36 days, 4 hours, 42 minutes and 39 seconds left until ONE FC: Destiny of Warriors goes down in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on June 23rd at Stadium Negara. By the time you read this, that countdown number won't be accurate. It's not my fault, blame it on time. It never stops moving, just like the blinking cursor you're probably looking at on your computer. MiddleEasy also never stops moving with our buds at ONE FC, and in their upcoming event, 'ONE FC: Destiny of Warriors,' we're raising the bar once again with The Ultimate T-Shirt Design Contest.

Contest Rules:

Create your very own t-shirt incorporating ONE FC and their theme of 'Destiny of Warriors.'

Creatively, the contest is pretty open so there are as little restrictions as possible. Refrain from using nudity, brash political statements or racist innuendo (in other words, don't be an [expletive]). Stay away from using copyrighted material in your design (don't put a Burger King logo on your ONE FC shirt).

Be sure to create your design in the highest quality possible (don't start your t-shirt on a dinky 300x500 pixel canvas). It's hard to give specifics on the required dimensions since every design will be different, but the best thing to do is dig in your friend's tool box and grab a ruler, take out that shirt you spilled beer on last night, measure how big you would like your design to be, and just create a new file size in Photoshop, Illustrator, Gimp -- whatever program you illegally downloaded off the net (you pirate). Simple as that. Be sure your design is created in 300 DPI and is in CMYK colors.

A winner will be selected based on sheer jaw-dropping rawesomeness. ONE FC will then work with the winner to get their t-shirt design slapped on a shirt and winners will receive two shirts with their unique design along with a ONE FC prize package. Five runner-ups will receive a ONE FC prize package. You will also forever be mentioned on MiddleEasy as 'That guy who designed that amazing shirt'.

Submission Rules:

Submit your ONE FC: Destiny of Warriors shirt design as just a jpeg/gif not measuring more than 620px wide. If it's a winner, we'll ask for the actual production files. Feel free to place whatever watermark you would like on your design if think someone out there is going to steal it and build their entire clothing company around your t-shirt concept. All designs must be submitted to ONEFC@middleeasy.com.

Utilities:

Don't worry, we got you. The ONE FC logo can be downloaded right here.

Deadline:

Contest ends June 21st 2012. Winners will be announced on June 23rd 2012. If you have a question or concerns, contact ONEFC@middleeasy.com.

[div class="notice" class2="icon"]The following is from an article on FighterXFashion.com, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div]

Ready for another round of fight fashion from outside the cage? This week’s edition of “Fight Style: Who’s Wearing What?” features some of the newest fight gear releases from MMA clothing brands like TapouT, Venum and Punishment Athletics being worn by Gilbert Melendez, Lyoto Machida, Wanderlei Silva and Tito Ortiz. We even tracked down a couple of pics of Vanilla Ice, as well as Jeremy Stephens, Gray Maynard and Cain Velasquez sporting fresh gear from Dethrone Royalty. Curious to see who’s rocking what these days? Check out some of latest MMA clothing from your favorite fight wear brands down below.

Fight Style!

It's undeniable that if you have an 88% knockout rate, wear a predator mask as a victory celebration and have a heavy online presence on Twitter and other social media platforms, you're due for a highlight reel of rawesome proportions. We like Brian Rogers, we know you like Brian Rogers, who doesn't like Brian Rogers? That's why you should gently set down whatever you're doing in a responsible place where the dog can't get at it and press play on the below video. It's time to watch Brian Rogers knock a bunch of people out with ease. Aplomb, even.

[Source]

When Chris Cyborg returns to MMA after her year long suspension for failing a post-fight drug test, it will be a very different landscape to the one she left. The former Strikeforce champion was used to being a big fish in a small pond, with the only other notable name fighting in her division being Gina Carano. When I say notable, I of course mean highly marketable. The prospect of women fighting in the UFC was similar to the prospects of me flying across the English channel with a jet-powered fixed wing strapped to my back.
There was no organisation interested in putting on female-only MMA. Now there is a new big fishin the women's MMA pond, Ronda Rousey. In light of this, Chris has tweeted an indication that she plans on fighting at bantamweight when her suspension is up.

Not only are women a little more likely to appear in the UFC with the Rousey vs Tate fight opening the eyes of a lot of people on the potential marketability of female fights, but Invicta FC have come into being which gives females a whole new avenue to compete. So while it looks possible that we'll see a bantamweight Chris Cyborg, that isn't the only change we'll see when she returns to MMA: she will be fighting under the name of Christiane Venancio and not the surname Santos we are used to. There is still no chance of me flying across the English Channel with a jet-powered fixed wing craft unfortunately.

[Source]

I haven’t read Chael Sonnen’s new book just yet, but it’s on my list of things to do before the Mayan calendar runs out of pages. After watching dozens of his recent interviews, I’m fairly certain that there’s probably a chapter about the end of civilization in there that could help me prepare for it. My current strategy involves a Ruger 10/22 and a backpack-full of ammunition. I also have a stockpile of kimchi flavored ramen noodles in case I get hungry. Most survivalists would disagree that I’m well-equipped to carry-on the human race without some level of MMA training. I mean, let’s face it, when the bullets run out, we’re going to have to defend ourselves from one another and knowing how to fight is important. To this, I respond that your MMA skills are useless against Kyle Baker’s SanDo skills. In fact, he’s not the only practitioner.

SanDo is still alive and well, the sport of three-man MMA has videos all over YouTube since we first told you about it back in 2009. You could literally spend hours watching all the footage accumulated from their events, but here’s the most recent to get you started.

