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Check out our exclusive photo gallery from Tracy Lee, including a very bloody Keith Jardine, an emotional Shinya Aoki, UFC executives at Strikeforce, and dogs and cats living together in harmony.*

*No dogs or cats are pictured in this gallery. Everyone knows dogs are better, anyway.

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Like an Airbnb for travel experiences, secondary market place Vayable launches today to offer travelers the opportunity to buy experiences in exotic locales all over the world, from Rome to Rio as the well worn cliche goes. Founders Jamie Wong and Samrat Jeyaprakash tell me that the key difference between Vayable and the other “Airbnb for experiences” Skyara is that Vayable is targeting travelers specifically, especially those who are tired of the relative banality of activity offerings from sites like Orbitz and Expedia.

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by Michael David SmithWhen Eddie Alvarez walked into the cage on Saturday night he was supposed to win in dominant fashion, befitting his status as the best and most popular fighter in the Bellator Fighting Championships. But Saturday’s title fight against Pat Curran was tougher than Alvarez (and most fans) could have expected.

Alvarez won a unanimous decision to retain the Bellator lightweight title, and the scorecards (one judge scored it 49-46 while the other two judges scored it 50-45) make it look like the fight wasn’t close. But Curran was a tough customer who was in it until the final bell.

“That guy’s got a hard, hard head, man,” Alvarez said of Curran afterward. “He can take a shot.”

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If you have a big day coming up at work, you need this shirt. As you consider your big presentation, meeting, review or maybe even fight, wear this shirt to remember the wise words of Nick Diaz: Don’t be scared, homie.

As modeled by Chael Sonnen, the shirt will give you the confidence to face the day and the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Urijah Faber wore it to send a message to his UFC 132 opponent, Dominick Cruz. Hopefully, Diaz will wear it as he walks out to this weekend’s bout with Paul Daley.

I don’t think I’m overstating when I say this shirt will make your life better. Buy it here for $25, a paltry sum to pay for improving your life.

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Urijah Faber is not a fan of the UFC bantamweight champ, Dominick Cruz, so it’s helpful that they are fighting on July 2 at UFC 132. Unfortunately, that’s more than two months away, so they have to express their animosity in some way, like YouTube videos.

The pair last fought in 2007 at featherweight. Faber won with a first-round submission, but has expressed his dislike for the "not-that-cool" Cruz many times. If it’s like this months out from the fight, it’s going to be a fun ride to UFC 132.

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With some of their behavior in and out of the cage, they’ve both painted themselves into a corner . But in the end, it’s their chops that probably landed both Nick Diaz and Paul Daley in a position where the UFC told them to go bye-bye. In a strange twist, both will be collecting a check tomorrow night from Zuffa, their old boss, as they square in the main event of Strikeforce in San Diego (Showtime 10 p.m. ET/PT).

Yahoo!’s lead MMA writer Kevin Iole joined us to talk about the sins of the past and what mistakes may turn out to be most easily forgiven.

Who has a better shot at securing a long future with the UFC – Daley or Diaz? Or maybe the answer is neither and they might be just fine with that.

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Welcome to the weekly recap of "The Ultimate Fighter." In the last episode, Team Lesnar turned the momentum in their favor as Chris Cope won his fight and Team dos Santos’ Keon Caldwell left the show. What will happen in tonight’s epsiode? Why is Junior smiling? Will anyone learn how to pronounce the name McGillivray? Read on for answers to those questions and spoilers.

Wait, what did he call us? of the week: Brock Lesnar said many times in this season that he was turning chicken [expletive] into chicken salad. After the 700th time he said it, his team said, "Wait a second. We’re not chicken [expletive]" They were quick on the uptake, ya see.

Lesnar tries to explain away his statement but it seems that his definition of chicken [expletive] is different than the popular definition.

New guy of the week: Team dos Santos meets Justin Edwards, the replacement for Caldwell. He has an uncanny resemblance to Randy Couture, or at least what Couture looked like when he was younger.

That’s gotta hurt of the week: Lew Polley runs dos Santos’ practices with an iron fist, which appears to makes Junior uncomfortable. After Shamar Bailey gets cut over the eye, dos Santos speaks up, telling his team that he’s not comfortable with Polley’s style.

