Tons and tons of fights were hooked up over the past few days. Here's a quick look at some of the bigger ones:

Kendall Grove vs Demian Maia @ TUF 12 Finale (Dec 4th)
I'm not 100% sure what it is that Kendall Grove keeps doing to raise the ire of his bosses, but it must be something because this is the kind of fight that looks more than a little lopsided in Maia's favor on paper. Still, just because we know who's supposed to win doesn't mean it won't be an exciting fight. Consider this the second attempt by the UFC to put Maia in an exciting ground battle. Fortunately I don't think Grove is as good at holding on for dear life as Mario Miranda was.

Gabe Ruedier vs Paul Kelly @ UFC 123 (Nov 20th)
It's nice to see Gabe Ruediger getting another chance to show he's more than just a cake eating, enema loving TUF idiot. Let's see if getting a proper training camp and an easier opponent in Paul Kelly this time will result in less disastorous results than we saw at UFC 118.

Brandon Vera vs Thiago Silva @ UFC 125 (Jan 1st)
Is there anyone left that's still waiting to see if the 'old Brandon Vera' is ever going to show up again? I've still got high hopes that the 'old' Thiago Silva will be there, even though that all depends on how messed up his back currently is.

Thiago Alves vs John Howard @ UFC 124 (Dec 11th)
Alves gets one more shot at welterweight, which is more than I'd have given him after that whole "I could have cut the weight but decided not to" crap at UFC 117. He fights John Howard, who is best known for growing a giant eye egg on his face during a fight with Jake Ellenburger. Less known is the fact that he's got crazy knockout power when he actually decides to do some swinging.

Shinya Aoki vs Marcus Aurelio @ DREAM.16 (Sept 25th)
It's two skilled jiu jitsu blackbelts going against eachother, and you know what that means: there's a chance both of them will decide to stand like assholes and throw fisticuffs at eachother for the entire fight. That's IF this fight even happens. Apparently Aurelio signed some paperwork with Shine Fights that gives them veto power over the fight and Shine sounds like they're ready to use it.

Phil Davis vs Tim Boetsch @ UFC 123 (Nov 20th)
I wasn't all that impressed with Tim Boetsch's UFC comeback fight but he'll have to put on a good showing if he wants to get past Phil Davis, who is slowly being built up to be another contender at 205. Will redneck judo be enough to counter Davis' crushing control? Probably not, but it should still be fun to watch.

Stephan Bonnar vs Igor Pokrajac @ TUF 12 Finale (Dec 4th)
Igor Pokrajac was supposed to be a big deal when he came to the UFC, but back to back losses to Vladimir Matyushenko and local Australian cannon fodder James Te-Huna have made a lot of people re-evaluate their expectations. The UFC has been lobbing softballs Stephan Bonnar's way for his past three fights, so it tells you a little about where Pokrajac is to get the call for this fight.

In between news about a lawn bowler pulling his penis out during a match and some dog race betting info (screw that, bet on humans beating eachother up, pussy!), the Sydney Morning Herald has some interesting news about their great Aussie hope George Sotiropoulos:

George Sotiropoulos is one fight away from setting up a dream UFC world title fight in Sydney next February. Geelong-born Sotiropoulos will face either B.J. Penn or Kenny Florian in a lightweight title eliminator in November, and victory would likely earn him a bout for the championship belt when the UFC returns to Sydney next year.

Sounds pretty good to me, although it's kinda like saying "George will get a title shot if he beats two guys he has no chance of beating." Fortunately, the UFC has been a bit more realistic and has matched him up against Joe Lauzon at UFC 123.

So the big question now: if the Herald was wrong about his next opponent, were they wrong about the title shot too? Well, the timing is still right - 123 is in November and the UFC has said February in Australia will be a regular winter escape plan. Plus with Tyson Griffin blowing that Gomi fight, there's not a lot of other top guys at lightweight in a good position to get a shot. Considering we were one non-choke away from ANOTHER Kenny Florian title shot, I think it's safe to say there's openings available for a new contender.

(image via Sherdog)

Todd Duffee, once the hottest shit on Sherdog.net since Sokoudjou, has been released by the UFC for being a dick and pissing off Dana White somehow.

Sources around the young heavyweight are being very tight-lipped about what earned him his marching orders but many believe his recent comments about being broke and needing to find a second job have not gone down well with the UFC.

Duffee also took a part in a movie - the sequel to Never Back Down - which begins filming this month and is scheduled to wrap in November. Duffee plays a fighter in the film, but had pulled out of an October fight with John Madsen at UFC 121 citing a lingering knee injury.

With Duffee’s manager referencing Dana White in his text message, that points to there being at least one very specific reason for Duffee’s removal from the roster. Gross’ opinion is that it “sounds like accumulation of things led UFC to release Todd Duffee. Overall attitude probably being at the top.”

It doesn't take a lot to get on the bad side of the UFC and one guaranteed way to do it is to complain about money. That's how Roger Huerta went from being Zuffa's Hispanic Gina Carano to being frozen out and dumped in the speed of one interview with Fight! magazine. If it was just the money comments, I'd feel pretty bad for Duffee. This wasn't a situation where he was sitting there wearing a $300 Gatsby hat bitching about having to do free press. The man was dealing with being totally broke-ass after a year of living off scraps.

But apparently there was more to it than that, and the final straw certainly seems to be attached to ditching out of his fight with John Madsen. It's not too hard to imagine Dana flipping out on that if he thought Duffee was trying to pull a Rampage so he could be in some stupid movie.

Here's a picture of Jon Fitch at his wedding over this past weekend. Afterwards: the honeymoon, which featured several 15 minute back control sessions that left his bride less than impressed. He'll have to work on regularly finishing her if he wants to work his way up to a shot at the butt.

So you might have heard that Kimbo Slice is turning his attention to boxing where I assume Gary Shaw has told him he can make a lot more money in a shorter period of time without having to worry about all that ground crap. Good for him if that works out. I just feel bad that he hit our scene up right when the Japan freakshow gravy boat derailed and never got a taste of that.

Now that he's in boxing, there's a lot of MMA deja-vu type stuff going on: guys with waaaaaay more experience are tripping over themselves offering to beat Kimbo up. Roy Jones Jr is doing it, and yes of course James Toney as well. But the best part of all this is the return of Jared Shaw, who is acting like he is Master to Kimbo's Blaster (a little Mad Max reference for you there). Check out some of his great recent tweets:

I am proud to announce the reuniting of team kimbo ...KIMBO SLICE has just entered the square circle !!!

Yes, Team Kimbo consists of Kimbo Slice, who actually does the training and fighting, Gary Shaw who promotes the fights, and Jared Shaw who gets to hang around like an idiot douchenozzle on account of being a product of Gary Shaw's semen.

My favorites though have to be the tweets where he and Kimbo hit a state of training nirvana where they merge into a singular entity:

lets get that work in

day 4 of training our weight is on and the power in our legs is really coming along..i feel really fucking bad for the heavyweight division

Oh yes, I look forward to more entertaining Team Kimbo news in the future.