ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

With Chael Sonnen’s rematch against Anderson Silva now migrating from Brazil to Las Vegas, UFC 148 becomes the Miami Heat of fight cards. It is stacked, stuffed, loaded and insane.

And let’s face it, this annually huge Vegas card had a pot of gold drop in its lap: Sonnen/Silva II is already a big enough fight to tune in. The UFC could have booked Yoislandy Izquierdo against T.J. Grant as the co-main and things would still have been fine on July 7.

But the UFC’s July 4 weekend is all Roman candles and Saturn missiles, and it’s quickly become a countdown of matchmaking franchises. Aside from Sonnen/Silva II, there’s Urijah Faber versus Dominick Cruz III, Forrest Griffin versus Tito Ortiz II, Cung Le versus Rich Franklin I. All told, there are two belts in play, a swan song or a UFC pioneer, and a return to middleweight for the former champion Franklin, who is 100 percent guaranteed to put on a features-contorting brawl.

If that weren’t enough, Demian Maia will see how he holds up against human Velcro, Dong Hyun Kim, in his welterweight debut.

To Vegas go all the spoils.

To far off Calgary in the north, just two weeks later on July 21? Smartly, Tim Boetsch and Michael Bisping.

What was meant to happen in Vegas isn’t staying there -- Boetsch and Bisping, a big intrigue pairing of middleweights that was originally slated for UFC 148, is now headed for UFC 149 in Alberta. And this is ultimately a good move by the UFC. Why lose a contender’s type bout to a thousand bunched-up storylines at UFC 148 while peripheral PPV cards -- UFC 147 and UFC 149 -- could use the additional heft?

When the first question out of people’s mouths is nearly always “what’s next,” the guys chasing Sonnen/Silva are pretty important to the scheme of things. In the fight game we’re dealing in tapestries. The newly resurrected Tim Boetsch and the MMA’s “forever contender” Michael Bisping will get a better shake at the Saddledome behind headliners Jose Aldo and Erik Koch. Let Sonnen/Silva play out, and this fight takes on more significance. It’s our duty to talk, after all, and to invent the stakes while playing at what’s in Joe Silva’s head.

And right now, a lot of people more readily recall Boetsch losing by “Philmura” against Phil Davis instead of him storming back against Yushin Okami at UFC 144. If he’s really closing on a title shot at 185 pounds, Boetsch could use the boost of a co-main event type spotlight. Right now he’s more journeyman than contender. He’s never been the recipient of Zuffa’s marketing machine. It’s time to gussy him up.

As for Bisping? He believes the same thing he’s been believed for years -- that he’s the hands down No. 1 contender. Obviously there’s still the matter of Mark Munoz and Chris Weidman out there, but Bisping might actually be on to something this time through. With unpredictable circumstances and injuries and schedule syncing and suspensions and all the things that get in the way in obvious matchmaking, the Briton really might be next in line.

Or he might not. But that we can care sufficiently enough to find out is lucky for him and Tim Boetsch. In this rare case it’s better to jump cards than end up lost in the shuffle.

The one thing that any successful fighter heading into the UFC will hear is this: He’s overrated. He hasn’t faced any real competition. Somebody’s about to come crashing down to earth. Somebody is about to get exposed.

That "somebody" this time happens to be Hector Lombard, the popular Bellator middleweight champion who has rattled off 20 victories in a row, including eight as the company’s flagship. Lombard is a menace at 185 pounds and is sculpted like a Frank Frazetta overlord, but the big gripe against him is he’s beating guys named Falaniko Vitale and Herbert Goodman instead of cats like Mark Munoz and Rousimar Palhares.

All that changes, now that Lombard makes his way to the UFC. Instead of facing UFC castoffs like Jay Silva and Joe Doerksen, the 34-year old American Top Team fighter will face UFC regulars. It’s a completely different vantage point. Lombard’s new assignment is to covert guys into UFC castoffs rather than feast on what’s left of their good names.

Here’s a quick look at five guys who would make for mean welcoming parties for “Shango.”

Brian Stann
Back when Jorge Santiago had built up a new head of stream in Sengoku, he became a popular dark horse pick against Brian Stann at UFC 130. What did Stann do? He punched the daylights out of him. And wouldn’t you know that just as Lombard brings his 25-fight unbeaten streak into the UFC, Stann is coming off a big victory over Alessio Sakara and needs an upgrade in opponent, just as all the bigger names are occupied?

Enter Hector Lombard. The great thing about this fight is both guys like to bang on the feet. Lombard is a precision striker who carries a lot of power. He likes to fight guys that get right up in his wheelhouse and tempt him into uncoiling. That’s Stann, who makes it his duty to oblige brawlers. (And just as often, shut them down).

Jake Shields
Shields has bounced back and forth between 170 and 185 pounds, and after a fairly subpar run in the UFC’s welterweight division, it looks like he’ll bulk back up. Bottom line is, he wasn't losing to slouches, either -- Georges St. Pierre and Jake Ellenberger (under trying circumstances, dealing with the passing of his father) never looked like easy outs.

But the last time we saw Shields as a middleweight he looked ... if not great, then totally resilient. He beat up Jason Miller for five rounds, and then improbably defended the Strikeforce belt against Dan Henderson in a fight he had his wits scrambled in the first round. Not to name drop, but Shields was the last guy to defeat Henderson, who is now set to fight Jon Jones for the 205-pound title. Think he wouldn’t like to punch some holes in Lombard’s lore? And for those desperate for storylines or loose patriotism, it’d be the battle of the Americas -- American Jiu-Jitsu versus American Top Team.

Luke Rockhold
Hey, while we’re restocking the UFC’s middleweight division with valuable intrigues, why not bring Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold into the UFC fold to face Lombard? It’s not the likeliest scenario, but Rockhold has just come into his own at a time when Strikeforce has become a weekend skeleton crew. Think he likes the idea of challenges named Keith Jardine or, maybe at some point, Bristol Marunde?

It’s fun to imagine a Rockhold/Lombard scrap. You’ve got two guys who aren’t afraid to fight in the pocket, each with a durable chin and sadistic intentions. It has “back-and-forth war” written all over it, a great UFC debut for both ... but it looks like Rockhold will get that long-awaited battle with Stikeforce contender Tim Kennedy, thus rendering this flight of fancy moot. Truth be told, we’re merely throwing Rockhold’s name out there in the off chance that matchmakers Sean Shelby and Joe Silva are combing the Internet for suggestions.

Ronaldo Souza
Again, we’re dealing in Strikeforce property (read: ultimately Zuffa’s), but Souza hates the pace of fighting once every six to eight months. And if the promotion does make Kennedy versus Rockhold, that means Jacare is going to be fighting some unmentionable. If the UFC brought Souza over to face Lombard, you’ve got the strutting fisticuffs that languished in Bellator for too long against the tall-grass predator with the aggressive, limb snatching jiu-jitsu. What better?

And how would that be for a red carpet rollout for both guys into the Octagon?

Ed Herman
You laugh. I can see you laughing. But let me put Herman’s name into perspective. For one thing, he has been completely rejuvenated since coming back from his knee injury and setbacks, having won three fights in a row. For another, “Short Fuse” is a finisher just like Lombard. In every one of those fights he dusted his hands of the opponent, beginning with Tim Credeur (whom he TKO’d in 48 seconds) and ending with Clifford Starks (second round rear-naked choke).

The guy he beat in-between? Why that was Kyle Noke (via first round heel hook), the same guy who took Lombard to a draw back in 2007. Herman is creeping up on the pack in the middleweight class, and Lombard is a big step up in opposition. Here’s the rub, though: So is Herman a big step up in competition for Lombard. Either Lombard could treat Herman as an appetizer to the main course, or he could, for the first time ever, find himself with a nostril full of smelling salts.

