ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

It never matters to Roy Nelson who UFC officials offer as an opponent. He always accepts.

Nelson will fight any heavyweight, anywhere, anytime. He is a throwback: the type who loves mixing it up. He also enjoys putting on exciting fights, which was evident Saturday night in Newark, N.J.

At UFC 159, Nelson delivered a performance fight fans will remember for a long time -- knocking out Cheick Kongo in the first round with a beautifully placed overhand right.

Kongo immediately went down and was unconscious. Nelson delivered one more punch for good measure, but he didn’t throw it with much force. He didn’t want Kongo getting back to his feet, but was compassionate enough to consider the serious damage that might have been done with a very powerful punch.

That’s Nelson, always thinking of others, be it the fighters or fans -- especially fans. Whenever he steps in the cage, Nelson wants his fans to be entertained, which is exactly what he did at Prudential Center.

And the sellout crowd of 15,227 showed Nelson its appreciation by giving him the evening’s loudest ovation. Nelson responded to the cheers by jumping atop the Octagon at several different locations to directly address fans in every section of the arena.

It was a great night for Nelson, but the fun wasn’t quite over with his victory.

In addition to his pleasing fight, Nelson also wants a shot at the UFC heavyweight title. And he figured the best way to put his name in the title conversation was with an impressive performance against Kongo.

Nelson came through big time, which got the attention UFC president Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva.

“Me and Joe never talk about next fights on nights of the fights, but we talked tonight,” White said Saturday night. “And we like Roy Nelson versus [Daniel] Cormier, or Roy Nelson, if Mark Hunt wins [at UFC 160], Roy and Mark.

“If [Roy] wants to get close to the title, those are the guys he has to fight. I know he wants a title shot, and I honestly think he deserves to get a fight with one of the top guys to get him closer to that or get him a title shot.”

The words were music to Nelson’s ears. He had a huge smile on his face each time White made reference to his immediate fighting future. Now he’s at least one bout from realizing his goal of fighting for the UFC heavyweight title.

But here’s the kicker: If Nelson is serious about landing his title shot sooner rather than later -- and sooner is always better, because title shots are very hard to come by -- he must do whatever is necessary to make certain that Cormier is his next opponent. A victory over Cormier, especially if it is impressive, will place him among the top three contenders in the heavyweight rankings. No doubt about it.

Both ESPN.com and UFC.com currently rank Cormier as the No. 2 heavyweight contender, right behind former titleholder Junior dos Santos, who faces Hunt at UFC 160 on May 25 in Las Vegas.

“

... if he gets past [Junior dos Santos], that would be great. If he doesn't, I'd still fight Mark Hunt because the fans want to see that one.

” -- Roy Nelson

An upset of dos Santos won’t catapult Hunt into the top contender spot. Hunt will not surpass Cormier in the rankings, nor is he likely to jump ahead of Alistair Overeem or Fabricio Werdum.

As of Monday, Nelson was ahead of Hunt in the UFC.com heavyweight rankings -- Nos. 6 and 9, respectively. Hunt could move ahead of Nelson with an upset of dos Santos, making a showdown between them more intriguing.

The winner of that fight, however, will have a hard sell convincing UFC officials he deserves an immediate title shot. But a win over Cormier and Nelson is right there knocking at the champion’s door.

“I want to fight the best in the world. And fighting Daniel, you know, he’s an Olympian, I’d like to welcome him to UFC,” Nelson said after his win Saturday night. “As for Mark Hunt, if he gets past [dos Santos] that would be great. If he doesn’t, I’d still fight Mark Hunt because the fans want to see that one.

“I’m all about making everybody happy.”

It’s very noble of Nelson to consider the fans, but it would be a mistake on his part to bypass a shot at Cormier. The risk is greater, but so is the reward. And knowledgeable fight fans would be more interested in witnessing this high-profile bout than a slugfest between him and Hunt.

Besides, Cormier has already endorsed the idea of facing Nelson.

“Hey Dana you’re right, Roy Nelson and I would be a damn good fight,” Cormier said on Twitter after hearing White’s fight proposal. “How about it [Roy]?”

White and Silva are likely to put the ball in Nelson’s court in the next few weeks. And it is in Nelson’s best interest not to drop it.

Times like this, we’re reminded of words from the great philosopher Ferris Bueller, who warned us in his landmark 1986 work that, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Mixed martial arts fans who took an eye off the ball for even a moment this week might’ve missed the whirlwind saga leading up to Saturday’s confirmation that, yes, Mark Hunt will indeed face Junior dos Santos at UFC 160 in May.

Even by the standards of our sport’s frenzied (and often absurd) news cycle, this story was a doozy. It moved so quickly and changed so many times it was hard to track using old-fashioned methods like the written word.

Believe me, I know, this is the fourth time I’ve written this blog.

It began on Wednesday, with a vocal faction of fans virtually quaking with excitement at the notion Hunt might step in for the injured Alistair Overeem to take on dos Santos, in what might well turn out to be a heavyweight title eliminator. As groundswells nearly always do in MMA, the idea began on social media and the chorus quickly spread to include a handful of journalists who all thought Hunt was perfectly fit for a replacement role.

Things got dicey on Thursday when a short-lived Twitter kerfuffle briefly appeared to put UFC president Dana White and the 38-year-old “Super Samoan” at odds. For the sake of brevity, here’s a recap of the situation in fewer than 140 characters: After the UFC announced JDS would wait for Overeem, White said it was because Hunt turned down the fight. Hunt disagreed. Hence: An impasse.

It was all very breathless stuff, especially since just a day before, when the idea of Hunt-versus-dos Santos first began making the rounds online, Hunt told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani to bring it on. “I'm always down for a battle,” he said. “I was born down. You know this." After Hunt responded to White’s statements with tweets insisting he’d never turned down a fight in his career, it appeared as if we had a veritable MMA soap opera playing out before our very public eyes.

It lasted all of an hour. One of the UFC’s specialties has always been putting out fires and this one took just 14 words to diffuse: “Mark Hunt and I just got off the phone and had a GREAT conversation,” White tweeted late Thursday night, just as the Internet gossip mavens began to sink their teeth in.

So, crisis resolved. The UFC and the most surprising heavyweight star on its roster were back on the same page. A day or so after that, here we are: Hunt-JDS is back on, too.

Thank goodness.

Even though we took a roundabout path to get here, booking this fight was the right move.

There would have been nothing wrong with waiting for Overeem to get healthy, of course. His bout with dos Santos would still have had all the trappings of an epic showdown whenever and wherever it finally happened. Still, elevating Hunt is a slam dunk, especially knowing the UFC’s distaste for delays, its fondness for guys who’ll “step up” when needed and its track record for giving its fans the fights they want to see.

There can be no denying that Hunt has earned this opportunity. His four-fight win streak is the second-longest in the heavyweight top 10, behind only Daniel Cormier’s 11-0 run. He’s captured the imagination and support of fans during the past two years by crafting one of the sport’s most improbable comeback stories. So far, he’s succeeded in a modern heavyweight landscape in which athletes of his particular ilk -- read: plodding and fairly one dimensional -- aren’t supposed to be up to snuff.

That’s precisely why the ensuing brawl with dos Santos will be so interesting. Because Hunt is such a throwback (and because of the six-fight losing streak that dogged him from 2006-10), there remains some uncertainty about how seriously to take him as a contender.

When he debuted at No. 9 on the ESPN.com heavyweight Power Rankings last week following his third-round knockout of Stefan Struve, it was the kind of thing that made you look twice. Mark Hunt, a top-10 heavyweight? It just sounded wrong, yet there he was on the list -- career .563 winning percentage and all -- sandwiched between Roy Nelson and Josh Barnett.

In fighting JDS, the perennial underdog Hunt gets his chance to prove that he belongs among the 265-pound division’s elite. In a sport where too often it feels like we’re trying to sort out who’s cheating, who’s got beef and who’s about to get cut, this is news we can all feel good about.

