ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

Middleweight champion Anderson Silva will put his 17-fight winning streak on the line at UFC 162, when he defends his title for the 11th time against unbeaten Chris Weidman on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Here are the numbers you need to know for Saturday's card:

16: Wins for Silva inside the UFC Octagon. If he defeats Weidman, Silva will move into third place by himself on the all-time wins list. Silva will pass UFC Hall of Famers Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell.

13: Takedowns for Weidman in five UFC fights (2.6 per fight). Weidman has at least one takedown in all of his UFC fights. Silva has not been taken down in three of his last four fights, but allowed three to wrestlers Chael Sonnen (UFC 117) and Travis Lutter (UFC 67).

3.2: Both fighters land 3.2 significant strikes per minute, but Silva is by far the more accurate striker. The champion is accurate on 67 percent of his significant strikes, while Weidman's accuracy is just 43 percent. However, in each of their last fights, both men landed at least 70 percent of their significant strikes (Silva, 77 percent; Weidman, 70 percent).

9: If average fight time is any indication, this fight will be over around the final minute of Round 2. Weidman's average fight time is 8 minutes, 44 seconds while Silva's is 9:07. Four of Silva's title defenses have ended in the second round. Weidman finished Mark Munoz in Round 2 last July.

5: Years since a fighter from the Serra-Longo Fight Team has held UFC gold. Matt Serra defeated Georges St-Pierre for the UFC welterweight title in 2007 at UFC 69 before losing the title back to GSP at UFC 83 in 2008. Now, Weidman is trained by Serra and boxing coach Ray Longo.

360: Days since Weidman's last fight -- a July 2012 win over Munoz. It is the second longest layoff between fights in Weidman's career. He did not fight for 17 months before defeating Uriah Hall for the Ring of Combat middleweight title in 2010. Silva has not fought since last October when he defeated Stephan Bonnar in a light heavyweight fight.

7: Saturday will mark the first time in his last seven fights that Frankie Edgar is not the main event of a UFC card. His last non-main event fight was the TUF 10 finale in December 2009 against Matt Veach. That win over Veach also marks the last time Edgar was not in a UFC title fight (six lightweight title fights, one featherweight title fight from 2010-13).

3.7: Edgar's opponent Charles Oliveira attempts 3.7 submissions per 15 minutes, the 5th highest in UFC history. "Do Bronx" has four submission victories inside the UFC Octagon, including the first and only "calf slicer." Three of those four submissions won Oliveira a bonus for submission of the night. Edgar has never been submitted in 20 professional MMA fights.

6: Fight-of-the-night bonuses for Edgar, tying him with Chris Lytle for most in UFC history.

Since he first stepped into the Octagon seven years ago, picking Anderson Silva to lose has been a fool's errand.

Sixteen fights. Sixteen wins. A record.

The past 10 have been title defenses. Also a record.

In the UFC, Silva defeated every kind of fighter in all sorts of ways, and save for two decisions -- he looked bored to tears against Thales Leites and Demian Maia -- everyone was emphatically, sometimes preternaturally stopped. In fact, Silva, who turned 38 in April, hasn't had a competitive match go the distance since he went three rounds with "Lightning" Lee Murray in London in 2004.

Next in line Saturday night in Las Vegas at UFC 162 is 29-year-old American Chris Weidman. At the point Weidman made his entry into MMA, Silva had already defended the UFC middleweight belt thrice, finishing Nate Marquardt, Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson -- three of the most accomplished fighters in MMA over the past 10 years.

Weidman, by comparison, is just getting started. Yet many media, fans, trainers and fighters -- especially fighters -- have taken to speaking about the grappler from Long Island as if he's the truth, the answer and the man to end Silva's unprecedented reign.

Why? Well, a few reasons.

Mixed martial arts does not lend itself to such things as long unbeaten streaks, certainly not against the caliber of opposition Silva managed to dispatch in his time. Since the stinker against Maia in 2010, "The Spider" willed his way past bruised ribs and Chael Sonnen to score his most dramatic win, slammed a foot into Vitor Belfort's mouth and proved in a rematch that, when healthy, he's far superior to Sonnen, whose wrestling-heavy style was thought to be problematic for the long-legged Brazilian.

There were no signs of slowing, no fraying of accuracy and speed. Yet Silva, nearing 40, can't continue to do what he's done. He has to get old eventually. This is the thinking, at least.

Coupled with what Weidman appears capable of and you begin to get a sense for why the UFC sent out a press release on Monday touting no less than 18 fighters, including several current and former champions, engaging in the previously foolish game of picking against Silva.

"Anderson has shown one weakness -- he can be controlled on the ground by powerful wrestlers -- and Weidman is the most powerful wrestler there is in the division," said former heavyweight champion Frank Mir. "Everyone is making the comparison to Chael Sonnen, but while Chael controlled Anderson on the ground and landed shots, he couldn't hurt Anderson and that was his undoing. Weidman can hurt Anderson with ground-and-pound and he can submit Anderson."

True, when Weidman lands a punch or an elbow, it tends to be damaging. Moreover, where Sonnen succumbed several times to low submission IQ, Weidman appears acutely aware of where he is on the floor relative to his opponents.

So you have a potent grappler, with terrific top control, who can land thudding strikes on the floor. As Mir made clear, Weidman possesses all the makings of a terrible matchup for Silva.

On top of his strength, smarts and preparation, Weidman possesses the confidence of a man who has never tasted defeat in a cage.

This can be a powerful elixir.

But does any of it make him the toughest test of Silva's iconic career? Is Weidman more capable of beating Silva than Henderson? Than Belfort?

How can anyone possibly know based on Weidman's body of work, which one year ago added a destruction of Mark Munoz to the New Yorker's ledger? (It should be noted that Munoz was ravaged by injuries, and his reputation as a dominant MMA wrestler is belied by the takedown statistics.)

Silva has said he doesn't know, nor does he care, whether or not Weidman should be perceived as the greatest threat to this title. He has faced all comers and dispatched all comers, and this, appropriately, is his frame of reference for what happens in the Octagon.

Still, as the fight approaches, consensus seems to hold that Weidman possesses the antidote to Silva's venom. Silva's manager Ed Soares isn't clear why. Not after everything he's seen his fighter do in the cage. Perhaps, Soares said, Weidman is the "great white hope." And he would be within his rights to wonder that sort of thing. The promotion of mixed martial arts lends itself to hyperbole. To the grandiose. So many matchups and cards and events are the best. Until the next.

This train of thought does not include Silva. We know what he is, and what he has been for years.

"My concern is to better myself," Silva said. "My opponent doesn't matter. I want to overcome everything."

Because he has, at least in the UFC, which is where his reputation has been cemented, it's no stretch or hyperbole to call him the greatest of all-time.

"He's done things no one has done in this sport," Weidman said of Silva.

Nonetheless, Weidman's numerous skills and traits lend the challenger something beyond the air of hope against this type of monumental challenge. Hope is necessary, because without it he wouldn't have a shot. And on any given night, that's all a fighter needs.

It is being said that this is do-or-die time for Frankie Edgar, a must-win situation for his mixed martial arts career. Edgar, however, would beg to differ -- somewhat.

Currently riding a three-fight losing skid (all title bouts), Edgar is in serious need of a win. He will seek to right the ship Saturday night against crafty Charles Oliveira at UFC 162 in Las Vegas.

Is Edgar in a must-win situation? Sure. Is there weight on his shoulders? Yes. Is he feeling the pressure? No doubt. It all adds up to a sense of urgency.