Fight pick of the week: Len Bentley (Team Lesnar) vs. Ryan McGillivray (Team dos Santos)

Meanwhile, at the house of the week: Cope has made friends on both teams, which in the fish bowl world of a reality show, means he’s a spy for the other team. Bentley gets slightly paranoid before his fight and takes his concerns about espionage to Lesnar, who tells him to calm down.

Communication breakdown of the week: Dos Santos reminds Polley who is in charge. Despite what commercials have touted, it has the drama of a status meeting about the TPS reports in conference room B.

Weight-cut weirdness of the week: We get an up-close look of dos Santos and the coaches as they help McGillivray cut down to welterweight, and a get a bit closer look at McGillivray’s backside then he wanted. Afterwards, both fighters made weight.

Absentee of the week: Lesnar won’t be present for Bentley’s fight because of "a personal issue in his personal life." Awkwardly, Lesnar tells the camera that his personal life comes first, then runs away.

Awwww of the week: McGillvray’s daughter is his motivation, and he asks dos Santos to hold onto a picture of his daughter in the corner. He is also missing her birthday, so he puts aside a pie to celebrate when the fight is over.

Fight of the week: Bentley vs. McGillivray

Round one: A left hook early in the round from Bentley sends McGillivray to the canvas. Bentley follows up with a full mount, peppering McGillivray with punches. McGillivray pushes Bentley to side control then closed guard, but Bentley punishes him with elbows along the way. McGillivray gets out from underneath Bentley, and they return to their feet. This time, he sends Bentley to the canvas with a straight left, and follows Bentley to the ground. After some time grappling, Bentley tries for an armbar. He can’t get it. McGillivray tries for a choke, and he can’t get it. The time runs out on the first round.

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who is watching the fight, asks Dana White, "Who won the round?" Dana answers that he doesn’t know. It’s a round that could go either way, as both fighters scored knockdowns and submission attempts.

Round two: Both fighters start the round more conservatively than they did the first, but McGillivray breaks it up with an elbow, and Bentley answer with kicks. They both start to land more strikes as the round goes on, but their fatigue is starting to show. Bentley tries a spinning backfist but ends up just hitting McGillivray’s back. McGillivray charges in and pushes Bentley to the fence in an attempt for a takedown. Bentley succumbs to the takedown but gets back to his feet. The two finish the round by throwing every strikes under the sun at each other. Was it technically perfect? Nah. But it was two fighters giving everything they had in a bout, which is always fun to watch.

Surprisingly, it was finished in two rounds. The judges scored it 19-19, 20-18, 20-18 for Ryan McGillivray. In good news for Bentley, White found Bentley to tell him specifically that he had fought a great fight. TUF is about catching the UFC’s eye and getting a contract, and if you don’t win the show, impressing White is crucial. Bentley did that.

Back in the locker room, McGillivray emotionally looks at the picture of his daughter, while dos Santos and his teammates tell him to be proud. Awwww. Pie for everyone!

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Above, that’s Arianny Celeste from the UFC. She’s best known for being sweet eye candy at UFC events and that little naked deal in Playboy. With this new song, Arianny wants to show she’s more than a pretty face. Check it out.  Is it any good? Or does it rank right up there with Kieren Mulvaney’s favorite song by Rebecca Black? Before you say Arianny won’t hit it big in the music world check out the hits on this "great" song.

Oh you crazy Internet, now Black has a billboard in Hollywood and some wackos are sending her death threats.

Tip via MMAFix

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by Michael David SmithIn what promises to be a highly entertaining fight card, Strikeforce is back in action Saturday night with its welterweight and lightweight titles on the line, and two more live fights that promise to be exciting. We’ve got the full preview right here.

What: Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley

Where: San Diego

When: Saturday, the Showtime televised card starts at 10 PM ET.

Predictions on the four televised fights below.

