ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

TORONTO -- The years of hard work and believing that one day he’d get a world title shot, even during difficult times, had finally come to fruition for TJ Grant.

He’d scaled the final hurdle on May 25 -- a first-round knockout of Gray Maynard. That victory, his fifth in a row, cemented Grant as the No. 1 lightweight contender. Next up: A title shot against then-UFC champion Benson Henderson.

Grant was ready and confident. He’d proven himself a worthy contender. This was his time and he was ready to claim what he always believed belonged to him -- the UFC lightweight championship belt.

But as is always the case with Grant, he wasn’t about to sit around and enjoy the spoils of his most recent accomplishment. Besides, his goal was never simply to land a title shot, Grant wants to be champion. He never takes shortcuts, and wasn’t about to start now. So he immediately headed back to the gym and began working on staying sharp and improving his skills.

There was Muay Thai and wrestling and some boxing. Then it was time to revisit jujitsu workouts. And that’s when Grant’s world turned upside down.

Two weeks after the biggest victory of his professional career, Grant was accidentally kicked in the head twice during a jujitsu training session. It truly was accidental, Grant says. There is no kicking in jujitsu.

A training partner’s foot caught Grant as he was trying to avoid a sweep. These things happen in sparring sessions sometimes, but this particular incident happened shortly after the Maynard fight. And Grant admits he got his bell rung in that contest, which likely caused the kick during training to do more damage.

It was later revealed that Grant suffered a concussion. He was forced to pull out of the Aug. 31 showdown with Henderson. former WEC titleholder Anthony Pettis replaced him.

Grant was devastated. He’d worked so hard to get to that point in his career, but he remained positive that, with rest, his opportunity would soon resurface. But just as he had come to grips with this setback, Grant began receiving attacks on his character.

He didn’t know any of his attackers personally. They conducted their verbal assaults online, accusing Grant of taking money from UFC officials to step aside in favor of Pettis. Anyone slightly familiar with Grant’s values knows he’d never do something of the sort. The accusations, however, pained Grant. And he was angered by it.

That, however, was just the beginning. After Pettis defeated Henderson, UFC officials again penciled Grant in as the top lightweight contender. He would fight Pettis for the title on Dec. 14 in Sacramento, Calif.

But who said lightning doesn’t strike twice. Another medical examination concluded that Grant would not likely be ready to fight in December. He’d made progress, but not enough to begin vigorous training. Grant was again pulled from a title bout.

And again haters went on the attack. But this time, Grant was prepared for the onslaught.

“At first I was heated, I was mad,” Grant told ESPN.com. “But now it’s actually hilarious. Since I pulled out of this fight [against Pettis] I’ve seen a couple of people write stuff and I just laugh. I mean I did just buy a new house. Maybe that’s because I got paid off, who knows. To me it’s a joke.

“I’m kind of numb to the whole situation. I’m just worrying about myself, and getting healthy. I don’t really care. I did what I had to do, I won five in a row. If I have to win another one to get a title shot, I will do that.

“If I get a title shot that will be awesome. But right now my No. 1 concern is getting healthy.”

Grant can taste the lightweight title and continues to believe his opportunity will come, sooner rather than later. He remains levelheaded. Grant does not intend to rush back into the gym until he is completely healed. Avoiding another setback is very high on his priority list.

But his patience is often tested. There is nothing easy about training for fights, but it pales in comparison to sitting around doing nothing. Inactivity is killing Grant. He has never experienced anything like it, and doesn’t want to go through this again.

It’s part of the healing process, but Grant doesn’t like it at all. He yearns for the day when he can return to physical contact. And he is slowly getting there. Grant has begun light workouts.

“I find that I have more injuries from sitting on the couch than from going to the gym and going through the grind,” Grant said. “Because my body is so used to being in shape and working all the time that when it’s not I get super tense and sore. I’m looking forward to getting back, though I am doing some light training now.”

Grant can’t say with certainty when he will actually return to the Octagon, but plans to keep a close on Pettis’ first UFC title defense against Josh Thomson. If his recovery continues going smoothly, Grant is hopeful of making his return early next year.

But he can’t make any guarantees. It’s one day at a time, and the first order of business is getting back in the gym to conduct full training. A giant smile forms on Grant’s face at the thought of returning to training camp. Grant knows when that time arrives, his sites will again be set on landing that elusive title shot.

“I really have no idea when I will return, I could be ready to fight in January,” Grant said. “But at the same time I haven’t been on the mats, I haven’t done any training for however long. So I have to get myself acclimated to training and doing all those things.

“I’ve never gone three months with literally no exercise. That’s a big change. But I am exercising now, which is helping to keep me sane. And that’s a good thing.

“I’m optimistic to get back and once I’m 100 percent, I’m training and I feel confident then we’ll ask the UFC to let’s get a fight.”

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.”

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.

The UFC lightweight division is the deep end of the pool. It’s nondebatable.

According to the new ESPN.com rankings, a well-rounded talent like Jim Miller no longer cracks the Top 10. Same for Nate Diaz -- and he fought for the title six months ago. Athletic knockout artist Melvin Guillard is facing potential unemployment.

With as loaded as the division is, it’s pretty unbelievable Benson Henderson has already tied BJ Penn's record for all-time wins in a UFC lightweight title fight. Breaking that record in his next fight against TJ Grant is far from a given.

In 2011, I wrote a similar column to this, laying out the qualities it would take to beat Frankie Edgar. I ultimately said Henderson was the guy. I feel about 75 percent correct today. Edgar won that rematch, but you know. Spilled milk.

Question now is, who beats Henderson -- if anyone? Here are the lightweight contenders and pretenders, revisited.

The best of the rest: Mark Bocek, Guillard, Joe Lauzon, Miller, Ross Pearson.

These guys deserve to be in the conversation, but stars would really have to align for them to go all the way. Miller is terrific, but the evidence is there: When he runs into big, athletic lightweights he can’t push around, he struggles. I’d love to see him take his style to the featherweight division, which could use a mean, durable, bearded former lightweight willing to wear a farmer’s tan around. But Miller has long resisted the idea. We know Guillard is good for a handful of knockouts and an equal number of face palms Pearson could still develop, but he’s been beaten at his own game twice in his past five fights. Never a good sign.

That somebody that you used to know: Nate Diaz

Someone should probably stage an intervention for Diaz. Going back to his title fight against Henderson in December (not that long ago!), Diaz has tanked in back-to-back fights, talked about a return to welterweight (makes sense, given his vulnerability to bigger, stronger opponents) and been suspended for using a gay slur in a tweet (which he then said he wasn’t sorry about). How confident are you right now the Diazes aren’t at least thinking about a future WAR MMA card headlined by Nate? Not very, right?

The fantasy keeper league: Edson Barboza, Rafael Dos Anjos, Rustam Khabilov, Jorge Masvidal, Khabib Nurmagomedov

Every one of these guys is under 30 years old. Say you set up a fantasy keeper MMA league, where wins are worth one point and title wins are worth three. What order are you drafting these guys in? Tough call.

Barboza, Khabilov and Nurmagomedov are the Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson of the UFC lightweights. Of the three, there’s something I really like about Khabilov. Even without the first-round finishes, you can just tell this guy does everything well and he’s on opponents from start to finish. Barboza has made that weird jump from slightly overrated to underrated, thanks to a TKO loss to Jamie Varner. It seemed like everybody wanted to talk about this guy, despite the fact he barely, barely squeaked by Anthony Njokuani and Ross Pearson. Now, I don’t think we’re talking about him enough. It’s tough to pick a future champion in this very young group, but I like Khabilov’s chances the best, then probably Barboza.

