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If your first thought after learning that Dominick Cruz tore an anterior cruciate ligament was anything like mine, then you've wondered whether or not a fighter who made his name off speed and movement is in danger of stumbling back to the pack.

It will be a year before we know the answer to that important question. In the meantime, Cruz's division apparently must march forward, which means Zuffa booked an interim bantamweight title fight between Urijah Faber and a to-be-determined opponent.

As is usually the case, the creation of a belt and a stand-in champion isn't needed. It's especially less so considering Faber fights on July 7, when most of the prefight coverage is expected to zero in on Silva-Sonnen 2. A healthy Cruz against his rival Faber, both off the reality show, wouldn't have generated a ton of interest considering the circumstances. So why push a fake belt? I don't get it.

At best, Faber versus TBD is a worthy No. 1 contender fight. And that's not so terrible. There are bouts at 135 pounds for Faber that line up to be terrific contests.

Renan Barao, ranked third at 135, is the obvious choice. Zuffa can break up his match against Ivan Menjivar, serendipitously scheduled for July 7, and it wouldn't upset too many people. If not the Brazilian, then an argument can be made to slot in 21-year-old Michael McDonald. I think that's the wrong way to go for the youngster, but it would be a fight with intriguing possibilities.

No matter how it pans out, hopefully Cruz makes a full recovery. It would be a shame to see someone who’s worked so hard, has so much potential, and hasn’t yet cashed in, take a knock that permanently changed the way he fights.

Is Koch ready?

Two weeks after what promises to be an epic UFC event in Las Vegas, Erik Koch’s title challenge July 21 in Calgary against featherweight champion Jose Aldo will feel small; maybe like it’s not even happening.

Depending on the outcome, of course, the 23-year-old Koch may wish it hadn’t. Then again, he wouldn’t be the first kid to come out of nowhere and pull off something many of us felt was impossible. And let’s be real here, there are few things in MMA more difficult to do than defeating Jose Aldo.

I thought it interesting that Hatsu Hioki, who based on his résumé is as ready to fight Aldo as any fighter in the world, has decided to take his time. Rather than jump at the chance to fight Aldo, Hioki meets Ricardo Lamas in a preliminary bout in June. The decision confused me, and it left the door open for Koch.

The first thing to notice when looking at Koch’s record, which is nowhere as good as Hioki’s, is his level of competition. He’s fought scrappy guys that helped make him look good. That’s not Aldo. Aldo is an offensive machine. I have the feeling Koch is in big trouble here.

Ratings ebb and flow

Somewhere between a heavyweight championship attraction and a card filled with scrappers is the truth when it comes to UFC ratings on Fox.

The number of households that tuned into Saturday’s network event, headlined by Nate Diaz and Jim Miller, plummeted compared to the previous two fight nights, but attempting to extrapolate what that means for future cards is risky business.

The May 5 card averaged 2.4 million viewers, a drop off of more than 50 percent from the first offering in November (5.7 million viewers), and this January (4.7 million). There were plenty of things to do Saturday, including a bevy of sports-watching options, not the least of which was Floyd Mayweather fighting Miguel Cotto on pay-per-view.

The UFC should regard the 2.4 million number as a baseline, the minimum number of viewers that will tune in to a Fox card. Considering the disappointment (and some have called it that) of Junior dos Santos’s early knockout against Cain Velasquez, and the decision-heavy second offering headlined by a five-round snoozer between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis, if people tuned in to watch a card without any star power and/or title fights they’re likely the most passionate watchers out of the casual group.

UFC’s third event on Fox was its most typical: just a solid lineup of action and good MMA. Had the evening gone another way, then there might be something to really worry about for Zuffa. But the bottom line is fighters performed and viewers likely felt as if the experience was worth doing again on Aug. 4.

Weekend viewing options

Zuffa is off until a Tuesday night fight card featuring Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung, but that only opens the space up for multiple promoters. (By the way, with Hioki bowing out, the winner of this fight would have been my pick to face Aldo at UFC 149.)

May 10: Former Bellator featherweight champion Joe Soto has dropped to 135 and will fight for a respected regional title when he takes on Chad George at Tachi Palace Fights 13. The card streams on Sherdog.com

May 11: Speaking of ratings, Bellator and MTV2 earned an increase with the return of Michael Chandler on Friday. That’s a great sign for the lightweight titleholder. This week, Bellator heads to Atlantic City. Featherweights Marlon Sandro and Daniel Straus fight for the fight to get next crack at the 145-pound title after Patricio Freire. Should be a competitive fight.

On HDNet, Legacy Fighting Championship 11 from Houston features a mix of prospects and veterans. If you caught my podcast this week, you heard the interview with Chad Robichaux. The decorated special forces veteran, making his flyweight debut against Joseph Sandoval, has formed a non-profit -- Mighty Oaks Foundation -- to aid military personal stricken with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- When Nate Diaz bolted the 155-pound division 2½ years ago, he had lost three of four fights and was in need of a change. He tried to kick-start his career as a welterweight; and yet, after four fights there, he went 2-2.

For as promising as his UFC career started -- going 5-0 after winning Season 5 of "The Ultimate Fighter" -- people weren’t talking about Diaz after his one-sided beatdown at UFC 129 against Rory MacDonald at UFC 129.

Nick Diaz’s little brother had essentially plateaued.

Yet on Saturday night, in just his third fight in his reimagining as a lightweight, Diaz is now in pole position for a title shot in what might be the promotion’s most competitive division. His second-round submission of New Jersey native Jim Miller put an exclamation mark on his latest run. Diaz tapped out the hometown hero with a guillotine choke -- on national television, no less.

To put that in perspective, consider this: Nobody -- not Gray Maynard, not Frankie Edgar, not Benson Henderson -- has ever stopped Miller (now 10-3 in the UFC).

“I just trained hard for the fight, and I just went in there and fought hard and it went good,” said a terse Diaz at the postfight news conference.

Indeed he did. Saturday was the night that Nate Diaz truly arrived. And talk about a turn of events -- who would have thought six months ago that, when discussing a Diaz in a title fight, it would be Nate instead of Nick.

But that’s where we’re at. Since returning to lightweight, Nate Diaz finished Takanori Gomi, landed a record number of strikes against Donald Cerrone and now became the first fighter to finish Miller. What’s up with the resurgence?

To hear him say it, it’s all about pushing the right buttons in training.

“I’m getting matchups with top contenders at lightweight, and that’s a little motivating,” he told ESPN.com. “It’s hard to stay motivated and fight somebody that nobody knows, who you’re kind of more popular than. I don’t mean to sound like I’m all popular, but sometimes it’s hard when everybody expects you to win. I like fighting a top contender and being counted out.

“I feel it in training,” he said. “[Miller] is supposed to beat me? We’ll see.”

The Stockton native will likely be an underdog in his next fight, too. It was announced tonight that the new No. 1 contender in the 155-pound division will wait out the Edgar/Henderson bout to face the winner, even if the fight takes place very late in 2012.

“He’s going to wait for the title shot,” Dana White said. When asked about waiting, Diaz simply replied, “I’m down for whatever, but [waiting] sounded great to me.”

And, just like it was for Henderson, beating Miller was the way to a title shot. Miller said the game plan was to pressure Diaz and make move backward while staying out of his range.

Easier said than done. Miller couldn’t get anything going in the first round and got caught in a scramble that led to him tapping in the second. Afterward, Miller doffed his cap to Diaz’s superior game plan.

“He fought a beautiful fight, and he had my number,” Miller said of Diaz.

Diaz has had everybody’s number that he’s faced since returning to lightweight. Perhaps he said it best himself in the postfight news conference.

“Yeah, he’s tough,” he said. “It was him or me, and I’m glad it went the way it did. Guess I got lucky, just my time to shine, I guess.”

NEW YORK -- For as stacked as the UFC 146 card appears for Memorial Day weekend, it’s really two title fights (Urijah Faber/Dominick Cruz and Chael Sonnen/Anderson Silva) and a pack of glitzy non-consequential match-ups (Cung Le/Rich Franklin and Forrest Griffin/Tito Ortiz).

Not so for New Jersey and this weekend’s free UFC on FOX 3 card. No belts will change hands, but situations are in play. Complicated situations. Theoretical ones. Titles dangling in the balance, right there for some and just out of reach for others. And there is, of course, much obfuscation.

For example: If Nate Diaz capitalizes on his broadcast television main event and downs Jim Miller, he is essentially guaranteed a title shot at 155 pounds. However, with Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar fighting for the title in August, that shot might come in a wintry month like December. That’s a long time to wait for a guy who A.) fights for money, B.) likes fighting and C.) has a nice head of momentum. When asked if he’d wait in that situation at Thursday’s news conference, Diaz said simply, “I have a fight on Saturday.”

This drew a New York cheer. Diaz, for all his volume in punching, is a man of few words.

If Jim Miller beats Diaz, on the other hand, he isn’t guaranteed anything. Rather, he is guaranteed to be cheering for Frankie Edgar at UFC 150 when Edgar fights Henderson, because in that case Miller would potentially get to fight Edgar (his erstwhile training partner/friend).

Got it?

Here’s what Miller had to say when asked if he’s confused by Diaz getting a title shot with a win (even though he’s 3-3 in his last six lightweight bouts) while he (10-2 as a lightweight in the UFC) won’t necessarily:

“You know, honestly, it doesn’t matter to me right now. I’ve got a fight in two days, and that’s where my focus is. From doing that [10-2 record] and having that seven-win stretch and dealing with the rematches in this division, it really cemented that things change -- and things happen. So I’m not going to sit here and try and predict what’ll happen with a win or with a loss. I’m just focused on the fight itself, and after that, then it’s time to speculate about the next fight.”

If he won’t speculate, we sure will, and we’ll add a name to the mix: Anthony Pettis.

Pettis, who is a quasi-No. 1 contender, will be coming back to full health some time in the summer. Logic would say that the winner of Diaz/Miller will end up fighting Pettis to establish a true No. 1 contender, while Henderson/Edgar II plays out.

Meanwhile, the co-main event has its own wild set of conditions. Should Johny Hendricks beat Josh Koscheck, he is the No. 1 contender for a title fight. Problem is, once again, that Georges St. Pierre and Carlos Condit are likely fighting in November to settle up the permanent and interim belts. There’s no way that Hendricks will want to wait for that to play out for a spring 2013 title fight.

Yet if Koscheck wins, he will have to pull for Condit to beat St. Pierre to have a word in the title conversation.

Confused? You should be. If we learned anything from the final prefight news conference, it’s this -- the UFC doesn’t want repetition. Koscheck/St. Pierre and Henderson/Miller happened too soon ago to happen again. The UFC craves new blood.

It’s the most complicated contender-type card that ever was, and it’s going down Saturday night in New Jersey.

First UFC "super fight" in January?

In the post news conference scrum, a media member asked Dana White about a potential fight card at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, a venue which can hold 100,000 people.

White said all that flirtation about holding an event there was not only real, but is a serious possibility. He also alluded to a big January card that could potentially be so massive.

“We’re always looking for a potential big fight,” White said. “We’ve always wanted to do a fight, and we’ve been talking to [Jerry] Jones and his crew about doing a fight down in Dallas Cowboys Stadium, but we need a fight big enough to do it. The last fight that I was going to try and make there was Brock [Lesnar] and Fedor [Emelianenko].”

There is potentially a fight out there that’s big enough.

Running through the timelines of “super fight” candidates for a place like Dallas Cowboys Stadium, or a second event at the Rogers Centre in Toronto (or at the old, reliable stand-by in Las Vegas), one could envision a Jon Jones/Anderson Silva match-up at least being discussed.

Think about it. If Jones beats Dan Henderson in September, that would be four months ahead of January -- perfect for the turn around. Anderson Silva fights in July. Should be beat Chael Sonnen for his record 10th title defense, there would be only one way to raise the ante -- and it wouldn’t be to take on Mark Munoz or Hector Lombard.

It would be to fight Jones, who’d have tidied his own division up just in time. Is that what the UFC has in mind?

“I don’t know,” White said. “We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what we end up putting together.”

New York state of mind

By now, everyone knows about the MMA ban in New York, even as we make our way through open-minded 2012. This is why the UFC dangles its product just across the Hudson River -- to reinforce that all notions of “human cockfighting” are antiquated and hyperbolic. Whether the sport hasn’t been sanctioned in the Empire State is about “gangsters” in the Culinary Union (as Dana White says) or something less ominous, it depends on whom you talk to.

But when MMA does finally get legalized in New York, the UFC plans on doing it big.

“When we finally do break through and do a big event here, I think the event at Madison Square Garden that we do will be huge, and it’s be a great time to pull off a Fan Expo here in New York,” White said. “I think it would be huge.”

In the meantime, those in New York who want to catch MMA in a live setting must go underground. Or, underwater. For MMA, there’s light at the end of the Lincoln Tunnel, across the way in East Rutherford, N.J., where the UFC will once again mock New York with the one thing it doesn’t have.

Leading up to the biggest fight of his life this weekend at the UFC’s third live show on Fox, Nate Diaz has had to answer more than a few questions on behalf of his brother.

Of course, this will only strike you as odd if you don’t know who Nate Diaz’s brother is, and if you’ve spent any time at all around MMA, if you are indeed reading this right now, that’s probably impossible.

Even as he stands poised for an opportunity at becoming the No. 1 contender for the UFC lightweight title, Nate remains the lesser known of the fighting Diaz men. His older brother, Nick -- he of the impulsive retirement announcement and ongoing marijuana suspension -- remains the bigger draw, the bigger perceived talent and in most tangible ways the all-around bigger deal.

All of this is despite the fact Nate actually has three more UFC appearances (15, in all) and three more Octagon wins (10) than Nick. Despite the fact he’s proven to be the more reliable Diaz, the kindler/gentler Diaz and -- if all goes well on Saturday night -- stands a decent chance of going on to become the first Diaz to wear UFC gold.

Also, you know, not to mention the fact that if we take him at his own word, Nick Diaz’s MMA career is already over.

Among two different men, such an unequal dynamic might be a problem -- but not with these two. Throughout his career, Nate Diaz has consistently credited his brother not only as a coach and training partner but also lists him first on his official UFC profile page when asked: Do you have any heroes?

We have no sense at all that Nate Diaz wants to fight his way out of his brother’s shadow. In a sport where fighters are seemingly constantly leaving one training facility for another over some perceived slight, where egos run rampant and where there are as many spats and hurt feelings outside of the cage as inside, there has never been a hint of significant strife between the Diaz brothers.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. When asked about his brother’s future this week, Nate Diaz contended that Nick still isn’t interested in returning to the cage (despite the fact he has a lawsuit pending against the Nevada State Athletic Commission) and in his brother’s stead he (Nate, that is) will carry the family’s honor into battle on Saturday night against Jim Miller.

“I feel like I perform for both of us," Nate said during open workouts in New York. "I don’t want to let my team down; my brother down. He helps coach me, and I hope I can go out there and do good and make everyone look good."

Nate Diaz came to the UFC as a work in progress in 2007 and the fact that we’ve watched him experience some growing pains along the way -- while his brother was dominating the competition in EliteXC and Strikeforce -- likely has a lot to do with why we continue to view him as the lesser of two Diazes. Only in recent appearances have we started to see what he’s truly capable of, with his first round submission of Takanori Gomi and thorough beatdown of Donald Cerrone in 2011.

If he defeats Miller to solidify his status as No. 1 contender, we might have to start thinking of him on equal footing with his better known brother. If he becomes UFC champ, well, then he might wake up one day and find himself the more accomplished of the two.

Nate Diaz is 25 minutes and one victory away from a shot at the UFC lightweight title, Dana White revealed on Wednesday. More »

As soon as the judges’ scorecards were read, Ricardo Almeida knew it was time to end his fighting career.

Almeida still believed he could compete against UFC’s top welterweights. What he could no longer do was defeat some of the sport’s questionable judging.

Fighting in his home state of New Jersey on March 19, 2011, at UFC 128, Almeida came out on the short end of a unanimous decision to Mike Pyle.

“As a fighter, I’ve been on the wrong end of a couple of bad decisions, fights I thought I’d won but lost,” Almeida, who spent most of his mixed martial arts career at middleweight, told ESPN.com. “The one closest to my heart is the last fight in Jersey.

“It was close, but I thought I won that fight.”

Rather than be victimized by another "bad" decision, Almeida decided to take off his gloves for good. He might have lost to Pyle, but he wasn’t done fighting. Almeida was just getting started.

You know the saying, "if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em"? Well, Almeida took that saying to heart and, shortly after his loss to Pyle, became an MMA judge with the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board.

The experience has been satisfying and eye-opening for Almeida, who has a newfound appreciation for some of the obstacles judges must overcome while scoring fights.

“Personally, it’s just giving back to a sport that has given a lot to my life,” Almeida said. “[NJSACB attorney] Nick Lembo invited me and I’ve had a great relationship with the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board and I accepted right away.

“What people don’t understand is that the view a judge has watching the fight isn’t the same view fans have watching on TV. It’s hard; it’s a different perspective.”

A judge’s vision can sometimes be obstructed by poles, referees and poor seating angles, which strengthens Almeida’s belief that former fighters are best equipped to score today’s action.

“There is always going to be controversy, but the more we can get guys who understand what’s going on inside the Octagon, the results are going to be a little more consistent,” Almeida said. “Another side of it is that the sport is evolving so quickly that a lot of fans don’t even understand the sport now.”

For a little more than a year, Almeida has been fine-tuning his skills as a professional MMA judge. On Saturday night he gets to show off what he’s learned on the sport’s grandest stage --UFC on Fox at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J.

Almeida will score several bouts on that card, including the co-main event which pits welterweight Johny Hendricks against Josh Koscheck.

His presence as a judge has already garnered support from the fighters.

“He’s going to know a little bit more about the sport,” Hendricks said during a recent conference call. “He’ll know what position really means, and he’ll know when a strike actually lands.”

Koscheck added: “It’s good for the sport. It gets the perspective of a fighter, someone who’s been in the Octagon and knows jiu-jitsu and knows wrestling and understands the sport.

“As this sport grows we’re going to see more ex-UFC fighters become judges. It’s a good start.”

This will be the biggest night of Almeida’s young career as a judge. While he is judging the fighters’ performances, others are sure to judge his.

But with several events under his belt -- among them, Cage Fury Fighting Championships, Ring of Combat and Bellator Fighting Championships -- Judge Almeida is fully prepared for his UFC debut.

“It will be pretty intense, but I will be on my toes with this UFC event, because I know all eyes are going to be on me,” Almeida said.

“Yeah, I’m going to be nervous. It’ll be like I’m walking into a fight myself. But the spotlight only makes me want to be sharper and do a better job.”

In addition to his knowledge of MMA, Almeida also brings his high level of integrity. Some might question if having Almeida judge fights is a conflict of interest. He still runs his gym in Hamilton, N.J., where several high-profile fighters train, including former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

No worries; Almeida will never be assigned to judge a bout that has a direct impact on one of his fighters.

“Obviously that is not going to happen,” Lembo told ESPN.com. “There are disclosure forms and conflict of interest forms that every official has to fill out. If anything, Ricardo has voluntarily disclosed some things that I didn’t even think, as the commission attorney, disqualified him.

“That’s one of the reasons why he’s not on that [Nate Diaz-Jim Miller] fight. Diaz has a [Cesar] Gracie connection and Miller’s side [American Martial Arts] also has a connection to Renzo Gracie.”

Miller and Diaz are competing in a lightweight bout that could land the winner a shot at the title. Champion Benson Henderson is tentatively slated to face Edgar in a rematch on Aug. 11 at UFC 150. Almeida and Edgar are closely affiliated with Renzo Gracie.

“I don’t want to be part of a fight where there is any conflict of interest of any kind,” Almeida said. “I’ve trained with Jim Miller and we’re very close with Nate Diaz.”

Knowledge, enthusiasm and integrity: Almeida will bring it all with him as a judge Saturday. Besides, he’s developed into a solid judge, according to his superiors.

“He’s been very good or we wouldn’t use him,” Lembo said. “We’re not using him because he’s Ricardo Almeida; that doesn’t do use any good.

“We’re not in the business of selling tickets or getting media attention; we’re in the business of trying to assure the health and safety of the fighters, and provide the best officiating that we can.”

A lot of things should go into booking Benson Henderson’s next fight, beginning with marketability and ending with scruples.

Does the UFC book an immediate rematch with a very deserving Frankie Edgar? Or do they give the shot to Anthony Pettis, who was the last man to defeat Henderson back at WEC 58?

Never mind the merits of Nate Diaz and Jim Miller for the time being. They are set up on a distant horizon, too distant to factor into a demanding public’s want of matchmaking immediacy.

And still, both situations are complicated.

If the UFC eschews Edgar’s request for a rematch, it looks like he’s getting a raw deal for a guy who has been nothing but a model champion for the last two years. Did he complain about having to back up his victory over B.J. Penn? Under his breath, maybe. He also handled the Maynard series with the kind of professionalism that fans could get used to. For all his deeds, how can the UFC simply ignore the case he’s presenting for rematch in a fight that was so close enough as to warrant one?

There are plenty of reasons, and most weigh around 155 pounds.

The fact that Edgar has been involved in consecutive rematches at the top of the lightweight division means it’s been off limits to contenders for going on two years. That’s a long time to hijack a division, fair or not. For one disgruntled former champion, there’s a mob scene going on just below him of people who have their own cases to hear. The perpetual logjam at the top at 155 pounds isn’t Edgar’s fault, or Pettis’s, for that matter. Or Jim Miller’s, or Melvin Guillard’s, or Donald Cerrone’s.

If the UFC books Edgar/Henderson II, all the contenders who have been looking for an opening for that belt will effectively be snubbed yet again. “What’s right?” Edgar asked at the postfight news conference at UFC 144, meaning he’s done right by the UFC, and now it’s time for the UFC to do right by him.

Maybe so, but “what’s right?” in this case is a complicated question.

And of all the wayside contenders to lose out in a new rematch scenario, Pettis would be the one most affronted. He was the one who lost out on the last rematch scenario. Remember, it was the reigning WEC lightweight champ Pettis who came into the UFC as the No. 1 contender to fight the Maynard/Edgar winner to start 2011. When the fight went to a draw, Pettis, who was then 23 years old, didn’t want to sit out and wait and so took a stay-busy fight with Clay Guida. Then he lost, and that set him back a full year. Now he knocks out Joe Lauzon and re-establishes himself as a (less clear-cut) No. 1 contender, and his reward could be to stand aside again.

Or to take a fight and stay busy while this thing sorts out.

That’s not an ideal situation to be in once, much less twice. People fight to make money, but also to earn a chance at a belt. That’s the ultimate goal, and at some point it becomes a goal held in vain when no opening in the title picture can be found.

So what does the UFC do? Does it book the rematch with Henderson and Edgar, and do what’s right by one deserving man? Or does it open the belt up for business, and allow Pettis to finally walk toward the light?

Tricky stuff. But you can see why Dana White is so bent on having Edgar drop down to 145 pounds to challenge Jose Aldo. It’s the only scenario where everybody more or less wins -- and traffic can get moving in both divisions.

CHICAGO -- Based on the less-than-favorable receptions former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans receives from fans whenever he is introduced, it’s safe to say that most don’t care for him much.

But whether fans like Evans or not, no one can say the man doesn’t speak his mind. Evans can be brutally honest about his feelings toward whoever happens to be his opponent, or potential opponent, for a given event.

Fast-rising Phil Davis is the man who now gets to hear Evans’ personal thoughts about him. And considering the statements Evans has uttered in recent weeks, he doesn’t have a favorable opinion of the man who will oppose him Saturday night in the Octagon at UFC on Fox 2.

But unlike Quinton Jackson and Jon Jones, both of whom Evans dislikes personally, his dislike to Davis isn't personal. It's just business.

“A fight is a fight. And sometimes it’s easier to fight somebody when you don’t like them,” Evans said during a news conference on Friday. “For the most part I’ve really got nothing against Phil, but we have to fight each other so I have a lot against him right now.”

Finding a reason to dislike Davis is difficult. He is one of the kindest guys in the sport and never has a harsh word to say to anyone.

But after digging, Evans fought something negative to pin on Davis: His resume. As far as Evans is concerned, Davis has no business in the cage with him at this time. Evans prides himself on facing the best fighters at 205 pounds, and he doesn't believe Davis fits the criteria.

“Phil is just a nice guy,” Evans said during a recent conference call. “He’s not a fighter. He’s an athlete, a great athlete, but not a fighter. He has no killer instinct for this and he’s got no experience at this level.

“He’s never fought at heavyweight like I had to [on “The Ultimate Fighter” 2] to get into the UFC. He didn’t get punched by Chuck Liddell and Jackson like I did.

“He’s not had to dig deep at all. He’s in deep water, and I’m the shark.”

White not buying Lawal’s denials

Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal vehemently denies ever taking an anabolic steroid, despite a recent positive test result administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Lawal tested positive for Drostanolone.

“I’m very surprised about this,” Lawal told ESPN.com’s Josh Gross earlier this month. “I’m very careful about what I put in my body. I’ve never tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. I’ve gone through, and still welcome, Olympic-style testing.

“I will do whatever is necessary to get to the bottom of this.”

But UFC president Dana White isn’t moved by Lawal’s passionate pleas. White wants Lawal to take a different approach.

“If you get caught doing something, admit you did it,” White told ESPN.com. “This whole, ‘somebody put something in my system that I didn’t know about.’ ... Who here lets somebody put s--- in them that you don’t know about?

“I don’t buy that s---. Own up to what you did. Everybody makes mistakes.”

White went on to say that Lawal or any fighter who tests positive for a performance-enhancing drug and fails to admit the error of his ways risks never again fighting in a Zuffa-promoted event.

So what does the future hold for Lawal or former Strikeforce women’s featherweight titleholder Cristaine Santos, who also recently tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug earlier this month?

“I don’t know,” White said. “It depends on how they handle themselves. We will see.”

Title shot likely for Miller-Diaz winner

It’s too soon to start calling the lightweight showdown between Jim Miller and Nate Diaz a title eliminator, but that is likely to be the case when they step inside the cage May 5 in East Rutherford, N.J.

“Obviously the guy who wins that fight will probably get a shot at the title,” White told ESPN.com.

But White isn’t quite ready to completely remove former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis from the No. 1 title-contender discussion. Pettis will face Joe Lauzon at UFC 144 in Japan on Feb. 25.

When asked about Pettis’ status, White said: “I don’t know. We’ll see.”

While the Miller-Diaz winner has a good chance of fighting for the lightweight title, the fight won’t headline the UFC on Fox 3 card. White said he is still working to put a high-profile main event together for that event.

Feel-good stories in MMA are hard to sustain, and even harder to get off the ground. As quick and cobbled as the story of the Blackzilians is being put together as a sort of wrecking crew/adoption agency, old tendencies are returning to its fighters.

This isn’t a happy trend.

One week ago, Anthony Johnson failed to make weight (by a country mile) in Rio de Janeiro at UFC 142, marking the third time in two different weight classes he’s showed up to the scale way over. He was cut for the third strike after losing to Vitor Belfort. Now Melvin Guillard, who recently relocated to Florida full-time to train with the Blackzilians, gets submitted in a round by Jim Miller.

If any of this looks familiar it’s because he was tapped by Joe Lauzon in his previous fight at UFC 136, which was thought to be something of a winking aberration. Turns out it wasn’t, and it never really was. The fact is that nine of Guillard’s 10 losses have come via submission. The other fight he lost (against Jake Short in 2004) was a decision. Guillard has never been knocked out, but he dangles neck and limb out there to be snatched while pursuing knockouts.

His fixation is leaving him vulnerable. For as much as it’s fun to watch Guillard’s aggression, it plays out like roulette.

Yet the case of Guillard is interesting, because so many people -- coaches, fans, honchos at Zuffa -- see him as a fighter that’s a few tweaks from being a champion. He has the quicks and athleticism to rival any lightweight, and arguably the strongest hands in the division. There’s no doubting his explosiveness. In fact, he had Miller in trouble early by landing some big shots. Then again, lapses in judgment have always hindered him, both in and out of the cage. And those lapses in judgment in the cage put him in all kinds of hot water against smart grapplers, the kind who feast on mistakes.

Lauzon told me that he was leery of four offensive moves that Guillard presented, and he had them easily memorized before their fight. He saw all of them in the 47 seconds they stood across from each other. As for the defensive side of the equation? No worries at all -- Guillard trends offensively. He trusts his offense enough to override any specific holes in his submission defense.

And at this point that sort of thinking is the problem unless he’s fighting somebody who accommodates him by not playing jiu-jitsu.

Against wrestlers (Shane Roller, Evan Dunham, Waylon Lowe), Guillard does fine. Against guys who like to stand and bang (Jeremy Stephens, Dennis Siver), he’s right at home. But against submission specialists (Nate Diaz, Joe Lauzon, Jim Miller), guys who can force mistakes or at the very least pounce on them, he gets caught.

After the Miller choke, ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto suggested Guillard needed to be locked in a room with some black belts for a year, then he’d return a champion. Whether that’s true or not, it couldn’t hurt.

But the mistakes are the thing. Against Miller it was an ill-timed flying knee that allowed the grappler to get things to the ground. From there it was clinical -- just as Miller went to mount, Guillard scrambled and gave up his back. Seconds later, he was tapping.

This has become a recurring theme for Guillard, who for just a little while at Greg Jackson’s Academy in Albuquerque seemed to have found a balance in his game that might be described best as “smart aggressiveness.” The thing that Jackson and striking coach Mike Winkeljohn were working on with Guillard was ultimately judgment, with a broader focus on his maturity. He was riding a five-fight winning streak when he left Jackson’s for Boca Raton midway through training for Lauzon. Up until then, he was beating wrestlers and boxers.