But this sense of urgency is no different than what Edgar experiences before every bout. There was a sense of urgency on July 10, 2005, when he made his professional debut during an Underground Combat League fight in the Bronx, N.Y.

It was no different when Edgar faced Hermes Franca on July 19, 2008, at UFC Fight Night 14. Edgar stepped into the cage that evening for the first time with a blemish on his record -- Gray Maynard outmuscled him three months earlier en route to a unanimous decision.

Then there were the title bouts: two wins against legendary BJ Penn, a draw with and knockout of Maynard, and the current losing streak -- two very close lightweight affairs against Benson Henderson and one, the most recent setback, to featherweight champion Jose Aldo.

Whether a title is on the line or not, the sense of urgency Edgar feels remains the same.

This prefight adrenaline rush comes from Edgar’s unwavering desire to become or remain a champion. And the only way to achieve this goal is to win the fight immediately in front of him. Nothing else -- what took place before or what might happen afterward -- matters.

“Your next fight is always the most important, so for me everything is on the line,” Edgar told ESPN.com. “I’m very competitive and I want to win no matter what’s on the line.

“The fight’s on the line and that’s just as important to me as a title. I want to win this fight just as much as I want to win a title.”

Expect Edgar (15-4-1) to perform at his usual high level: precision striking, pinpoint takedowns, nonstop head movement and solid footwork. A three-fight losing skid has done nothing to diminish Edgar’s confidence, skills or work ethic.

This training camp has been as smooth as any before it. Edgar is feeling great heading into fight week. And with this camp being his second for a 145-pound contest, the weight cut proved easier – not that Edgar expressed having too much trouble making weight for his initial featherweight bout against Aldo.

“I’m a little more familiar on how to get my body down to featherweight,” Edgar said. “But I’m not cutting much weight at all.

“It doesn’t feel much different fighting at featherweight than it did at lightweight. I’m just a little stricter about what I’m putting in my body. Being it’s my second time doing this makes it a little easier.”

“

He's a dangerous opponent, long, rangy, with a diverse striking game and slick, slick submission game. There are no easy fights in UFC and I'm prepared [for Saturday].

” -- Frankie Edgar, on his UFC 162 opponent Charles Oliveira

Edgar was a diminutive lightweight; he’s an average-sized featherweight. Which begs the question, is a bantamweight title shot in his future? Edgar isn’t ready to make any promises, nor will he rule anything out. The same goes for a return to lightweight.

Edgar is keeping all options on the table. The only nonnegotiable issue is becoming champion again. It’s his driving force, the thing that prevents him from taking this nontitle bout Saturday night lightly, the reason Oliveira (16-3) will get the best Edgar imaginable.

Oliveira has won only two of his six most recent fights. His name won’t be found on any top-10 featherweight lists. But the former lightweight, who failed to make weight in his most recent fight, is a skilled fighter.

“He’s a dangerous opponent, long, rangy, with a diverse striking game and slick, slick submission game,” Edgar said of Oliveira. “There are no easy fights in UFC and I’m prepared.

“I’ve fought the best in my last seven fights, they were all title fights. I will be ready for Charles.”

A victory will shut the door on the most difficult stretch of Edgar’s professional career to date. It also could open the discussion about a possible rematch with Aldo.

Edgar, who is ranked 10th among all mixed martial artists by ESPN.com, suffered a unanimous decision loss Feb. 2 to Aldo at UFC 156. But Edgar gave the No. 4-ranked fighter all he could handle during the encounter. Nearly every round was closely contested.

Aldo has expressed interest in moving to lightweight after his Aug. 3 title defense against Chan Sung Jung at UFC 163 in Rio de Janeiro. Nothing is definitive at this time, but it appears Aldo is on his way out the featherweight door.

A rematch with Aldo isn’t currently at the top of Edgar’s priority list -- Oliveira occupies that spot, but it’s somewhere in the back of his mind. Whether Aldo competes at featherweight or lightweight, it doesn’t matter to Edgar, as long as a title is on the line.

“My goal is always to be the champion,” Edgar said. “I really haven’t thought about what might happen in this division or the lightweight division as things change. I’m just worried about getting back to my winning ways and put myself in position to fight for a title.

“I’d love to fight Aldo again for the title, but we’ll see what happens.”

LAS VEGAS -- In response to recent comments regarding low fighter pay, UFC president Dana White says the company is considering a change to its pay structure.

The primary change would do away with well-known “fight night” bonuses.

The UFC has issued “locker room bonuses” for years under Zuffa ownership that include cash bonuses for the top fight, knockout and submission of the night. Those bonuses are made public immediately after each event.

During a small luncheon with media members Monday, White announced he and UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta were considering cutting the bonuses in favor of raising the base pay for undercard athletes.

“Let’s do away with the bonuses,” White said. “You don’t like the structure? All right. We’ll pay the lower level guys more money and no more f---ing bonuses.

“Yeah, it could happen. That’s what I’m thinking about doing. All the lower level guys want their money boosted. That’s easy to do.”

Whether White is seriously considering cutting the bonuses, which typically range between $40,000 and $65,000, or making frustrated comments to the media is debatable.

White did downplay the significance of the recent criticisms of fighter pay, which have grown louder this year than in the past.

Now-retired lightweight John Cholish criticized the UFC pay structure following his last professional bout in May. The 29-year-old compiled an 8-3 record since 2007, including a 1-2 mark in the UFC, and claimed he actually lost money during his last bout with the company.

Welterweight Jon Fitch, who was released by the UFC earlier this year, posted a video outlining what the UFC paid him during his eight-year run in the Octagon. Most recently, middleweight Tim Kennedy, who fights this weekend at UFC 162, discussed the unknown costs fighters take on, adding he might make more money to “empty trash cans.” Kennedy later apologized for the comments on his Facebook page.

White believes after Cholish made his comments in May, the media have zeroed in on the topic and are asking fighters loaded questions. Using UFC 162 as an example, he stated the top fighters on the card are all being paid handsomely.

“Frankie Edgar is going to make a lot money this week,” White said. “Anderson Silva ... Chris Weidman is going to make a lot of money this week.

“No disrespect, but who gives a f--- about Tim Kennedy? Is he selling out venues? Are people buying tickets for Tim Kennedy? OK. There you go.”

White also stated fighters have no idea what back-end costs the UFC incurs, citing offices in Las Vegas, Toronto, London, Beijing and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“The bonuses is something we’ve been doing out of the kindness of our hearts,” White said. “It’s not something that’s ever been structured. It was something we liked to do. We thought it was a cool thing to do.

“Apparently, people don’t like it. They want the lower level guys to make more money.”

The shortest fight of Cub Swanson’s career is proving to have the longest-lasting effect.

This weekend will mark the four-year anniversary of a first-round knockout loss Swanson suffered to current UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. The fight, which took place at a WEC event in Sacramento, lasted eight seconds.

Describing it is pretty easy. The referee got out of the way and Aldo connected on a flying knee. That’s it. As Swanson puts it, “It felt like he cracked me in the face with a baseball bat.”

Swanson (19-5), who fights Dennis Siver at UFC 162 this weekend in Las Vegas, has obviously moved past the loss by now. Unfortunately, certain fans have not.

“It gets brought up to me all the time,” Swanson told ESPN.com. “People won’t let me forget it. I’ve heard it a million times.

“I wish they were clever about it. So much time has passed that I would laugh about it, but people are so lame. I’ll be like [on Twitter], ‘I went to the store today and this happened,’ -- something funny. Then somebody will go, ‘Like the time you got kneed in the face in eight seconds?’ It’s like, ‘Yeah, buddy. Exactly.’”

What’s ironic about that is Swanson says the fans were the first thing he thought of when the fight went the way it did.

The featherweight bout was the co-main event that night in Sacramento, and Swanson knew it promised fireworks. Other fighters who had trained with both Aldo and Swanson knew it, too.

“We trained with a few similar people, and they were like, ‘You guys are identical athletes,’” Swanson said. “We both played soccer. We both like to throw. We’re good at jiu-jitsu but would rather use our hands.

“When we squared off, we were exactly the same height and same build. There was a lot of hype on him and I was kind of hit or miss, but they knew if I showed up it would be a hell of a fight.”

Well, Swanson didn’t show up -- or Aldo just threw the perfect strike. However you look at it, the fight was over before it started, and that bothered Swanson like crazy.

“I went to the hospital that night to get my face stitched up and all I could think about was, 'I owe the fans a fight.' That could have been a legendary fight in the WEC, and I didn’t approach it right.”

If Swanson continues to perform as he has in the past 18 months, he’ll get a second shot at that fight.

At 29, Swanson appears to have hit his groove. He’ll take a four-fight win streak into the cage against Siver. The streak includes knockout wins over George Roop, Ross Pearson and Charles Oliveira.

One could argue the UFC hasn’t really rewarded Swanson for his success. Despite the fact he finished Oliveira in the first round eight months ago, the Brazilian’s fight against Frankie Edgar will be featured above Swanson’s this weekend at UFC 162.

When Swanson agreed to the Siver fight months ago, he told the UFC to keep him in mind if anything happened at 145 pounds. Injuries happen. He assured them he would be ready to step into a higher-ranked bout on short notice.

When Anthony Pettis withdrew with injury from a title fight against Aldo scheduled for August, Swanson and his team picked up the phone, optimistic he had just landed a bigger fight.

“I had told them if Aldo, Pettis, [Ricardo] Lamas or [Chan Sung Jung] falls off, I want to be bumped up,” Swanson said. “They laughed and said they’d cross that road when it comes up. When it did come up, we put in a call. They said, ‘We’re going to leave things the way they are.’”

The UFC ended up booking Jung to the title fight and dropping Lamas, who was scheduled to fight him at UFC 162, from this weekend’s card.

Swanson says he was disappointed by the decision, especially the one that granted Jung a title fight, but he’s content with his original opponent.

Time, after all, is relative. One bad moment four years ago has come to define much of Swanson’s career. Who’s to say one good moment in this fight won’t do the same?

“In my mind, I’m always one win away from a title,” Swanson said. “If I fight that fight that makes everybody go, ‘Wow, he’s unstoppable,’ -- that’s all I can do.

“I think I do pose the biggest threat to Aldo. I feel like my boxing is better than his. He’s a kick boxer, with devastating kicks. Neither one of us cares to take it to the ground. I feel with my unpredictability and my boxing, I pose a big threat to him.”

"Anything can happen in mixed martial arts." -- They.

You know, I agree -- four-ounce gloves and such -- and we've certainly been surprised here and there this year by MMA, but hasn't it also been somewhat ... predictable so far?

It's as if even some of the unpredictable stuff was pretty predictable.

If a friend had told you at the start of the year, "Antonio Silva will knock Alistair Overeem out cold, but only after 'The Reem' techno dances to the Octagon and gasses in the second round," wouldn’t at least part of you have thought it made sense?

What about: "Nick Diaz will accuse Georges St-Pierre of steroid use, get outwrestled for five rounds, admit tax evasion, retire and start his own promotion branded WAR." (You nodding). "Yeah, that actually sounds about right."

On that note, let's call some shots for the rest of the year. The key here might be as simple as, "don't think too much." Just let them fly.

Fighter of the Year: Johny Hendricks. Thanks to a knockout victory over St-Pierre in the UFC's biggest card of the year. All the unfair criticism St-Pierre gets for not finishing fights will actually work against him here. Biggest concern for this prediction is Hendricks might actually want it too much, which can make a fighter gas early. Nevertheless, Hendricks in Round 3 or 4.

By the way, Hendricks barely squeaks by Jon Jones and Anthony Pettis for the award. Jones is in "clean your division" land. He beats Alexander Gustafsson and another top contender (not Daniel Cormier) to cap a superb year, but not enough to dethrone Johny. Pettis, meanwhile, gets in the cage in Milwaukee, stares down Ben Henderson after he narrowly decisions T.J. Grant, then takes the belt late in the year.

Breakout Fighter of the Year: So many candidates. In the end, it's a four-victory year that seals the deal for Ronaldo Souza. He already has two first-round finishes over UFC-caliber competition. He beats Yushin Okami in September, comes out unscathed and requests a spot on the New Year's show. Hashtag: Alligator crawl.

Leading the honorable mentions, welterweight Erick Silva. A matchup against Rory MacDonald, win or lose against Jake Ellenberger in July, would be top-shelf, but he draws a "fading veteran" type of fight instead.

Also in the running: Michael McDonald, who beats Brad Pickett in August, then fights Urijah Faber by the end of the year. Josh Thomson, who wins one more high-profile fight and posts at least 17 more dumb things to his Twitter account. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Gunnar Nelson, Cub Swanson and Stipe Miocic.

Comeback Fighter of the Year: You know what? I said I wasn't going to think too much and just roll with the first thought. So let's do it: Dominick Cruz. Cruz is the kind of guy you picture shadow boxing while brushing his teeth. Nobody in the UFC wants to sign a fight right now more. People are talking about how good Renan Barao is and wondering how Cruz will look after so much time off. But if there's one guy who comes back before we think he will and looks better than we expect him to, it's lil' DC.

Free-Falling Fighter of the Year: The award you don't want to win. Don't be mad Hector Lombard, but looking at you on this one. The move to welterweight will not do what it did for Demian Maia. The cut itself doesn't figure to be an easy one. Lombard doesn't have a huge frame but it looks like he's just a naturally stocky guy. On top of that, his current problem has nothing to do with a need to be the bigger guy in the Octagon. If anything, speedier opponents will make him look worse.

Fight of the Year: Impossible to predict, but these already announced bouts look pretty good: Andrew Craig vs. Chris Leben, Ellenberger vs. MacDonald, Thiago Alves vs. Matt Brown, Henderson vs. Grant, Clay Guida vs. Chad Mendes, Erik Koch vs. Dustin Poirier, Tim Elliott vs. Louis Gaudinot, Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos III.

Six months remain until the 2013 mixed martial arts year officially concludes, but already several knockouts have left lasting impressions.

While some have been more devastating than others, timing and circumstance also are significant factors in determining which knockouts stand out from the pack. And none stands out more than middleweight contender Vitor Belfort’s spinning heel kick on May 18 that finished Strikeforce titleholder Luke Rockhold at UFC on FX 8.

The strike was quick, precise and unexpected. After it connected, Rockhold was on his way to sleep before absorbing a few more of Belfort’s punches, which forced referee Leon Roberts to stop the assault at 2:32 of the first round.

The knockout was so impressive that ESPN.com voted it the best of 2013 thus far.

Rockhold had no chance of defending himself; he didn’t see the head-rattling strike coming. It caught Rockhold just under his left ear. The kick, which likely will be talked about throughout this year and many more to come, was a thing of beauty.

In fact, everything about Belfort that evening was beautiful. His body was chiseled, there was that nostalgic sparkle in his eyes and he exuded an extremely high level of confidence that hadn’t been seen in a long time. Belfort was going to leave to Octagon victorious, and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind about it. The 36-year-old Belfort appeared to have found the fountain of youth: His hand speed and reflexes conjured up images of the 19-year-old “Phenom” who knocked out Tank Abbott in 59 seconds at UFC 13 in May 1997.

