ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

In the days before his 11th middleweight title defense, Anderson Silva spoke repeatedly of the monetary wealth he'd amassed during his UFC championship reign.

Holding the 185-pound belt for nearly seven years put Silva in position to become a multimillionaire -- his children will never know the economic struggles he experienced as a youth in Curitiba, Brazil. During each pre-UFC 162 interview, Silva smiled while struggling to find words to adequately describe his joy of being financially secure.

Silva is set for life monetarily. His belly is full and, as a result, it's possible he has lost some of the drive that made him a champion.

As we know, he would lose his middleweight title at UFC 162 when Chris Weidman knocked him out in the second round. And while Silva's presumed lack of hunger can't be singled out as the sole reason he lost, it was a contributing factor.

Silva's loss was monumental, sending shockwaves throughout the fighting world. It also put every single UFC champion on notice: Let your guard down and the same will likely happen to you.

Flyweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson was among those who got the message. He watched intensely as Silva dropped his hands, got touched on the chin by a Weidman left hook and fell to the canvas.

As Silva was getting pounded out, Johnson shook his head before immediately turning his attention back to July 27. That's when he puts his title on the line against John Moraga at UFC on Fox 8 in Seattle.

Johnson is a very talented fighter, just like Silva. But unlike the former middleweight champion, Johnson remains extremely hungry.

In order to satisfy his cravings, Johnson needs to make money and lots of it. And the best way to continue putting food on his table and keeping a roof over the head of his family -- Johnson's wife, Destiny, gave birth to the couple's first child [a boy] on Friday -- is to win fights.

He's in no mood to lose a fight inside the Octagon anytime soon.

"It is what it is. Anderson Silva played that game and it happened," Johnson told ESPN.com. "For me, I'm always motivated -- not only to keep the belt but to win my fights. I got into this sport to become champion and now I am a champion and now I'm on a mission to put money away for the rest of my life so I don't have to work anymore.

"That's where my head's at. In order to do that I have to train my butt off and, hopefully, go out there and win this fight. And stack my money up. I want to be champion for a long time, but the belt doesn't mean the world to me. It just means the world to me not to lose."

Johnson views Moraga as the latest of many obstacles he must overcome to achieve his long-term goal of financial security. He expects to retain his title, but isn't underestimating his challenger as Moraga is too talented to be overlooked.

"One of the things he brings that other fighters I've faced didn't is finishes in the flyweight division," Johnson said. "John Moraga is a tough opponent and he has a good set of skills. He brings good things to the table, but I've been fighting for pretty much a long time."

A major key to Johnson's success is being honest with himself. While most fighters refuse to admit looking beyond the bout in front of them, Johnson has no such inhibitions. He isn't shy when it comes to discussing future title defenses.

"I ask myself this all the time: If I get past John Moraga, who is next for [me]?" Johnson said. "My goal is that anybody who's in the UFC flyweight division must have a loss from me on their resume."

Thus far, Johnson (17-2-1) is off to a solid start. He has victories over several of the best UFC flyweights in UFC -- Ian McCall, Joseph Benavidez and John Dodson, who by the way, is the only fighter to hand Moraga a professional loss.

After a tough go of it during the opening two rounds on Jan. 26 in Chicago, Johnson rebounded to beat Dodson by unanimous decision and retain his title. It was Johnson's first title defense.

Dodson beat Moraga by unanimous decision in December 2010. But don't put too much stock in that fight when attempting to handicap Moraga's upcoming showdown with Johnson. Moraga has taken his skills to a higher level since falling to Dodson.

He's looked especially impressive in his two Octagon appearances -- knocking out Ulysses Gomez in the first round last August in his UFC debut, and submitting Chris Cariaso in the third round at UFC 155.

Moraga is 13-1, and ESPN.com currently ranks him fifth among flyweights. Whether standing or on the ground, Moraga poses a serious threat to Johnson -- and his goal of achieving financial wealth.

It's been a couple of years since Benson Henderson and his trainer, John Crouch, watched their 2010 WEC title loss to Anthony Pettis.

Henderson doesn't get "too tape happy" to begin with. He'll watch a fight once to find a feel for his opponent and be done with it. So in advance of the lightweights' Aug. 31 rematch in Milwaukee, Henderson may not even revisit the close decision and the Showtime kick. The truth is, he needs no refresher course on his only loss during 18 fights over the past six years. Lessons there to be learned, have been.

"I was able to man up and move on with my life," Henderson told ESPN.com on Wednesday. "It wasn't anything I was obsessing over. Now that we do get the chance to square off again and once I get my hands on him it's going to be a fun night for me. Let's put it that way."

The current UFC lightweight champion, seeking his fifth straight defense, is clear about where he could have done better the first time around. Outside of a few "stale moments" he classified his performance during one of the most dramatic title fights in Zuffa history as just "OK." Henderson and Crouch felt the effort in the cage that night was lackadaisical. In response, the trainer didn't ask his charge to get "mean," per se, but he wanted Henderson to be "more aggressive and try to have our way in the fight." Henderson, 27 at the time, stewed for a bit. He was quiet. Reflective. But also motivated.

"It would have been the same against anybody," said Crouch, who coaches out of The Lab in Glendale, Ariz. "He likes to compete. He hates to lose. He took it very hard."

Henderson's next appearance was his UFC debut. "As soon as we started in the UFC you could see the difference," Crouch said. "When he fought [Mark] Bocek, fought [Jim] Miller, fought [Clay] Guida, we were much more aggressive." Those wins set Henderson up for a title challenge against Frankie Edgar. All Henderson has done since is win, which considering his current status is the only thing he needs to do. Taking on Pettis is the next step. That's how Henderson and Crouch see it. Nothing more. Nothing less.

"When you've got the belt, every single person in this division wants to beat me up," Henderson said. "That's how it goes. It doesn't matter to me who my next defense is against. It's cool."

"It's the same thing for us," Crouch said. "It's going to be our fourth belt defense. We're gonna keep the belt for a while. It's just what we do."

If there's ever a good moment to fight Pettis, weeks removed from a knee injury that knocked him out of an Aug. 3 challenge of Jose Aldo, it would seem to be now. The 26-year-old challenger got the call after TJ Grant was concussed while training for his title shot. Pettis was in line for his own opportunity after the WEC win, but injuries derailed those plans and kept him out of action more than he’d like the past couple of years. In the meantime, the current champion strung together consistent performances against top-shelf competitors, including a squeaker in April over Gilbert Melendez.

"Benson has developed a whole bunch” since losing to Pettis, Crouch said. “You kind of overstate that with your own guy. I think he's better, but it's just part of the process."

Henderson has been pushed, prodded, and proven to be sharp. The challenger, spectacular yet sporadic.

The switch from Grant to Pettis is a "curveball," Henderson said, but nothing he hasn't dealt with in the past. And with five and a half weeks remaining until fight night, there's plenty of time for Henderson to properly prepare. The fact is Henderson had already cut down on the length of training camps because, Crouch said, "he works too hard and beats his body up.” Since they were just about to get in the gym to prepare for Grant, "timing is just fine," the trainer said.

Henderson sees the scenario in front of him as typical, which means there's no such thing as a perfect situation in MMA. At a minimum, Pettis is a guy with a chance, and that's all any fighter requires to pull off something special. This is how the lightweight champion processed Chris Weidman’s stunning victory over Anderson Silva: “The reason why we fight is that any given day the best can lose.”

Pettis, of course, is no long shot. Oddsmakers have pegged the challenger, who’s fighting in his hometown, as the slight favorite.

