On one hand, I was very surprised to recently learn that my favorite UFC ring girl in the history of the universe, Brittney Palmer, has her own action figure. I was also very surprised to learn that she’s an awesome painter and she sells prints on her website. Then, as I thought about it, I decided that it’s better that I don’t know because I would probably end up blowing all of my money on her art and collectibles, and I’m already two exit ramps from full-on Stalker City as it is, so I should probably chill out.

That said, hello Japan and free fights! Tomorrow night at 9 PM ET on FUEL TV, the pre-fight show begins for UFC on FUEL 8, live from the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo. Now I’ve never pretended to be some big shot, fancy pants, city slicker UFC super fan type. I’m still growing into this whole MMA game knowledge-wise, but I like to think that I’ve picked up enough wisdom along the way to tell you that for a free fight, this card is outstanding.

But I will let you animals decide for yourself if this event is worth our time tomorrow night with another one of our UFC live discussions that Barack Obama has referred to as “The glue of American society”. Make sure to check out our own Lobster Mobster’s fight primer, and then join us tomorrow night for our special guest, South Dakota State Representative Steve Hickey. Wait, what’s that? Hickey canceled? Damn. Okay, then I’ll let this event’s special ring girl, SuJung Lee take us through the fight card instead.

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While the Renen Barão fight that we all want to see involves Dominick Cruz, who will be sidelined for most of 2013 with a torn ACL, we could do a lot worse than watching Barão face off against Michael McDonald tomorrow at UFC on Fuel 7, live from London at 3 PM ET. At just 22-years old, McDonald has the chance to become the youngest champion in UFC history, and while people want to make sure that we point out that it’s just an interim title, we wouldn’t want to crap on the kid’s accomplishment in the event that he does win.

Aside from the main event, though, Saturday’s card is filled with some young, exciting talent, and I’d love to talk at great length about the potential of guys like Jimi Manuwa, Dustin Poirier and Ryan Jimmo – as they should offer us exciting fights – I’m focused on one guy and one guy only – Gunnar Nelson.

Yes, the Icelandic fighter has won 10 consecutive fights, including his UFC debut at UFC on Fuel 5 in Nottingham last September, dating back to his MMA debut in 2007. But I don’t care about that. What I care about is that he shares a name with one-half of the 80s pop rock duo Nelson, which delivered us the greatest song ever written by man, “Love and Affection”.

For so long, I have asked for the gods of organized belligerence to deliver me a new fighter to champion, and I believe that man is Gunnar Nelson. Don’t let me down, good sir.

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Ever since Georges St-Pierre made his triumphant return to re-capture his UFC Welterweight Championship at UFC 154, we’ve been hearing this one phrase thrown around ad nauseum. That phrase? “Superfight”. That’s because Anderson Silva was on hand at UFC 154 in Toronto to watch St-Pierre knock the rust off, and a lot of us believed that was some sort of foreshadowing. Of course, it wasn’t, as Silva was in Toronto filming a movie, so he just attended the fight for the fun of it, but then UFC President Dana White said, “F*ck a bunch of that” and he swore to all of us that we were going to get a Silva and St-Pierre superfight in 2013.

In the meantime, we’re being treated to another superfight in tonight’s UFC 156 PPV event live from Las Vegas. In the main event, Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo is taking on Frankie Edgar in what many pundits and prognosticators are calling one hell of a matchup. Edgar, of course, has been one of the best lightweight fighters the UFC has ever seen, but back in August, after losing to Benson Henderson for a second time, he raised plenty of eyebrows when he declared that he’d be shedding some weight to drop down to the featherweight division. Thus, the superfight – a former UFC Lightweight Champion taking on the baddest Featherweight Champion of all-time.

Elsewhere, Alistair Overeem is making his return to UFC action now that his blood doesn’t match that of a rhinoceros, and he’ll be taking on Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, while 33-year old Rashad Evans will face off against 36-year old Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in a battle of the old farts (writes the chubby 33-year old). You can check out the rest of tonight’s UFC 156 fight card after the jump, and as always you can check out our own Lobster Mobster’s breakdown. Prelims start at 8 PM ET on FX and the big fights hit the PPV channels at 10 PM ET. Other than that, CHAT TIME.

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We’re only three weeks into the New Year, fight fans, and we are spoiled brats. Not only do we have UFC on FX 7 live from Brazil tomorrow night to get our blood pumping, but we also have UFC on FOX: Johnson vs. Dodson next Saturday to determine who the best –son fighter is. That’s two consecutive weeks of free fights to lead into UFC 156 on Feb. 2, and that’s just playing precursor to UFC on Fuel on Feb. 16 and then the PPV event that we’re all drooling over – UFC 157: Rousey vs. Carmouche. Man, I am worn out just thinking about all of those amazing upcoming live discussions.

But let’s focus on tomorrow, as Vitor Belfort and Michael Bisping are headlining a card that’s just a tad underwhelming, but that’s not anybody’s fault but the ol’ injury bug. Originally, we were going to see some exciting fighters like Johnny Eduardo, Thiago Perpetuo and Roger Hollet, but they all got hurt and were replaced. Hell, Yuri Alcantara must have been confused as all hell, because he was supposed to face Eduardo in the lone Bantamweight fight, and then George Roop replaced him. But Roop was injured, too and he was replaced by Pedro Nobre.

While Belfort-Bisping should be an entertaining match (I’m leaning toward Bisping, but don’t tell Belfort), I’m predicting the star of the night to be fellow middleweight Daniel Sarafian, who was a finalist on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil before he was – you guessed it – injured. So I’m predicting that he’ll be just a tad bit fired up.

After the jump, check out the rest of the card, and make yourself familiar with our own Lobster Mobster’s fight primer. The action starts at 6 PM ET with three hours of preliminary fights on Fuel before the main action begins at 9 PM ET on FX.

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"Boop! Got your nose!"

Well it’s taken long enough, am I right, fight fans? We were promised this rematch between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez as far back as May, after both fighters won their respective matches at UFC 146. And we wanted this rematch because, let’s face it, their first fight was a real turd in the punch bowl. Obviously, dos Santos won the UFC Heavyweight Championship from Velasquez at UFC on FOX last year, and it was a huge letdown because we wanted 5 rounds of pure, unfiltered ass-kickery and instead we got a knockout after a whopping minute of action.

Will we get something different this time, as these scrappy fellas headline UFC 155 in Las Vegas tomorrow night? I have no idea. I’m not psychic. If I were, I wouldn’t be talking to you guys about this fight, because I’d be in Vegas betting the millions that I already won on the previous fights that we’ve watched. Geez, use your brains.

As for the rest of the card, you’re not going to see any of the most recognizable names in UFC, but I think we’re in for an evening of intense fights featuring hungry dudes who want to become household fighters. As always, I’ve included the breakdown of the fight card – this time with a special tribute to With Leather’s First Lady of Booty Kicking, Gina Carano – and you can also check out our good friend Lobster Mobster’s primer for UFC 155 on her blog.

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As we all wait breathlessly for Dana White to fulfill his promise of a Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva superfight, there’s a lot of buzz around tomorrow night’s UFC on Fox 5 event. Fans and analysts believe that we’re in store for one of the best non-PPV events in the history of free viewing. I say that’s a tall order to fill, seeing as I still think that the recent UFC on Fuel 6 event was still one of the best free fight cards I’ve ever watched twice in one day. How great was it? I didn’t even need to start drinking at 9 AM to enjoy. I just drank at 9 AM because.

So who will be providing tomorrow night’s action? Well for starters, we get three hours of preliminary fights on FX. That means we’re starting at 5 PM ET, before we switch over to Fox at 8 PM ET to watch the main card bouts. Just so I don’t have to get up at any point, I went to Costco this morning and bought six buckets of beef jerky. That way, when I’m done with a bucket, I can use it as a bathroom. That’s gross. I’m sorry.

Headlining the event at the Key Arena in lovely Seattle, of course, features Ben Henderson defending his Lightweight Championship against Nate Diaz, and that should be a hell of a fight. Some people have gone as far as to call it a skinnier version of the fight we just watched between St-Pierre and Carlos Condit, but again, that’s a really tall order for these two fighters to live up to.

Nevertheless, I expect the main event to be fantastic, and the rest of the official fight card looks pretty great as well. In fact, you can read our own Lobster Mobster’s pre-fight primer to prepare yourself. In the meantime, I thought it would be nice to let Brittney Palmer and Arianny Celeste walk us through tomorrow night’s matchups.

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