(Melvin Manhoef highlight reel, via StillW1ll)

After his decision loss to Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in August, Strikeforce middleweight contender Tim Kennedy has had quite an adventure finding his next opponent. First, everybody in the world was ducking him. Then, he was slated to have a tie-breaker match with Jason "Mayhem" Miller. Then, Strikeforce decided to nix that idea and put Kennedy up against exciting prospect Luke Rockhold, who has been inactive for a year due to a shoulder injury. Well, that's off now too. Due to a reported leg injury suffered in training, Rockhold has been forced to withdraw from his meeting with Kennedy at Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson (March 5th; Columbus, OH). Replacing him? None other than balls-to-the-wall striker Melvin Manhoef.

Manhoef has one of the most impressive finishing percentages in MMA, with 23 of his 24 career victories coming by way of KO/TKO. However, he's lost four of his last six fights — three by way of submission, and one by Hail Mary KO at the hands of Robbie Lawler. Manhoef last competed at Dream.15 in July, when he lost to Tatsuya Mizuno by kimura. Kennedy's keys to victory are very simple: Slow the pace down, check (or dodge) Melvin's brutal leg kicks, and get the fight to the ground as soon as possible. Let's hope this is the last opponent swap for Kennedy, because we're actually kind of psyched to see this one go down.

(Special thanks to GirlsofMMA.net and MMACandy.com)

If you have a strange fetish for fingerless gloves, then buddy, today is your lucky day. After the jump, you'll find 17 more photos of hot girls wearing four-ouncers. Enjoy...

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("You are in luck. There's a town about three miles that way, I'm sure you'll find a couple guys there.")

 ...at least according to AskMen.com's just-released Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2011 list, their annual ranking of attractive famous chicks. It's good news for the UFC's alpha ring-girl, who creeps up three spots from her position last year. At this rate, she'll officially be hotter than Kristen Stewart in 2013.

AskMen collected more than 5 million reader votes for the latest edition of the list, and as is usually the case when you leave it up to the public, the results are all over the map. Blake Lively is #1 for some reason — way ahead of Christina Hendricks (#21), Brooklyn Decker (#36), and Arianny's TV doppelganger Olivia Munn (#47) — which suggests that AskMen's masculine readership contains a whole lot of closeted Gossip Girl fans.

One notable omission: Gina Carano didn't make the cut at all, despite landing at the #68 spot in 2010. Out of sight, out of mind, huh guys? We'll see if her budding action movie career puts her back in the spotlight next year. You can check out the entire Top 99 list right here. As always, feel free to post your own top ten lists in the comments section...

(My God, that's the worst sunburn I've ever seen. Images courtesy of missariannyceleste.fantegrate.com via CageWriter)
  

In case your Brock Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre Fatheads need company, Arianny Celeste is now selling a "Super Lifesized Wallsticker" on her store page. For just $49.99, a 5'7" two-dimensional representation of the UFC Octagon Girl can be yours to slap onto any flat surface. Check out that first thumbnail image, in which the Arianny wallsticker is displayed in what appears to be an Ikea model-bedroom — so unlike any bedroom that this sticker would actually be displayed in. Where are the bags of Cheetos? The TapouT-brand bed-sheets? The bottle of hand lotion on the end-table? A little truth in advertising would be nice, that's all I'm saying...

(Photo via MMAFightGirls)

England's most beloved MMA ring girl — and 2010 Potato Award Winner — Rhian Sugden will be back in action at BAMMA 5, February 26th at Manchester's MEN Arena. We just came across this photo and felt compelled to share it. You can now proceed with your day.

Previously: Hot Potato: Rhian Sugden

Champion kickboxer turned MMA fighter Felice Herrig will be facing Barb Honchak in the co-main event of Hoosier Fight Night 6, tonight at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso, Indiana; it will be the first women's bout in HFN history. So we figured it was an ideal moment to post a bunch of hot photos of her. Follow Felice on Twitter, and join her Facebook fan group right here. Kick her ass, Lil' Bulldog!

More photos after the jump...

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Good news, perverts: Playboy legend Holly Madison will be taking another lap around the Octagon on New Year's Day. UFC.com has revealed that the Girls Next Door/Holly's World star will be returning as a guest Octagon Girl at UFC 125, for the first time since her head-turning appearance at UFC 100. UFC 125 will also see the official UFC debut of beloved WEC card-holder Brittney Palmer. (Damn, and just when I made a New Year's resolution to not creepily stare at women so much. Ah well, there's always 2012.) To see more of Miss Madison, check out our photo galleries at the links below...