Now we just sit back and pray it doesn’t change again before May 25.

Mark Hunt is looking to build on his stoppage of Stefan Struve at the weekend with a crack at the heavyweight title in his sights -- but he's ruled out the possibility of fighting teammate Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva. More »

For the record, when Stefan Struve looks in the mirror, he sees the same thing everyone else sees when they first look at him: a really, really tall guy.

The 7-foot Struve is well aware of the physical advantage he holds in the UFC heavyweight division. He also knows he hasn’t always used that advantage as well as he should. That's the one focus the 25-year-old has right now in his career.

You know your size is unique. Now use it to your advantage.

"When I first got into the UFC, I tried to get the win a little too hard," Struve told ESPN.com. "Sometimes I would fight at their distance and on their terms. That shouldn't be the case with my size. Everybody should be fighting on my terms -- my distance. [In previous fights] I've put myself in position for guys to tee off on me. That shouldn't happen."

Struve (25-5) has been one of the most consistent heavyweights in the UFC in the past three years, winning nine of 12 fights in the Octagon. The three losses, however, have all come in devastating, first-round knockout fashion.

That outcome is certainly a possibility in Struve's upcoming fight against Mark Hunt (8-7), which will serve as the co-main event in this weekend's UFC on Fuel event in Japan. Of Hunt's eight professional wins, five have come via knockout.

Since his last appearance -- a TKO win over Stipe Miocic in September -- Struve says he's added between 15 and 20 pounds of muscle to his frame. On Friday, he plans to actually cut five pounds of water weight to make the 265-pound limit.

The weight gain apparently came somewhat naturally, as Struve says he must have hit a second "growth spurt." He also said he added another daily meal to his diet.

So, does that means he's eating four meals per day?

"Instead of six meals and two shakes, I eat seven meals a day," Struve said. "I'm on a really healthy diet. I lift two to three times per week. I've been working with the same strength coach for four years and the plan was not to gain too fast."

Struve has a similar plan when it comes to the UFC title -- nothing too fast. He quickly accepted Saturday's matchup against Hunt, despite the fact the same fight was scheduled last May, and he's posted two wins since then.

He passes on the opportunity to criticize No. 1 heavyweight contender Antonio Silva, who is set to face Cain Velasquez at UFC 160 despite being dominated by Velasquez less than one year ago. Struve calls the fight, "the most logical choice."

That said, Struve needs no reminder that a win over Hunt would extend his win streak to five. That's tops in the UFC, not counting Strikeforce newcomer Daniel Cormier.

"Anything can happen, so first I want to get my win [on Saturday]," Struve said. "Then we'll see what happens. If I win this fight, I'll be a on a five-fight win streak. I'm the only guy on a five-fight win streak, so I think I have a pretty strong bid to be the top contender."

UFC on Fuel TV 8 takes place from the Saitama Super Arena in Japan this Saturday, the sixth time the UFC has traveled to the “Land of the Rising Sun.” The main event sees Wanderlei Silva battle Brian Stann at light heavyweight while Stefan Struve takes on Mark Hunt in a heavyweight bout. Here are the numbers you need to know for Saturday’s fights:

6: Fights Silva has had against an American fighter since his return to the UFC in 2007. He is 1-5 in those bouts, losing his past four (Rich Franklin twice, Chris Leben and Quinton Jackson). “The All-American” has fought just one Brazilian fighter in his career, defeating Jorge Santiago at UFC 130.

Wanderlei Silva, UFC Career vs. American Fighters:
UFC 147 Rich Franklin L, UD
UFC 132 Chris Leben L, KO
UFC 99 Rich Franklin L, UD
UFC 92 Quinton Jackson L, KO
UFC 84 Keith Jardine W, KO
UFC 79 Chuck Liddell L, UD

6: Times Silva has been defeated by KO or TKO in his 48-fight career. Four of those knockouts have come inside the UFC Octagon, while the other two were his last two PRIDE fights against Dan Henderson and Mirko Filipovic. The "Cro-Cop" fight was the last time Silva fought in Japan, which served as the home for PRIDE organization. Stann has nine KO/TKO wins in 17 career fights.

75: Percent of wins by "The Axe Murderer" that have come by KO or TKO (24 of 32). When Silva defeated Michael Bisping at UFC 110 by unanimous decision, it marked his first win not by KO or TKO since November 2003 at PRIDE: Final Conflict.

3: The combined takedowns by both fighters in their UFC careers (Silva 2, Stann 1). Each fighter attempts less than one takedown and one submission attempt per 15 minutes. In other words, it would be shocking to see this fight go to the ground unless one of the fighters gets knocked down.

2010: The last time former WEC light heavyweight champion Stann fought at 205 pounds, where he is 8-3 in his career. Stann will be dropping back to middleweight after this fight with Silva, where he holds a 4-2 record.

9: The reach advantage for 7-footer Stefan Struve in his co-main event bout against 5-foot-10 Mark Hunt. Struve’s reach is 83 inches while Hunt has a 74-inch reach. The 83-inch reach for Struve is second behind Jon Jones (84.5 inches) for longest reach in the UFC.

9: Wins for Struve inside the UFC Octagon, tied with Junior dos Santos, Gabriel Gonzaga and heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez for third among active heavyweights. With a win, he would join Frank Mir, Cheick Kongo, Andrei Arlovski and Randy Couture as the only UFC fighters with double-digit wins in the division.

Most UFC Wins, Active Heavyweight Fighters:
Frank Mir 14
Cheick Kongo 11
Cain Velasquez 9
Junior dos Santos 9
Gabriel Gonzaga 9
Stefan Struve 9*
*Four-fight win streak

3.9: Submissions attempted per 15 minutes for "The Skyscraper," fifth highest in UFC history and first among heavyweights. "The Super Samoan" has six submission defeats in seven career losses, all arm-related (three by armbar, two by kimura, one by keylock). Of Struve’s 16 submission victories, only three are by armbar (13 submissions by choke).

2: The main and co-main events are the only fights on the card not to feature a fighter from Japan or South Korea. There are nine Asia versus The World contests on the card. Japan is represented by Takanori Gomi, Yushin Okami, Mizuto Hirota, Riki Fukuda, Takeya Mizugaki, and Kazuki Tokudome. The South Koreans are represented in three matchups by Dong Hyun Kim, Kyung Ho Kang and Hyun Gyu Lim.

UFC president Dana White has ruled out the option of having Mark Hunt fight Junior dos Santos for the heavyweight title. More »

Another day, another hot urine test, another busted main event ... and, alas, another (potential) domino sequence. So continues life in the mixed martial arts.

This time it’s Alistair Overeem who raised the red flag, the very same Overeem who eluded such conflict ahead of UFC 141 by simply skipping a mandatory drug test. If nothing else, this is a man who knows how to poke at the chest of scrutiny. Overeem showed up March 27 for the UFC 146 hype conference in Las Vegas apparently unaware that this could be a perfect moment for the Nevada State Athletic Commission to spring a “random” test on him (part of the deal from the Brock Lesnar fight fallout). Out of six heavyweights tested, only Overeem’s came back positive. His testesterone/epitestosterone registered a 14:1 ratio, more than double the particularly generous threshold in Nevada of 6:1.

So much for the biggest fight of his career. And all that promotional material the UFC was creating, the big pay day, the belt he could have added to his collection? Moot.

As Dana White said upon hearing the news, he doesn’t have a plan B. Meaning, at least at the time of this writing, waiting out Overeem’s “B” sample becomes the plan B by default. Problem is, those results could take a couple of weeks to get back, and “B” samples rarely contradict “A” samples anyway. But the show must go on. White has said that dos Santos will defend his title at UFC 146 whether it’s against Overeem or somebody else.

In other words, it’s time to speculate into these somebody else’s, and -- just for theatrical value -- assess their chances in carefully considered odds.

