Mixed Martial Arts fans must have heard this a thousand times: Anderson Silva refuses to, and will not consider any possibility of fighting his training partner and friend Lyoto Machida.

And it goes deeper than that.

Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida is highly favored to win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in this week’s UFC 104. However, there is still a possibility that Shogun could beat Machida. If that happens, would Silva come in seething with revenge on a Silva vs. Shogun tiff? We think not… if we follow the depth of friendship and loyalty between Silva and Machida.

You see, if Machida loses over Shogun, he would lose his Light Heavyweight belt. It would be like Silva stealthily snatching that belt from his friend Machida by winning over the Shogun. If this happens, Machida could only regain the title by getting inside the octagon against his friend Silva. Silva fighting Shogun after a Machida defeat would make a mess of the friendship.

Silva has been talking about Machida since day one – even before Silva rose to popularity. He is not interested in getting into the light heavyweight fray as he would get in the way of his friend. If Machida loses to Shogun, he would want to take the title back and Silva wouldn’t want to get in the way.

Silva does not only refuse to fight his friend, he would also refuse any match that would lead him to eventually facing his old buddy inside the octagon.

But how long can he (and Machida) stand his ground?

Dana White, the guy who knows how to make serious bucks with his promotional instincts, is already setting his sights to a Silva Machida match – despite the two warriors’ pronouncements. Can’t blame the guy, a Silva vs. Machida bout is going to be one of those superfights that would surely fill venue seats at two asses per chair. White is looking at 2010 when this Silva vs. Machida ticket could happen.

In an interview with ESPN, megabucks boss White said, “Anderson Silva is two fights away from cleaning out his entire division, and he’s had two fights at 205 pounds where he’s looked absolutely phenomenal – he’s actually looked better at 205 than he did at 185.” MMA fans couldn’t help but be thrilled by this friendship-busting tiff when White said, “I think we’re probably a couple of fights away from a mega-fight like that.”

The question is: How would Dana White convince the two?

Well, Silva and Machida would eventually have to face each other if they both would keep on winning. It’s either that, or they’d just fight lame fights with non-winners, or they (or one of them) would just retire for the sake of friendship. That last option sounds lamer than fighting lame fighters, don’t you think?

Whaddya know? MMA edged out more popular sports this time as ESPN chose Gina Carano over more popular female athletes to grace the cover of its “The Body Issue.”

One would think that Ms Carano’s kick (and breasts barely covered by her hand) splashed on the cover of ESPN would drive readers (or even non-readers) to a magazine-buying frenzy.

ESPN’s “The Body Issue,” is all about, well….the naked body. The issue features volleyball players in the nude, nude motocross riders, to SERENA WILLIAMS all in their naked glory. One of the six athletes featured to grace the cover, Sara Reinersten said, “It got easier as we kept going. I think, you know, you get comfortable with people on set. You know, after the first two minutes of being horrified that you’re totally naked!”

ESPN”s “The Body Issue” features only six athletes to grace the cover. Besides Gina Carano, Williams, and Reinersten are Dwight Howard, Adrian Peterson, and Clair Bevilacqua.

It’s a nice combination of athletes, we think. But….

MMA-Tap-Out can’t help but notice a collective groan from fans asking “Why not … (fill in the name of a female sports icon you wish were a part of this, uhurm – naked collection)?”

And here’s our take on some of the missed opportunities (in random order):

Danica Patrick. IRL driver. The first woman to win an Indy car race. Yes, we’ve had a lot of Danica photos in revealing outfits, but hey…this is ESPN’s “The Body Issue.”

Jennie Finch. The most famous softball player of all time. Forget the Olympic gold medals and other awards she won with her U.S. team, her Sports Illustrated photos are more interesting. ESPN could have given us more.

Gabrielle Reece Volleyball player. She’s also a model and a sports announcer. We just can’t get enough of her spikes, dives and digs.

Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova. Why skip these two tennis divas?

And finally… Allison Stokke. Pole vaulter turned internet sensation.

Why ESPN…Why didn’t you?

If losing could be anything but bad, this could be the best defeat Kimbo has ever had. By losing, Kimbo Slice won the hearts and acceptance of a lot of haters…and that includes Kimbo-thrasher Dana White.