Since then he’s 0-2 against jiu-jitsu aces. Losing the way he did long before he got to Jackson’s.

Would it have mattered if he’d stayed in New Mexico? Who knows. But Guillard is a work in progress, and it’s been a pretty lousy week for the Blackzilians.

NASHVILLE -- It’s time for Jim Miller to get a title shot.

Of all the marquee names that make up the top of the 155-pound division, none should be higher right now than Miller’s. The division has a great title fight in line next month between Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson. Regardless of who wins, Miller should be next.

The six-year veteran did exactly what we’ve come to expect of him Friday, turning in a rock-solid performance with a first-round submission win over Melvin Guillard.

Afterward, Miller refused to cry for title shots -- it's not his style. Even when he was riding a seven-fight win streak in 2011, Miller shied away from explicitly saying, "Me next."

This time, however, he didn’t have to. Guillard did it for him at the news conference.

“You can’t count Frankie in this because he’s No. 1, but at the end of the day, me and Jim Miller are the best two guys in this division,” Guillard told ESPN.com.

“We’re two guys people run from. People are not lining up to fight me and Jim. I admire Jim Miller. Facing him, I was probably the most nervous I’ve been in a long time.”

If the one reason Miller (21-3) can’t fight for the title in his next fight is that he lost to Henderson in August, sorry, that’s not enough. Just as it’s not in his personality to call for title shots, Miller is also not one to make excuses -- even though he had a legitimate one for that performance.

During training camp for that fight, Miller contracted mononucleosis. In the days leading up to the event, he came down with a kidney infection as a result of a difficult weight cut.

Miller downplays the effect both ailments had on his performance, saying he should have been able to adjust his gameplan to overcome it. He points to the fact that, despite those challenges, he nearly caught Henderson in multiple submissions.

That ability to regularly catch opponents in potentially fight-ending scenarios is what, Miller believes, will allow him to eventually win and hang onto the belt.

“I train to be dangerous,” Miller said. “In my last fight I had Ben in serious trouble half a dozen times. It would have taken just little adjustments to end the fight. I know I can put guys in trouble.”

It’s not that it isn’t a close race at the top of the division. To suggest guys like Anthony Pettis, Joe Lauzon, Nate Diaz and Clay Guida aren’t firmly in the title hunt is inaccurate.

No one has built a case better, however, than Miller. If he is not next in line, the UFC should at least allow him to fight the one who perceivably is.

Edgar has garnered a lot of respect for his ability to rally back from difficult starts -- just see both fights against Maynard. On Friday, Miller demonstrated the same type of heart, overcoming a combination from Guillard, which had him rocked in the first minute.

Following the win, Miller admitted he didn’t even remember the final sequence of taking Guillard’s back and locking in the rear-naked choke.

“I don’t really remember much of it, to be honest,” he said. “I kind of went into work-mode. I don’t know how I took his back. I just knew I wanted to squeeze as hard as I could once I had it.”

Miller might not have initially remembered much about the win, but hopefully the UFC does -- and rewards him accordingly.

When it comes to ranking UFC lightweights, it’s Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson. After that, it gets tricky.

Hopefully that task gets easier Friday, when Melvin Guillard meets Jim Miller in the main event of the first UFC card to air on FX.

It’s a fight that, had it happened six months ago, would have likely produced a No. 1 contender. Midway through 2011, Miller was riding one of the longest active win streaks in the UFC at seven. Guillard was right behind with five.

As it turns out now, though, this is no top contender fight. Both lightweights closed out the year with a loss. Guillard was submitted in 47 seconds by Joe Lauzon, which was only slightly more deflating than the one-sided decision loss Miller suffered at the hands of Henderson.

If one of these guys isn’t the next challenger to the lightweight belt, however, who is? Nate Diaz began the year as a welterweight. Gray Maynard just had a shot; two actually. Donald Cerrone, Clay Guida, Anthony Pettis -- all have recent losses.

For that reason, Guillard (29-9-2) says going strictly off talent and quality of wins, it’s not crazy to suggest Friday should still be a top contender fight.

“Being fair, I see myself beating Jim and then fighting immediately for the title,” Guillard told ESPN.com. “But other people’s opinion matters. To fans, a win over Jim Miller doesn’t solidify me as a top contender. If that did happen, I would have to deal with fans telling me it’s not fair and that I’m not ready.

“But I think it’s the No. 1 contender fight. You look at the talent pool in 155 and, hands down, me and Jim are the top two guys.”

Miller (20-3), who believes he was one win away from a title shot before the loss to Henderson, offered a slightly different picture. With Maynard having lost only to the champion and Diaz’s impressive showing against Cerrone, Miller admitted he had likely fallen behind those names.

“Gray’s only loss was to Frankie, so you probably have to have him still at No. 3,” Miller said. “Diaz put himself way up there. He just won and my last fight was a loss, so I’d put him ahead of me right now.

“It’s so dense at the top. I’m looking for tough fights. I’m trying to earn that spot again.”

The truth is there likely isn’t a wrong answer here. So little separates each of the top lightweights, the next title contender will be the one who finds a way to stand out. Diaz stood out at the end of 2011. Guillard and Miller have the opportunity to at the start of 2012.

Talking on his loss to Henderson, Miller described it as “a detour more than a setback.” Even though the winner of this fight is likely still one fight away from the belt, the detour doesn’t have to be a long one.

“Before Donald lost, I thought he’d be next,” Guillard said. “Now you’ve got Nate creeping back up. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.

“Maybe it will take one more fight; maybe another. I don’t know. But I want it to be in 2012, because that’s when I said I’d win the title.”

Miller would welcome Aldo, but not weight cut

With the UFC running out of viable options for featherweight champion Jose Aldo, we could see more lightweights make the jump in search of a quicker title path.

Miller, however, says he won’t be one of them.

As badly as the seven-year veteran wants to hold his first UFC title, Miller told ESPN.com that cutting to 145 pounds is not a realistic option. He’s done so just once in his career, for a fight in 2006.

“At that time, I only walked around at 162 pounds,” Miller said. “I’ll push 180 pounds now. I’d love the opportunity to fight Aldo. It’s out of respect. That’s the kind of challenge I like, but I have no plans on dropping the weight.