"It doesn't matter to me where it's at, who's it against, what hometown," Henderson said. "Bump all that noise. It doesn't matter to me. I'm going to beat him up. At the end of the night I'm going to get my hand raised."

One question I get just about every week on the Friday chat was some variation of this: Which UFC champion will fall first?

For the past year, it’s been easy to imagine that none of the current champions would ever lose again, given the state of the matchmaking. Not with Ronda Rousey fighting Liz Carmouche, and Georges St-Pierre fighting Nick Diaz, and Jon Jones fighting Chael Sonnen, and Anderson Silva fighting Stephan Bonnar with no belt in the balance, and Dominick Cruz not fighting at all.

With landslide favorites in these matchups, the answer was always Junior dos Santos. Heavyweights have never been good at holding on to the belt. Then it became Cain Velasquez, when he beat Dos Santos. That is, until Velasquez was resaddled with Antonio Silva, whose odds the second time were longer than his gangly reach. When that happened, the question of who would fall first came back around to its usual futility.

The real question was: Who would get Matt Serra’d first?

For the past year, it wasn’t that the UFC champions were being catered to and protected, so much as the matchmaking lacked imagination. Or the matchmaking had too much imagination, because it required the open-mindedness of our disposable income. There was not enough genuine threat, due to circumstances (injuries), limitations (shallow heavyweight division) and cash-out gimmickry (Sonnen). Aside from a few exceptions -- Gilbert Melendez versus Benson Henderson, say, or any Demetrious Johnson fight -- for a long time we had main events that looked and felt more like potboilers.

Just activity for the sake of activity, with low-flame drama.

Yet here we are in mid-2013, and a champion has fallen. Anderson Silva, the longest-tenured, most unthinkable of the titleholders with his 16-0 record in the UFC, lost to Chris Weidman spectacularly at UFC 162. There’d be no such thing as “eras” if they went on forever. Now the Silva era hinges on the rematch in December. How are those for stakes?

If that wasn't novel enough, after a long dry spell of pretenders getting shots on whims and shaking limbs, suddenly it looks as if Silva could be just the first domino to fall. Most of the title fights slated to take place in the second half of 2013 pits a challenger who looks and feels like an actual threat to the throne. Suddenly we can imagine a world where Johny Hendricks is posing for magazine articles with the belt slung over his shoulder, know what I mean?

Think about this: By the end of 2013, we might have recast our pantheon of UFC champions. Hendricks is a legitimate threat to St-Pierre. So is the barely talked about John Moraga over flyweight champion Johnson. Dos Santos could reclaim his title against Velasquez, just the same as Silva could reclaim his belt against Weidman. These fights are booked and happening (pending health).

Rousey will be the odds-on favorite to beat Miesha Tate, just as Jose Aldo will loom large over Chan Sung Jung -- but Anthony Pettis beat Benson Henderson once, what’s to say he can’t to it again at the end of August? Especially in his hometown of Milwaukee?

Romanticists might point to Alexander Gustafsson as a viable challenge to Jon Jones, but that one is more wait and see. Yet Gustafsson feels like Ares in there against Jones after fostering our collective beliefs for so long over Sonnen’s chances.

By the end of 2013, our pound-for-pound lists may become a weekly Etch-a-Sketch. This is how it was drawn up in the Ultimate Fighting Championship -- to stake the best fighters in the world against the people who the matchmakers think could beat them. That’s how this thing works best. Champions, after all, are made to be vulnerable.

And it’s refreshing to look over a slate of upcoming fights and genuinely have no idea how things are going to go. It’s better, when asked a question like "which UFC champion will fall first," to counter with: "A better question is -- which one will still be champion this time next year?"

Anthony Pettis could write a book about lost title shots in the UFC.

The time he let one slip through his fingers two years ago in a loss to Clay Guida, that one felt fast. It was a mistake on his part -- one he’s been paying for since.

“That was the fastest fight of my life,” Pettis told ESPN.com. “It was just one of those I didn’t get up for. All I kept thinking was, ‘I’m going to knock this guy out, and I’ll get my title shot.’

“Even during the fight, I thought I’d catch him in a triangle -- catch him somewhere. It just never happened.”

The last title opportunity that disappeared, against Jose Aldo for the featherweight title on Aug. 3, that one had a slow, demoralizing, heartbreaking feel to it.

In June, he flew to Rio de Janeiro to promote the proposed UFC 163 fight. On his last day there, he and light heavyweight Phil Davis decided to cram in a workout before flying home. While rolling, he felt his knee pop, but thought maybe it was nothing serious.

When it started to swell an hour into the long international flight, he knew better.

“It was so annoying, man,” Pettis said. “I could feel it getting bigger and bigger. I thought, ‘Damn, there it goes. There goes my title shot.’

“

They gave me Joe Lauzon; I knocked him out and was supposed to get a title shot. They gave me Donald Cerrone; I beat him and was promised a title shot. I'm not talking my way into shots.

” -- Anthony Pettis, on earning his title shot against Benson Henderson

“Phil Davis was on the plane, and he felt so bad. I was trying to act cool, telling him it was probably just a little sprain, but deep down I knew it was pretty serious.”

There have been others, of course. Pettis was supposed to fight for the UFC lightweight title in his promotional debut more than two years ago. In that time, the Guida loss, injuries and other circumstances have conspired against him.

Finally, it appears the cruel joke is over. Last weekend, Pettis replaced the injured TJ Grant in a title fight against Ben Henderson at UFC 164 on Aug. 31 in Milwaukee.

Despite everything he’s been through to get to this spot, some accuse Pettis of jumping in line. He asked for the shot against Aldo even though he’d never fought in that weight class before.

And his campaign for Grant’s spot in Milwaukee actually began before Grant injured himself -- and it rubbed some the wrong way. Grant had, after all, earned the opportunity as well, knocking out Gray Maynard in May.

Pettis (16-2), as you might imagine, is unapologetic of his calls for a title shot.

“If people really believe that, they need to go back and actually look at my career,” Pettis said. “See how I’ve fought when I didn’t have to fight. Even after I lost the Aldo fight, I was getting ready to fight Josh Thomson.

“They gave me Joe Lauzon; I knocked him out and was supposed to get a title shot. They gave me Donald Cerrone; I beat him and was promised a title shot. I’m not talking my way into shots.”

In addition to a UFC title fight, a rematch with Henderson has really always been in the cards for Pettis. Their first meeting, which Pettis won via unanimous decision in Henderson’s hometown of Phoenix, was the perfect ending in the WEC’s final event.

Henderson (19-2) has rattled off seven consecutive wins since the loss. He claimed the UFC title in February 2012 and already has posted three successful defenses.

In regard to the first Pettis fight in late 2010, Henderson has said numerous times he allowed the moment to affect his game plan. Instead of wrestling Pettis for 25 minutes, he got caught up in the idea of proving he could strike with him.

Pettis says that description is most likely influenced by what happened in his loss to Guida, when he was basically neutralized on his back for three rounds.

The notion that Pettis can’t handle elite wrestlers stuck with him after that loss, but he invites Henderson to go ahead and test it when the two meet for the second time.

“Uh, I think he saw the Guida fight and he’s saying the same thing everybody else said,” Pettis said. “Ben did what he wanted to do in the first fight, we went five rounds, we both had our moments and I got my hand raised.

“People say they can go in and ‘Guida’ me, but that’s not happening again.”

In January 2010, Marloes Coenen went into a featherweight bout against Cris Justino (then Cris Santos) convinced that her opponent was using illegal supplements.

A positive drug test by Justino nearly two years later in California did little to change Coenen’s mind. Thing is, though, she doesn’t care.

“When I was fighting her, I expected her to be on something,” Coenen told ESPN.com. “I know how I look and how hard I train and I know how she looks. But it’s up to the media and the fans to judge her. I’m not going to do that.”

No one can be certain whether Justino (11-1) benefited from any illegal substance leading to her third-round TKO win against Coenen -- except for Justino herself.

What we do know, for certain, is the former Strikeforce champion tested positive for stanozolol metabolites following a 16-second knockout over Hiroko Yamanaka on Dec. 17, 2011, in San Diego.

Justino claimed innocence, pointing to a diet pill given to her by a teammate as the source of the positive test. Despite her stance that she ingested the steroid unknowingly, the California commission suspended Justino for one year.

As Coenen (21-5) prepares to meet Justino for a second time in the main event of this weekend’s Invicta FC 6 event in Kansas City, isn’t she angry with her? Based on the belief Justino was cheating the first time they fought?

“Of course it makes you mad,” Coenen said. “The thing is, if you lose, you shouldn’t come up with excuses. It doesn’t matter how good your excuse is. You can’t say, ‘Oh I lost, but she’s on steroids.’ Well then don’t step in the cage, you know?

“If someone makes a mistake, you should give them a second chance -- and that’s what I’m giving her right now.”

Justino returned from suspension at Invicta FC 5 in April, finishing Fiona Muxlow in the first round via TKO. The inaugural Invicta 145-pound title will be on the line in her rematch against Coenen, but she still considers herself a champion, having never suffered a loss as the Strikeforce titleholder.

The one-year suspension and the negative connotations that come with a failed drug test, however, have been hard on the 27-year-old.

Ultimately, she says she’s been able to turn it into a positive for her career. In addition to finding out who her “real” friends were during the difficult time, she says she’s done seminars in Brazil to discourage kids from using performance-enhancing drugs.

“Bad things happen in your life but you learn something,” Justino said. “I learned a lot of things. I learned who my friends were -- who the good people behind me are.

“I have 1,000 kids training MMA in Brazil. Me and the other partners opened a big place in Brazil. I want to show the kids this sport can change your life and you can’t use drugs for training.”

The rematch will mark Invicta’s debut on cable and satellite pay-per-view. It’s the second time Coenen is set to headline a card for the promotion. She defeated Romy Ruyssen in the inaugural event in April 2012.

Coenen admits she’d like to avenge every loss of her career (she has actually avenged one) and is confident in her ability to make adjustments against Justino.

In the first meeting, Coenen says, she was caught off guard by the punching power of Justino. Way off guard.

“I don’t remember that much about the fight,” Coenen said. “The only thing I basically remember was that I had never been hit that hard in my life before.

“I didn’t have a good strength program for that fight. She really outpowered me with her strength. This time I did a really good strength and conditioning program. I will have to actually cut weight now. I know what’s headed toward me.”

Justino, who has never been involved in a rematch, says she’s held high respect for Coenen ever since their first bout, mostly because she is the only opponent ever to strongly request a second fight.

“She said it right after the fight,” Justino said. “I saw her in the lobby at the hotel and she told me -- she’s very friendly, very nice girl -- she wanted to fight me again. She said, ‘Before I retire, I will find you again.’ She is a true fighter.”

Unbeaten Chris Weidman did what some thought to have been the unthinkable by knocking out middleweight champion Anderson Silva on Saturday at UFC 162 in Las Vegas.

Weidman, 29, caught Silva, who had defended his title a UFC-record 11 times, leaning back with a short left hook and finished the job on the ground to score a stunning second-round knockout.

The Baldwin, N.Y., native and former two-time Division I All-American wrestler at Hofstra University visited ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., Thursday and took some time to answer our questions:

What did you do to celebrate after getting home from Saturday’s victory in Las Vegas?
I didn’t get to celebrate yet when I got home from Vegas -- it was right into media stuff for the UFC. I was in Vegas until Monday, but I got back early Tuesday morning and tried to get some sleep, which did not happen. It’s just been rock 'n' roll with the media. I can’t wait to get home and just lie down in my bed, hang out with the family and let it absorb a little bit.

Going back to your initial takedown of Anderson Silva in the first round, was that something you practiced countless hours specifically for him, or was it just muscle memory in the moment?
Yeah, muscle memory. It just happened. That specific takedown and the way I finished it, I don’t think I’ve done that once in sparring. I’ve wrestled my whole life and done that takedown a million times, but never in sparring [for this fight.] It was just natural feel.

Was there any one of Silva’s antics inside the Octagon that irritated you the most?
Just the excessiveness of it. I was just like, yo, you’re not punching me and I don’t know, like, bro … I mean if you could do all that, punch me in the face. I actually let him punch me in the face; there was one time where I just said, "hit me." He punched me [Weidman points to his chin] and I said, "hit me again." He punched me, and then I could hear my coaches yelling, “Wideman! Stop! Stop!” I’m like, all right, and I circled out. I was just like, bro, what are you doing? I’m laughing inside and saying, I’m winning the fight. It got to the point where I wanted to hit him, so it motivated me to put my hands on him.

Silva has long been considered the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in MMA. But who do you now consider to be No. 1 in the world?
I’m not a big rankings guy, to be honest with you. But I would say Georges St-Pierre or Jon Jones. One of those two, I think.

You debuted this week on our ESPN.com P4P list at No. 5 with Silva right ahead of you at No. 4. Do you feel like you have to beat him another time to disprove all the naysayers?
I expected that when I took this fight. I said I would beat him and that after I finish him, we’re going to have an immediate rematch at Madison Square Garden. That was the only part that I got wrong, the Madison Square Garden. So we are having a rematch and I understood that, no matter what I did to him. I did the impossible and knocked him out and there’s more naysayers than anything. But if I would have submitted him it probably would have been worse. No matter what I did out there, if I had decisioned him, no matter what I did, he’s known as the greatest of all time and people think that he’s unbeatable and are shocked that anyone could actually beat him. So they are going to come up with excuses.

You have probably already heard a lot of excuses since Saturday not giving you a lot of credit. So how motivated are you for a rematch?
I’m very motivated. I’m motivated without that. I get to fight him again, and I want to put on an even better performance.

There are obviously a lot of other athletes and entertainers that follow the UFC. Has there been any celebrity who has shocked you by coming out of the woodwork and contacting you?
Stone Cold Steve Austin. I thought that was cool. He direct messaged me on Twitter. First he wished me good luck. I had never met him before. But I thought that was pretty cool. He thinks I’m a badass apparently. So, I’m a big fan of his now.

We’ve read that your home was severely damaged during Hurricane Sandy and about the nonprofit work you have done to help rebuild the area. Tell us about that and about how you and your family have recovered?
We are about nine months out from Hurricane Sandy. The house is still not back to 100 percent. It’s still a mess. But we have recovered -- we are on the second floor. We are good and are happy with where we are at. Obviously this fight has helped us a lot. We might be moving out and getting a new house, we’ll see. As far as nonprofit, I worked with Theo Rossi from “Sons Of Anarachy” and [Dallas Cowboys running back] DeMarco Murray. It’s something Theo Rossi started called Staten Strong that I just kind of jumped on because I was affected. We work together to get some money together and help people. But honestly the biggest thing I did right after Hurricane Sandy was me and my wife set up a point where people could bring food and batteries and cleaning supplies. We had it through my social media where everyone brought it to our local church and we passed it out to different charities and helped a lot of people.