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Your iPhone tracks you everywhere you go, and so do most phones these days. You knew that already. The reason this is a big story now is because it turns out that for the past 10 months Apple has been keeping your location data on a file in your iPhone itself where someone who knows how to get it, and has possession of your phone, could find it and figure out where you’ve been. For most people this is never going to be an issue, but for anyone involved in a lawsuit or nasty divorce, it is one more thing lawyers will be getting a subpoena for. It’s bad data retention policy and Apple could and should change it with the next update to iOS. But what is Apple doing with your location data anyway? It needs your data to build its own locations database for use with geo-location apps and for diagnostics (it helps analyze where dropped calls happen the most, for instance). Apple already explained all of this back in July, 2010 when general counsel Bruce Sewell responded to questions from Congress about its location-tracking policies (letter embedded below). In that letter, Apple revealed that it had replaced the location databases it was using previously from Google and SkyHook Wireless with its own. Apple noted in the letter:

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Canada sounds like it’s stoked for UFC 129 and all its countrymen on the card next week in Toronto. Mark Hominick, a Thamesford-native is representing all of Ontario, he’ll also be pushing the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats. From Yahoo!’s CFL blog:

Hominick will wear a Tiger-Cats’ hat as he enters the octagon; his shorts will also feature a Tiger-Cats’ logo and an ad for Ticats.ca. The team’s also running a contest which includes tickets to UFC 129 as a prize (along with plenty of other impressive stuff), and Hominick will also be featured at "MMA Night" at Ivor Wynne Stadium, which will take place July 16 when the Tiger-Cats host the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Andrew Bucholtz from 55-yard line says the CFL is capitalizing on something other major leagues are whiffing on:

MMA fans are also an excellent demographic for the Tiger-Cats to reach out to. The MMA fan base includes a lot of people in their 20s and 30s (partly because the sport’s rise to prominence is still relatively recent), and that’s a group the CFL would do well to try and draw. The CFL audience used to skew a lot older; I think that’s starting to change, but there’s still a need to bring in new, young fans, and a partnership with a prominent Canadian MMA fighter’s an excellent way to at least increase the visibility of the Tiger-Cats’ brand. From an image perspective, it’s also a good thing for a CFL team to position itself as on the side of MMA; many established sports leagues and brands have somewhat turned up their noses at the UFC, and that’s probably not a smart long-term strategy given the sport’s rapidly growing popularity.

We’re glad to see Ontario is welcoming MMA with open arms. Now it’s time to work on its acceptance of the Lingerie Football League.

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Storming to a 19-2 record, Gilbert Melendez built a good reputation in the MMA world, but everything changed three weeks ago when his promotion was purchased by the UFC. It’s like starting all over for Melendez.

The Strikeforce lightweight champ knows, that as part of the Zuffa family, he’s just another name, and he’s okay with that. Melendez faces Tatsuya Kawajiri (Showtime 10 p.m. ET/PT) in his first fight under the UFC/Strikeforce banner and views, this his 21st professional fight, as a time to prove himself all over again.

"I’m a big fish in a smaller pond in Strikeforce, now I’m a good-sized fish in an ocean. For some other fighters, I don’t know what size a fish they’re going to be in this ocean right now," Melendez said on DC and the Sunshine Man on ESPN1100 in Las Vegas (2:30 mark). "If you’re ready to deliver and ready to work hard like I plan on doing, I think I’ll fit in just fine out here."

If Melendez keeps winning he’s got a chance to blow up with a whole new set of fans.

"I have the marketing machine of the UFC behind me and that’s the main thing," Melendez said. "Strikeforce is a great organization. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s hard to brand yourself in that organization. It’s hard to get respect from the common fan. For the common fan, if I’m not associated with Zuffa they think I’m in the minor leagues."

Melendez said some Strikeforce fighters aren’t thrilled to be working for the UFC.

"There’s mixed emotions. The UFC is real cutthroat. In this business you’re only as good as your last fight. That added pressure is on a lot of these fighters, There’s a lot of fighters who are borderline with that," Melendez said. "If you’re a fighter who trains hard and takes it serious, treat it like a pro, you’ll be alright. [...] These guys are going to have to deliver that’s all there is to it."

Melendez told us he’s always eyed the UFC as an eventual destination. Because of a non-compete clause in his Strikeforce contract, he’d actually considered sitting out a year to get his shot at guys like UFC champ Frank Edgar, Gray Maynard and Anthony Pettis.