The head case: Donald Cerrone

It’s possible nobody beats Cerrone when it comes to looking awesome in a win and then fairly terrible in a loss. Cerrone referenced a sports psychologist after his latest win over KJ Noons -- if you’re unaware, that’s been going on for a while now. When he’s on, he’s similar to other Greg Jackson fighters Jon Jones and Cub Swanson. He mixes it up, he reacts, he doesn’t think. Other times, it’s like he’s trying to solve for “x” out there and he seizes up.

At this point, I admit I’m skeptical of Cerrone ever holding the belt. He doesn’t fight particularly well in the big moments and quite frankly, he’s never been that guy who expresses a burning desire to be a champion anyway. Worth mentioning though, I thought he beat Henderson at WEC 43 in 2009. As far as controversial Henderson decisions go, that’s right up there.

The threats: Grant, Pat Healy, Gray Maynard, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson

These guys are somewhat close to a title shot (with the exemption of Maynard, but I’m not willing to count him out). Thomson is going to make a lot of noise. He’s not afraid to ask for things right now because at 34, his window at a title is smaller than it used to be. Melendez will be around. He’s well-rounded, consistent, mentally tough and we know he can go five rounds, let alone three. I like Grant a lot. He’s got the power to hurt Henderson and change the fight. As good as Healy is, and I like the welterweight-to-lightweight move right now, he’s not quite as good as Grant, so if Grant falls to Henderson, it’d be tough to pick Healy over him. Interesting that these are some of the bigger guys at 155. Did small ball pack up and leave with Edgar?

The future champ: Anthony Pettis

What just happened? Pettis had been waiting around for a title shot forever. For various reasons, mostly Edgar rematches, it never happened.

So in a move to speed up his title hopes, he called Dana White and asked to drop to 145. He fights Jose Aldo on Aug. 3. It’s possible (not official) Henderson will defend the lightweight title against Grant 14 days later in Boston on Aug. 17. So basically, Pettis agreed to drop to a weight class he’s never fought in to earn a title shot just two weeks sooner, and the UFC signed off on it. Seems like we all could have handled that better.

Anyway, win or lose, I don’t think Pettis is long for 145 pounds. He has always seen 155 as his division and he’s confident he has Henderson’s number. I’ve always believed Henderson’s claim he got caught up in the moment of the last WEC fight ever and strayed from his game plan against Pettis. I think that’s real. I just don’t think it matters. Even if Henderson goes into a rematch with a strategy more reliant on his size and pressure, Pettis beats him. Bold prediction time: Pettis is your UFC lightweight champion at some point in the next 12-18 months.

The thing about Mike Tyson was that everybody saw him coming. From the opening bell it felt as if his opponents were fighting from check, trying to avoid the savage exchange that would end, inevitably, in a violent checkmate. He was cageside for UFC 160, and to this day his celebrity transcends the fight game. When the MGM Grand flashed him on the screen, the place filled with that same old familiar apprehension and awe.

The thing about TJ Grant is, nobody saw him coming, apart from a few Nova Scotia residents and prelim connoisseurs. Grant came into his fight with Gray Maynard as a slight underdog. He had won four fights in a row at his new weight of 155 pounds, but in a standing-room only division of elites, he was a sort of fringe. When he crashed Matt Wiman’s momentum in January, the UFC saddled him with Gray Maynard, who had to drop out of a more profiled fight with Jim Miller because of a knee injury. In the interstices, things changed. Anthony Pettis volunteered for a fight with Jose Aldo at 145 pounds, Gilbert Melendez lost to Benson Henderson and Miller fought (and lost to) Pat Healy.

Somehow, Grant’s fight with Maynard became a conditional sort of No. 1 contender bout.

And did he ever make the most of it. Grant stood toe-to-toe with the hard-hitting Maynard, and ate a heater that made his ears ring. But then he got his in. He rocked Maynard with a shot that sent him reeling. As he reeled on the fence, Grant smelled blood on the water and slammed a knee into Maynard’s head. He then pursued him with a flurry of big shots that dropped Maynard for good. The win was emphatic enough for Dana White -- on the fence about whether Grant should get the shot or not, given his perpetual prelim residence of yore -- to put Grant’s odds of fighting for the lightweight belt next at “100 percent.”

You know who else liked it? Mike Tyson. There was something in Grant’s kill-switch that rang home for him. Though Junior dos Santos’ late spinning wheel-kick knockout of Mark Hunt went in for frills, Grant’s KO of Maynard was a blood-dimmed tide. So, when White got ready to award dos Santos with a bonus check for knockout of the night, Tyson inserted that it should go to Grant. And so it did.

And so the next title shot does.

FIVE QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Can things be different for Bigfoot this time?
Of course! He lasted a full 17 seconds longer with Velasquez the second time through, but once again the referee was prying Velasquez off of him while screaming “that’s enough already!” Silva didn’t agree with the stoppage, but at that point in the fight his resistances were down to nothing.

Can Hunt KO dos Santos?
He came awfully close to proving that he could, but could never square the follow-up shot to dos Santos’ chin. To his credit, he ate a couple of harrowing shots himself, and still managed to last into the final minute of a three-round fight with a crusher like “Cigano.”

Is there still wonder to Wonderboy?
Let’s put it this way, what Stephen Thompson did to Nah-Shon Burrell was passable, but it wasn’t spectacular. Yes, he whizzed a couple of kicks by Burrell’s head (and landed a couple, too), but it was more of a grind than anything. In our basic Wikipedia sense, though, a win’s a win.

Is Cain Velasquez the greatest heavyweight champ ever?
This question was posed before the fights somewhat purposefully prematurely. Though it can be asked with a little more timeliness now, the win over Silva realistically only proves that he can guard against complacency. If he works JdS over again, like he did last time? Gentleman, start you coronations!

Does KJ Noons belong in a fight with Donald Cerrone?
That was a licking that Noons took at the hands of Cerrone, yet he hung around long enough to hear the judge’s scorecards tell him what we already knew -- no, he didn’t belong in that fight with “Cowboy.”

FIVE NEW QUESTIONS

Ready for the big trilogy?
Junior dos Santos took Cain Velasquez’s belt back in 2011 with such an effective, tree-felling punch that it was almost unspectacular. Velasquez responded with a five-round battery to reclaim that belt. Now, with a couple of obstacles out of their way, it’s time for dos Santos/Velasquez III. Can you dig it?

Where does Hunt go from here?
There’s no shame in the way Mark Hunt lost. There was a moment in that first round where he had dos Santos staggered and was very close to cueing the knell with a couple of bombs that just missed. What now? Could roll out Hunt versus Josh Barnett or Hunt versus Antonio Silva or, eventually, Hunt versus Roy Nelson, and there’d be no complaints.

Teixeira as contender?
With his submission of James Te Huna, Glover Teixeira is now 4-0 in the UFC, and 19-0 going back to 2005. If that doesn’t scream “Geronimo!” in the UFC’s light heavyweight division, nothing will. But with the logjam right now, Teixeira -- no fool -- requested a fight with the winner of Rashad Evans/Dan Henderson next. Sounds good to us.

Can you see the Forrest, through the trees?
In the aftermath of UFC 160, Forrest Griffin announced his retirement, and Dana White announced that he and Stephan Bonnar -- the seminal figures who socked each other into our collective consciousness back in 2005 at the original TUF finale -- would be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. (Slow clap).

Is Nurmagomedov the next big thing?
The idea of Khabib Nurmagomedov missing weight might have had Dana White hissing like Nosferatu in a beam of sunlight, but what a nihilistic thing he did to Abel Trujillo. Twenty-one takedowns is a company record. By this time next year, we might be talking about Nurmy as a threat to whoever’s holding that lightweight belt (hopefully challenging him at something other than a catchweight).

STOCK UP/STOCK DOWN
UP
TJ Grant -- He may have looked like a woodwork contender before Maynard, but afterward he looks like a viable challenge to Benson Henderson. Nova Scotia did not shrink from the spotlight.

Donald Cerrone -- You know how you make people forget the time you got your liver kicked up through your diaphragm? By doing what Cerrone did to KJ Noons. Looks like Cowboy has another run in him.

Mike Pyle -- Before we start talking about 37-year-old Mike Pyle ossifying before our eyes, we might want to wait for the judge’s decision. Was it a generous scorecard in his split decision victory over Rick Story? Definitely. But that’s four in a row since losing to Rory MacDonald at UFC 133.

George Roop -- Got to hand it to Roop. He took his lumps early against Brian Bowles, but he’s resilient -- all 6-foot-1, buck-thirty-five of him is resilient.

DOWN
Antonio Silva -- When a loss is this one-sided (again), you begin to question the sincerity of the wins to get there. For instance, what happens if Travis Browne hadn’t been hurt, or if Alistair Overeem hadn’t been cocky?

Gray Maynard -- What a tough stretch for the “Bully.” He was 11-0-1 heading into 2011, but has since gone 1-2-1. The lone victory in that was the bizarre game of pursuit he played with Guida. For now, Maynard’s title aspirations took a bigger hit than anything specific Grant hit him with.

Brian Bowles -- It had been 18 months since we last saw Bowles, and the WEC champion looked good for that first round. Then the hatch opened up, and Roop was dropping wiry dispatches on him from Tucson.

MATCHES TO MAKE

For Silva -- A battle with Mark Hunt, or a cruel encounter with Josh Barnett.

For Teixeira -- Truthfully, if Dan Henderson gets by Rashad Evans at UFC 161, a Teixeira/Hendo fight might require fire marshals and riot units.

For Velasquez -- That third and most coveted bout with Junior dos Santos, and a chance to become the UFC’s greatest heavy.

For Donald Cerrone -- How fun would a scrap be between Cowboy and Gilbert Melendez?

For Khabib Nurmagomedov -- Think he could do what he did to Abel Trujillo against Gray Maynard? Only one way to find out.

LAS VEGAS -- By now you know that Mark Hunt was basically a sort of side effect of the Zuffa/Pride deal back in 2007. Riding a two-fight losing streak at the time, he was an unwanted property that couldn’t be easily disposed of.

But even back then, he wasn’t done losing. There were all those losses in Japanese promotion Dream. First it was Alistair Overeem. Then it was Melvin Manhoef at Dynamite!! 2008. Then to Gegard Mousasi. All five of his losses were first-round finishes, either by knockout or armbar. He was 5-6 when the UFC, having failed to buy him out of the inherited contract, finally relented and threw him in the Octagon.

Know what he did then? He lost again. This time in 63 seconds to Sean McCorkle, now late of the UFC. To say his UFC beginnings were inauspicious would be an understatement. And that makes what’s going on with Hunt right now nothing short of remarkable. To be in title contention two years after sporting a 5-7 record in an organization where people generally have career winnings around 75 percent just doesn’t happen.

Yet here were are. Hunt faces Junior dos Santos Saturday night for the chance to fight for a title.

“I think it’s one of the coolest stories in sports right now,” Dana White told ESPN.com. “We didn’t want to bring him into the UFC. He was older, he was on a losing streak, so we just said, ‘We’ll buy your contract out. You don’t have to fight, we’ll just pay you.’ He said, ‘no, I want to fight in the UFC and earn my money.’ And we said no. So he got his lawyer involved, and we went back and forth, and we said, ‘Fine, OK. Let’s do it.’ Now the guy goes on this tear and he’s fighting the in the co-main event against the former heavyweight champion in the UFC.”

Good thing Hunt had legal representation out there in New Zealand. His resurgence is a story that involves brute power, heart, exhaustion, dual visas, cake, public outcry, cosmological eyes and, in all fairness, a dose of luck. For instance, he’s filling in for Alistair Overeem at UFC 160 this weekend. A timely win over dos Santos takes him one step closer to becoming the most unlikely contender the heavyweight division has ever known.

“It would make sense that the winner of this fight gets the next shot,” White said. “It’s a fun fight, and it’s an interesting fight. If you break this fight down, Mark Hunt probably has the bigger punch and the better chin. But, Junior decides to take this fight to the ground, he definitely has the better wrestling and jiu-jitsu.”

In any case, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that you can’t write off Hunt. Can he continue to buck the odds and fell dos Santos as he did Stefan Struve and Cheick Kongo? Hey, that’s why they take off their shoes. So that we can find out.

Barnett back in White’s good graces

Not long ago, when Josh Barnett submitted Nandor Guelmino to begin his “Warmaster” second phase, he fell into character when discussing his future.

“I just want to keep killing and keep killing and wading in pools of blood and guts until there’s nobody left to kill anymore,” he told MMAFighting's Ariel Helwani on that final Strikeforce card. When pressed about which promotion that sort of pillaging could fall under, he said, “It doesn’t matter, I’m a mercenary. Something will come up. Somebody will need somebody’s head taken off and they’ll call me up. In a perfect world, I’d fight everywhere.”

That obviously didn’t pan out to specification. The UFC, which has been contentious with Barnett going back many years, offered him a contract a couple of months ago that Barnett turned down. On Wednesday, upon realizing the market for marauders of Barnett’s stripe (and price tag) was tremulously weak, Barnett signed a multifight contract with Zuffa.

Now it’s a case of bygones being bygones. The last time Barnett fought in the Octagon was in 2002, at UFC 36, when he beat Randy Couture for the heavyweight title. That’s when things got ugly. He was subsequently stripped of the title when it was revealed that he tested positive for steroids.

“Josh and I have had a very interesting past,” White told ESPN.com. “He’s one of these guys who doesn’t really care about much. He’ll fight over here, he’ll fight over there. But we made an offer to him. He didn’t take the offer and went around and shopped for a while, then came back and said, ‘I want to sign with you guys.'"

Wrote Barnett on his Twitter account, “The enemy has returned. I’ve signed w/ the UFC & no heavyweight is safe. They’re all due a lesson in violence from the Warmaster.”

A perfect first opponent for Barnett is Frank Mir, and there are indications that this is the direction the UFC is headed.

Grant granted a second life (and making most of it)



Usually when Gray Maynard steps in to fight as a lightweight, he’s the massive 155-pounder in the cage. That was especially true in his series with Frankie Edgar. It won’t be that way against TJ Grant, a former welterweight who has reinvented himself in the lower weight classes, going a perfect 4-0 heading into Saturday’s tilt.

Just as he was heading into his fights with Evan Dunham and Matt Wiman, Grant is understated in how he has turned things around, but he does make one key distinction. “I’m getting to fight guys my own size,” he says.

And realistically, when you look back at Grant’s opponents at 170 pounds and where they are now, that’s a big factor. Guys such as Dong Hyun Kim and the UFC’s No. 1 contender at welterweight right now, Johny Hendricks. Remember -- Grant gave Hendricks all he could handle at UFC 113 before Hendricks earned the majority decision.

“I’m glad to see Johny Hendricks doing so well,” he told ESPN.com. “We had a close fight, and it was a good fight, very entertaining. I got a lot of experience fighting at 170, and win or lose -- we all learn from losses, right? Blah blah blah. But it’s true. And if you stay humble and you have the right people talking to you and have a good mind for it, you should learn more from losses than wins, and that’s what I always try to do. Every fight is a learning experience.”

As for fighting Maynard in a title eliminator, Grant says that he has toiled a long, long time to end up in this spot.

“At this point in my career, Gray’s the toughest,” he says. “He’s tough. He’s polished and he’s a veteran. He’s not raw in any way -- he’s definitely the most talented fighter I’ve fought at this time in my career. I’m ready for it. I’ve got 25 fights to get me to this point. I’ve got all the experience I need, and all the skills I need to be successful. I’m ready to rock and roll Saturday.”

WAR, what is it good for?

Nick Diaz has plans to start up his own Stockton-based fight promotion -- the ominously titled WAR -- which has drawn anything from smirks and raised eyebrows to genuine curiosity and support over the past week.

So, what does one of the game’s more notorious promoters, Dana White, have to say about Diaz and his latest foray?

“Good luck Nick,” White says. “Obviously it looks very fun from the outside, and it looks easy like you’re printing money. It’s anything but. The fight business is a very tough business that you have to be married to 24/7, and it’s not as fun and easy as it looks.”

Though White was fairly withheld in how he addressed WAR, he did say that the door is open for Diaz if he elects to keep fighting. Diaz, of course, is right now sort of conditionally retired -- meaning he’ll only fight again if it’s against somebody that piques his interest enough, somebody like Anderson Silva or a rematch with Georges St-Pierre.

It’s not likely he’ll get either of those, but ...

“If Nick wants to fight all he’s got to do is pick up the phone and call,” White says. “He’s under contract. If the promotion thing doesn’t work out he can come back and fight.”

Heavyweights are now a staple of Memorial Day weekend. Last year, UFC 146 was to be a heavyweight extravaganza like none we'd ever seen. The whole main card was heavyweights, so the word "unprecedented" was being thrown around pretty dramatically. And why not? The Octagon was going to be littered with dinosaur bones at the end of the night.

You remember the fallout before the fallout, though.

Junior dos Santos was scheduled to face Alistair Overeem -- the one man who could turn that gentle giant's smile into a look of constipation -- for the belt. Then the first domino fell: Overeem's test from his previous fight with Brock Lesnar came back with -- to put it gently -- spiked testosterone levels, which meant dos Santos was re-saddled with Frank Mir.

Cain Velasquez, who was supposed to fight Mir that night, was then given Antonio Silva. That meant Roy Nelson, who was supposed to take on "Bigfoot," ended up fighting Dave Herman. Mark Hunt, still for the most part a journeyman at this point, was supposed to fight Stefan Struve, yet didn't end up fighting at all because he got injured. So Struve fought Lavar Johnson -- if we're being generous enough to call what happened that night a "fight."

The players are (basically) the same a year later for UFC 160, yet perceptions are slightly different. Overeem again was supposed to appear on the heavyweight showcase, yet again against dos Santos. And once again, he was scotched from the card, this time due to an injury. That means Hunt, and his visa issues, rides an unlikely four-fight winning streak into a confrontation with dos Santos. The winner (likely) will get a shot at the heavyweight belt next.

As for the belt, it's back in the possession of Velasquez, who defends his title on Saturday night against a familiar name: Silva. The stakes are different this go-round, but the memory of Silva's blood covering the canvas floor at UFC 146 is still fresh. One might say too fresh.

And that's your mystery heading into UFC 160: Will history repeat itself? Which, when you think about it, opens up the broader query: Why is history repeating itself?

(Answers: Probably; and because history has a wicked sense of humor.)

FIVE STORYLINES

Woodwork contenders

What was a bottleneck situation at the top of the lightweight division is now a mile of open highway. The winner of Gray Maynard and TJ Grant will get the next shot at Benson Henderson's belt. We've seen Maynard in that penultimate spot before. But Grant? Talk about a quiet approach.

Hunt as Cinderella

Because you've heard about Hunt's improbable rise from the ashes a million times doesn't make it less amazing. To sum things up: He was inherited in the PRIDE deal, lost to Sean McCorkle in his UFC debut, was left for the scrap heap at 5-7 in MMA, and now is a fight away from a title shot. Hollywood couldn't dream up something this unrealistic.

Woodwork contenders II

With a relative dearth of 205-pound contenders to challenge Jon Jones, Glover Teixeira's name could go from being whispered in polite company to shouted from the mountaintops with an emphatic win over James Te-Huna. But let's take it a step further: Can you imagine if Te-Huna wins? Suddenly a second New Zealander is on your radar from UFC 160.

Return of Brian Bowles

"Where's Brian Bowles?" became MMA's game of "Where's Waldo?" in 2012. So where was he? Finding that drive, baby. Citing apathy as the reason he took some time away from the fight game, the one-time WEC bantamweight champion returns to face all 6-foot-1 and 135 pounds of George Roop.

Woodwork contenders III

Right now Khabib Nurmagomedov has one more victory in professional MMA than he does letters in his name (19 wins, 18 letters). If he beats Abel Trujillo, he'll be a sparkling 20-0. Nurmagomedov is tomorrow's bottleneck at the top of the 155-pound division.

FIVE QUESTIONS

Can things be different for Silva this time?

The more basic question: Can Silva compete this time against the relentlessly aggressive, forward-moving wrestler Velasquez who has cardio for days and a chin made of cinder block? It feels as if we're answering our own question.

Can Hunt KO dos Santos?

Dos Santos has never been knocked out. Knocking people out is what Hunt does. In a fight where the ground is designated for slips and one-way trips, a single punch from either guy ends the co-main. Can it be Hunt on the delivering end? (Smiles and shakes head approvingly.)

Is there still wonder to "Wonderboy"?

Remember when Stephen Thompson had that hot roulette player's moment after knocking out Dan Stittgen in his UFC debut with a head kick? Matt Brown brought him down to earth in a hurry in April 2012 with a one-sided decision. This bout with Nah-Shon Burrell will tell us if it's back to "Wonderboy" or if he's a "one-hit wonder."

Is Cain the greatest heavyweight champ ever?

Take away that glancing moment in the ballyhooed first bout with dos Santos -- a bout that Velasquez should never have been fighting in the first place (knee) -- and the answer is "yup." But what are we talking about? This is the ultimate proving ground, so we'll ask him for more proof. More proof!

Does KJ Noons belong in a fight with Donald Cerrone?

The short answer is no. The correct answer is LOL. Even if you omit the Ryan Couture fight (a loss that he actually won), Noons still lost three of his previous four fights. Cerrone is coming off of that Anthony Pettis incident where his liver got rearranged. In other words: Cerrone's the proverbial hornet's nest that Noons is walking into.

WHO'S ON THE HOT SEAT?

Robert Whittaker

He did beat Brad Scott in his UFC debut, but a loss to Colton Smith, just as the UFC is tightening its belt rosterwise, makes young shakers expendable. (However, if Robert Whittaker knocks out Smith like he did Luke Newman on "TUF: The Smashes"? Then it's "Watch out for the Aussie!").

Jeremy Stephens

If the fact that he's opening the prelims portion of the card doesn't tip you off, the three-fight losing streak will. This move to 145 pounds is Stephens' "all-in" moment. Another loss and it's adios, "Lil' Heathen."

KJ Noons

It would feel a little merciless of the UFC to cut him, particularly because it'd be on the heels of a likely loss to Cerrone, but Noons needs a good showing to remind everyone of the guy who beat Nick Diaz in 2007. A fifth loss in six fights, though, is either a red flag or a white one, depending on how you squint.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

Because Velasquez might as well dig his hooves in the mat before he charges at Silva as if Silva were a red cape ... because "Bigfoot" has fists the size of pet carriers, yet his gloves weigh 4 ounces, just like everybody else's ... because if you put dos Santos' and Hunt's combined knockouts on a highlight reel, it'd run longer than the average romantic comedy ... because Grant versus Maynard is dog-eared for fight of the night ... because "Cowboy" Cerrone is mad, and Noons, by stepping in with him, is saying "come hither" ... because Grant fights like Ulysses S. Grant ... because Te-Huna and Teixeira will require smelling salts ... because Dennis Bermudez was already in one fight of the year candidate (against Matt Grice) and Max Holloway is a gamer ... because Mike Pyle can make it four in a row against Rick Story ... because what could be more fun than watching Hunt try to stuff his foot into a glass slipper?

UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez will defend his title Saturday at UFC 160 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas against Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, whom he defeated in their first meeting last May at UFC 146.

In the co-main-event, former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos will try to get back into title contention as he takes on Mark Hunt. In addition, Gray Maynard and TJ Grant will fight to determine the No. 1 contender for the UFC lightweight title.

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

22: The number of combined victories by (T)KO for Silva and Velasquez, which includes Velasquez's first-round TKO of Silva at UFC 146.

28: The number of significant strikes landed by Velasquez in their first meeting, of which all 28 occurred on the ground. By comparison, Silva was able to land only one significant strike the entire fight. Velasquez was successful in his only takedown attempt while Silva did not attempt to take down Velasquez.

2: The number of times Velasquez, an All-American wrestler from Arizona State, has been taken down in 17 attempts by his opponents in his 12 fights.

0: The number of submissions attempted in the first Velasquez-Silva fight. In fact, Velasquez has not even attempted a submission in his past six fights, while Silva has not attempted one in his past four.

6.37: Velasquez's strikes landed per minute, along with his 4.76 strike differential in UFC fights, are the best in the promotion. The only other heavyweight to rank in the top 10 in both categories is dos Santos, whose 5.51 strikes landed per minute and 2.73 strike differential rank sixth and fourth, respectively.

4: Hunt's winning streak is the longest among UFC heavyweights and of those four wins, three have come by way of knockout.

6: Submission losses for Hunt in his career. Dos Santos has never attempted a submission in any of his UFC fights.

85: Percentage of takedowns defended by Hunt in UFC fights -- the best in the heavyweight division and seventh best in the UFC among those with a minimum five UFC fights and at least 20 takedown attempts by opponents. Dos Santos has three takedowns in five attempts in his UFC fights and has defended 74 percent of his opponents' attempts.

3.17: Significant strikes absorbed by Grant per minute in his UFC fights. Maynard has landed 2.05 significant strikes per minute in his UFC fights.

86.4: Percentage of takedowns defended by Maynard -- the best in the UFC lightweight division and fifth best in the UFC among those with a minimum five UFC fights and at least 20 takedown attempts by opponents. Grant, meanwhile, has defended 37 percent of takedowns attempted by opponents in his UFC fights and in his three losses in the UFC has been taken down a combined 18 times. Maynard, an All-American wrestler from Michigan State, has a 48 percent takedown accuracy and at least one takedown in seven of his nine UFC wins.

For what it’s worth, my personal scorecard now has Benson Henderson 1-3 in UFC title fights.

And what it’s worth, of course, is a hill of beans. In the real world, Henderson on Saturday moved to 4-0 in UFC championship bouts, tying BJ Penn’s record of three consecutive lightweight title defenses as he edged Gilbert Melendez via split decision in the main event of UFC on Fox 7.

Like a lot of people, I had Melendez taking it 48-47, thinking he stormed out to an early lead in the first two rounds, lost his momentum in the third and fourth and then rebounded to craft an ever-so-slight advantage in the final stanza. It turned out we were wrong, and the judges allowed Henderson to retain his belt on a wildly eclectic assortment of scorecards.

The crowd booed. Henderson asked his girlfriend to marry him. She said yes. They booed some more, and somewhere in there another fight between the two best lightweights in the world failed to produce a decisive victor.

The decision was not an outrage. The action here was too good and too competitive for anyone besides Melendez to be heartbroken about the outcome. The UFC’s official statistics backed up Henderson’s win and rather than continuing to doom the lightweight title to a series of equally impenetrable rematches, company brass moved quickly to say the champ’s next fight will be against the winner of the Gray Maynard-TJ Grant bout at UFC 160.

That’s fine. No argument. It may not be fair to Melendez, but after years and years of questionable decisions in MMA, we’ve been conditioned to let the close ones go. Really, we have no choice, because the alternative would do nothing but keep us up at night.

Make no mistake, however -- there is a disquieting trend developing in the UFC lightweight division, wherein it’s getting increasingly difficult to tell the winners from the losers. In a sport that places such a premium on tangible consequences and decisive results, that’s sort of a problem.

Saturday’s back-and-forth struggle was just the latest in a spate of 155-pound championship fights that have been exciting, technically exquisite and ultimately impossible to score. Dating to 2010, six of the past eight lightweight title bouts have gone to decision, many of them nail-biters. Three of those produced split verdicts and three times we saw rematches effectively put the rest of the division in limbo while we cleared up messes at the top.

Lightweight has long been regarded as MMA’s most competitive and treacherous division,and this series of ratchet-tight title fights only underscores the point. The parity is a testament to the weight class’ depth, but it also makes answering simple questions like who’s the best? and who should be champion? and even Who won? trickier than it ought to be.

At first we blamed the uncertainty on Frankie Edgar, whose diminutive stature and pesky style seemed scientifically engineered to produce close fights.

Now though, Henderson looks well on his way to establishing a similar rhythm. All seven of his UFC outings have gone the distance, as compared to just two decisions in six earlier bouts in the WEC. Officially, he’s won all seven Octagon appearances, but his pair against Edgar and now this one with Melendez all easily could’ve gone the other way.

That alone makes trying to figure out who is the best lightweight in the world a daunting task.

Henderson’s latest victory obviously means he keeps his belt and likely retains his ESPN.com Power Rankings place as No. 1 in the division and No. 5 pound-for-pound. At 19-2 overall, having matched Penn for most successful title defenses and owning wins over Edgar, Melendez and a host of 155-pound notables, any reasonable debate about who is the greatest lightweight in UFC history now also must include him.

Unless, like me, you scored both Edgar fights and the Melendez bout for the other guy. If that’s the case, then -- yes, like me -- you’ve got a real quandary on your hands.

None of this is to say anything particularly negative about Henderson, mind you. His size, speed, strength and skills still have him looking every bit like the prototype for the next generation of successful UFC lightweights. He’s a great fighter who already has defied the expectations we lowered after watching him drop his WEC title to Anthony Pettis in December 2010 in a fight that came down to yet another very close judges’ decision.

But after this weekend, am I prepared to say Henderson is better than Melendez? I am not.
Am I prepared to say he’s better than Edgar? I am not.

Am I prepared to say he’s better than Pettis or Maynard or Michael Chandler or Eddie Alvarez? No, I am not.

Truthfully, I am not prepared to say much at all about who is tops in the lightweight division right now. I won’t be until someone, anyone, does something other than eke out a controversial decision.

CHICAGO -- Winning a UFC title is every fighter’s goal. For the few who are able to accomplish this feat, the celebration doesn’t truly begin until they make their first successful title defense.

UFC bantamweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson will attempt to solidify his position as a true champion Saturday night when he meets top contender John Dodson. The two will battle at United Center in Chicago.

In addition to defending his title, Johnson wants to put on an entertaining fight. Putting on a fan-friendly performance is something Johnson also relishes. And it’s something Johnson thought was being accomplished in September when he held off Joseph Benavidez to claim the 125-pound belt.

Johnson put on a stand-up fighting display. He demonstrated textbook footwork, head movement and striking en route to a split decision. But throughout the five-round title bout many fans in attendance at UFC 152 booed.

The booing continued when Johnson was declared the winner, and Johnson learned that being liked by fans is something he has no control over.

“You can never predict how fans will see you because there are some fans out there who just love my style: How I’m just a humble guy, but I have great technique, I have great footwork, the cardio, I have great confidence and I love video games,” Johnson told ESPN.com.

“On the other side of the board, there are guys who hate everything about me. They don’t care what I do, they hope I lose; they hate my ears, the way I look. So my job is to just go out there and perform the best I can.”

Teixeira seeks KO against Jackson

Not many fighters have entered the UFC with as much hype as Glover Teixeira. And in his first two Octagon appearances, Teixeira has not disappointed. On Saturday, he faces the stiffest test of his pro career, and fans will find out if the hype is warranted when Teixeira faces former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

Teixeira believes he will defeat Jackson, who fights in the UFC for the last time Saturday. But he also believes victory won’t be enough to prevent his stock from tumbling if he struggles. So Teixeira is determined to end Jackson’s UFC career early.

“My motivation is to be a champion, just like he was. I’m hungry,” Teixeira told ESPN.com. “I want this. This is a big fight for me, the biggest of my career.

“Rampage is a tough guy, he’s hard to put away. But that is the key. You go into a fight, that’s why people love fights, because of the knockouts and the submissions. I’m going in there to finish the fight. And it does matter to me how I win.”

Cerrone to clash with sharper, more mature Pettis

It has been nearly one year since lightweight contender Anthony Pettis has fought inside the Octagon. That’s a long layoff for any fighter, except Pettis.

The former WEC champion says when he steps in the cage Saturday night to face Donald Cerrone, he will be as sharp as ever. Cage rust is never an issue for Pettis.

“I don’t think there is ring rust when it comes to fighting,” Pettis said. “A fight’s a fight. If I have to fight somebody tomorrow, I’ve got to be ready to fight.

“This is my job. This is what I’ve been training for; this is what I’ve been doing for a long time. I’ve kind of grown up with fighting, so I don’t think ring rust is going to be a problem.”

Pettis is also better prepared to deal with any unexpected situations -- inside or outside the cage. He takes all his responsibilities much more seriously these days.

“I’ve matured a lot,” Pettis said. “I’ve got a daughter [1½-year-old Aria] now; I’ve matured a lot with decisions outside of my training -- what time I go to bed, what I’m eating, what I’m putting in my body.

“I’ve really matured in every aspect of my life. I’ve just matured as a man.”

Quick hits

• Former lightweight contender Clay Guida makes his featherweight debut with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Despite what he says, the outcome of his June bout with Gray Maynard and the criticism that followed still sting. “My striking was pinpoint; I out-struck Gray. I out-grappled Gray,” Guida said. “Go down the list, I beat him everywhere, except in the judges’ eyes. But I’m beyond that now. And Hatsu Hioki is going to pay for it Saturday night.”

• Jackson talks often about no longer being happy in UFC and looks forward to leaving the promotion after Saturday night’s bout against Teixeira. But Jackson won’t be all smiles when it’s over. “I will miss a lot of things. I will miss Burt Watson backstage. He’s funny; he’s cool to hang around,” Jackson told ESPN.com. “Honestly, if you are on Dana’s good side, he’s one of the coolest guys. Lorenzo Fertitta’s always been cool with me; and Frank [Fertitta]. I will miss the good fans. When you’re walking back to the locker room, when you win, the fans are cheering you on. There are a lot of things about the UFC that I will miss.”

• Dana White would love to have Eddie Alvarez on the UFC roster. And he is willing to pay handsomely for Alvarez’s services. Now White is challenging Bellator to do the same. “This kid isn’t their world champion and his contract is up,” White told ESPN.com. “Everybody talks about Bellator like they’re some poor little company. Viacom owns Bellator! Bellator like you used to know it is over. Viacom sits on $5 billion in cash. Pay the kid! Pay the kid the exact monetary offer we made to him, and you will deserve the right to have him.”

It’s always a good problem to have two (or three) contenders with strong cases to fight for a belt. That’s the perpetual state of the UFC’s always-bountiful lightweight division. Ever since Frankie Edgar clogged the top with his battery of rematches -- BJ Penn, Gray Maynard and Benson Henderson -- the challengers have been consistently two and three deep.

To be a 155-pound contender, all you need to have is continued patience and awesomeness.

And that is the ongoing norm for Anthony Pettis, particularly now that it’s been confirmed that Benson Henderson is fighting reigning Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez on April 20 at UFC on Fox 7. Pettis’s own fight with Donald Cerrone on Jan. 26 in Chicago is all about the sliding stakes. It’s for understudy purposes; for the right to be next next. In essence, Pettis needs to beat Cerrone to continue his holding pattern. That’s not entirely ideal.

Here’s the thing, though: Pettis-Henderson II has a nice, long shelf life. The attraction of that rematch will hold.

The same’s not necessarily the case for Melendez, who has been ranked on pound-for-pound lists since Henderson was fighting Diego Saraiva in Evolution. Until now, he was unavailable to UFC challenges, and we’ve been pining for just such a scenario as this. Now, in a twist of organized fate, he gets his shot at the UFC belt in San Jose, where Melendez has always been right at home. Strikeforce was headquartered in San Jose, where it did burst the seams of “regional.” Melendez was a big reason the thing grew like it did.

Now he gets Henderson and a chance at the UFC strap, and the selling point boils down to one vital thing: curiosity.

Is he as good as we think he is? Melendez has won seven bouts in a row. He hasn't fought in anything other than title fights since 2008. All he does is beat the guy in front of him, even if you (or I) dub that guy a step down from the names he’d see in the UFC. Complaints towards the quality of his opposition don’t belong at his door. He’s always wanted to fight the best there is, even as he’s had to settle for the best available.

The bigger issue, though, is that Melendez only has this kind of unique timing on his side once. He’s coming to the UFC right when all the inter-promotional intrigue is still intriguing. If the UFC cuts a “champion versus champion” type promo for UFC on Fox 7 -- much like it attempted with Nick Diaz versus Georges St-Pierre for UFC 137 -- you’re catching these confluences at just the right time. Melendez, for so long sequestered in Strikeforce where he was dominant and under-challenged, against Henderson, who has lofty aims of one-upping whatever records Anderson Silva leaves behind.

If you stack Melendez against a Gray Maynard first, you run the risk of him being “Lombarded.” And if that seems like an exposure point to Melendez’s detractors, so be it. The truth is, the UFC operates on hype, in which strong hunches, one way or another, play as key of a role as documented fact.

For Henderson, it’s a title defense. For “El Nino,” this fight plays closer to justification.