There are a lot of great nicknames, of course, in MMA. You are known as The All-American. How did you get that name?
When I started and first got to the MMA gym the guys would start and say, “You’re like the All-American kid.” It was because, I don’t know, I go to church every Sunday, I got married young and I’ve always been an All-American in college having gone All-American all four years [two years each at Nassau Community College and Hofstra]. They just started calling me it and that was really it.

Let’s talk about some other fighters in your division not named Anderson Silva whom you could potentially fight. We’ll start with Vitor Belfort. What are your thoughts about him?
Tough guy. I would say he’s the No. 1 contender right now. If I wasn’t fighting Anderson Silva in a rematch, I’d probably be fighting him.

What do you think about all of the controversy surrounding him about testosterone-replacement therapy, and what are your thoughts on TRT in general?
I don’t like it, to be honest with you. If your testosterone is low, man, that’s God telling you that you have low testosterone, and if you can’t train the right way or whatever it is, it’s time to retire and do something else. It’s a little unfair that you could be 38 years old and he definitely has higher testosterone than me. [Note: Belfort is actually 36.] I’m 29 and have decently low testosterone, but I would never take testosterone because you are stuck on that thing for your whole life. I would never want to be on TRT. And I feel fine, [having low testosterone] doesn’t bother me. So I can’t imagine these guys that are using it for performance reasons. I don’t like it, and I know California banned it recently although other commissions allow it. I don’t like it.

What are your thoughts on Michael Bisping?
Another tough guy. I would love to fight Bisping, to be honest with you. That would be a great fight for me.

How about Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza?
Really good jiu-jitsu, good standup. He’s another tough guy, I think. All of these guys would be great challenges, and I would really love to entertain them.

Of all the other fighters out there, who is the one you admire the most and why?
I really like Cain Velasquez. I like his pace that he puts on; he is mentally and physically breaking everybody he goes with. He’s just tenacious and relentless. I like Anderson Silva, too. I like his style. He’s very relaxed.

If Silva had won the fight against you, there was talk about possible superfights for Silva against either Jon Jones or Georges St-Pierre. Now that for the time being that’s not going to happen, would you ever consider a fight against either of those two guys?
Definitely not against GSP. First off, I would never call out someone who was a lot smaller than me. I’ve trained with him before, and he’s just a smaller guy. I’m not the type of guy who is going to be like, Hey, you want to fight? I’ve got Anderson Silva on my mind, but if the fans wanted to see that fight [against Jones] and the UFC wanted it to happen, I’m 1000 percent in. I asked to fight Jon Jones on 10 days’ notice back when Dan Henderson got hurt. But I wasn’t a big enough name at that point, so they were like, no.

With your wrestling background, what are your thoughts about the current state of Olympic wrestling?
It’s crazy that it’s even in question and up for voting. But it is, so it’s sad. I think wrestling is the one of the greatest sports there are. It’s the ultimate combat sport, and I just think it needs to be in the Olympics. I think the Olympics was made from wrestling and that it’s a staple. There just needs to be a lot of attention brought to it to keep it there.

Your goal has always been to be champion. Now that you have reached the pinnacle of your profession, how have you readjusted your goals?
My ultimate goal was always that I want to be known as one of the greatest of all time. The first step was obviously to be UFC champion. I did that, and now it’s time to take one fight at a time and really just set myself apart from the group. That’s my goal.

Opinions on why Anderson Silva lost his UFC middleweight title Saturday night to Chris Weidman continue to pour in.

Light heavyweight Jon Jones became the latest person to offer a take on the matter during Tuesday’s news conference in Toronto to promote his Sept. 21 title defense against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165.

“He’s got to the point where he really believes in his gift, and he abused his gift,” Jones said of Silva. “He disrespected the gift by disrespecting his opponent.

“He just got disrespectful and the war gods made him pay for it. He’s still that great Anderson Silva in my book.”

Watching the one mixed martial artist he looks up to go down in a heap remains difficult for Jones to accept. Upon reflection, however, Jones is using Silva’s demise as inspiration, and a personal warning, moving forward.

Jones (18-1) is determined not to let his success in the cage cause him to lose focus.

“It [Silva’s loss] actually motivates me a lot to watch somebody who I look up to lose,” Jones said. “It’s a reality check. I try to keep my ego in check when it comes to the fight game.

“Watching Anderson lose like that, first of all, it’s something I would never do: put my hands down and fight my opponent that way. But watching Chris Weidman’s dream come true, I have to make sure to be a dream crusher.”

Jones is expected to retain his title against Gustafsson; he’s considered too rangy, too talented and too strong. Now add a more focused Jones to the equation and a Gustafsson upset becomes less likely.

Despite being a prohibitive underdog, Gustafsson will receive the “very dangerous foe” treatment. And he should. Gustafsson has demonstrated steady improvement with each fight.

He is currently riding a six-fight win streak that has put him at or near the top of the 205-pound contender rankings. Gustafsson (15-1) is ranked third among light heavyweights by ESPN.com.

There was a long moment after Chris Weidman became the UFC’s new middleweight champion that Ed Soares, the longtime manager and friend of Anderson Silva, stood staring at the cage at MGM Grand. He looked devastated. Crestfallen. The empire he had lorded over had just crumbled before him, and just like that, it all became merely a dream. Only it was a dream that now belonged to somebody else.

It wasn’t just the fact of it happening, because Silva one day losing was a long enduring inevitability. We all knew at some point he’d fall. He wasn’t going to win forever.

It was the how.

Silva rolled out the red carpet for Weidman to come forward and touch his chin under the lights for everyone to see. Only thing Weidman could do was oblige. He wasn’t falling for the hocus-pocus like so many who went before him. He was bent on wresting that belt from Silva’s grip.

And he did just that.

In a sequence that will forever go down as one of the most bizarre, intense and humiliating in UFC history, the 38-year-old Silva dropped his hands and dodged bullets in the second round. The showman in him trusted his reflexes to steer clear of danger, as he’d done plenty of times before. He postured and egged the challenger on, and strafed Weidman with the occasional fast-twitch jab. “Come on,” he kept saying, waving Weidman in. Was he psyching Weidman out, or psyching himself up? Like Muhammad Ali, there’s no distinguishing between the two. UFC president Dana White later said all that was just “Silva being Silva.”

Yet everyone knows that Silva being Silva is more complicated than it should be. He is, after all, duplicitous. He pretended his knees buckled when a left rolled off his brow. Mockery. What he was saying was clear: “That’s all you got?”

Weidman, the intended target of the humiliation, kept forward.

Seconds later he clipped Silva, and down went the boogeyman of the division. Who’d have thought that Silva would cough up his belt to something as awkward as this: antics that backfired spectacularly. It wasn’t the way people imagined it might happen. Seven years of reign and myth all came down with him. The centerpiece to the “superfight” drama of the past couple of years went down, too. So did the stadium shows and a streak for the ages. Weidman cleared out the superfight division with an engraved left.

Everything else evaporated before our eyes. Like water.

So what do we make of the whole thing, a couple of days later? It’s open season for opinions.

Maybe it was hubris that caused the showboat to capsize. Maybe it was Weidman’s cool, his refusal to be baited into something dumb. Maybe Silva is finally his age, getting too old for adjectives such as “sublime.” Maybe he knows it. Maybe he knew Weidman was a greater threat the whole time, and was carrying self-doubt into the Octagon. Maybe the wig-out was pressure coming to the surface, or he was thinking about Roy Jones Jr. sitting cageside. Then again, maybe Weidman is just that good. Maybe Weidman never loses again, or he just has Silva’s number. Maybe he just got caught, as Mark Munoz said after the fight.

