You may want to sit down before you read this. Ready?

According to the Los Angeles Times, Nick Diaz smokes marijuana. You'd never guess it by his interviews or some of the ridiculous things that he says, but, it's true.

"I'm more consistent about everything being a cannabis user," Diaz said in an interview with The Times last week. "I'm happy to get loaded, hear some good music . . . I remain consistent."

Keith Kizer, head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, points out that marijuana slows your reflexes, which is rather dangerous in MMA. Diaz's opponent, Frank Shamrock, mentions how it doesn't help the image of the sport. Granted, it's not a performance-enhancing drug, but for better or worse, it is banned, and Diaz should not be using it this close to a fight.

Diaz admitting the marijuana use is not the most worrisome statement in the story. It's how tells how he gets past the drug tests.

"I can pass a drug test in eight days with herbal cleansers. I drink 10 pounds of water

This episode brings the show back to the United States, where the preliminary fights will choose which American fighters will make it onto the show. Last week, the fights were at Wolfslair in England, but this week they will be on "The Ultimate Fighter" set in Las Vegas.

To start out the show, we see Dana White driving in his Range Rover. Hmmm, that's a British car company, so maybe Dana favors the Brits, but, it was bought by Ford, so maybe Dana is cheering for the U.S. Oh wait, it was then sold by Ford to an Indian carmaker, so maybe I shouldn't read anything into Dana White's car of choice.

Fainting? Again?

Dan Henderson says that he is comfortable with the country vs. country theme, as he did represent the U.S. in the Olympics. (At that time, he was also comfortable representing a SWEET mullet.) White claims that Henderson is one of the toughest motherf***ers he's ever met. In the middle of Dana's profanity laced tirade, a guy faints. Is this going to become a theme for this show?

Tapout is, at its core, a clothing company. T-shirts are the cornerstone of that success. When it came time to honor their founder, Charles "Mask" Lewis, Jr., Tapout went back to their roots and designed a set of t-shirts to honor Mask and his vision.

Both fighters and fans were wearing these shirts at WEC 40 this weekend. Other designs are available, and a women's shirt is also for sale. The shirts cost $24 at Tapout's online store.

If you have a suggestion for MMA Marketplace, send it on over.

You probably haven't heard of Chad Shafer. He is a bantamweight out of the Hardcore Gym in Atlanta, which is also the home of Rory Singer and Brian Bowles. According to the Hardcore Web site, he has a record of 3-1, but on Sherdog's Fight Finder, he has one fight, and it's a loss. Shafer is an average, run-of-the-mill fighter.

His fighting resume is hardly what matters on this particular post. What matters is that he has the coolest fighter picture in the history of cool fight pictures. His face is busted up, his arms are scraped, his thumb is in an immobilizer, and it's quite possible that his nose is broken. I can't tell for sure, but it also looks like he has a hospital identification bracelet on his wrist. Yet, he's smiling, and pointing at the camera. All is well in Shafer's world, because he's a fighter.

After fights, even the winners have busted noses, black eyes and torn up limbs. But as Chad Shafer has shown us, that pain can be overlooked if the fight ends with a win.

Over the course of the UFC's short history, naysayers have not been in short supply. But there were people who had enough vision to see that MMA would grow into what we know it as today. Ron Van Clief, a former commissioner of the UFC and the oldest man ever to take the Octagon, is one of those people.

In this video, he calls the UFC the sport of the 21st Century, and foretells that there will be a UFC 100. Considering this was said at UFC 5, it was quite a bold prediction. But here we are, just a few months away from fulfilling Van Clief's prophesy.

Thanks to reader David Abou-Halaka of Torrance, Calif. for sharing!

Sure, it seems like Frank Mir, Mike Brown, Donald Cerrone and Urijah Faber at the WEC's fan question and answer session, but it sure looks like the cast of a new teen movie. Take your shot at a caption in the comments, and read on for the winners of the last C-a-C.

First place: Purple Ball, after an ongoing contract dispute with Dana White, is ousted from the UFC. Ball is contemplating signing with Affliction, but in the meantime keeps in fight shape by training with Ryan Bader of AZ Combat Sports. Bader tells Cagefighter that Ball, "Has a lot of raw talent and won't be out of work for long!" -- Clint

Second place: After realizing that Gina Carano is a definite threat, Ryan Bader continues working to improve his "worm". -- wuolbaid

This week's winner of the Spot in Hell Award: K-J-MMA-Armchair for his caption, "Bader prepares for a future fight with Kyle Maynard"

Mike Brown doesn't mind being overlooked. Though he has taken out two of the WEC's best -- Urijah Faber and Leonard Garcia -- and is the featherweight champion, he still faces questions about the legitimacy of his title. Even on Yahoo! Sports' pound-for-pound rankings, Faber holds the tenth spot. Brown does not appear in the rankings. So, did Brown get there by luck?

"I've been fighting world class guys for eight or nine years. I've gotten lucky 21 times now," Brown said.

True enough. Brown is ready to move forward, specifically to June 7, when he will defend his title against Urijah Faber. Brown is happy that the date, time and place has been finalized, but the opponent doesn't matter as much to him. He just wants to fight.

"To me it doesn't matter. I get motivated for every fight, no matter who it is. I get nervous that I'm going to lose. I hate losing, so I'm self-motivated that way," he said.

He feels that training with American Top Team gives him an advantage since they are so

Sunday's night's WEC 40 was dedicated to Tapout founder, Charles "Mask" Lewis, Jr., who was killed in a car accident earlier this year. His name was written on the upper bar of the cage, his Tapout cohorts kept an empty seat for him, and as shown below, a large group of fans wore a shirt in tribute to him. A tribute video was also shown that visibly moved Punkass and Skyskrape, the other members of the Tapout crew. It was quite jarring to see them as a duo, and not a trio.