Let's make this abundantly clear. If MiddleEasy was the TMZ of MMA, then I wouldn't be eating Fruit Loops out of this plastic Tupperware container that I occasionally use to mix eggs in. If we were the TMZ of MMA, we would immediately have women flying in jetpacks, dropping grapes and spilling champagne into our mouths. Those guys make an innumerable amount of money. Scientists say that if you take what the company is worth in single dollar bill increments and place them end to end, it could reach the Alpha Centauri galaxy. For now, MiddleEasy is the MiddleEasy of MMA -- which means we still put regular grade gasoline into our economy cars.

At some point yesterday, Chael Sonnen continued his tour around the US by appearing on a live TMZ segment in which everyone at the news outlet pretended to be MMA fans. They did a good job -- actually Chael Sonnen did an extraordinary job promoting his book and his upcoming title fight with Anderson Silva on July 7th. Now check out the video and take note on how to truly enlighten your perception.

I respect my local mailman and I’d never try to kill him. The dude brings me awesome things from eBay on a weekly basis, and if he were dead, I’d literally have nobody to make fun of for wearing a NY Mets hat. Other mailmen/mailwomen might be faster or funnier, but they could also be slower and less social. It’s a risk I’m not willing to take. I depend on my mailman showing up and providing me with consistent levels of humor at his expense for 30 seconds of every day. I want him to live forever, or until I move out of Hells Kitchen. I’m not sure if Gilbert Melendez has a similar relationship with his mailman. All I know is that the Strikeforce lightweight champion is fighting Josh Thomson in a rubber match this weekend, and although he respects his opponent, according to this MMAWeekly interview Gilbert is going to try to kill him.

Congratulations guy and lady readers of MiddleEasy, you have all made the cool kid list. Look we already knew you were some really dope people all along, but now that Josh Barnett has gone and confirmed it for the world we can finally announce it without sounding biased. You know how much we dislike sounding biased. I'm even going to bake you all some organic gluten free cookies made soley from products bought at Trader Joe's to honor your induction into the Josh Barnett hipster hall of fame. If you are wondering why Josh Barnett thinks you are so cool, well it's because you know his name of course.  

During a recent interview with MMAJunkie.com, Barnett says he's a multi genre personality who knows some 'movers and shakers' and that's why only the coolest of the cool (like all of you guys) know who he is:

"I'm the one that all the hipsters love. I'm like, 'Have you ever heard of Josh Barnett? Of course you haven't. You're not cool enough.'"

"I think what's difficult is my appeal is not solely in MMA. I'm sort of split amongst a lot of different genres, if you want to call it that. I'd say overall, I've got a lot stronger presence than a lot of MMA fighters."

"I walk into ... all these different places that not only do people know my name, but I'm friends with a lot of major players and movers and shakers. I've never been one to put myself into one area, anyway."

"I don't audition for [expletive]. I go out there, I destroy, and I raise the ground. I don't need to go out there and show anybody anything."

As if the definition of hipster wasn't already broad enough, now you don't even have to have Ben Askren like hair or wear black rimmed glasses, skinny jeans and have an affinity for wearing colorful scarves in the middle of the summer to be categorized hipster. All you have to do is know who Josh Barnett is. If you don't know you can find out this Saturday night when he takes on Daniel Cormier in the long awaited finale of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. [source] 

After being shoved during a face-off inside the cage following Andreas Spang's win over Brian Rogers, Maiquel Falcao will face off against him tonight at Bellator 69. We know that Falcao is a knockout artist who uses punches as brushstrokes and his opponent's consciousness as his canvas, but we haven't seen this from him in the big leagues yet. His UFC debut against Gerald Harris consisted of an explosive first round followed by two rounds of Falcao playing with his opponent, the same as his fight with Norman Paraisy at Bellator 61. Maybe he just wasn't motivated enough to go for the kill? If that's the case he should have no problem finding the motivation to knock out Spang. Falcao told Sherdog.com that he felt Spang had disrespected him, adding:

“I’m going in there to hurt him badly and to teach him how to behave. After this fight, he will never push anyone again. It’s time for someone to teach him some manners, and I will be the teacher. Andreas made this fight personal when he pushed me. That Bellator cage is my home, and nobody is going to push me in my home. Andreas better be ready to suffer.”

Spang not only shoved Falcao in the cage but also put his hands on Brian Rogers at their weigh in. The way Spang's arms come out every time someone gets inside his comfort circle is like some sort of compulsion. I don't know about you but I've not seen a propensity for shoving like that since elementary school. Back then, that's how all fights started. Why don't we see more street MMA starting with a shove? [source]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a Chris Leben-esque situation. And I don't mean the type of situation where a fighter gets beat and then leaves chocolate at the front desk of the hotel for his opponent, like Leben did for Munoz after UFC 138. The type of situation we have now is one in which a fighter can make a huge impression on everyone by beating two highly regarded opponents inside a month. Kevin Iole tweeted earlier this evening that Mark Hunt, who, let's remember turned down Zuffa's offer to get paid and not fight has suffered an undisclosed injury and is now out of his fight with Stefan Struve at UFC 146 in nine days time. Lavar Johnson is stepping up to fight Stefan Struve only twelve days after his first round stoppage win over Pat Barry at UFC of FOX 3.

I have no idea how you go from training for 5' 11" Barry to 6' 11" Struve. How can you even prepare for something like that? Then again with Lavar Johnson we're talking about a dude who got shot in the stomach, was in critical condition and still came back into MMA with a first round KO win. Can he come in and win his third KO of the night award of the year? Surely that would be some kind of record?