The plain fact is this: It was hubris that got Silva knocked out, and it’s hubris that will bring him back in. You think a champion of his ability and legacy is going to go out like that? No way. Moments after the fight, he said he had no pressing need for a rematch. That rare moment is no time to take a man at his word.

Wait until the whole thing sinks in. That he got clubbed after all but sending out an embossed invitation for Weidman to do it. That had he presented himself as a “ballet of violence,” as Joe Rogan once famously said, instead of a willing participant to his own downfall. That he could have run his streak to 17-0 in the UFC, and made Weidman look as green as they said he was.

No, it won’t take long for pride to report, even if Silva does take some time off. That might be what’s needed after suffering his first loss in 17 UFC fights. In the time it takes him to realize he wants his belt back, there will be a new landscape to think about. All of the guys who lost to Silva and had little chance of getting another shot at the belt have been reinvigorated overnight. The new sheriff has so little history. He barely has an ounce of Silva’s mystique -- even if he’s carrying that mystique around Long Island today in his back pocket.

One thing is certain, though. Silva losing has its own fascination. How does he respond? Does he come back in no-nonsense form like when he was downing Chris Leben and Rich Franklin? Or was UFC 162 the dreaded day that began Silva’s undoing?

These are all of the new narratives. And we’ll have to contemplate them along with Ed Soares until they come together again. When they do, it’ll be Silva who walks out first. And that in itself is very strange indeed.

After years of being the most dominant mixed martial artist in UFC history, Anderson Silva suffered defeat in the Octagon for the very first time Saturday night in Las Vegas. And he didn’t know how to handle it.

Chris Weidman knocked Silva out at 1:18 of the second round to become middleweight champion. Minutes after regaining his faculties, Silva was asked about a rematch.

“I won’t fight [again] for the belt,” Silva said. “I had the belt for a long time. I have 10 more fights [with UFC], but not [necessarily] for the belt.”

Considering the time and circumstances, Silva’s response should have been taken with a grain of salt. Within minutes of his initial statement he had softened his stance.

“First of all, we need to respect Chris Weidman,” Silva said during the UFC 162 postfight news conference. “He’s the champion; he won the fight. But right now I’m just thinking of going home. I want to be with my kids and take some time off. And maybe in three to four months think about what I am going to do. But right now I can’t really think about that [rematch]. I just want to take some time off and be alone to think about everything.”

There will be a rematch. Silva will demand it. At least Silva has given us a general time frame in which he is likely to tell UFC president Dana White it's OK to set it up.

Silva’s a great champion, and like great boxing champions who have suffered a major defeat, he’ll want to restore order in his universe.

But, for the first time in his illustrious fighting career, Silva finds himself at a crossroads. His back is against the wall -- his future as a fighter, and how he will be remembered, hinges on what happens in that rematch with Weidman.

There are only two scenarios that matter: He will defeat Weidman handily, proving that the loss Saturday night was a hiccup, a fluke that occurred due to his poor judgment; or he will lose two in a row for the first time. A draw does nothing for him.

Hall of Fame boxer Sugar Ray Leonard came face-to-face with this situation in November 1980, five months after Roberto Duran handed him the first loss of his pro career. Duran taunted the slightly favored Leonard throughout their 15-round affair and emerged on the favorable side of a closely contested unanimous decision.

The loss was extremely painful for Leonard, who shed tears afterward. It took weeks before Leonard was able to gather himself and announce that he was ready for a rematch. Leonard would give Duran a dose of his own humiliating medicine in their rematch. He toyed with the hard-hitting Duran, who became so frustrated by Leonard’s superior boxing that he quit in the middle of the ring during eighth-round action.

That was the "No Mas" fight. And Duran, one of the greatest boxers in the sport’s history, never fully regained his legendary status.

Leonard would go on to achieve even greater heights -- wins over Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler stand out. To this day, Leonard is regarded among the greatest boxers ever. This is the scenario Silva will seek to retain in his rematch with Weidman.

But a rematch with Weidman puts Silva in position to experience another loss and a slip in legendary standing. If that happens he might begin to be seen more like “Sugar” Shane Mosley than Ray Leonard. When his fighting days are over, Mosley will be voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. But he will never be in the same class as the elite; he will never be on Leonard’s level.

There was a time when Mosley appeared to be on his way toward entering the conversation for greatest of all time. He was a dominant fighter for many years, even beating Oscar De La Hoya by split decision (June 17, 2000) in a long-awaited, highly anticipated showdown of Southern California natives.

Mosley looked unbeatable after that win. But in January 2002, he put his WBC welterweight title on the line against Vernon Forrest. There wasn’t a lot of fanfare leading into the fight, though Forrest was unbeaten as a pro -- he actually beat Mosley during their amateur days.

Forrest also possessed a fighting style that gave Mosley fits. He hit Mosley repeatedly with a looping right hand en route to a unanimous decision.

The rematch, six months later, wasn’t much different: Forrest took it by unanimous decision.

As in the Mosley-Forrest matchups, Weidman has a fighting style that seems tailor-made to frustrate Silva. Those who picked Weidman to beat Silva on Saturday repeatedly cited his high-class wrestling, top-level jiu-jitsu and extreme confidence as keys. What few, if any, expected to see from Weidman was his punching power, solid head movement and straight left jab.

This aspect of Weidman’s game makes him an even more dangerous opponent in a rematch than the guy Silva faced Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena. But it’s the perfect opportunity for Silva to keep his label as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time.

No matter the outcome, Silva will always be regarded as a great champion. In this rematch, however, there is much more at stake for Silva than reclaiming the UFC middleweight title belt. He must win this fight, some might say convincingly, like Leonard did against Duran, to maintain his standing as the greatest mixed martial artist in the sport’s history.

But it won’t be easy. Weidman proved Saturday night that he is no one- or two-trick pony. Silva will need to be at his absolute best in the rematch, and even that might not be enough.

Fighters sometimes wade through boggy brains to find their words. When they do, we should know enough to receive them with skepticism. This is especially true following the sort of stunning defeat Anderson Silva suffered against Chris Weidman on Saturday, which is why I don’t expect he’ll cling to what he said.

After an uncorking, oxygen and time can impact fighters and wine alike. Silva, the finest vintage of them all, hadn't a chance to breathe when he expressed a perplexing disinterest in the belt he surrendered or the unbeaten New Yorker who just knocked “The Spider” from his web.

Instead, Silva expressed how tired he was of being champion. His time at the top was done. There would be no more high-stakes fights, despite recently signing a new 10-fight deal. This made people go crazy. To many ears, mine included, Silva’s reaction was off-kilter, an indelicate red as it were.

He was so deferential it came off as if he was abdicating the throne.

This is where tone confused people. The trouble was squaring Silva’s reaction with one befitting the sport’s pound-for-pound king. That designation is assigned for competitive dominance as much as overarching skill. Now the guy who ruled forever, the wizard and his ballet of violence, was picking up his ball and going home? Nuts.

Literally, it made people lose their minds. There were so many screams about a fix being in that Dana White was asked about it afterward. A savvy veteran fighter, who shall remain nameless, texted to tell me he thought something was “fishy.” I asked for specifics, but didn’t get a response.

Regardless, there’s no doubt that Silva spoke as if he was determined to leave Weidman in charge. In fact, he said so the week of the fight in an interview with Canadian reporter Joe Ferraro. Sarcastically but prophetically, Silva suggested the “perfect” outcome meant he'd no longer be a UFC titleholder. As for a rematch, which in a rare prefight statement White declared was automatically in play if Silva lost? A face was made suggesting a case of shingles would be more appealing.