Melendez also added a nice note about Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker. He was asked if he felt bad for Coker, who doesn’t really have his own promotion to run anymore. Melendez said he did feel for Coker, but the longtime promoter handled the sale with class and even called some fighters on the day of the announcement to ask them how they were doing, putting aside his own feelings to make sure his fighters understood what was happening.

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Team dos Santos has the momentum from last week’s win. Who will win the next fight? Will Brock Lesnar misuse more colloquialisms? Who paints his toenails? Read on for spoilers and a recap this week’s episode.

Lollygagging of the week: After the loss, Lesnar is disappointed in the work ethic of his team, making me think that Lesnar learned his coaching style from:

You know what that makes you? Lollygaggers.

Fight announcement of the week: Team dos Santos has this week’s pick, so he picks Ramsey Nijem to take on Lesnar’s Charlie Rader, who Lesnar called out for lollygagging.

J. Crew model of the week: Nijem has painted toe nails and loves Glee, which give his teammates a reason to make fun of him."Everyone makes fun of me for watching Glee, but those kids are talented," Nijem says. No argument here.

Like a two-year-old, he takes his clothes off at the drop of a hat. He likes to joke around with his teammates, which may be a ruse to throw his opponents off. Perhaps, or perhaps not.

Cameo of the week: Brock Lesnar brings in UFC Hall-of-Famer Matt Hughes to work with his fighters on wrestling. Now, far be it from me to question Lesnar, but he is a former wrestler with pretty strong bona fides, and so he brought it another wrestler … ? I love wrestling as much as anybody, but wouldn’t it make sense to bring in a coach to shore up weaknesses? Nonetheless, Brock’s team loves working with Hughes, a legendary welterweight.

As both teams talk about this fight, they’re absolutely sure that the other team is underestimating the other. Both teams think that their fighter’s advantage will be wrestling. Hmmm.

Misuse of the word disgrace of the week: Lesnar tells Rader that if he doesn’t win, it’s a disgrace because Nijem paints his toenails. I’d like to see Lesnar call Chuck Liddell a disgrace.

Fight of the week: Ramsey Nijem (Team dos Santos) vs. Charlie Rader (Team Lesnar)

Round One: Nijem starts by driving Rader into the fence in a clinch. They continue to pummel for much of the round until Nijem throws an inadvertent knee to Rader’s crotch. Once broken apart, Nijem dives in for another takedown attempt. Though he has trouble getting it, he does inflict damage with knees and short strikes. He finally puts Rader on his back after tons of work. Rader springs back to his feet, but Nijem brings him back to the ground and stays in control for the rest of the round.

Round Two: This time, Nijem has no problem getting the takedown. He takes Rader’s back and controls him at the beginning of the round, throwing short strikes until he can flatten Rader out and apply a rear-naked choke. Rader didn’t put up much of a fight, and tapped to give Nijem the win.

After the fight, Lesnar said that he was worried from the start of the fight, when he saw the look in Nijem’s eyes. He also says that Rader quit, an idea that Dana White backed up.

Quote of the week: "I don’t even care. These guys don’t want to even be here." — Brock Lesnar

Lesnar clearly doesn’t know how to handle fighters who don’t have the same drive as he has. He rips them for choking and not caring. It’s going to be a long season if Lesnar and his fighters don’t get on the same page.

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It’s no secret that Facebook is deepening its ties with the Beltway crowd. As we saw yesterday, the company hosted a town hall meeting with President Obama and has steadily ramping up its lobbying efforts in 2010, spending over $350,000 on lobbying efforts last year. But the company recently disclosed its Q1 spend on lobbying and the company shelled out a record $230,000 on lobbying activities in the quarter, which is up by over 400 percent from $41,390 spent in Q1 2010. This data is recorded in the U.S. Senate?s lobbying database. Policy areas of focus for Facebook this year include global regulation of software companies and restrictions on internet access by foreign governments; online safety measures, internet privacy regulations, cyber security, and FCC regulations on net neutrality. A new issue that the company spent lobbying resources on is discussing House, Senate, and Government rules to allow more Government and Congressional offices to access social media to engage with citizens.