Frank Mir

The NSAC’s Keith Kizer sent out the mass email at 4:40 p.m. ET with the results of the UFC 146 news conference tests. Twitter went wild. At 6:15 ET, Mir released a statement via email saying, “I would be excited if given the opportunity to compete for the UFC’s heavyweight title at UFC 146 if the reports released earlier today regarding Alistair Overeem failing his "A" sample drug test are true.” Mir went on to say it’s a dream of his to be the first three-time champion. He swooped in quicker on a dangling title shot than he did on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s ill-placed limb.

His case: How many times have we heard Dana White say he admires it when guys step up? That’s what Mir’s doing. A no-hesitation lobby job, knowing that out of the full panoramic spectrum of heavies he has the best credentials to get the shot, having won three in a row. He also snapped dos Santos’ friend Big Nog’s arm, which makes him a sort of dark cloud gathering over the champion.

Chances of him getting it: 2-1

Cain Velasquez

Velasquez had the belt for 13 months, but lost it in the 64th second of his first title defense against dos Santos. How’s that for anticlimax? Though a rematch between Velasquez and dos Santos might appear sort of uninspired, the fact is, there were conditions.

His case: Velasquez was dealing with a bum knee that night in November, but couldn’t back out of a fight that was hyped as the biggest thing since Frazier/Ali across FOX platforms. It was a red carpet affair, the long-stemmed aperitif to the seven-year network deal, the bonus bout meant to tempt the semi-curious masses into peeping. Whether coaxed or not, he went through with it, and lost. Everybody knows we didn’t see the best Cain Velasquez that night, just as everybody knows we probably would this time through.

Chances of getting it: 3-1

Mark Hunt

It seems ridiculous to even type Mark Hunt in this space, but Hunt is a fan favorite and a surprisingly popular choice for the gig. Have people lost their marbles in wanting to see a resurrected 38-year old New Zealander step in there with the champion? Is this not a meritocracy? The answer is no: This is a pinch. And so long as Hunt is a nice guy, a long-shot Cinderella and a bad basher to boot, he’ll get the sentimentalist’s vote. We’re a nation of softies.

His case: Hunt was a liability to the UFC when he came over, a barnacle on the Pride purchase. Hunt lost to Sean stinking McCorkle in his Octagon debut, further exacerbating the situation. Then the unthinkable started happening. Hunt knocked out Chris Tuchscherer, decisioned Ben Rothwell, and then flattened Cheick Kongo. Talk about resuscitation! And here we thought we had lost him.

Chances of getting it: 15-1

Dan Henderson

Henderson as a candidate sort of slowly dawned on people. It went like this -- “Henderson? LOL!” to “isn’t he waiting for Jon Jones-Rashad Evans to play out?” to “you know something, that dude’s batty enough to do it” to “Hendo would plant JDS into the soft earth!” The truth is, Henderson has flirted with the idea of fighting at heavyweight -- which he’s done before, most recently against Fedor Emelianenko in Strikeforce -- and he doesn’t concern himself with the usual neuroses of modern day fighters (short notice, size discrepancies, JDS’s mangling hooks). Why? You tell Henderson he can’t do something, he gets defiant. It’s his most admirable trait. And he likes money, which is his more cliché one.

His case: Besides willingness? He wouldn’t have to cut weight. He could still feasibly keep his spot in line at light heavyweight regardless of outcome with the relative meshing of schedules and the dearth of viable contenders behind him. Remember that he fought Quinton Jackson (205) and Anderson Silva (185) in back-to-back title challenges in 2007-2008.

Chances of getting it: 12-1

Fedor Emelianenko

This is more of a fan’s choice than a UFC one. Dana White reluctantly gave into the idea of signing Emelianenko a couple of years ago, offered him wheelbarrows of cash that would turn other comparable fighters faces purple with rage, and was rebuffed. White’s assessment then -- that Fedor's people were crazy and crooked -- is probably his assessment now. Negotiations between M-1 and the UFC ride along the Cold War divide. But given that White’s running refrain has always been to give the people the fights they want to see, you can’t just accept it as impossible. Fedor still has his legions. He still sells.