- 'Girl Next Door' Holly Madison to Appear as Guest Octagon Girl at UFC 100
- Hot Potato: Holly Madison Steams Up UFC Magazine

UPDATE: Strikeforce has denied Craner's story, and claims they have records of paying her for all her appearances and travel expenses.

Of all the ring girls that have come and gone in the employ of Strikeforce, Nicole Craner was one of the all-time greats. These days, the 29-year-old Idaho native holds cards for Shark Fights — which seems like a downgrade until you learn that Craner wasn't getting paid at her old job. As she revealed on a recent episode of TUF Crap Radio:

“I think when you’re an organization like the UFC, they value their [Octagon] girls. They treat them well, they’re part of the family, and that’s something that I wanted to do with Strikeforce...With Strikeforce I can honestly say that I don’t think Scott Coker even knew my name. I don’t think he knew any of his ring girls’ names and I’ve never really talked about this before, but it came down to not getting paid; And for me, I treated it as a job and I put a lot of effort into it and when you’re not respected or valued enough, it makes you want to go somewhere else...

So I mean you can pay Frank Shamrock 340,000 dollars to lose but you can’t pay your ring girl 400 bucks?...There were promises made that we were going to do contracts and that we were going to travel and they had me host something that they said Josh Thomson and Cung Le would be hosting, but it was something that they didn’t host or never were going to host and I never got paid for it. So those kinds of things, to me, made me just quit. I felt that if I’m going to put passion into it and I’m going to go out there and put your name out there that I should at least be respected enough and valued as part of the company."

Damn, even the eye-candy's taking shots at Strikeforce now. But when you consider that NFL cheerleaders make just $50-75 a game, you can't really expect an MMA ring girl to be compensated with anything more than complimentary booty-shorts and an occasional wink from Mauro Ranallo. Of course, this is all just an excuse to run some more photos of Nicole. You can find those after the jump...

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Of all the ring girls that have come and gone in the employ of Strikeforce, Nicole Craner was one of the all-time greats. These days, the 29-year-old Idaho native holds cards for Shark Fights — which seems like a downgrade until you learn that Craner wasn't getting paid at her old job. As she revealed on a recent episode of TUF Crap Radio:

“I think when you’re an organization like the UFC, they value their [Octagon] girls. They treat them well, they’re part of the family, and that’s something that I wanted to do with Strikeforce...With Strikeforce I can honestly say that I don’t think Scott Coker even knew my name. I don’t think he knew any of his ring girls’ names and I’ve never really talked about this before, but it came down to not getting paid; And for me, I treated it as a job and I put a lot of effort into it and when you’re not respected or valued enough, it makes you want to go somewhere else...

So I mean you can pay Frank Shamrock 340,000 dollars to lose but you can’t pay your ring girl 400 bucks?...There were promises made that we were going to do contracts and that we were going to travel and they had me host something that they said Josh Thomson and Cung Le would be hosting, but it was something that they didn’t host or never were going to host and I never got paid for it. So those kinds of things, to me, made me just quit. I felt that if I’m going to put passion into it and I’m going to go out there and put your name out there that I should at least be respected enough and valued as part of the company."

Damn, even the eye-candy's taking shots at Strikeforce now. But when you consider that NFL cheerleaders make just $50-75 a game, you can't really expect an MMA ring girl to be compensated with anything more than complimentary booty-shorts and an occasional wink from Mauro Ranallo. Of course, this is all just an excuse to run some more photos of Nicole. You can find those after the jump...

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Props (as usual) to MMAFightGirls for introducing us to Shannon Lee Marr, a 20-year-old model and ring girl from North Andover, Massachusetts, who's currently studying to be a nurse. Shannon has modeled for the MMA labels Knockout Athletics and Boston Brawler, and will appear tomorrow night as a featured ring girl for the CES MMA Snow Brawl at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

Random quote: "I was promoting Knockout Athletics at a recent UFC Expo and MMA fighter Pat Barry had me sign his whitey tighties in front of crowds of people."

Nobody ever said this job would be easy, Shannon. You can see more of Ms. Marr at ModelMayhem.com. A few more choice pics are after the jump...

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