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Jose Aldo is as dominant as anyone in the sport right now. The 25-year-old Brazilian just about swept every round he’s fought under Zuffa management. Is he that good or is that a sign that the 145-pound division is still very much a work-in-progress.

SB Nation’s Luke Thomas is one media member who believes Aldo is a bit overrated, there are many more in the fight game who hold the same belief. One of them is trainer Shawn Tompkins, who’ll be cornering Mark Hominick as he challenges Aldo later this month.

In this video with RawVegas.tv, Tompkins says Hominick is the first guy Aldo’s faced in a long time who’ll move forward. He also wonders how Aldo will deal with 55,000 enemy fans in Toronto.

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Above, that’s Arianny Celeste from the UFC. She’s best known for being sweet eye candy at UFC events and that little naked deal in Playboy. With this new song, Arianny wants to show she’s more than a pretty face. Check it out.  Is it any good? Or does it rank right up there with Kieren Mulvaney’s favorite song by Rebecca Black? Before you say Arianny won’t hit it big in the music world check out the hits on this "great" song.

Oh you crazy Internet, now Black has a billboard in Hollywood and some wackos are sending her death threats.

Tip via MMAFix

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Christina Aguilera‘s boyfriend, Matthew Rutler, won’t be charged with DUI following his March arrest.

According to TMZ, the LA County District Attorney dropped the charges against him, citing a report showing that Matthew?s blood-alcohol level at the time of the arrest was .06 ? below California’s legal limit of .08.

Meanwhile, no charges were filed against Christina after she was briefly taken into custody for public drunkenness.

Christina begins her new stint as a vocal coach on The Voice on April 26 on NBC.

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Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina play it safe with country tunes on ‘Idol’ night that called for contemporary picks.
By Gil Kaufman

James Durbin on “American Idol” Wednesday
Photo: FOX

The theme on Wednesday’s (April 20) “American Idol” top-seven performance night was music from the 21st century, and while James Durbin blew it out with a Muse extravaganza, Jacob Lusk took it down for a touching Luther Vandross tribute and teens Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina played it close to the vest with traditional country tunes.

First up was McCreery, who sang “Swingin’ ” by LeAnn Rimes, giving it his usual dose of country comfort. Backed by a four-piece horn section, McCreery brought the whole arsenal: the bizarre sideways-mic technique, the George W. Bush-esque facial tics and the “down-home” charm. For the first time this season, though, McCreery’s shtick seemed a bit phoned-in and fell a bit flat, lacking his usual appeal.

While the crowd ate it up, Steven Tyler suggested Scotty move his body a bit more when he performs and Jennifer Lopez said it was that time in the competition for Scotty to move beyond his comfort zone and show America his full range. “It’s time to pull out the big guns,” she said, noting that McC had a whole decade of music to choose from and picked a tame song. “We were expecting more from Scotty on that one. Randy Jackson served up the ultimate “Idol” judge’s dis, calling the song choice “safe.”

Looking like a rock and roll shock trooper in an all-black ensemble, James Durbin went truly contemporary by picking Muse’s bombastic “Uprising.” Mentor Jimmy Iovine loved the song choice and Durbin delivered, coming out alongside a marching band drum section and wearing a post-apocalyptic shredded black overcoat. Though tentative at first, Durbin leaned into the chorus and showed nice vocal control, swinging his truncated mic stand in the classic fashion of late Queen singer Freddie Mercury and not being shy with his glass-shattering upper register.

J.Lo was blown away. “I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that that theatrically, this is going to be the best performance of the night,” she said, marveling at how high his voice reached. Randy hopes JD follows that direction on his album and mixes the pomp with metal, predicting (correctly, as it turned out) that it could be the best performance of the night.

You can’t really go wrong by picking a song from the best-selling album of 2011 to date, so Haley Reinhart’s take on Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” was probably her best choice so far. Iovine counseled her to tap into the tune’s heartache, and wearing a throwback red and white polka-dot dress, Reinhart busted out her signature growl and put bluesy emotion into the tune, but at times still came off a bit too chipper.