Mark Munoz told ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto this week he was surprised when UFC matchmakers chose to pit Michael Bisping against Tim Boetsch at UFC 148, rather than give Munoz a crack at either one of them.

Come to think of it, that makes two of us.

Whatever the UFC's reasoning for temporarily sidestepping the former NCAA national wrestling champion to book Boetsch versus Bisping, the middleweight division suddenly seems trapped in an odd state of limbo because of it.

Even though he's been inactive since withdrawing from a scheduled title eliminator against Chael Sonnen two months ago to have painful, but fairly minor elbow surgery, the road to the next shot at the middleweight crown still runs through Munoz.

In other words, if he doesn't have a No. 1 contender fight, nobody has a No. 1 contender fight.

Bisping-Boetsch is an odd little scrap because, while it's certainly a compelling bout, it's not a particularly instructive one. The simple fact is, no matter which guy emerges victorious at UFC 148, he won't be ready for a title shot and that threatens to leave the winner of Sonnen's summertime clash with Anderson Silva without an immediate challenger.

In a world where the welterweight division is waiting for the return of Georges St. Pierre, the lightweight division is trapped in a seemingly endless string of rematches and the newly devised flyweight division is already on hold for a do-over, that can't be good.

Meanwhile, the rest of the middleweight top 10 is rapidly filling out its dance card. Vitor Belfort is already committed to a backtracking fight against Wanderlei Silva once filming on “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” wraps and rushing Chris Weidman into a fight with Munoz would feel like a fairly clumsy upward leap for the undefeated prospect.

So, either Munoz is already the No.1 contender for the winner of Sonnen-Silva and he just doesn’t know it yet, or it’s easy to get the impression the entire division is headed nowhere fast.

Munoz contends he’ll be ready to get back in the cage around roughly the same time Bisping and Boetsch will square off in July, but the UFC reportedly hasn’t budged on getting him a fight. Perhaps company brass want to make doubly sure he’s healthy before booking him a date. Perhaps -- as conspiracy theorists are already whispering -- matchmakers are looking to rehabilitate Bisping as one of its most popular international attractions following his loss to Sonnen. Perhaps they feel Boetsch needs one more fight before they start to view him as a legitimate threat at middleweight.

Or perhaps, we’re just over intellectualizing. Maybe the UFC needed to make a fight, so it made one. In any case, it's a decision that effectively leaves Munoz (and the 185-pound title picture) in the lurch.

Prior to surgery, he’d ripped off four straight wins in 12 months during 2010-11. It appeared his two-round victory (via corner stoppage) over the notoriously tough to finish Chris Leben at UFC 138 had set him up for big things in 2012.

Now, it seems like nobody -- Munoz included -- knows exactly what to think.

Mark Munoz remains well ahead of schedule in his recovery from elbow surgery.

The UFC middleweight has resumed training activities following a procedure in late January that removed 24 bone fragments from his elbow. The injury forced Munoz to withdraw from a No. 1 contender’s bout against Chael Sonnen at UFC on Fox 2.

On his way to a full recovery, Munoz has an evaluation with his physician scheduled for today and hopes to accept a fight from UFC brass in the coming weeks.

The list of potential opponents to welcome him back lost two names on Monday, when the promotion officially booked a matchup between Michael Bisping and Tim Boetsch for UFC 148 on July 7.

Following the announcement, Munoz admitted he was a bit surprised the UFC hadn’t opted to keep Bisping’s calendar open.

“It was surprising to me,” Munoz told ESPN.com. “I thought we were on a collision course. I know there are a lot of people in the general public that wanted us to fight.

“I would have loved to fight Bisping just because he’s a bigger name and I match up well with him. But hey, he’s fighting Boetsch and he’s got his hands full. That's a real intriguing fight. We’ll see what happens.”

A fight between Munoz (12-2) and Bisping (22-4) would have certainly made sense. It was Bisping who stepped in for Munoz and lost a controversial decision to Sonnen in Chicago.

The two have never fought and are neck-and-neck for a future title shot at 185 pounds. ESPN.com has Munoz and Bisping ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, trailing only Anderson Silva, Sonnen and Vitor Belfort.

