Picture of the day: How Bellator champ Pat Curran pumps his gas

Pat Curran recently won the Bellator featherweight belt from Joe Warren. Proud to own that belt, Curran decided to wear it when even doing the most mundane tasks.

If you had a championship belt to wear, where would you wear it? Tell us in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/picture-day-bellator-champ-pat-curran-pumps-gas-115200618.html

Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo 

Ben Askren vs. Douglas Lima and Michael Chiesa?s ?The Ultimate Fighter? bout: Friday talkback thread

It's a busy Friday night at Bellator puts a belt on the line and "The Ultimate Fighter" rolls on. Douglas Lima will challenge Ben Askren for the welterweight belt. In other main card action, Alexandre Bezerra will take on Marlon Sandro in the featherweight tourney in Cagewriter's pick for fight of the night.

On TUF, Michael Chiesa will fight Jeremy Larsen. Read Kevin Iole's piece on Chiesa for more on tonight's bout.

If you want some MMA tomorrow morning, check out Super Fight League's fights from India at 9:15 a.m. ET. They will stream live on YouTube.

Use this thread to talk about all of the weekend's MMA.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ben-askren-vs-douglas-lima-michael-chiesa-ultimate-000033372.html

Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger  Jimmy Ambriz

Cagereaders rants about Brian Stann, Alexander Gustafsson and the end of the Mark Hunt rally

Welcome to Reader Rants, the weekly post where the readers take over and have their say. If you want to be a part of a future Reader Rants, like Cagewriter on Facebook and comment on any of the stories that show up in your newsfeed.

To start out this week's rants, not everyone was disappointed that the #RallyForMarkHunt was stopped by UFC president Dana White.

Meh. Good. Better, more qualified options exist than Mark Hunt. If Hunt deserves it, he'll show it with the rest of 2012. Giving him a title shot now would be pretty weak. Not sure it'd even be exciting. Good chin vs. Slugger doesn't always equal good fight. Sometimes it just means assbeating, and his ground game is still pedestrian. -- Dylan Schmeyer

Alexander Gustafsson impressed with his win over Thiago Silva. Several Cagereaders want to see him fight Ryan Bader, though one wants to see him fight a former champ.

A number one contender match vs. Bader seems to be the most appropriate matchup. Hendo was guaranteed a title shot and won't risk losing it by fighting a dangerous up-and-comer like Gustafsson. -- Grady Woods

Bader makes a lot of sense. Tests to see if Gustafsson has improved his wrestling defense to elite levels. -- John Wilcox

He needs two top ten wins for me to think he's a threat to the belt. Lyoto machida makes a lot of sense to me. -- Adam Smathers

Finally, most readers' respect for Brian Stann grew even more after he stopped his own bout against Alessio Sakara, though one reader didn't think he should have stopped.

Clearly, the man has seen enough needless violence for one lifetime. -- David J. Karchmer

I think it's too bad for the fans. The man is trying to be classy and I respect that, but he's in a sport that has rules. If he truly didn't want to hurt Sakara he could have backed out of the bout and let someone else take it, but he chose to compete and agreed to the rules, one of which is you go until the bell or referee stops you. If he had stopped when he did and Sakara had recovered (and won?) he'd be crying foul that the bout was not stopped. In other words, he got lucky that the referee agreed and next time he should respect the fans, the UFC, the other fighters and the referee who all help him make a great living by fighting to his full ability and abiding by the rules instead of acting as assistant referee in his bouts. -- Joshua Smith

There's no point. Continuing to possibly do permanent damage is senseless to inflict on an athlete so they can never fight again or worse -- Holly Rotroff

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/cagereaders-rants-brian-stann-alexander-gustafsson-end-mark-190636265.html

Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo  Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe

Jon Jones and Rashad Evans Both Predict a Knockout Victory (Video)

It's finally here, as today is the day. One of the most anticipated fights of the year in Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans goes down tonight at UFC 145. While dozens of fans and pundits have posted their predictions, we finally got a chance to hear how the fighters themselves feel the fight will play out.

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/28268/jon-jones-and-rashad-evans-both-predict-a-knockout-victory-video/

Gilbert Aldana  José Aldo  John Alessio  Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida 

Dana White Indicates That BJ Penn Still Wants to Fight

Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ "The Prodigy" Penn has always had a rabidly loyal fanbase. So, it's come as no surprise that there's been a very vocal group of MMA fans clamoring for the fiery Hawaiian's return to the cage ever since he announced his retirement last October. Lucky for them, Dana White hinted last night that Penn is looking to return to action, despite what he's been saying publicly.

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/28286/dana-white-indicates-that-bj-penn-still-wants-to-fight/

Tank Abbott Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah