The last time we saw Elvis Sinosic compete was in December 2007 for Cage Rage. An eleven-year veteran of the sport, Sinosic has fought all over the world, including in his home-country of Australia.

So, where has he been? Well, that’s a good question, I was wondering the same thing.

“The King of Rock ‘n Rumble” has been looking for a good fight and may be on the verge of finding one too. He’s mixed it up with the likes of Tito Ortiz, Frank Shamrock, Forrest Griffin and Michael Bisping and is now itching to get back in there.

Thanks to our friends at Lojak Fightwear, we caught up with Sinosic to talk about his career and other topics:

* His stalker fan page

* His loyal fan base in Australia

* When is he looking to fight next?

* Which major promotions has he talked to recently?

* Does living in Australia make him less attractive to bookers?

* How popular is MMA in Australia?

* A look at some of his memorable opponents

All that and much more from the veteran fighter.

LISTEN TO THE ELVIS SINOSIC INTERVIEW HERE 

Every season of the “The Ultimate Fighter” always seems to have a happy-go-lucky guy who comes off as just feeling blessed to be on the show. There’s also usually a guy who gets a second chance to chase his dream due to an injury or some kind of controversy.

Just so happens that Patrick Schultz played the role of both those guys on TUF 7. The Massachusetts-native lost a prelim bout to Luke Zachrich but after Paul Bradley’s herpes epidemic, he was quickly brought back because no one wanted to see Rampage get the “heeby jeebies.”

So, there was Schultz with a golden opportunity to advance to the quarter-finals with only Cale Yarborough standing in his way. That was also his biggest problem; Cale Yarborough was in standing in his way.

Schultz lost a tough two-round affair via decision with some even thinking the bout should have gone three rounds (I, on the other hand, thought the judges made the right call).

MMARated Radio spoke to the new father (his wife gave birth to a baby girl an hour before the interview!) about his experience on the show and a few other issues:

* Finding out that he had to fight his way into the house

* What happened after the loss to Zachrich?

* How did he find out that he was back on the show?

* The reception he received from his teammates when he returned

* Training with Rampage

* What went wrong against Yarborough

* The injury he sustained in the bout

Nice to hear how genuinely happy and excited Schultz was to be on the show.

LISTEN TO THE PATRICK SCHULTZ INTERVIEW HERE 

It’s a busy morning at MMARated.com (and FOXSports.com too) because we’ve got dueling BJ Penn and Sean Sherk interviews.

Some of the highlights include:

Ariel Helwani: Penn has been very outspoken when the topic of your suspension, your appeals and steroids in MMA has come up. Basically, he’s not very happy with you right now. What do you think about all the stuff he has said leading up to the fight?

Sean Sherk: To be honest with you, I don’t even know what he’s talking about. I don’t really read up or follow any interviews online or anything, so I don’t know what kind of comments he’s made as far as him having a beef with the way I handled my situation. I didn’t take Nandrolone so I mean everything I did was pretty much all innocent. I’ve passed three lie detectors tests and then explaining all the mistakes that the California (State Athletic) Commission made in the process and the testing facility, I felt like there was plenty of evidence there to prove that I hadn’t taken anything. To be honest with you, I think BJ wants to keep bringing up that steroid stuff because maybe he feels like that’s what brings legitimacy to the belt that he’s got. I don’t think he deserves it. I think that if you want to be the champion, you’ve got to beat the champ. (That) belt was taken from me for something that I didn’t do. He wants to keep sticking the steroid stuff in my face, but for him to be talking about me like that, it’s kind of a hypocritical because I know he’s got some habits, some professional habits that professional fighters shouldn’t have. And he knows it just as well as I do, so he should maybe take a look in the mirror and think before he speaks.

AND

Ariel Helwani: I recently spoke to Sean Sherk and he’s still very adamant that everything he did was kosher. Obviously, you don’t believe him, right?

BJ Penn: Well, I asked him (on a conference call last week), ‘did you do steroids?’ He said no. I said, ‘did you do growth hormone?’ he didn’t answer. I said, ‘did you blood dope?’ He didn’t answer. Then somebody asked me, ‘so do you think he did steroids when he fought Hermes (Franca)? I said ‘well, if he didn’t do steroids then his test should come out the same way with his Nandrolone and testosterone level.’ The same thing because I’m sure he trained just as hard for this fight as he did for the Hermes fight. So, if he didn’t do anything, he should be exactly the same as last time. So, we’ll see. We know there’s more people than just him on performance enhancement drugs in the UFC. (But) you know what? It’s time to just focus on myself. A lot of smack talk has been going back and forth but come Saturday it’s all going to end the next time I get in the ring.

Pretty solid stuff from both combatants. Check out the Penn interview here and the Sherk interview here.

Another week is about to be put in the official record books so it’s time, once again, to look at the week that was and the weekend ahead in the world of mixed martial arts. It’s little thing we like to call “The Week’s End Update.”

Today, we welcome the editor-in-chief of the new-and-improved bloodyelbow.com, Luke Thomas, to help make sense of everything.

Some of the topics we delved into it were:

* Tonight’s IFL event

* How would Luke help revamp the IFL

* Roy Nelson vs. Brad Imes

* World Victory Road’s growth

* Sengoku match-making

* Roger Gracie vs. Yuki Kondo

* This week’s TUF 8 announcement

* The problems with TUF

* Will Andrei Arlovski sign with Affliction?

* Affliction’s future

And that’s just a taste so check ‘er out.

LISTEN TO THE LUKE THOMAS INTERVIEW AT MMARATED.COM

It’s been a fairly unpredictable season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” thus far, but no result was more unexpected (in my mind at least) than Amir Sadollah’s victory over Gerald Harris on last night’s episode of the show.

Sadollah seemed to be lacking confidence going into the bout while Harris, well, he appeared to be feeling quite good about the whole situation. Oh, how we were wrong…

Of course, as is the case in many MMA fights, things can change in a flash and that’s kind of what happened when Sadollah nailed the former IFL fighter with a nice knee to the head.

Following the loss, Harris showed a ton of emotion and, really, who can blame him? He lost to a guy with an 0-0 record (1-0 if you consider the qualifying match to get on the show).

On a side note, how weird would it be if Sadollah makes it all the way to the finals with a 0-0 record? That would certainly be a first.

Anyways, we caught up with Harris to talk about last night’s fight and some other stuff:

* What was it like watching the fight with all his family and friends knowing that he was about to lose (also chronicled on Cagepotato.com quite well).

* Their reaction after the loss

* His feelings after the loss

* In hindsight, should he have done anything differently in the fight?

* Did he underestimate Amir?

* How hard was it to look at Amir at the house?

* His time in the IFL All that and much more from Harris…

LISTEN TO THE HARRIS INTERVIEW HERE 

There’s just something about those ring girls. Everyone loves them and we here at mmarated.com are no different. So, with that in mind, I present a most enlightening interview with one of Strikeforce’s exquisite ring girls, the lovely Nicole Craner.

Nicole is actually one of the friendlier ring girls I’ve come across lately . Heck, she’s even an mmarated.com member! So, it was no surprise when she answered all my stupid questions in an honest, sincere and fun manner.

Some of the topics we discussed included:

* How she got involved with Strikeforce

* Her MMA knowledge (quite impressive I must say)

* Sitting cageside for Le vs. Shamrock

* Her desire to someday work for the UFC

* Does she like any fighter out there like, you know, more than a friend

* Have any fighters ever hit on her?

Oh, and we also played a quick little round of my favorite dinner party game: F, Marry, Kill. Some of the candidates involved were Scott Coker, Rachelle Leah, Gilbert Melendez, Dana White and Urijah Faber. Good times indeed.