Is Melendez the best lightweight going? That’s the question that makes him a polarizing figure for fans. He has apologists, and he has detractors, and he has haters. He has believers, too. Strong ones. Insistent ones. Is he as good as his believers say? There’s one way to find out.

And that happens, at long last, on April 20.

As for Pettis, he has history in his back pocket. If Pettis wins at UFC on FOX 6, the much-awaited rematch of WEC 53 looms in the shadows of UFC on Fox 7. There’s an active, deep-rooted vendetta in play for that bit of fence magic Pettis punctuated things with in the last fight with Henderson. He can be on hand in San Jose to challenge the winner.

In reality, nothing much changes other than Pettis -- presuming he beats Cerrone -- has three added months to let things play out. Three months isn’t that long for a guy so accustomed to waiting.

LAS VEGAS -- It's been a long 2012 for Jim Miller, who lost to Nate Diaz in May and was resolved to the idea that he would have to wait to fight again until 2013.

But as has been the case all year with the UFC, one man's misfortune becomes another man's opportunity. Gray Maynard, who was expected to fight Joe Lauzon at UFC 155, had to drop out with a knee injury. Enter Miller, who'd been in a holding pattern since Cinco de Mayo.

That's a long time to contemplate tapping for the first time in a seven-year career to a guillotine choke.

Must have been a difficult seven months, right?

"For me it's actually pretty easy," Miller told ESPN.com. "I know what I'm capable of. I know that I could have beat either of those guys that beat me on that night had things gone my way. I've had to deal with other things in the past that were out of my control, and you gain a sense of maturity with that, and I know when that door closes it's just me and my opponent. A lot can go right, and a lot can go wrong. I'm just looking to fight to my abilities."

It's not like Miller's recent skid was against slouches, either. He lost a title eliminator to eventual champion Benson Henderson while suffering from a kidney infection and mononucleosis. That decision snapped a seven-fight winning streak. His loss to Diaz in a big headlining spot stung, but sandwiched in between was a submission victory over Melvin Guillard.

In other words, a fairly normal stretch by any other fighter's standards is a novel experience for Miller. Losing isn't something he's used to (his only other losses in seven years are to Frankie Edgar and Maynard). And then again, neither is waiting around.

Maybe that's why Miller says he's "fired up and giddy" heading into Saturday's bout with Lauzon. Being giddy is something you don't loosely associate with a blue-collar grinder like New Jersey's Miller. But the prospect of facing Lauzon, who takes home more end-of-the-night bonus money than everybody not named Anderson Silva, is a fun temptation.

"[Lauzon's] a very aggressive fighter, and he comes forward," Miller said. "He's obviously very dangerous with his strikes, and he hits hard. So [for me] it's just fight clean, and not give him those opportunities to do what he excels at. I'm good in the scrambles myself. It's kind of just not getting going too much where he might pull out and advantage, but do what I am good at doing, and just take the fight to him. He's very aggressive, and he's always attacking. I try to do the same things when the fight hits the mat."

As for Lauzon's ability to capitalize on mistakes?

"It's different than most guys because most guys have that little voice that says 'I might end up in a bad spot.' But [Lauzon] really doesn't care about that, because he's going to string another sub off of it," Miller said. "So it's difficult, and you've got to be careful, and if you're worried about a triangle the next thing you know you're in an armbar type of deal, and also every time you attack you leave yourself open for counters and passes and that kind of stuff. I just got to be sharp, let it all go and have some fun in there."

The "fun" Miller's forecasting extends to his coach, Mike Constantino, who can't help noticing the similarities in the styles.

"Lauzon likes to set things up with speed and accuracy from the scramble -- but I constantly instill the guys with scramble ability, and winning the scramble. And as you know with Jim's fights, he's a scrambler-based, too," Constantino said. "I just think this thing's going to be like a dust-up -- like a cartoon -- all over the cage.

"I agree with what Joe has been saying, that the first one to make a mistake will obviously lose, but somebody might graze somebody with a strike to set up the submission and that could be the difference in the fight."

So a frenetically paced fight that will be contested on virtual eggshells, with the first one to make a mistake losing? For a competitor like Miller, the opportunity was too good to pass up, and giddiness comes with the territory.

All this talk of Frankie Edgar and rematches makes for a potentially uncomfortable situation brewing in Denver. What if Edgar wins a close fight over Benson Henderson this weekend at UFC 150? What if it’s an egregiously controversial decision, the kind that has Dana White fuming about the judging and Twitter exploding into a million little protests?

If it’s indistinguishably close in Edgar’s favor, will not Henderson have the same argument that Edgar did in requesting an automatic rematch?

Fair is fair is fair.

As absurd as the notion seems, it’s a legit question. Everybody knows that Edgar adjusts and adapts and comes on stronger in repetitions. In his recent history of rematches he’s always showed better the second time through. In trilogies, Edgar is 1-0 with a knockout of Gray Maynard (who never gets knocked out). Though he’s navigated his career as a bargain bin underdog, he brings it doubly in playbacks. He’s being slept on a little bit ahead of the Henderson sequel, too. Bendo’s too big, too athletic, too strong.

And you know what? Edgar’s right at home with that.

Before that late second round upkick at UFC 144, Edgar was very likely leading two rounds to none over Henderson. In the rarified altitude in Denver, where the championship rounds are being contested, it might be Edgar pushing the action at the end. He’s been training in Colorado Springs at around 6,000 feet for the last week to acclimate. That doesn’t hurt. If he pulls out a close fight, the UFC will be in a familiar situation with what’s right, and what’s right.

It sets up double standards, and it will force hands. It’s simply not ideal.

And we all know what Dana White would have to do -- he’d have to essentially snub his nose at Henderson, or else leave the lightweight division hijacked for another four months (at least). Worse, be upsetting Nate Diaz, who is in the on-deck circle waiting for the winner after beating Jim Miller, not to mention all the guys hovering just below -- guys like the winner of Donald Cerrone/Melvin Guillard and Anthony Pettis. Traffic must resume, or we need to strip Edgar of his nickname “The Answer,” and use something more apt.

Something like Frankie “The Series” Edgar. Or perhaps “The Monkey Wrench.”

The UFC doesn’t actively root for any situation, but here’s a hunch that life would be easier if Edgar were to drop out of the picture for a little while. As the world’s smallest lightweight, he’s an unlikely elephant in the room. If he loses, he can begin contemplating how to overcome Jose Aldo in the featherweight ranks. Aldo could use some new challenges, and Edgar/Aldo is fun to think about (even over the course of a series). Just about everybody's on board with that.

And White himself has been the ringleader for Edgar competing at 145 pounds. He’s said it on more than one occasion. An Edgar loss on Saturday night facilitates the move, and it opens up the 155-pound division for business again.

It’s Edgar’s job to ignore all of this and do what he does best, which is to win the fights people just assume he’ll lose. The UFC will obviously let the chips fall where they may, but if it’s Edgar, you can understand the hope being that it’s Edgar clean and emphatically.

Otherwise, things will get that much more complicated.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Kalib Starnes was vilified, punished by the judges, and ultimately fired when he ran from Nate Quarry at UFC 83.

Friday wasn’t like that exactly, but Clay Guida’s performance against Gray Maynard was closer to it than made UFC president Dana White comfortable.

In fact, White said Guida’s performance was exactly like that. Or maybe worse, given that this one was a main event.

“The fight sucked; I don’t know how to expand on it any more,” White said in the postfight news conference. “It’s one of those situations where you know, a guy like Guida, his style is to move forward. I think that’s the style that’s made him who he is, the style that’s made him a crowd favorite and won him fights. Is he the most talented, most well-rounded mixed martial artist’s in the world? No.