These images, however, are the reason this knockout will struggle to retain its top spot at the end of 2013. Heading into the bout, Rockhold repeatedly raised concerns about Belfort’s reliance on testosterone replacement therapy. The topic hovered over this bout like a toxic cloud and fueled hostility between the fighters.

“I don’t necessarily trust him. And I don’t necessarily trust the system,” Rockhold said before the fight. “Do I think he’s cheating? Yes, I do.

“He definitely looks bigger than I’ve normally seen him. If you see the comparisons versus back when he fought Anderson Silva to now, [and] the Jon Jones fight, he put on some serious muscle mass.”

With Belfort’s previous positive test for elevated testosterone levels and the fight taking place in his native Brazil, where questions abound regarding the lack of stringent drug-testing, Rockhold’s concerns seemed reasonable. The outcome only increased suspicion.

But until proven otherwise, Belfort is presumed innocent. And his knockout of Rockhold is the best midway through 2013.

The knockout secured Belfort’s place among the top two 185-pound contenders. He is likely first in line to face the Silva-Chris Weidman winner -- which takes place July 6 in Las Vegas.

But cries have already begun for Belfort’s next fight to be held in the United States. Each fight he has participated in this year has been in Brazil. Belfort won both fights by knockout -- perennial contender Michael Bisping went down in the second round Jan. 19. And yes, Belfort looked physically ripped in that fight.

Belfort didn’t simply beat Bisping and Rockhold; he stopped them with punishing knockouts. It’s hard to imagine any middleweight surviving the strikes Belfort delivered in those two fights.

To begin erasing doubts about the validity of his recent performances, Belfort must prove his resurgence isn’t the result of having a home-field advantage. He must show off his renewed speed, cardio and physical physique under the Association of Boxing Commission’s closely monitored therapeutic-use-exemption guidelines. Otherwise, the doubts will escalate.

---

Other notable knockouts:

No. 2: Emanuel Newton KO1 Muhammed Lawal: Bellator 90 (Feb. 21). Newton’s spinning back fist that knocked out former Strikeforce light heavyweight titleholder and huge pre-fight favorite “King Mo” Lawal was a thing of beauty.

No. 3: Antonio Silva KO3 Alistair Overeem: UFC 156 (Feb. 2). “Bigfoot” Silva earned a rematch and title shot against Cain Velasquez with an impressive third-round stoppage of top contender Alistair Overeem.

No. 4: Muhammed Lawal KO1 Seth Petruzelli: Bellator 96 (June 19). Lawal makes his second appearance on the KO list, but as the winner this time. His first-round knockout of Seth Petruzelli was about as brutal as they come.

No. 5: Mark Hunt KO3 Stefan Struve: UFC on Fuel 8 (March 2). Stefan Struve suffered a broken jaw and a hit to his title contendership at the heavy hands of Mark Hunt.

If, for the next few minutes, you can envision Anderson Silva as an artist, please do. I don't mean simply as it pertains to his skill in the cage. I'm talking a Pablo Picasso-type, in that odds are slim we’ll get to see another man inspired enough to do what he does.

This is how I regard the UFC middleweight champion, especially during the past few years.

Silva is far more than a record setter. More, still, than a magician executing Joe Rogan's proverbial “ballet of violence.” Listening to Silva during a conference call Tuesday promoting his UFC 162 title defense against Chris Weidman in Las Vegas only reaffirmed my view. And it seems to me that I see him this way because this is how he wishes to be seen.

"I've been doing this since I was 8 years old," Silva said. "There's always new challenges, there's always new things. My biggest concern is going out there and doing better for myself. I'm not concerned about what my opponents do. I want to better myself and I want to overcome anything that I have."

"Win or lose, I’ve already done everything there is to do," he added later. "Now it’s just a matter of doing what I love to do.”

Some people have interpreted this, then, as the moment in Silva's career when contentment meets complacency. I don't think so, and by the sound of things, neither does he. Same goes for his closest associates, who while admitting success has, at times, made Silva difficult to deal with, are quick to note the pureness with which he goes about his art remains unspoiled. The best artists create as part of a process of expression, and if this isn't an apt lens through which to view what Silva does, I don't know what would be.

Silva isn’t so far from 40. He obviously found his stride in life. He comes across as a man at ease -- with himself, with his circumstances, with his accomplishments and whatever else comes his way. His art is more than skill, of course. It includes will, which we saw when he outlasted Chael Sonnen in 2010, as well as the ability to top even the highest expectations.

Because of the tapestry of his mixed martial arts game, Silva has reached a status that means not only will he be asked about real world events, his answers can resonate. For most athletes, this is cliche time. Not Silva, who took several queries on the massive protests that have rocked Brazil. As straightforward as he could be, Silva weaved clear, concise and considerate answers. Asked if he would take a more activist role with his countrymen after fighting Weidman on July 6, as some Brazilian fighters already have, including UFC champ Jose Aldo, Silva said he would not.

He can’t be all things to all people -- not even he can pull that off -- and he knows enough to say so.

Artist will have to be good enough.

A trend afoot?

In January 2012, when ESPN took a look at fighter pay in the UFC, we didn’t speak with a fighter on the promotion’s roster at the time who was willing to be identified while discussing money and fighting in the Octagon.

I can tell you this: From a reporter’s perspective, it would have made a difference to the perception of the piece had a fighter gone on record, as Tim Kennedy did recently. Speaking to the GrappleTalk podcast, Kennedy claimed if he won and earned $70,000, he’d pocket around $20,000, before taxes. Kennedy broke down where his money went, to whom, and how much.

For anyone unfamiliar with the idea that fighters in the UFC are independent contractors who come out of pocket for training camps -- trainers, sparring partners, massage therapists (if you're lucky) all need to get paid -- the thought of $70,000 actually being $20,000 must seem crazy. And this is Kennedy's main point: You have to be nuts to do this, because the economics aren't favorable, even for quality fighters such as him.

In May, John Cholish and Jacob Volkmann separately voiced displeasure with the UFC pay scale after they were released from Zuffa. Should we take their words and label them disgruntled UFC washouts? Dana White did. Or should a trickling stream lead one to believe there's a larger pool of aggravation out there?

Based on what fighters told us under the condition of anonymity last year, and what they're beginning to air in public with names attached, it's safe to say the issue lingers.

It should be noted that not all the money talk is aimed negatively at the UFC. Chris Camozzi took his fellow UFC fighters to task for accepting lowball offers from sponsors.

"Fighters and managers want to talk about how unionizing the sport is what’s needed," Camozzi wrote on his blog in March. "Truth is they are just being lazy and want rules and third parties to set a baseline that they should be working to increase at every opportunity. What product has been commoditized faster than the UFC athlete sponsorship?

"Everyone [complains] about fighter pay, yet if it wasn’t for the pay from the promotion fighters would be broke. Yet the sponsors depend on us fans. The UFC built the popularity, built the platform and allows us to sell ourselves from the platform.

"We have a lot to be proud of, the UFC is a HUGE platform that exudes value. Just say no and watch the sponsors pay more. I did. I will take the first stand. I left money on the table, money I need. I did it for you, will you do it for me? Stop lowering the bar, these brands need to be in these events. They paid five to seven figures for PERMISSION to advertise on us, shouldn’t the ads be worth more? If permission is worth $15,000 per fighter than the actual ad is worth what?"

So is it a trend? I'm inclined to say it's too soon to know whether a trickle will become a flood. Nonetheless, it's clear more fighters are speaking openly about their money than they ever have before.