His case: What, beating Jeff Monson over the course of three rounds doesn’t say it all? Flattening Satoshi Ishii doesn’t carry the right momentum? The “Last Emperor” and a million loyalists care what you think. And besides, the idea of Fedor against Junior dos Santos has something beyond novelty appeal. In the spirit of a fight, it has actual curiosity.

Chances of getting it: About the same as the Ukraine opening up Chernobyl as a tourist attraction next week.

A couple of months from now, the UFC will go high concept.

Or at least, heavy concept.

Last week’s confirmation that a bout between Stefan Struve and Mark Hunt will open the main card of UFC 146 on May 26 means that the show will be an all-heavyweight affair. For the first time in the company’s modern history, it will put nothing but 265-pound fights on the pay-per-view portion of a broadcast.

It’s the kind of thing that’ll look great on a poster -- Five Exciting Heavyweight Fights! -- and the cherry on top will be Junior dos Santos defending his UFC title for the first time against the mountainous Alistair Overeem.

The public’s fascination with heavyweights is well-documented, so this particular promotional gambit can’t possibly hurt in the lead-up to UFC 146. Whether or not it significantly moves the needle while a slew of equally promotable, but lighter fighters are left on the undercard, though, remains to be seen.

Either way, it could be fairly instructive for the future.

Here’s the problem, though: Our preoccupation with heavyweights, aside from the sheer spectacle of it all, is rooted in boxing, where conventional wisdom dictates that the bigger the dude, the better the chance of fireworks. In MMA however, this doesn’t always translate. Sure, heavyweights can produce crowd-pleasing knockouts, but with four-ounce gloves, so too can flyweights. For the practical application of this, see: Benavidez, Joseph.

Though certainly in the running for most popular, MMA’s heavyweight division is also arguably the one most likely to let you down. Heavyweights get tired. Heavyweights are often inexperienced. Heavyweight bouts can be over before you know it, or they can slog to 15-minute decisions that seem to take an hour. In other words, in this sport, 265-pound fights are typically either great or terrible, with very little gray area in between.

That makes UFC 146 a fairly significant risk for those who shell out the dough to watch it.

The heavyweight division has produced some marvelous entertainment in recent months -- stunning comeback wins from Cheick Kongo and Frank Mir both come to mind -- but those stellar outcomes feel more like the exception than the rule.

More often than not, heavyweight MMA fights go one of two ways: They become a boat race to see who can be first to stick one in the other guy’s ear, ala dos Santos’ 64 second title victory over Cain Velasquez last November, or then they run the risk of becoming tepid and exasperating letdowns like Overeem’s decision win over Fabricio Werdum in the opening round of the Strikeforce grand prix last June.

When they're great, they're great. Worst case scenario? Well, when a heavyweight fight goes bad, there's nothing worse in all of MMA.

They can be so dreadful that fights like Gabriel Gonzaga’s epic staring contest with Kevin Jordan still haunt our dreams, even though it happened at UFC 56, a little more than six years ago. That bout was so painful that not even Gonzaga’s third round knockout victory via Superman punch could save it ... and that’s bad.

Perhaps the best testament to the reliably unreliable nature of the heavyweight division is the overall history of the UFC 265-pound title, where inconsistency, short championship reigns and freak accidents have always been the natural order of things. Stays at the top are fleeting, and they are just as likely to end with a whimper as a bang.

It’s likely there will be some great heavyweight fights at UFC 146. There is also a good chance some of the fights end up limping to the finish line. Those are the breaks when it comes to the heavies.

Personally, give me a card full of welterweights (and lighter) any day. They might not look quite as good on the poster, but they typically bring more action from bell to bell.

If, locked away somewhere deep inside the Richmond, Va., home of UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, there is a secret whiteboard bearing a rough sketch of the fight company’s future plans, it's a good bet there are two names that definitely aren’t on it: Tim Boetsch and Mark Hunt.