Days before the airing of the September 30 edition of the reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” over Spike TV, MMA fans were already raving about it like it was the Lesnar-Fedor match finally taking shape. The reason: after Kimbo crashed and burned under Seth Petruzelli (and after losing to a worm in that Norton Security ad) this is going to be the first time we will see the bearded one slug it out in the cage again.

Kimbo Slice, whether you like it or not, has done in a few matches what Dana White has been trying to do for MMA – and barely succeeded: that is to draw more attention to mixed martial arts. Whether you like it or not, the much maligned, overly belittled and scathingly thrash-talked Kimbo is one of MMA’s biggest crowd-drawers. He drew the biggest TV viewership (at 7.281 million viewers during the Kimbo vs. Thompson bout) for an MMA fight in American TV last year. To top this, two of the three most viewed MMA fights last year are Kimbo Slice headliners.

Most of the hardcore MMA fans hate him, for good reason. Kimbo Slice is not a mixed martial arts fighter, but the amount of hype and attention (and huge pay scale) he gets does injustice to real MMA fighters. He gives the new fans the wrong impression of what real mixed martial arts is. An MMA poser he is, and it didn’t take long before some obscure MMA-fighter-turned-Smoothie King-franchisee Petruzelli showed the world what a fake he is – in just 14 seconds of the first round.

But still…Kimbo Slice was a crowd-drawer.

Now, Dana White struts him off on “The Ultimate Fighter.” And we say, “Good call, DW!” It means Kimbo’s crowd-drawing magic would rub off on the show. And it did – it’s first two episodes raked it’s highest ratings ever. So it came as a shock when White announced that a Kimbo fight was slated as early as the third week of TUF 10 against the much experienced Roy “Big Country” Nelson. If Slice loses, just like any contender who loses, he gets kicked out of the show

What was White thinking? There’s not an iota of doubt that Kimbo would lose.

And Kimbo lost.

But wait…

After losing to “Big Country,” haters started to feel differently about Kimbo. Even “real” MMA fighters and coaches on the show who sneered and swore and mocked him when he was first introduced on the first episode started to warm up on him. They started to praise him and his efforts.

And Dana White is keeping him on the show despite the loss.

…. and he can continue rubbing off his crowd-drawing magic on the show, on UFC, and on mixed martial arts in general.

Kimbo Slice lost this particular battle, but he seems to be winning the war.

The question is: is Kimbo Slice’s victory a loss for MMA?

Unlike fellow WWE alumnus Brock Lesnar who skyrocketed to MMA stardom via UFC, Bobby Lashley wants to take the slower route.

When asked if he would be invited, would he want to fight for the UFC, the former WWE champ said no. What?!! Ain’t that a bit lame? Lashley said he needs to stay on the undercards or on smaller gigs before he considers moving up on the UFC. Oh, he respects UFC so much that he calls it the “pinnacle of the sport” that he won’t even consider being with the UFC now. We’d say it’s still lame.

We’d say that’s a major issue on the self-confidence department. Lashley tries to justify it by saying, “When I get to the UFC, I want to be a serious contender for the title.” Major confidence issue, indeed.

Last we’ve heard, the guy would rather be on the reality TV. With this letdown on the guy’s aggressiveness on going up, when “reality TV” was mentioned, we thought he meant “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” or “Supernanny.” Pardon the slip, he meant “The Ultimate Fighter.”

He’d house up with other MMA no-namers in a house outside of Las Vegas, show the world how he bitches up, er, we mean show the world how he trains and take down other wannabes. Yeah right, reality TV… as a means of moving up to UFC. That’s cool. We just can’t help feeling let down his “no” to the rhetorical question of “if offered a slot on the UFC.”

But then…

The guy starts to make sense when he said, “I don’t want to just be another guy going into the UFC because it’s a grand stage and build there. I don’t think that’s what I need to do.” Oh, yeah. The octagon could be a very unforgiving stage. To say the obvious, a premature exposure could break you more than it could build you.

Oh, yeah. We remember how that other WWE guy, Lesnar, was not spared from belittling remarks when he first set foot inside the octagon, “He’s a freakin’ wrestler!” We remember how Jason Guida “screwed with his head” during a pre-fight presser.

We remember how we wrote last week how “it is easier to work yourself upwards when everyone’s looking somewhere else, than having pot shots thrown at you while you fight your way up.”

So, okay. Good luck on your play safe mode, Lashley. We find it a bit lame. But then, you’ve got some wisdom there.