“Wait until he makes the move to lightweight, then I want a crack at him.”

Guillard says impatience, not overconfidence, led to loss

Following the quick loss to Lauzon at UFC 136, some accused Guillard of having zero respect for his opponent, illustrated by the way he danced his way to the Octagon.

Guillard told ESPN.com he actually asked to fight Lauzon because of his respect for him and downplayed any attention critics placed on his pre-fight behavior.

“I always walk out like that,” Guillard said. “Actually, I never know exactly how I’m going to walk out until that moment comes. That’s just walking out of a tunnel. I didn’t know walking out of a tunnel was such a big deal to a fight.”

What did cost him, Guillard said, was he tried to make things happen too early in the fight. To help him increase his patience, both in the cage and in personal matters, Guillard enlisted the help of a sports psychologist for the first time after the loss.

That doesn’t mean, however, he’s restraining the aggressive style that’s come to define him. Guillard says he’ll always be a high pace, knockout-style fighter. He’s just focusing more on the little things that facilitate the finish.

“Don’t worry,” Guillard said. “I’m not going to be a boring fighter. I would kick my own self in the back of the head if I ever became a boring fighter.”

Headed into their Friday night main event on the FX network, Jim Miller and Melvin Guillard have more in common than you might think.

Miller and Guillard are both 28 years old and both are longtime veterans of the UFC lightweight division; Miller with 11 fights inside the Octagon since 2008 and Guillard with 15 dating back to 2005. Both were assumed to be on the verge of top contender status before suffering upset losses during 2011 and now each faces a road back to the top that will be either greatly hastened or seriously complicated by what happens when they get locked in the cage together come Jan. 20.

The winner arguably gets shuffled back to somewhere near the top of the deck, where another win or two could finally earn him a chance to fight for Frankie Edgar’s 155-pound title. At least, that’s the future Miller and Guillard both said they envision for themselves this week. The loser? Well, the loser inherits the unenviable position of having lost two consecutive bouts in MMA’s most competitive division.

Translation: Both Miller and Guillard pretty desperately need to win this one.

Their fight will be the gem atop an otherwise fairly lackluster card -- one that made it look like the UFC was easing into the FX pool one toe at a time even before it was scrambled by a slew of injuries -- not only because of their respective talents (which are many), but also because of the stakes.

It took Miller, for example, seven straight victories and nearly three years to work himself into an assumed title eliminator against Ben Henderson last August. Once there -- just like Evan Dunham, George Sotiropoulos and Anthony Pettis before him -- he slipped up, dropping a unanimous decision to Henderson that shocked many observers in it sheer lopsidedness.

Despite the loss, Miller maintained a spot in the ESPN.com lightweight top 10 and if he can defeat Guillard this week, he’ll likely vault right back onto the short list of contenders. If he comes up short again, however, all bets might be off. Certainly it wouldn’t take seven more wins to get him back into consideration, but with the way the sands of the 155-pound division are constantly shifting beneath everyone’s feet, it’s a chance he doesn’t want to take.

Things could be even more dire for Guillard, whose path to the division’s upper echelon included more setbacks and pitfalls. Once there, his fall from the top was also more precipitous than Miller’s; Guillard tumbled out of the top 10 completely after a first-round tap out by Joe Lauzon at UFC 136, a loss that came amid grumblings that "The Young Assassin" may have overlooked his underdog opponent.

In the wake of that defeat, Guillard has reportedly parted amicably with trainer Greg Jackson -- the man he previously credited as the chief architect of his rise -- and set up shop with Rashad Evans’ Florida-based crew.

A loss here would only further cast doubt on Guillard’s ability to win the big one and raise questions over his decision to split with a camp where’d found so much success. Given the stop-start nature of his initial march to contendership, it stands to reason that back-to-back losses could be even more damaging for his future prospects than they would be for Miller.

Considering each guy’s relative youth, a defeat this week would hardly be a backbreaker, but rather would only compound the troubles they’re currently experiencing. For either to get a sniff of the UFC lightweight title before he turns 30 though, a win is probably a must.

When the lightweight title picture was in a knot early this summer, Benson Henderson was on the distant outside -- so far outside, in fact, he couldn’t even look in. Ahead of him were Jim Miller, Melvin Guillard, Anthony Pettis, Clay Guida and a theoretical wild card in Gilbert Melendez, who was actively lobbying to come over to the UFC from Strikeforce. Meanwhile, Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar took nine long months to play out while all the back-breathing competition played musical chairs.

As we roll through fall, Henderson emerges as the No. 1 contender in the division by beating Guida in a purposefully downplayed eliminator. It’s an improbable scenario: his acceleration toward Edgar was as stealthy as it was impressive. And for as quiet as he made his way, he couldn’t have been louder in how he did it.

Henderson dominated Miller for three rounds to scramble the contenders back up, then methodically engaged a dervish-like Guida and showcased his entire range. Guida-Henderson was everything people suspected it would be -- back and forth, wire-to-wire action with shutter speed reversals of fortune and whiplashing hair.

It was the greatest fight to ever be as neglected. While millions tuned in for the network debut of the UFC on Fox, Guida-Henderson was relegated to Facebook and Fox Sports en Espanol. The promotion’s deepest division finally found clarity, while its most glamorous -- the heavyweights -- stole the spotlight.

In an early exchange, Henderson downed Guida, who looked to brawl from the get-go like he did with Diego Sanchez when the two met in June 2009. When Guida dug in to toil on the fence, grabbing the double-leg takedown that doomed Pettis -- defaulting to the wrestling that got him here -- Henderson turned into Plastic Man. At one point in the first round, Henderson did a full split to keep from going on his back. That’s a rubberband man component that changes leverage perceptions and maddens game plans.

In the rare times Guida got him down, Henderson was back on his feet in moments. When Guida went for his neck on a couple of occasions, guillotines that for brief moments looked dangerous, Henderson would end up in his own dominant position seconds later. Near the end of the second round, he went from his neck being hung to a body triangle and threatening a rear-naked choke of his own in a few dizzying moments. The whole fight passed in a such a way. Henderson just had too much in his arsenal for Guida to keep up.