In a tizzy

This week has seen its share of not-so-friendly confrontations in the MMA world.

UFC president Dana White went after Bellator MMA and its ownership, media company Viacom. Jason “Mayhem” Miller excoriated White on Twitter, essentially blaming the colorful promoter for yet another failed effort to bring the sport to New York. And, there was a relatively harmless back-and-forth between Matt Mitrione and Brendan Schaub, also on Twitter, ahead of their fight on July 27.

White’s take regarding Bellator MMA, as told to MMAjunkie.com, was the most interesting because it offered another glimpse at how the UFC figurehead fires himself up.

As for the crux of his take on Bellator and Viacom: They’re late to the game and will never believe in the sport the way White and his team do. So (in his eyes, at least), they’re not worthy. Nothing new, but he’s consistent.

White is at his best in a whirlpool. He draws energy from skirmishes -- always has. It’s comforting, in a way, to know that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Josh Burkman thought that guillotining Jon Fitch would be too risky to try.

So when he faced Fitch on June 14 at World Series of Fighting 3, Burkman made it part of his game plan to avoid using one of the first chokes learned by Brazilian jiu-jitsu white belts. He thought of it like this: Attempting to catch a guy with a reputation for being impossible to choke out and giving a guy who loves top position ... well, top position wouldn't be the best way to win their rematch.

A snapshot at the end of the fight says differently, of course. Considering the contest lasted only 41 seconds, with Burkman on the bottom and Fitch caught in a guillotine, you could say the plan went astray. Understandable, really, after seeing Fitch laid forcibly unconscious on the mat.

"A technical submission over Jon Fitch was definitely not what I was thinking how I would win this fight," Burkman said after being told his finish ranked atop ESPN.com's best submission list from the first half of 2013.

When he looked back on it a couple of weeks later, after the controversy surrounding referee Steve Mazzagatti's (in)actions subsided, the consequences of the victory hit home for Burkman.

"A win over Jon Fitch, in the way that I did it, helps me believe in myself and this comeback," he said. "I think my best years are ahead of me. I've been saying that for about a year and a half."

The 32-year-old Burkman won his fifth straight match and eight of nine since 2009, when he parted ways with the UFC after three years fighting in the Octagon.

One contest before signing on for the second season of "The Ultimate Fighter," Burkman was strangled cold by Jeremy Horn. “It happens in our sport,” Burkman said. However, the finish was controversial at the time because Horn spit on Burkman immediately afterward -- a reminder that when you’re out, there’s no such thing as defense.

Getting choked cold isn't easily forgotten, never mind the indignity that comes with being spit upon. Burkman responded by making the ins and outs of guillotines a strength. Eight years after the Horn loss, just a week before meeting Fitch in the main event of WSOF3, Burkman was in the gym training a couple of guys seeking insight into finishing guillotines. They particularly wanted to work on tightening up the hold at the finish.

This proved fortuitous. "So the lesson there is help others because it helps yourself," Burkman said with a laugh while driving home to Utah after a family vacation.

He may not have wanted to submit Fitch the way he was about to, but Burkman recognized the end of the fight when he saw it. The instant the determination was made to go to his back, Burkman knew he could finish the fight.

"I felt him make one last-ditch effort to get out of it, and when he did that, right after he got done, I tightened it and I felt him go limp," Burkman said. "I knew he was out. I double-checked. For me, I just wanted to let everyone know the fight was over because I knew that nobody knew yet -- especially if the referee is still standing up over you."

The point of a submission choke is to prevent sufficient blood from reaching the brain, which induces it to shut down critical functions. Referees are supposed be aware of this and watch closely, because the longer a brain goes without blood, the likelier it is to be traumatized. Mazzagatti didn't move to separate the welterweights, so Burkman released, rolled Fitch off him and stood with a loud exhale.

"I don't think there's anything quite like a knockout,” Burkman said. “But there's something about this choke that's the highlight of my career. I was glad the referee didn't step in and I was able to get up and celebrate the way I wanted to. As a fighter and mixed martial artist, you're trying to prove you can stop a guy, that your style of fighting is better than theirs. And any time you can put another person out cold, then you have definitively proved you were the better man on that day."

---

The next best:

No. 2: Kenny Robertson SUB1 via kneebar Brock Jardine: UFC 157 (Feb. 23). Officially it's listed as a kneebar, but this needs updating. Robertson nearly snapped off Jardine's hamstring with this unique finish.

No. 3: Ronda Rousey SUB1 via armbar Liz Carmouche: UFC 157 (Feb. 23). Ho-hum, another armbar for Rousey? No, not if you consider how deftly she negotiated her way to the arm. This was a pure finish for the UFC champion.

No. 4: Pat Healy SUB2 via rear-naked choke Jim Miller: UFC 159 (April 27). Although a postfight drug test for marijuana overturned the result, Healy beat the hell out of Miller before finishing him with an angry hand-to-hand rear-naked choke.

No. 5: Fabricio Werdum SUB2 via armbar Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: UFC on Fuel 10 (June 8). Circumstances matter more than skill sometimes, and Werdum's verbal armbar submission over Nogueira in Brazil certainly qualifies.

A year ago at this time, TJ Grant had just earned a yeoman’s decision over Carlo Prater, to the attention of almost nobody. He was 2-0 since moving down to the lightweight division, but there was a colony of contenders well ahead of him in what had become the UFC’s most competitive weight class.

That’s when the pride of Nova Scotia began crashing through all the obstacles in his way.

Grant, a perennial undercard name to this point, surprised many by beating the brakes off of Evan Dunham at UFC 152 for three rounds. That performance was good enough for fight of the night honors, and set him up for a confrontation with the surging Matt Wiman. This was a bout of classic matchmaking: It was two heads of momentum coming together on national television, with an unspoken understanding that top ten status was on the line. Entering the fight, Wiman had won five of six, and had just derailed Paul Sass a couple of months earlier in Nottingham.

Once again, most didn’t see Grant coming. And once again, Grant forced our eyes open with his poised no-nonsense dominance, this time finishing Wiman in the first round by letting his hands (and elbows) go. It was the first time Wiman had been finished since catching that famous flying knee from Spencer Fisher at UFC 60 in his promotional debut.

Grant, the soft-spoken redhead from the remote northeastern town of Cole Harbour, had arrived. That TKO was how he kicked off 2013.

The thing is, Grant’s encore at UFC 160 in May was better still, even if the stakes were sliding. When he battled Gray Maynard in Las Vegas, the promise was that the winner would get the next crack at Benson Henderson’s title. However, this promise was somewhat qualified, aimed more directly at Maynard, who had hovered as the No. 1 contender since defeating Clay Guida. Maynard was guaranteed a shot with a win. For the lesser-known Grant, Dana White later admitted, he needed to win and do it emphatically to get his chance at the gold.

So what did Grant do? He won. Emphatically. He came in and knocked the bluster from Maynard early, before pursuing him around the cage and delivering power shot after power shot until Maynard slipped to the floor for good. A little more than two minutes into the biggest fight of his career, Grant emerged as the No. 1 contender in a weight class that hadn’t exactly budgeted for woodwork contenders. If his approach seemed quiet, it’s because we weren’t listening. Grant pulled the trick of dawning on everybody slowly and all at once.

His impressive victories over Wiman and Maynard at the halfway point of 2013 is good enough to stick him at the top of this list. Now 5-0 since moving from welterweight to 155 pounds, Grant has earned his shot at Henderson and presents himself as a more than capable challenge.

You know what that means? He’s a win away from becoming fighter of the year.