Randy said he’s not only looking for a winner, but also trying to figure out what direction the singers might go in after the show and he praised Haley’s choice, even if the falsetto was a bit wobbly at times. Tyler loved it, even with the slow start and Lopez said it took guts to take on such a well-known song. “There were moments when you did … you brought a little bit of Haley to it in certain moments,” she said.

After all the comparisons, Jacob Lusk wisely went with the Luther Vandross classic “Dance With my Father,” (on the late R&B great’s birthday, no less), reaching deep for memories of his own long-departed father. Looking like he was straining to keep it together, Lusk sat serenely on stool center-stage and sang the uplifting tune in his breathy falsetto, bringing power and grit without his usual over-emoting.

“Luther Lusk!” Tyler enthused. “You remind me all the time the reason I love music.” After a few weeks of bland platitudes, Lopez served up another of her useful real-life artist comments, telling Jacob that part of being an artist is tapping into the emotion of a track without losing control. Randy agreed and said the vocals were good, but it didn’t excite him and encouraged Lusk to “go for it” next week.

Casey Abrams chose Maroon 5′s “Harder to Breathe,” strapping on an electric guitar and tapping into his blue-eyed soul man for the bouncy white-funk tune. Moving spastically across the stage slapping hands with the audience, Abrams gave a performance that was manic at points, as he flashed his unfortunate scary face a few too many times, ending the song by getting uncomfortably close to Lopez’s face and then planting a kiss on her cheek.

“I loved it,” Lopez blushed, clarifying that she was talking about the performance, not the soft-lips kiss and praising Abrams for taking a pop tune into the rock zone. With memories of the disastrous Nirvana performance from earlier in the season, Jackson was worried the Maroon 5 song wouldn’t pan out, but said the risk-taking worked and said Casey should continue pushing the envelope. “There’s millions of people in America that are really angry because you piss them off because you’re so f—ing good,” Tyler said, eliciting wide-eyed looks from his fellow judges and some nimble-fingered dead air from the network censors.

He’s well-acquainted with the bottom three, so Iovine said Stefano Langone needed “Closer” by Ne-Yo to have the right sex appeal and strut, without coming off like begging. Wearing a romper-stomper pseudo-punk outfit complete with drooping red suspenders, Langone served up another cheesy, vocally weak performance that felt more like an over-eager high school musical solo than the work of the next “American Idol.”

Expecting it to be jerky, bad karaoke, Jackson said Stefano pulled it off and smartly took his time on the early verses, even working in a few nice dance steps. Speaking for the ladies, Lopez said Langone had his swag on and worked the audience.

Thursday night’s pimp spot belonged to teen Lauren Alaina, who sang Sara Evans’ “Born to Fly” with some help from Miley Cyrus’ producers, Rock Mafia. Iovine picked them to once again motivate Alaina to bring her best and not shrink away from the pressure. Working the stage like a pro, Alaina shimmied and strutted her way through the fiddle-tastic song that most of America was probably not familiar with. It was a bit of a generic arrangement and though Alaina came off confident and brassy, the song lacked the kind of dynamics needed to show off her vocal talent.

Tyler suggested some Faith Hill or Shania Twain next time, while Lopez praised the color in the 16-year-old’s voice and encouraged her to go for the big notes she hears the other singers trying. “You can do that, do that next time,” Lopez said. “Try it. Try it at home by yourself. Scream, yell, in the shower, in the closet … just let it out and see how far and how long you can hold it … because you can do that!”

In a huge switch from past years, when eliminated contestants who left “Idol” were rarely heard from again, the show opened with all of this year’s booted singers doing a group sing on Pink’s “So What,” with Pia Toscano, Naima Adedapo, Karen Rodriguez, Thia Megia and Ashthon Jones.

Thursday’s results show will feature the return of season-seven winner David Cook singing his new single “The Last Goodbye,” and Katy Perry beaming in for “E.T.”

Don’t miss “Idol Party Live” every Thursday at noon on MTV.com for analysis, celebrity guests and even some karaoke — get in the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #idolparty! In the meantime, get your “Idol” fix on MTV News’ “American Idol” page, where you’ll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

Related Photos

• ‘American Idol’ Season 10 Performances

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Mark sent me this because, like Wendy Ho, I don’t know what I’m going to do when the clock hits four this fall.

Via Joe. My. God.

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