Yet half an hour after picking himself up off the canvas, having taken time to breathe, Silva’s rematch repudiation had given ground to reason. At the postfight news conference, the 38-year-old magician conceded he needed time to figure it all out. Three to four months’ worth. He sought to reconnect with his family. He had to step away for a bit, he said. These were perfectly rational requests.

Silva should come to the conclusion that a rematch is the only decision worth making. Yes, the man’s legacy is set, however, it’s not done being written. If Silva declines to fight for the piece of hardware that came to define his career, that’ll be etched into his history, and as more than a footnote.

Silva devoted his life to martial arts. He should be excited to fight Weidman again. Finally. After all these years. A worthy challenger has emerged that didn’t require cloning, and he’s angling to do a series of, what, exhibitions?

The reality is Silva has two options at the moment: retire or rematch.

Who would have thought the middleweight icon needed reminding what it is to be a champion worthy of distinction?

Much has been made of his approach to the fight. Silva was more animated against Weidman than any opponent he faced before. Rather than go businesslike after the challenger the way he had against Chris Leben, or Dan Henderson, or Vitor Belfort, Silva hammed it up, attempting to rouse Weidman with showboating, hands-down, jelly-legged madness.

Silva essentially walked himself into a corner where he transformed from sitting champion to sitting duck. I imagine this will gnaw at him; his pride along with the money he can make with White will influence his return to championship fighting. Let’s hope it won’t be delayed by Silva’s desire to box Roy Jones Jr., who probably had flashbacks of his downfall as he saw history Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Or work on a movie, something he's currently involved in as part of a Kickstarter project. The longer Silva waits, the older he gets and the better Weidman will become.

When Silva chooses to fight, he should prepare for an MMA contest against the guy who just stopped him, not a meaningless boxing match that no one really cares about but him. As an undefeated champ, he had the leeway. Not so anymore. There would be more important things on his plate.

Silva has always fought on the edge. Playing it safe during the closing stretch of his career would be disappointing. He pushed himself to the precipice of safety and eventually took a tumble. If Silva chose to stand properly and defend himself, I think he still could be MMA's best middleweight. But that's only true if he agrees.

There's yet another reason he should embrace the rematch. The new champion, for all the niceties expressed about him, deserves a chance to prove his point. Fans should get to see Weidman make his case against the most dangerous version of The Spider. The tactical sharpshooter who smartly avoids opponents. Weidman deserves to fight the Anderson Silva who demolished Leben, Henderson, Nate Marquardt and Chael Sonnen. To his credit, the new champ wants that.

Don't you?

LAS VEGAS -- It’s commonly said that styles make fights. Chris Weidman has relied on the mantra for more than two years to convince anyone who’d listen that he possessed the style of fighting to unseat middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

And the more Weidman spoke of his skills, the more convincing he sounded.

But it’s one thing to talk the talk, another to walk the walk. Weidman didn’t just walk, he ran away from the Octagon on Saturday night as UFC middleweight champion.

The goal, however, isn’t close to being fulfilled. Lifting the belt from Silva is only part of Weidman’s goal. Weidman dares to be great.

And Weidman is the first to say, based on his performance inside MGM Grand Garden Arena at UFC 162, he is far from greatness.

“It’s crazy,” Weidman told ESPN.com. “I would think that at this point, I could sit back and relax. But instantly I’m hungry. I have to get better.

“I feel I didn’t look my best. So, I’m excited about going out there and to hold on to this belt for as long as I possibly can.”

It’s this attitude that gives Weidman a chance to achieve his ultimate goal. He isn’t satisfied with being the first man to defeat Silva in UFC competition.

When Weidman spoke of knowing he would defeat Silva, it wasn’t simply because of the favorable style matchup. Weidman believes he is the overall better fighter.

But anything short of successfully defending the middleweight belt for many years will be deemed a failure in his eyes. And Weidman has the skills to achieve his long-term goal.

His wrestling is second to none. His jujitsu is of the highest quality. And his striking game is much better than average. But more than anything, Weidman is improving in every one of these areas.

The next time he steps in the cage, when his title is put on the line, Weidman will be a better mixed martial artist than the one fans witnessed Saturday night. His best isn’t close to being realized.

And that’s why a rematch with Silva will be more intriguing. Silva has not been on the losing end of a fight in more than seven years -- and that setback was due to an illegal kick. Take that loss to Yushin Okamai in January 2006 out of the equation and you have to go back to 2004 to find his last true defeat.

It’s been a very long time since Silva has tasted defeat. He’d never suffered a loss in UFC -- until Saturday night.

So it’s wise to take his talk, inside the cage immediately after the loss, of not wanting a rematch with Weidman with a grain of salt. Besides, he was softening his stance minutes later.

“First of all, we need to respect Chris Weidman,” Silva said during the UFC 162 postfight news conference. “He’s the champion; he won the fight. But right now I’m just thinking of going home. I want to be with my kids and take some time off.

“And maybe in three to four months I will think about what I am going to do. But right now I can’t really think about that [rematch]. I just want to take some time off and be alone to think about everything.

“There was a lot of pressure in defending this title. I’ve defended it for a long time, so I just need some time to myself.”

Though he came up short Saturday night, the 38-year-old Silva showed no sign of slowing down. He was simply beaten by the better fighter – on this night at least.

Silva is still a great fighter who pulled out just about every trick in his MMA bag; Weidman just didn’t bite. If a rematch with Weidman is made, expect Silva to be even better.

But expect the same from the new UFC middleweight champion.

LAS VEGAS -- It was always likely Anderson Silva would eventually suffer a UFC loss.

Fighters stay in this game longer than they should. Even as age diminishes their skills, they continue to walk to the steel cage, wearing nothing but four-ounce gloves.

Eventually, age or the right opponent would catch up with Silva. On a stage that is this unpredictable, Silva’s 16-fight win streak already bordered on mythical.

We should have all been prepared for a Silva loss at some point -- but like this?

What happened at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday enthralled the crowd of 12,399 spectators who paid to see the greatest fighter of all time. Most likely, though, it also left them shaking their heads.

Chris Weidman, an undefeated 29-year-old wrestler, took Silva down in the first 30 seconds of the fight -- a bad sign for supporters of the Brazilian champion. The overwhelming belief was if Weidman did win, it would be on the floor.

But moments later, Silva got back to his feet and broke away. It was a major turning point in the fight, but not in the way many expected.

Immediately after that initial scramble back to the feet, Silva got weird. He dropped his hands or put them on his hips. He pointed to the floor and demanded Weidman come forward, even though Weidman never backed down.

After taking a punch from the challenger, he would laugh and sometimes yell at him. Weidman later said he didn’t think it was showboating from Silva. He’s fine to say that, but it was absolutely showboating from Silva.

The antics, combined with Weidman’s composure, cost Silva the first round -- but not yet the fight. If anything, it felt as though the early momentum Weidman captured with the takedown was gone.

But Silva kept it up in the second round. Added to it, actually. After Weidman hit him with a left hook, he dramatically wobbled on his feet as though he were hurt but still slipped Weidman’s next punches.

It was during that sequence, though, when Weidman landed a left hook that finished the fight and ended perhaps the greatest run the UFC will ever see.

Fair or not, there are two equal pieces to this story: The composure of Weidman. The ridiculousness of Silva.

UFC president Dana White didn't see it that way. To White, Silva’s behavior coincided with many of his past performances. The fight delivered drama, action. If a streak is going to end, you want to be entertained along the way.

“The fans came here to see a great fight,” White said. “They saw a pretty good fight tonight.

