fight City. Now we ask, what does it feel like to get punched in the face? Do you believe in God? What did you have for breakfast? Creative Loafing's Joeff Davis interviews some of the top fighters from last Saturday night's fight at Philips Arena about "God and life in general."

I have to say, that did scare me a little bit because it sort of sounded like it would just be a mockery of MMA, perhaps to appease those readers who had complained earlier. However, upon viewing it, I actually thought it was pretty funny. I especially enjoyed Georges St. Pierre describing his breakfast in detail. So, good job, Creative Loafing and thanks for covering UFC 145!

Here is a little video of the weigh-ins and staredown for tonight's main event fight, the highly anticipated match-up between champion Jon Jones and challenger Rashad Evans for the UFC Light heavyweight Championship at UFC 145. It's pretty quick but you can see that both guys looked fit and confident and that the staredown was super fun. For all the talk of Jon Jones's sponsorship by the UFC and the announcements of exactly how his sponsored clothing would work, I must say that I liked Rashad's outfit quite a lot. I liked Jones's, too, and I did get to see that one very up close and it looked sharp. Also, Jon Jones walked right past us in the crowd as he headed to the bus and he seemed really nice. I can't even believe it but I felt like I might actually like him. Rashad looked better in his little shorts, though. I think the ladies liked him more (based solely on the number of ladies that were waiting outside for Rashad after weigh-ins - does he really know that many ladies???). I'm so excited for the fight!

The complete weigh-in video is after the jump.

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As part of the apparent fallout from Alistair Overeem's positive test result for performance-enhancing drugs, Dana White just tweeted that the main event for UFC 146 has been changed. Junior Dos Santos was set to defend his heavyweight championship belt on the May 26 event against Overeem but there has been a change of plans:

Taking off to Atlanta!!!! May 26 th is now Mir vs JDS for the HW title in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.

— Dana White (@danawhite) April 21, 2012

Alistair Overeem is scheduled to discuss his positive test with the Nevada State Athletic Commission on April 24 but apparently Dana and the UFC are not waiting to see how that turns out. This does, of course, ruin all the #rallyformarkhunt fun that everyone had been having. Frank Mir had also been often mentioned as a possible replacement for Overeem if one was needed and it seems that was a more palatable option for the powers that be.

It's finally here! My very first live UFC event! Oh, and also UFC 145 and that fight between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones. I hope you're excited, too. This event is, of course, taking place in the great state of Georgia and in my lovely home city of Atlanta. It's all going down at Philips Arena with the first bout scheduled to get started around 6:45 PM ET/3:45 PM PT on Facebook followed by televised prelims on FX at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT and the main event on PPV at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT. Let's get to the picks!

Main Card

Jon Jones vs Rashad Evans

Midge: Rashad is going to come out quick and set the pace. He is going to take Jones down before that skinny legged freak gets his distance, and he is going to put more damage on Jones than he has received in hsi entire career thus far with ground and pound in the first round. Jones will come out in the second with a new gameplan, just like with the Machida fight, and try to push Evans against the cage while being very wary of the takedown. Then BLAM! KTFO Salmon/Liddell style. Rashad Evans by KTFO

Kat: I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pulling for Rashad in this one. I do think he could win - it's possible - but it's really tough to pick against Jones here. And, I don't think it's going the distance, either. Jones by TKO

Knitty: Rashad and Bones. If you ask me, these are two fighters that are kinda hard to like. But you throw them together in the octagon? Suddenly I love them. Rashad, you may be acting all cool, but Jones by TKO. Brutally.

Rachel: The way I see it, Jones and Machida have pretty similar unorthodox styles; they both are confident switching stances and have crazy striking. We all know how the Machida/Evans fight ended. As much as I wish there to be a new Light Heavyweight Champ, I have my doubts. Jones via TKO.

Nolan: Midge hates Jon Jones because he was a narc in high school. Or at least I can assume that because he must be smoking some wacky tobaccy to pick Rashad. Jones by submission or TKO in the third.

Keren: I like Rashad. I think he's a great fighter and he gets a lot of crap he doesn't deserve, however, he's not beating Jones. Jones by TKO.

Beth: Unless Rashad is just a really good actor, I think that his emotions are going to be the death of him here. To have a chance against Jones he'd need to stay calm, cool, and collected. I don't see that happening. Jones by TKO.

More genius after the jump!

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