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No. 2: Vitor Belfort. What can you say about Belfort, who at 36 years old has become one of the game’s more divisive figures, yet keeps drawing X’s over guys' eyes? To close out 2012, he jarred Jon Jones’ arm off its moorings in an otherwise one-sided fight. That was what it was. In 2013, though, he kept Michael Bisping from getting a title shot by headkicking him senseless, and then followed that up with a spinning-heel kick KO of Luke Rockhold. With the new mohawk as his warrior’s mane, the old lion roars on.

No. 3: Josh Burkman. In some ways, the World Series of Fighting couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Jon Fitch, who was ranked No. 8 on ESPN.com’s welterweight rankings heading into his fight with Burkman, was a unique sort of UFC castoff who was supposed to rule his new terrain. That would have only served to show the depth of the UFC, that an expendable piece could be king elsewhere. Instead, it took Burkman 41 seconds to make a case that the face of the WSOF promotion was there all along. And how impressive was that choke?

No. 4: Pat Curran. Speaking of faces of their given promotion, Pat Curran -- together with Michael Chandler -- has become exactly that for Bellator. Curran hasn’t looked back since his 2011 loss to Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight belt. As a natural featherweight, he’s gone 6-0 and now sits among the best in the world at that weight class. So far in 2013 he’s held court, too: a hard-fought victory over Patricio Freire, followed by a first-round submission of Shahbulat Shamhalaev. At 25, he’s only getting better.

No. 5: Glover Teixeira. Teixeira has won what feels like 85 fights in a row (19 to be exact), and is 4-0 in the UFC. This would have most people in his position calling for an imminent title shot. Teixeira, on the other hand, is happy to just keep knocking the guy in front of him down. Adding Quinton Jackson and James Te-Huna this year to his long casualty list is enough to inflate the imagination as to what challenges he could present Jon Jones. By the end of 2013, we might just be in the shotgun seat to find out.

The first adjective Matt Grice uses to describe that grueling, split-decision loss to Dennis Bermudez on Feb. 23 at UFC 157 in Anaheim, Calif., is “fun.” Awesome time.

“One of the most fun fights I’ve ever been in,” Grice said. “Just competing with a person of that caliber. We’re all there to test ourselves, and I feel that fight tested me a lot -- my willingness to continue and keep going. To me, that’s fun.”

ESPN.com’s fight of the midyear was a landslide win for Grice and Bermudez. It’s a funny thing, “Fight of the nights.” Sometimes, stylistically, you can predict them. Oftentimes, however, they appear totally random -- as was the case with Grice and Bermudez.

Grice, for one, has no idea how to describe exactly what happens between two fighters that can turn a technical martial arts contest into a spirited brawl. He does know, however, that physical and mental endurance are involved.

“That definitely wasn’t in the game plan, you know?” Grice said. “Take a bunch of punches and give a bunch of punches. You just get in the zone."

Bermudez got full mount on Grice in the first minute of the fight. The two exhausted one another against the fence throughout, fighting for underhooks and throwing knees and punches to the body. It continued like that for the next 14 minutes.

One of the most incredible things about the fight was that both had enough left to stand and trade punches in the final minute. The pace of this featherweight bout was insane from the beginning.

Grice dropped Bermudez with a perfect left hook in the first round.

Bermudez’s corner told him, “We need this round, you’ve got to go for it,” as he came off his stool for the final round. Across the Octagon, Grice’s corner’s last words were, “Don’t stop. Don’t relax.”

“I think more than anything in that third round, it was survival tactic, Grice said. He hurt me right off the bat in that third round. Every time I would recover a little bit, he’d hit me with another one that would put me out. He was in great shape, too, because he threw a lot of punches in that last round.”

Grice appeared out on his feet at least three times in the final round.

“I looked up at the clock with 47 seconds left and thought, ‘Man, where did the rest of this round go?’” Grice said. “I came off the cage and hit him with a left hand and for the last 30 seconds or so we flurried.”

According to FightMetric.com, Bermudez landed 120 total strikes to Grice’s 82. It was, by far, the most times either had been hit in a UFC bout.

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No. 2: Johny Hendricks UD3 Carlos Condit, UFC 158 (March 16). This was an angry Hendricks. The kind of Hendricks you get when you give away his title shot to a recently suspended welterweight, coming off a loss. Condit wasn’t backing down, though. Amazing fight.

No. 3: Wanderlei Silva KO2 Brian Stann, UFC on Fuel 8 (March 2). Stann may have been able to play this safe and gone after Silva late -- but we’ll never know because he chose to do the opposite. One would have thought Stann’s chin would have held up better than Silva’s, but that wasn’t the case, as it was the Axe Murderer left standing after a firefight.

No. 4: Cat Zingano vs. Miesha Tate, TUF 16 Finale (April 13). Tate will give you a fight. She’s relentless and for two rounds, it worked against Cat Zingano. In the third, with a reality show and title shot on the line, Zingano delivered a highlight TKO.

No. 5: Mark Hunt vs. Stefan Struve, UFC on Fuel 8 (March 2). The weigh-in photo of these two ranks among the most comical in UFC history. The actual fight ranks among the best of the year. For Hunt to get inside that reach, chances were he’d have to absorb a little punishment along the way. That’s pretty much what happened, until Hunt delivered the walk-off home run shot.

Roger Gracie lives in a different world than the previous members of his family.

When Roger’s grandfather, Carlos Gracie, helped found Brazilian jiu-jitsu with his brother Helio, there were, obviously, no tournaments to compete in. The only way to actually use their craft in competition was to test it against others.

That is, of course, what happened so famously at UFC 1 in November 1993 -- when another member of the Gracie family, Royce, submitted three men in one night to win the first UFC tournament.

While that might be the most well-known instance of a Gracie family member legitimizing the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it was hardly the first. Royce showing off the rear-naked choke that night was just the latest detail in a long family tradition.

That tradition is what has led Roger (6-1) to the UFC, where he’ll make his promotional debut against Tim Kennedy next month in Las Vegas.

Unlike other members of his family, Roger never “had” to fight. There are plenty of world grappling tournaments to compete in, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu has grown in popularity enough that his academy in London more than pays the bills.

To never compete in MMA, though, would have been un-Gracie -- in his mind at least. He discussed that and more with ESPN.com, heading into his UFC debut.

You seem like a fighter not really into MMA for the belt, just for the ride. Is that accurate?
I think that’s pretty accurate. I don’t have a goal to have the belt. My goal is to improve in every aspect of MMA. That’s what I was doing in jiu-jitsu, and suddenly there was a moment like, "OK, now I need to do this in MMA."

Why was MMA always in your future? Why is jiu-jitsu alone not enough?
It goes back to the first Gracie, my grandfather Carlos. He had five younger brothers he taught jiu-jitsu, but back then, they were the only ones doing it. There wasn’t a jiu-jitsu world championship. They had to fight to prove how good jiu-jitsu was. With the sport growing, suddenly there were jiu-jitsu tournaments -- but by then, that was how it had always been. Royce, when he was younger, he competed in jiu-jitsu, and then when they created the UFC, he did MMA. Renzo got his black belt and then boom, he was in MMA. I used to look at all of them and say, "That’s what I have to do." Even before I got my black belt, I knew. If I really wanted to follow the Gracie way. It was never a conscious choice.

So there is an expectation in the family to eventually transition to MMA?
Not really. It’s actually the opposite. I’ve had a lot of pressure in my family from uncles and cousins telling me not to do MMA because the sport now it not what it used to be. Now they have massive strong guys and everybody knows jiu-jitsu. They were telling me there is nothing more to prove -- everything has been proven already. But I think each one follows his own path and this is mine.