“My heart was in my stomach, my hands were sweating, my jacket is soaked. I almost fainted twice. I’d say it was a pretty damn good fight.”

It was, and maybe Silva owes us nothing. Maybe for all the moments his career has produced -- and they are countless -- this was a fitting end after all.

No one really knew what a Silva loss would feel like in the UFC. We’ve been waiting to see one for more than seven years. But for that exact reason, it should have felt different than this. It should have felt like something truly extraordinary, not a goofball move.

Truthfully, it robbed Weidman as much as anyone else, if not more. The kid from Long Island was doing terrific on his own, without Silva’s invitations to take free shots at him.

After the fight, Weidman said the win wasn’t cheapened in his mind due to Silva’s taunting. He, too, pointed out Silva has a past of acting this way.

“Anderson Silva has won a lot of his fights because of what he did [tonight],” Weidman said. “He knows exactly what he’s doing. I capitalized on it. A lot of other guys couldn’t. I’m not trying to take that away from myself.”

No one should -- Weidman earned the belt in Las Vegas -- but people will. When fans read that Silva’s hands were down, when they see the mockery in the faces he made, they’ll say it was more Silva’s foolishness that lost him the fight than Weidman.

On top of that, Silva said he has no interest in giving Weidman the opportunity to further legitimize the win, saying he had no interest in an immediate rematch.

Silva might be the greatest champion in UFC history, but he acted nothing like it in this fight. His first loss in the Octagon was always destined to be something special. In the end, the greatest way to describe it might be disappointing.

Stephan Bonnar shouldn't be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

I've said my piece about his inclusion on Saturday into the so-called Hall, and would prefer not to waste words on that again. (Abridged: Fighters with 8-7 records in the Octagon who happen to get caught twice using steroids make a mockery of the whole thing.)

Instead, let's examine the moment UFC president Dana White cites as justification for Bonnar's placement: his seminal war with Forrest Griffin at the first Ultimate Fighter finale, because if something is worth commemorating, it should be that.

"Nobody knows more than me how much that fight meant," White said at a media gathering Monday. "For us, that fight meant everything, and I never forget it."

White's not necessarily wrong. I covered the bout cage-side in 2005.

It was clear as it unfolded that the scene at the practice gym for UNLV men's basketball team was worth remembering. It felt like a coming of age for a sport and a company that was used to being maligned in all sorts of circles. Mainstream media wouldn't cover UFC at the time. Corporations weren't willing to align their established brands with what Zuffa wanted to do. While Pride dominated and Japan hosted most of the sport's biggest fights, uncertainty about the future of American MMA hung in the air.

This was the lead for my fight-night report on Sherdog.com: "What Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar did tonight -- when two men stand toe-to-toe, throwing punches and kicks and knees, trying to decapitate the other; when what happens in the ring trumps anything outside it; when two men lift a crowd to its feet in anticipation of something great … and then have that faith fulfilled -- this is the way it's supposed to be."

A few paragraphs later: "For the novices, the MMA neophytes who were introduced to the sport through Spike TV's 'The Ultimate Fighter,' they should now understand what these brave men are about. Even if they never watch another fight again, they'll think of this one at some point in their lives and a chill of the spine or a smile will result."

So it was perfectly reasonable for the mood among UFC brass after TUF 1's crescendo to be a potent mix of jubilation and relief. The reality show offered a reset, and Griffin-Bonnar cemented the idea that, taken at a fever pitch, UFC-branded MMA could and would motivate people to sit in front of their televisions. Thusly, it expedited a renewed TV deal between Zuffa and Spike (though you have to believe it would have happened regardless, considering the show's strong ratings). And soon enough it became the defining reference point for UFC's dramatic turnaround.

Presumably, people who watched Griffin and Bonnar slug it out enjoyed what they saw enough to at least give it another shot. Many, many more came aboard in subsequent years. There have been countless action-packed fights that captured a moment in the Octagon. But to hear White talk about it, there wouldn't have been a chance were it not for Griffin-Bonnar I. This seems a step too far. That's why White's argument in favor of Bonnar earning the promotion's highest honor doesn't work.

Let's start with the notion that Griffin-Bonnar I saved the sport. It didn't. Had it been a mediocre contest like the TUF 1 finale between Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian, do you buy the Zuffa empire crumbling before it began? Because I don't.

Remember, the following week Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture brought home TUF 1's true finale when they met in Las Vegas on pay-per-view.

Liddell's win prompted a series of major fights and blockbuster nights for the UFC.

The rematch between Liddell and Quinton Jackson garnered the kind of media coverage White prophesied, including for the first time on a large scale from ESPN. Jackson's stunning knockout allowed him to face Dan Henderson in a UFC-Pride title unification contest that scored over 5,000,000 viewers.

You're telling me it never happens if Griffin and Bonnar aren't bloody messes at the end of their 15 minutes together?

This is what White's selling. As the influential UFC president rests the fate of his beloved company on the shoulders of two men he inducts Saturday, he really should take more credit himself. Without that fight, White said this week, "I'd be over picking up cigarette butts from the parking lot at Palace Station and I'd be sleeping on the underpass at I-15." A great line, if you believe him.

There have been fights that, in the moment they happened, felt equally significant. For instance, well before Spike came along, UFC 40's main event between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock illustrated that with the right formula, White and the Fertittas could promote a product that works on pay-per-view, which to this day remains the promotion's bread-and-butter monetary vehicle.

White can try to convince the world that Zuffa's success is a direct result of Griffin-Bonnar I. This is nostalgic and nice, but it flies in the face of reality.

The rise of the UFC didn't stem from Spike TV agreeing to take Lorenzo Fertitta's money to air a reality show. It didn't come from American fans having the chance to watch MMA in a way they never could before.

It didn't come from two hard-nosed, hungry fighters who went blow for blow in an essential moment. It stems from a confluence of events, all worth remembering in one fashion or another.

Griffin and Bonnar opened eyes during a grand moment, true. Had they not, though, others would have.

LAS VEGAS -- There is no rematch clause in the fight contract between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, as far as anyone knows -- at least not officially.

Weidman has become a popular pick among the MMA community to hand Silva his first UFC loss at UFC 162 this weekend. Since signing with the promotion in 2006, Silva has won 16 consecutive fights, including 10 title defenses -- both records.

If that streak comes to an end at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, UFC president Dana White says an immediate second fight between the two is a done deal.

“The rematch is a no-brainer,” White said. “Should Anderson Silva lose his first ever in the UFC since 2006, you’re damn right we’ll do the rematch.

“If he loses on Saturday, you guys can go out and print: The rematch will happen. I don’t know what date, but it’s coming.”

Silva (33-4) signed a new 10-fight deal earlier this year. He's 38, so there is a strong possibility he'll never finish that deal, a scenario even White acknowledges.

At this stage in Silva’s career, White says, the middleweight champion is most interested in big-money fights. While an instant rematch with Weidman is guaranteed if Silva loses, the options open up considerably if he wins.

White and Silva have made no secret the top choice is welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. White initially wanted that fight booked in November, but St-Pierre opted to take a title defense against Johny Hendricks instead.

White says he’s tried to make Silva-versus-St-Pierre enough to say with confidence St-Pierre doesn’t want it.


“There’s no doubt about it. That’s a fact,” White said. “If that was the case, [St-Pierre] would say, 'I’ll take that fight. I think Weidman is going to beat him and I don’t want Weidman to have that fight. I want to beat him.'

“At the end of the day, [St-Pierre] weighs 170 pounds. If he weighed 185 pounds [middleweight] and felt that way, I’d be real pissed.”