“But his thing is he’s got stamina for days. He’s in your face, he stays on top of you, he wears his opponent down and he takes them out or he goes out on his shield. That’s been his thing.”

Not on this night. Maynard was awarded a split decision victory (48-47, 47-48, 48-47) over Guida.

How it got there is a matter of open query -- this was a bizarre fight that played out almost exactly the opposite of what expectations were. Most people had the same idea of how it might go -- Maynard early, and Guida late. Instead, it was Guida early, and Maynard late. It was Guida circling, and Maynard closing. It was the crowd chanting Guida’s name early, then chanting Maynard’s name even louder late.

It was the greatest shift in rooting interest since Rocky IV.

“Nobody can win or lose a fight when a guy is running around in circles,” White said. “[Guida] was literally running. I had some guys, some fans on Twitter who were saying ‘great footwork.’ This isn’t f---ing "Dancing With the Stars," you know what I mean?”

Guida employed an elusive stick-and-move game plan in the headlining bout at UFC on FX 4. At first it looked smart. He was his usual bionic self, using head movement and footwork to present himself as a mirage to the stalking Maynard, who had his right hand coiled the whole time.

Then it looked like he was orbiting Maynard. Finally, just as the fight was closing in on what are traditionally called the “championship rounds,” it looked like running. At least to the 4,652 people that gathered at the Revel Resort and Casino. And it had to dawn on Maynard that Guida, reluctant to engage, was going to remain reluctant to engage.

The game plan surprised him as much as it did the crowd. One of Gray Maynard’s cornermen, Josh Thomson, told ESPN.com on Thursday night that the idea was to avoid chasing Guida.

Turns out Maynard didn’t have a choice.

“It took me two rounds just to know that, I think this guy’s going to do this the whole fight,” Maynard said afterward. “Personally, I wouldn’t act like that. This is a fight. I was p---ed off. I am human too, and I get mad. I’m here to work. Let’s work.”

By the time people understood that Guida’s game plan was to bounce and move and never stay close, the tide had already turned. When Maynard grabbed hold of Guida in the forth round and kneed him along the fence, the crowd went into raptures. When the fight then went to the ground and Maynard applied a guillotine, it was deafening in the arena.

Yet just before any of that happened, the unthinkable had already occurred -- people were booing Clay Guida, the one man who had always been a spark plug on fight night.

“It motivates me even more [to hear the boos],” Guida said later when asked what he thought of the crowd turning on him. “We’re on the Jersey shore, and I think there’s a misconception of what mixed martial arts is. Yeah, it motivates me even more than anything. The boos motivated me, and I was just getting into my groove. Three rounds is a warm-up; five rounds [and] I was still bouncing around.”

The game plan was scrutinized all the more -- overtly by White, and blatantly in the media -- because it was installed by Guida's coach, Greg Jackson.

Jackson, you might remember, has been accused of turning one-time exciting fighters into strategists. We saw it last with Carlos Condit, who steered clear of Nick Diaz at UFC 137 in the welterweight interim title fight. In that fight, Condit executed the game plan to perfection an got the "W."

Guida wasn't so lucky, though plenty of people on press row scored the fight for him. Dana White wasn't one of those. He said he thought that the split decision was bogus, that Maynard won it easily.

But given the turncoat nature of the fans on hand, ESPN.com asked Guida the question: If knew the crowd would turn on him going in would he have stuck to his game plan? Would he have changed anything?

“I’d stick to my game plan,” he said, his left eye swollen shut. “The game plan that they’re used to, just going in there and playing Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em robots and get my head kicked off and get punches in the face? No. I stuck to a smart strategy and wasn’t there for big punches. I liked my game plan.”

Turns out he was in the vast minority of those who did.

Learn a lesson from Gray Maynard.

The 32-year-old lightweight contender felt "stagnant" and "boxed in." He wasn't living in a place he or his fiancee wanted to call home. So he did what many people often discuss but rarely do: He took action.

"I didn't want to talk about it a year or two later," Maynard said.

A month prior to fighting Frankie Edgar for a third time, he parted ways with Xtreme Couture, the only MMA gym he knew, and set up his own shop.

Maynard admits the situation "wasn't good, but it's not an excuse. That's why I never made it a big deal. It was my choice and I have to deal with it."

A few weeks after losing a chance to become the UFC lightweight champion when Edgar finished him in the fourth round, the 155-pound powerhouse left Las Vegas in the rearview mirror, headed west and settled in Santa Cruz, Calif.

"It's hard to leave a gym," Maynard said. "It's hard to leave your home. It's a tough move. It's not like I was gonna leave for [one training] camp. I was like, let's move. It kind of happened quicker than we were planning on, but it was good to do that."

As a result of the journey, when Maynard steps into the cage Friday night in Atlantic City against Clay Guida, he'll do so with a revamped corner and a new view on what it means to be a mixed martial artist.

"I felt like I hit a plateau, and it was time to get some new ideas," he said. "I needed a change. Xtreme Couture is where I started; it's awesome, I love them all there. I just had to evolve more. There's a lot to the game."

Maynard's 10-1-1 record serves as testimony to the effectiveness of his wrestling skill and raw power. He is strong and hits hard, which is why it was easy to succumb to the boxer-wrestler trap while forgoing other areas of his game.

His first stop was the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif.

"He was only doing one or the other when he first came to the gym," said AKA-trained lightweight Josh Thomson. "He was only boxing or wrestling, but the combination from punch to [takedown] shot wasn't that clean. It was decent but wasn't clean."

Maynard credits Thomson, whom he helped prepare for a May contest against Gilbert Melendez, heavyweight Daniel Cormier, AKA coaches Javier Mendez and Bob Cook, boxing trainer Rick Noble, UFC veteran Mac Danzig and the Nova Uniao camp for getting his "juices flowing again."

In Brazil, Maynard worked with UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo in advance of what turned out to be a late first-round stoppage against Chad Mendes. Maynard said he was impressed by the camp and its approach to MMA.

"I just saw a lot about the whole game," he said. "Nova Uniao, they're good in all areas. It was a lot more of the MMA game, and it got me going again, got me thinking about stuff."

He brought that attitude back with him to California and continued upgrading. Maynard expects to show some of those new skills and mentality against Guida in the main event of UFC's latest offering on FX.

Thomson, who works Maynard's corner alongside Noble and Danzig, acknowledged that the No. 4-ranked lightweight according to ESPN.com has "got a lot of things going through his mind right now as far as how to try and use the new tools he's developing."

Still, Thomson said the changes Maynard implemented in recent months are paying off in the gym.

"I just want to see how it meshes and comes together in a real fight," Thomson said. "He's not going to do it overnight."

Fans shouldn't expect spinning back kicks from The Bully, but his transitions between striking and grappling realms are said to be crisper. His boxing application looks tighter, more efficient and requires less energy. As a result, combinations are flowing the way he'd like them to. He also honed in on his wrestling roots with the impressive Cormier, Strikeforce's heavyweight grand prix champion.

Guida, ranked No. 7, will provide a stern test, which Maynard welcomes.

"It was a good choice for us," Maynard said. "He brings a little bit different approach for each bout, but he always goes hard. That's all I can ask for."

As for what unfolds in the cage, regardless of where he trained or the level of shape he worked himself into, Maynard is mindful that the plan of attack is up to him. He may have new tools to use, but it would be a mistake to shift too far from the attributes that brought him to this point.

Sometimes change is good. Sometimes it's not.