What does the future of the Gracie family in MMA look like? Are there more on the way after you?
I think the one thing we’ve proven is we have numbers. We’re a pretty big family. So, I’d always expect there is a Gracie popping up somewhere. The family is very spread. It’s not like everybody is in the same place. It may be a cousin in New York or somewhere in Brazil is becoming very good and suddenly, boom he is the next generation. I think that is what’s going to happen forever.

You expect Kennedy to avoid grappling with you?
It’s hard to say. I’ve seen his fight against "Jacare" [Ronaldo Souza], who, in my opinion, is a much better grappler than he is but he took Jacare down twice. That showed he’s not really afraid to grapple with Jacare. If he tries to grapple with me, though, I will be very surprised. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to take me down, but I don’t think he’ll try to grapple with me on the ground.

You’re fighting on the same card as Anderson Silva versus Chris Weidman. Give us your thoughts on that fight.
I think [Weidman] is very, very dangerous. His grappling is at a very high level. He can submit any world-class grappler. I think he’s really that good. He can tap anyone, even me. It’s just a matter of if he can put Anderson in those situations. I would still put my money on Anderson but I think Chris Weidman is dangerous and can surprise him.

You can’t see Jose Aldo and Leonardo Santos sitting next to each other in Rio de Janeiro -- but you can picture them if you try.

Especially when, during an over-the-phone interview recently with ESPN.com, they were asked to relate memories of their first encounter with each other. Two male voices go back and forth in Portuguese -- then simultaneously burst into laughter.

A translator is kind enough to pass along the joke. According to Aldo, “We met on Facebook and had the same interests. We kind of just hit it off.”

Aldo, the near-invincible UFC featherweight champion, and Santos, the unlikely winner of this year’s “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” series, are teammates. More accurately than that, they are friends. By their own description, though, they’re brothers.

The two produced what has to be the most “human” moment in the UFC this year so far. After upsetting William “Patolino” Macario via submission in the second round of their TUF Finale in Fortaleza, Brazil, this month, Santos fell to his knees in the center of the Octagon.

He stood up moments after, only to wander aimlessly, clearly not knowing how to react. Then, a lightbulb flashed and with zero hesitation, Santos jumped over the cage, a no-no in the UFC, and ran into the crowd looking for Aldo.

Problem was, Aldo had already left his front-row seat and had run into the Octagon. On the UFC broadcast, you can see members of the crowd pointing Santos back toward the cage. Eventually the two met just outside of it and embraced, tears in their eyes.

You don’t have to know the full story between Aldo and Santos to appreciate that scene -- but it certainly adds to it if you do.

Aldo was born into poverty in the Brazilian city of Manaus in 1986. He developed an early interest in jiu-jitsu and says he actually first saw Santos, who was 6 years older and featured in some magazines as a grappling champion, as an idol.

In 2004, Aldo flew empty-handed to Rio de Janeiro to train martial arts full time at Nova Uniao -- where Santos called home. Aldo knew little stand-up at the time and was still a novice in jiu-jitsu, but the team welcomed him and recognized his talent.

“There is an inside joke,” Santos said through translator Fernanda Prates. “When I first met him, Aldo was trying to steal my gi. He did that when guys left their gi hanging on a clothesline.”

Though Santos had done well in the jiu-jitsu circuit, he, too, struggled financially. And transitioning to a full career in mixed martial arts, vale tudo, as they referred to it, was not a guarantee of larger paychecks as it can be today.

According to Santos, Nova Uniao coach Andre Pederneiras was adamant the future of MMA was bright for Brazilian athletes and it would eventually reward his team, which included Marlon Sandro, Thales Leites and Johnny Eduardo, among others.

The early members of Nova Uniao wanted to believe Pederneiras, but it was difficult to dedicate time to all aspects of MMA without a real promise of more money.

Santos says that changed with Aldo’s arrival. The boy from Manaus had no personal belongings. For a time, he and other Nova Uniao teammates had nowhere to sleep at night but the mats.

Aldo listened to Pederneiras, though, and shared his confidence in the future of MMA. He threw himself into learning stand-up to mesh with his grappling. Santos followed his lead.

“[Pederneiras] would tell us, ‘In a couple of years, you guys will be making a lot more money,’” Santos said. “I was making maybe $500 in a jiu-jitsu tournament -- and he’s telling me I’m going to make a lot of money.

“When I saw Aldo, who was a young kid that left everything behind and traveled to the city; that gave me a glimpse of hope. I had a lot of doors slammed in my face but to see this young guy willing to go for his dream, that really motivated the team.”

The Nova Uniao gym was far from a state-of-the-art facility at the time. Santos says there was one mat. A single punching bag. When it came time for cardio training, the team ran in the street.

In all professional athletics, teammates inevitably grow close, but it went beyond that in Brazil. Members of the team trained together, lived together and relied on one another. When necessary, they fed one another.

One night, Santos remembers his two best training partners, Aldo and Marcos Galvao, were sitting in the corner instead of working out.

Santos went to find out why. When Galvao complained of a headache, he gave the reasonable response he should probably take some pain medication.

“They looked at each other and said, ‘Well, he has a headache because we haven’t eaten anything today.’ It was 8 p.m. and they didn’t have money for food. That’s when it dawned on me how bad the situation was.

“Now you can understand why it makes me so happy to see where they are because I saw how bad it was at the start. Even I doubted them at some point. I asked them and myself, ‘Is this a dream worth pursuing?’ It really is.”

In his last fight, a unanimous decision victory over Frankie Edgar in the main event of UFC 156 in February, Aldo made a disclosed $120,000 fight purse, plus a $120,000 win bonus. He and Edgar also won a $50,000 bonus for Fight of the Night.

Santos, the latest TUF tournament winner, earned a “six-figure contract” in the UFC, which is awarded to all TUF champions.

When asked what lavish belongings have been purchased with the money Pederneiras once promised his fighters, Santos points to the Nova Uniao gym.

“The biggest celebration we could have possibly had of our success is investing back in the gym,” Santos said. “There was a renovation because before, the conditions were not great.

“What I take away from what Nova Uniao has accomplished is not just the money. It’s the friendships. Money is just the consequence of our hard work and how we’ve come together.”

With a few lifelong dreams already fulfilled, it’s good to see the kids from Brazil are still taking care of one another.

News stories following Bellator MMA's first event of the summer will focus rightly on Muhammed Lawal's vicious knockout of Seth Petruzelli and Renato "Babalu" Sobral's retirement.

And for that, Bellator and Spike TV should be grateful.

Because without Lawal driving a rivet through Petruzelli's face, or the memories and plaudits inspired by Sobral -- whose decision to lay down his gloves in the center of the cage while kneeling reverentially was lovely -- Wednesday night's fight card came across as all sorts of ugly.

Bellator can represent itself as challenger to the UFC, as a place where competition between fighters is the only thing that matters -- toughest tournament in sports and all -- but that's undercut when guys such as 35-year-old, 5-foot-8, 260-pound Jeremiah O'Neal (12-22) are given bouts, and the Ron Sparks of the world receive live television slots.

In O'Neal's case, he fought boxing convert Raphael Butler, who went to 6-0 with an early knockout. I failed to see the point. O'Neal won't go anywhere -- he lost to a bunch of names, but mostly at welterweight and middleweight. He entered Bellator off a loss. Worse: O'Neal's last win came in 2011, against 1-3 Kelly Rundle, who turns 51 this August. Prior to that, O'Neal hadn't won since 2007. Want to kill some time? Check out the records of the guys O'Neal actually defeated.