Previously, White has hinted that any fight between champions would take place within a weight class with a title on the line, but he has since softened that stance, opening the door for a potential catchweight fight.

“It was always, for me, a pound-for-pound fight -- a huge legacy fight,” White said. “Who is the greatest of all time? They could both hold their titles. Georges St-Pierre could do this fight and still be the champ at 170.

“What’s crazy to me is St-Pierre opted to take a very dangerous fight at 170 without trying to take a dangerous fight at 185.”


Roy Jones attending UFC 162, still a Silva target

Amazing as it sounds, a nonsensical fight between Silva and former world champion boxer Roy Jones Jr. actually might have legs.

For years, Silva has publicly stated his desire to get in a boxing ring with Jones. In a recent interview with MMAjunkie.com, Silva said he’d actually prefer that fight to a UFC superfight against fellow champions St-Pierre or Jon Jones.

Picturing Silva getting into the ring with Roy Jones Jr., 44, is difficult. Silva’s UFC deal prevents him from doing so on his own. And certainly the promotion would never be interested in having it in the Octagon -- would it?

“Roy and I are talking,” White said Thursday. “Roy is coming here on Saturday.”

Jones, 56-8 as a professional boxer, hasn’t fought since a 10-round split-decision victory over Pawel Glazewski in June 2012. He serves as a commentator for HBO and has been involved with the camp of Canadian light heavyweight Jean Pascal.

In 2010, the UFC promoted a light heavyweight bout between Randy Couture and former world champion boxer James Toney at UFC 118. Toney was embarrassingly unprepared, losing via submission in the first round.

White wouldn’t go into details on what, if any, agreement might be reached to make Silva’s wish a reality. He acknowledged, though, how serious Silva is about it.

“It makes no sense to me,” White said. “These guys, when they grew up they had their heroes or whatever their deal is. It’s something they want to accomplish. This is something Anderson Silva wants to do.”


White says a Vitor Belfort rematch is a tough sell to Silva

Vitor Belfort, who likes to point out he doesn’t ask for fights, has asked for a fight.

This week via Twitter, Belfort sent a message to White requesting either Silva or Weidman, adding, "I deserve the winner!"

Belfort (23-10), who is on a four-fight winning streak in the 185-pound division, is unlikely to get his wish.

If Weidman wins, White already has said there will be an immediate rematch. If Silva wins, well, Belfort had his shot at that fight. It didn’t go well.

“The hard position Vitor is in, [Silva] went out and kicked him in the face in one of the most devastating knockouts of all time,” White said.

“So when you go back to Anderson Silva in the twilight of his career and say, ‘Hey, what about Vitor?’ ‘I annihilated Vitor. I want to fight other people.' "

White wouldn’t rule anything out when it comes to Belfort’s future, even adding, “I’m not saying Vitor can’t get the next shot or get a shot soon,” but in terms of what’s next in Silva’s career, it’s clear Belfort doesn’t top the list.

LAS VEGAS -- The buzz surrounding Chris Weidman heading into Saturday night's middleweight title bout against champion Anderson Silva at UFC 162 comes as no surprise.

We've watched, sometimes in amazement, as he has risen to the top of the 185-pound contender list with high-class jiu-jitsu, above-average striking and top-level wrestling. Weidman is an offensive guru, but he's equally adept on defense.

No matter where the fight is contested or whatever position he finds himself in, Weidman is always at ease. He never comes unglued. At no time in his nine-fight professional mixed martial career has Weidman lost his poise.

You can chalk it up to extreme confidence, as Weidman has been the definition of it at every step of his journey to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for Saturday's title fight.

But Weidman's confidence wasn't born in March when the title fight was officially announced. It began in 2008 when the fighter first started watching Silva compete.

That year, Silva successfully defended his middleweight title against Dan Henderson and Patrick Cote. In between, Silva took a brief vacation to light heavyweight where he knocked out James Irvin at 1:01 of the first round on July 19.

After watching each of those bouts, Weidman concluded that he could defeat Silva. It was only a matter of time.

Weidman had never trained in MMA or considered participating in the sport until he saw Silva perform in 2008. But Weidman knew that with hard work, dedication and proper training to go along with his natural athletic ability, intelligence and wrestling base he would one day unseat Silva as the UFC middleweight champion.

"If I didn't believe that I could beat [Silva], by watching him back then, I wouldn't have even gotten into this sport," Weidman told ESPN.com. "I envisioned fighting Anderson from day one. The only reason I started doing this was to be No. 1, and that's the case today. I'm excited that I got myself the opportunity to fight [Silva for a title] and to go out there and show everybody what I can do."

Every step in his mixed martial arts development -- his initial training session, his first pro fight against Reubem Lopes in February 2009 and his UFC debut against Alessio Sakara on March 3, 2011 -- prepared Weidman for victory Saturday night. The stars have lined up perfectly for him.

In a strange sort of way, it might appear that being UFC middleweight champion is his destiny. But just when it seemed the stars couldn't align any more perfectly, the unbeaten fighter received an additional dose of good fortune.

Weidman’s father, Charlie, will be in his corner for the first time ever as an amateur or professional. Weidman extended the offer on Father’s Day, and Charlie Weidman, with a huge smile on his face and tears in his eyes, accepted immediately.

"Having my dad out there brings another dynamic," Weidman said. "He's real spiritual. It's important for me to be spiritual, in the right place. He'll pray for me before I go out. And that's a huge part of me having an advantage going against Anderson Silva. [My father] has been driving me to wrestling camps and every match that I've had growing up, since second grade -- sitting in the stands. He's never been in my corner, even for wrestling. This is his first time.

"He's my biggest fan. This is a great thing for him too. It's like a lifetime dream"

A devout Christian, Charlie Weidman raised his children in the Lutheran Church. Chris Weidman has retained his strong Christian faith, though he now worships at a nondenominational church in his native Long Island, N.Y.

Should he become champion Saturday night, Weidman will rely on those Christian teachings to help him become a great role model. He believes that part of being a UFC titleholder is to lead by example.

"I want to be a humble champion," Weidman said. "I want to be a role model for kids. I want to give all the glory to God. There is a lot I want to do. Being the champion, you have a lot of responsibility to do good things. And I look forward to doing that."

The goodness that Charlie Weidman instilled in his son has proved to be unbreakable, and the elder Weidman's influence remains solid. It's why his inclusion in the corner was a no-brainer.

The addition of Charlie Weidman, however, comes on the heels of a big loss. Longtime coach Matt Serra has been on an emotional roller coaster throughout this training camp.

"I had blood clots," Serra said. "They found a blood clot in my lung and my biceps. I had to have surgery to remove my first rib. On top of all that, I ended up having my kid. All this was going on during [Weidman's] camp."

Serra's wife, Ann, gave birth to Sophia, the couple's third child, all girls, on June 8. Medical issues and his wife's pregnancy proved too much for the strong-willed Serra. He was unable to spend much time with Weidman during this camp.

While Serra wishes he could be on hand Saturday night to watch Weidman achieve his goal, he is comforted knowing that the timing is perfect for Charlie Weidman to make his corner debut.

"I feel very confident in Chris for this fight," Serra said. "He's got all the guys in his corner, Ray Longo for striking, John Danaher for the ground, jiu-jitsu, and I think it's nice that he got his father in there. It might be more important [having Charlie Weidman] than having me there right now. It will mean more for him, his spirit. It's a beautiful thing, having his father in the corner."

Throughout Weidman's pro career, it seems timing has always been on his side.

That's why Weidman is confident -- certain to be exact -- that Silva's time as UFC middleweight champion runs out Saturday night.