LISTEN TO THE NICOLE CRANER INTERVIEW HERE

You may not have heard of Matt Makowski (2-0) yet, but all that may change soon enough. The 21-year-old fighter will face Nike Serra on the undercard of the May 31st Elite XC on CBS card.

There’s always pressure going into any bout but you would have to think that all the guys fighting on the undercard of this particular show will be looking to make a splash to get their fight on the broadcast. With quick workers like Kimbo Slice, James Thompson, Robbie Lawler and Phil Baroni headlining, one has to think that there will be plenty of room for an extra bout or two…or three.

MMARated Radio caught up with Makowski just a couple of weeks before the biggest fight of his young career:

* His thoughts on potentially fighting on CBS

* How did he land on the card?

* Will he look to press the issue to land on the televised portion of the card?

* His thoughts on Nick Serra

* Would he prefer to fight a BJJ practitioner or a striker?

* His rise up the amateur fighting ranks

* Is he surprised at how quickly his career has progressed?

LISTEN TO THE MAKOWSKI INTERVIEW AT MMARATED.COM

It wasn’t quite Gabe Ruedieger-esque but Jeremy May’s behavior on last week’s episode TUF 7 was quite the controversial one. Actually, maybe controversial isn’t the right word…annoying might be more accurate.

So, why did he pour lime juice in Matt Brown’s dip anyways? And why did the rest of the cast appear to be rooting against him?

We reached out to May to get some answers to these questions and the responses we got were pretty interesting.

For example, the guy we spoke to on the phone seemed completely different than the one portrayed on television. Now, that might have to do with the fact that he realized how poorly he came off on television and is now trying to change his persona but, regardless, it still seemed like a different guy.

Other topics we spoke to May about included:

- The mistakes he made against Matt Brown

- His lack of cardio in the fight

- The way he was portrayed on the show

- What prompted him to pour lime juice in Brown

- His thoughts on some of his cast members

- Did he enjoy the experience of being on a reality show?

- Was he happy with the coaching he received?

- How did he end up on the show in the first place?

LISTEN TO THE JEREMY MAY INTERVIEW HERE 

Here’s the latest and greatest from MMARated Radio: Each and every Friday we’ll be inviting another member of the MMA media to discuss the week that was and the weekend ahead in the sport we love so dearly.

Today, we kick things off with the uber-talented Ben Fowlkes of cagepotato.com and si.com to talk about a number of different topics:

* Changes in the IFL

* Is there any reason to watch Cage Rage 26?

* The legend that is Ross Pointon

* Will Nick Diaz actually fight for DREAM this weekend?

* Why would Elite XC even allow him to fight on their card in the first place?

* Can this be DREAM’s best offering yet?

* The case for Sean Sherk

* The Kimbo Slice article in ESPN The Magazine

* Bas Rutten’s reaction to the article

* Fowlkes’ take on Kimbo vs. Thompson

LISTEN TO THE WEEK’S END UPDATE

Luke Zachrich is coming off a disappointing, yet spirited, loss to Dan Cramer on last night’s edition of “The Ultimate Fighter” and I can’t help but feel a little bad for him a day later.

You see, Zachrich’s fight was nudged right after the whole Matt Brown-Jeremy May battle with little fanfare, hype or buildup. Now we probably won’t hear much about him for the rest of the show (unless, of course, he returns as an injury replacement which is quite possible).

Regardless, he was kind enough to sit down with us today and was quite honest and sincere throughout the interview. Highlights include:

* His thoughts on the fight

* His lack of conditioning in the fight

* Would he have done anything differently

* The way he was portrayed on the show

* The fact that his fight came right after the Brown-May bout

* Does he regret doing the show in the first place?

* Will we see him in the UFC following the conclusion of the show?

Again, Zachrich had some very interesting things to say about the whole TUF experience. Definitely worth checking out.

LISTEN TO THE LUKE ZACHRICH INTERVIEW AT MMARATED.COM