Look, I don't want to tear down O'Neal. It's Bellator that deserves to be embarrassed. I've given them plenty of credit for finding young, fresh talent. For the most part, the promotion's scouting team of Sam Caplan and Zach Light do a very good job, but their work can easily get dinged when this kind of matchmaking happens, even on an undercard contest. Butler can't improve as a prospect against a guy like O'Neal, so what's the point? He hits hard -- fine. But we could have seen that just the same if he faced a heavy bag.

As for television, the decision to match Vitaly Minakov against Sparks was pretty sad. Minakov (11-0) looks like a legit heavyweight prospect, but no one could know one way or the other after he put away the 38-year-old Sparks in 32 seconds. Thankfully, Minakov faces Ryan Martinez on July 31, who at least appears a threat.

Let me leave on an up note. Bellator's card at the end of July near Albuquerque sets up as a terrific night of fights. Lawal meets Jacob Noe in the abbreviated 205-pound tournament finals. Minakov is matched with Martinez. Bellator lightweight champ Michael Chandler returns against gritty David Rickels. I'm most interested in watching 22-year-old Andrey Koreshkov (who is the embodiment of the anti-Jeremiah O'Neal) fight unbeaten American Ben Askren.

GSP-Hendricks is a go

The UFC welterweight championship contest between Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks was made official this week. It will headline what most people will come to call the UFC's 20th anniversary event on Nov. 16, most likely in Las Vegas.

I'll just say this: I don't care that the UFC couldn't pull off an interdivisional mega-fight at Madison Square Garden to mark the occasion. GSP-Hendricks is absolutely fine by me -- no matter the night, regardless of the commemoration.

Why? Easy. Hendricks appears to be the biggest threat to St-Pierre in the welterweight division. And I think the once-beaten southpaw power-puncher pulls off the upset.

Good news, bad news

Bad news first.
Anthony Pettis needs at least six weeks to recover from an injured meniscus. So he'll miss a featherweight title shot with Jose Aldo in early August, and an Aug. 31 lightweight shot in his hometown of Milwaukee against Benson Henderson. No young fighter has exhibited more patience than Pettis. (Ricardo Lamas might think he's getting stiffed here as well.) But, not to worry, his chance will come. It's inevitable.

Now the good news.

TJ Grant won't get pushed out of a championship spot against Henderson. The 29-year-old Canadian smoked Gray Maynard in May to earn the opportunity, and should be the man to face Henderson -- even if some may say it's not nearly as marketable a pay-per-view attraction as a rematch between Henderson and Pettis, Showtime Kick, et al.

Anyhow, like GSP-Hendricks, I'm calling an upset. Grant beats Henderson.

Lombard to 170

There had been calls for Hector Lombard to drop 15 pounds and fight at welterweight for as long as the strong Cuban competed in MMA. Yet for seven years, Lombard saw no reason to leave middleweight. He was strong and fast, and won more than enough contests by stoppage to form a convincing argument that 185 was the place to be.

Then he entered the UFC. And a year later, Lombard officially revealed it was time to shed the weight. Losses to Tim Boetsch and Yushin Okami indicated Lombard wasn’t as good as he thought, and larger middleweights who were also viable competitors could stifle his explosion.

What could a 170-pound Lombard do?

Get fans excited, for starters, especially if he carries his power down with him. Lombard posted on Twitter that he wants to fight Nate Marquardt, who was also a middleweight convert. That’s a nice first fight for him.

The real question is whether Lombard will be able to handle the speed of the welterweight division. For all of the talk of his power, it was Lombard’s haste that made him at 185. Absent that advantage and coupled with the realization that he’s probably shorter than most welterweights, Lombard will have to make full use of his skills, including a judo game that always seems underutilized when he fights.

Lady Liberty says 'no' to MMA again

Ready for the least shocking news of 2013?

Sheldon Silver, speaker of the New York State Assembly, declined to bring for a vote a bill intended to legalize MMA in the state. That makes Silver 4-0 against MMA legislation, having scuttled the process the past four years.

Because Silver obviously can’t watch pro MMA in New York -- the only state in the Union where MMA remains banned -- he might try the Glory event at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Saturday.

See, kickboxing is legal in New York. Yes, even kickboxing three times on one night -- which is what the winner of Glory’s $200,000 prize will be expected to do.

It’s insane that New York licenses fighters to kickbox three times in a single evening and prohibits them from competing in MMA at all.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- If it turns out Saturday does mark the end of what’s been an awkward relationship between Roy Nelson and the UFC, it’s actually pretty fitting.

If there is one thing about Roy “Big Country” Nelson we’ve come to learn in the last 43 months, it’s that he is always unapologetically himself. He’s not going to change. Not for you, not for me and certainly not for anybody in the UFC.

Nelson took a risk this weekend in Winnipeg. Rather than sign an extension with the promotion earlier this year, he finished his original contract -- the one he signed in 2009 after winning the 10th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series.

It was a bold move, but a perfectly defensible one. Even, for some, an inspiring one. Nelson has long been unhappy with the finances of that TUF contract -- and one can understand why.

His early fight purses were reported at $15,000. That’s what Nelson’s payout was when he stood with Junior dos Santos for 15 minutes at UFC 117. It was the same when he fought Frank Mir in UFC 130 co-main event. When he headlined the TUF 16 Finale in December, he made $24,000 to show and $24,000 to win.

Of course, Nelson has made more money during his UFC career than what’s represented in these reported payouts. But the point is -- he was consistently one of the lowest-paid UFC fighters among those appearing on pay-per-view main cards.

Apparently, an effort to change that was made prior to this final fight in Winnipeg, but UFC president Dana White says Nelson turned it down.

“He called [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva and said, ‘Listen, I’m fighting tough guys here and I’m winning, you know?’” White said. “And Joe said, ‘You’re absolutely right. We’ll get rid of the TUF contract and give you new contract.’ We offered him a deal for more money and Roy said, ‘That’s not enough.’”

That is White’s side of the story, at least. And certainly, there might have been small print involved in that scenario we’re not hearing about. But at least according to White, a better-paying deal was offered, which Nelson refused.

It appears Nelson believed the best way to maximize his profit was run his UFC win streak to four, capped by a knockout of Stipe Miocic at UFC 161. He would be a free agent with leverage. He would have negotiating power with the UFC.

The problem is he lost -- in record-breaking fashion. He ran after Miocic with overhand rights. He was gassed before the end of the first round. He became such an easy target, Miocic hit him 137 times according to Fightmetric -- the most strikes any UFC fighter has absorbed in a bout without being knocked out.

It’s not that Nelson lost the fight. Everybody loses. The frustrating aspect comes when you consider how he lost. It was so “Roy.” The defiance he has regarding his weight and appearance has endeared him to fans, but the facts are the facts.

Nelson holds a 5-0 UFC record in fights that end in the first round. He’s 1-4 when they go beyond that.

His ability to take a punch, his heart, his belief in his right hand -- Roy Nelson puts on amazing fights. But there’s no reason why any heavyweight should ever absorb 137 strikes in one fight.

The question is not, “How is that possible?” The question is, “Why did he get hit so much?”

Nelson is an easy guy to cheer for. He lives by his own principles. He has a young son at home, who he wants to provide financially for. He leaves everything in the cage every time he fights -- that alone is enough to make total strangers love the guy.

He rolled the dice in a “high stakes poker game,” in White’s words, and there was no problem with that. If Nelson was going to do it, though -- at some point, he needed to make sure he could be there, physically, fighting Miocic after just one round. And he didn’t do that.