After taking the fight unanimously -- 30-27 twice, 29-28 -- Henderson made his call out, saying, “Frankie Edgar, we’ve got a date -- let’s do it baby.” And that’s where we have arrived after a bottleneck 2011 at 155 pounds. The former WEC lightweight champion is making a play for the UFC strap. Not that long ago he was on the wrong end of a highlight reel to Pettis’ Showtime kick in the final WEC show; now he looks like the definitive challenger to Edgar.

And that’s something we haven’t been able to contemplate all year, just who would be the next to challenge for the lightweight belt. Now we know it’s Henderson, who has fought eight of his nine Zuffa battles on free television or on Internet feeds. Here’s guessing this becomes the end of an era, that the UFC will make a "Smooth" transition to pay-per-view from here on out.

Just looking over the inventory of possible lightweights to contend for Frankie Edgar’s belt, it came down to three names -- Gilbert Melendez, Clay Guida and Ben Henderson. That much was obvious on Saturday after Melvin Guillard fell through a hatch.

Yet, just as Melendez was getting some legs behind his campaign for the shot, Strikeforce -- of all entities! -- announced that the originally planned Jorge Masvidal fight would indeed happen on Dec. 17, just like it told us all along (tentatively, written in pencil on a piece of driftwood for everyone to see).

This was a big buzzkill for unificationists. Realistically, though, all is as it should be.

Melendez would have made -- and one day will make -- for an intriguing bout against Edgar. You’ve got the velvet rope coming down between champions, the clash of styles, East Coast versus West Coast, El Nino threatening the Jersey Shore, all of that. But right now Guida/Bendo are wearing promise rings. And if we’re talking in terms of merit, no matter which guy emerges from Nov. 12 with the victory, why, he’ll have that too.

Through no fault of his own, you’d have to jog your memory to recollect Melendez’s last fight in April. He beat Tatsuya Kawajiri at the 3:14 mark of the first round. It was a reunion with his elbows, and it was very impressive -- but that means for 2011, Melendez has fought for a very impressive three minutes and change. He fought just once in 2009, too, a five-round unanimous decision over Shinya Aoki.

Those are solid wins, but what Melendez picked up in quality he loses in quantity. Had he been booked sooner than Dec. 17, as was threatened by Strikeforce on numerous occasions, things might be different.

Guida and Henderson will each fight in their third bout of 2011 when they meet. Guida got through Anthony Pettis (the No. 1 contender at the time) and Takanori Gomi; Henderson beat Jim Miller (the No. 1 contender at the time) and Mark Bocek.

Since they both eliminated the top contender at a time when the lightweight division was being held up for ransom, they have to fight each other. The man that emerges in that fight will have traveled a long, long way to get there -- through limbos, through dimly lit passageways, through a gauntlet of guys the UFC could muster. During that time, Melendez’s biggest battle has been against ennui. He should defend his belt one more time for old time's sake because, let's face it, that belt will soon become theoretical anyway.

It's guaranteed Melendez gets on a more regular schedule with the UFC after Masvidal. And speaking of Masvidal -- the Pluto figure in "who’s next for Edgar debate" -- didn’t he beat down K.J. Noons with a vague promise that his next fight would be for the Strikeforce belt? That was in June, when things with Strikeforce were already in the advanced stages of vague. He deserves his chance to do what Guida did to Pettis, what Henderson did to Miller, and what Joe Lauzon just did to Guillard.

That is, make this whole debate laughable.

Being at the doorstep of a lightweight title shot has some questioning Melvin Guillard’s desire to fight Joe Lauzon at UFC 136 Saturday night in Houston.

It’s well-documented that Guillard has an affinity for Houston, where he lived for a few years after Hurricane Katrina devastated his hometown of New Orleans in 2005. But after his first-round knockout of Shane Roller in July, he could have requested a spot on the UFC Fight Night Live card last month. That card was held in New Orleans.

“I didn’t want to fight in New Orleans because [UFC 136] is a stacked card,” Guillard told ESPN.com. “It’s an all-star card. And I want to be able to outshine everybody on this card. I want to make sure that everybody knows I am the real deal.”

But will an impressive victory over Lauzon raise many eyebrows? Lauzon has talent, but is regarded by most as a middle-of-the-pack lightweight. He isn’t in anyone’s top-10 lightweight rankings and his name doesn't comes up when the topic of title contention arises. Is taking on Lauzon for the sake of competing in Houston really worth sacrificing a lightweight title shot?

“Joe Lauzon is a very tough competitor,” Guillard said. “He’s very good in jiu-jitsu. There is a lot of risk going into this fight.

“I’ve been in this sport for 15½ years. And it’s not like I haven’t been taking risks these 15½ years that I’ve been fighting. I was taking risks before there was a UFC for me. I was taking risks trying to get to the UFC. It doesn’t matter to me, I’m a risk-taker. I live my life on chances.”

Some would call Guillard’s logic foolish, especially on the heels of what happened to Jim Miller, who was on the cusp of a lightweight title shot and could have sat on the sideline until UFC matchmaker Joe Silva called his name. Instead, he opted to stay busy and agreed to fight Benson Henderson in August.

Henderson defeated Miller by unanimous decision, and now the former WEC 155-pound champ finds himself in the UFC title mix. Miller is no longer being considered for a title shot at this time.

Guillard, however, doesn’t fault Miller for deciding to remain active. He applauds Miller and others like him who refuse to accept shortcuts to the top.

“There are guys in the UFC who have had three, four or five title shots,” Guillard said. “Some of them have choked and still haven’t gotten a title after getting three tries.

“If something happens and I don’t make it to a title shot, I expect to be put back in the barrel and shaken around and put back in the mix like everybody else,” Guillard said. “I don’t expect to get right back to the top of the heap.

“You have to fight your way toward the top. Some guys are getting their hands held; they’re getting babied. And they still can’t capture the ultimate thing -- that’s the belt. I feel in my heart that if I fight for it and earn it people will respect me a lot more. The fans will respect me. There are guys getting title shots right now and the fans are still questioning if they are that good.”