At least they weren’t on it before Saturday night at UFC 144, when Boetsch and Hunt pulled off two of the card’s longest long shots. Now, the promotion better hope those plans were written in dry-erase marker.

The UFC’s first trip back to Japan in more than a decade was a good night all around for underdogs, with seven of the card’s 12 bouts ending in wins for guys on the plus side of the ledger.

Two-to-one 'dogs Ryan Bader and Issei Tamura were each victorious -- Bader over Quinton Jackson, Tamura against Tiequan Zhang -- while Vaughn Lee trumped 3-to-1 odds and scored a "submission of the night" bonus for his first-round armbar of Kid Yamamoto. Chris Cariaso (+160) upset Takeya Mizugaki via unanimous decision and it bears mentioning that Yoshihiro Akiyama (+230) very nearly did the same in his welterweight debut against Jake Shields.

Even Ben Henderson went off as a slight underdog to champion Frankie Edgar, before claiming the UFC lightweight title by unanimous decision in the evening’s main event.

None, though, could quite stack up to what Boetsch and Hunt accomplished. Though both guys had already crafted some unlikely success in recent appearances, they came into this event as nothing more than afterthoughts in the UFC rat race. When it was over, Boetsch and Hunt left Japan with matching victories over top-10 opponents, matching three-fight win streaks in the Octagon and matching statements that they can no longer be ignored in their respective weight classes.

Against Yushin Okami, Boetsch’s 3-to-1 stakes matched Lee’s as the most lopsided on the card and for just over 10 minutes, it looked like the prognosticators had it exactly right. Okami, who came into the bout ranked No. 5 on the ESPN.com middleweight power rankings, bullied Boetsch around the cage, bloodied him up, took him down, mounted him and by any measure appeared on the verge of a dominating unanimous decision win.

With 4:30 on the clock in the final round, though, Boetsch stumbled Okami with an overhand right and then rushed him, using a series of uppercuts against the fence to drop him and force referee Leon Roberts to call for a TKO stoppage.

Was the stunning comeback a fluke? Not according to the social mores of MMA, where we’re taught that finishing fights is the gold standard of determining an athlete’s worthiness.

It’s true that prior to his cut to middleweight in 2011, Boetsch had been a lower-middleclass 205-pounder who’d been in and out of the UFC while posting a 3-3 record. Now at 185 pounds, though, Boetsch has put together a string of victories that -- while people continue to doubt him -- has him positioned for another high-profile fight against a top 10 opponent. He wins one more and you might not be able to keep him out of the expanded middleweight title picture.

Hunt had a slightly more cut-and-dried time with Cheick Kongo. Kongo, previously ESPN’s No.10-ranked heavyweight, had been dogged by questions about his chin in recent outings.

Unfortunately for him, Hunt answered those questions in short order, flooring him with a counter left hook and then following with a barrage of rights that ended things in just 2:11.

At 37 years old, Hunt may currently be on the UFC’s most unlikely tear after losing six consecutive MMA fights between 2006-10. The company only even elected to give him a couple of fights in the Octagon to fulfill the requirement of his previous contract with Pride.

Now, it feels like matchmakers won't quite know what to do with him. For that matter, it seemed like maybe nobody even bothered to tell Hunt (who was +230) he’d get interviewed inside the cage if he won, as the former K-1 striker looked befuddled by Joe Rogan’s attempts to elicit some kind of verbal response into his microphone.

Boetsch and Hunt certainly led the charge of the underdogs at UFC 144. They sent Kongo and Okami (and maybe UFC brass) scurrying back to the drawing board. They probably ruined a lot of betting parlays, too.

Will either of them be able to push their UFC successes any further? Conventional wisdom says no; that both guys are probably too limited athletically and skill-wise to compete with the true cream of the crop in their divisions.

Then again, conventional wisdom said they weren’t even supposed to make it this far, so perhaps the surprises will keep coming. Perhaps Boetach and Hunt can keep erasing guys from the UFC’s future plans.