Timing, it seems, wouldn’t have been an issue, either. Bisping will fight July 7. Munoz, who was originally scheduled to be out until August, says he’d love to be on the UFC 149 card in Calgary, Alberta, two weeks later.

“I’ll take a fight in July,” Munoz said. “I’ll be ready by then for sure.

“I think the UFC likes Bisping and I think they’re giving him Boetsch right now. On the other hand, they like matching winners with winners and losers with losers. We’ll see what happens.”

With Bisping off the list, Munoz acknowledged there aren’t many options in the division left that make sense.

Belfort is already scheduled to fight Wanderlei Silva this summer. Rousimar Palhares and Alan Belcher, both owners of three-fight win streaks, will meet in May. Former No. 1 contender Demian Maia recently announced a move to welterweight.

That likely leaves undefeated prospect Chris Weidman (8-0) as the top candidate. Weidman is coming off a decision win over Maia on the same UFC on Fox 2 card Munoz withdrew from.

“That’s probably it, huh?” said Munoz, with a laugh. “We’re playing matchmaker right there. I don’t know. We’ll see if they give me Weidman. I would like to have a title shot but we’ll see what they give me.”

With Silva expected to defend his title against Sonnen in June, Munoz is expecting at least one fight before earning a title shot -- maybe more. Belfort and Bisping would each have strong cases to leap past Munoz with high-profile wins in their next fights.

If that were to happen, Munoz says he would not allow himself to fall into the position of waiting for a title shot, considering he’s currently in the midst of the longest layoff of his career due to injury.

Of course, he’s hoping it doesn’t come to that -- and believes it shouldn’t.

“I feel that I deserve a title shot,” Munoz said. “I feel I’ve done everything I possibly can do to get that shot. That’s what I want to fight for. That’s what I want.”

Since we’re in the business of musing over the clay perceptions of casual fans, you have to wonder how lay viewers took in the Demian Maia/Chris Weidman fight that opened a national television broadcast on Saturday night.

For instance, if you’d tuned in and saw Maia gassing though parts of the second round and the entirety of the third, you might have thought it was he who had to cut 31 pounds in 11 days to make weight. You might have also suspected that Maia’s only chance of beating Weidman was a simple puncher’s. After all, he was winging that left with hopes of a homerun.

Maia looked like a one-dimensional fighter, whose single dimension wasn’t all that imposing.

Now, if you are anything more than the casual fan, the performance against Weidman begged the question that’s been looming since the 21-second knockout at the hands of Nate Marquardt in 2009 -- what happened to the Maia of old? Who is this imposter that walks out to “Vida Bandida?” Wasn’t Maia the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner in the game, who for a while there people began referring to as Royce Gracie 2.0?

Maybe the hackers who have plagued the UFC all week have greater reach than we know. Maybe they have the ability to hack into UFC fighters now, and redirect them from world-class jiu-jitsu players into vague kickboxers. Or maybe Maia was hurt, or sick, or confused. It’s possible he was disenchanted that Michael Bisping became Chris Weidman. It must be something, but the former No. 1 contender has gone from being 5-0 in the UFC with five ridiculously fluid submissions to 9-4 in the UFC with five ridiculously fluid submissions.

It started by getting knocked out by Marquardt in Portland at UFC 102, and since then in seven fights he’s gone the distance seven times. In all of them we’ve been applauding the slow evolution of his stand-up. Somewhere along the way Maia took criticism of his stand-up to heart, and became obsessed with doing something about it. This seemed obvious. When he surprised Mark Munoz a couple of times at UFC 131, we began to think him more than capable on the feet. And he is.

But the problem is Maia has forgotten who he is. A timely reminder on Fox would have been a welcoming relief, but the nonpareil jitz master has changed focus.

It used to be that if you went to the floor with Maia it became a matter of time until you tapped. Chael Sonnen, Ed Herman, Jason MacDonald, Nate Quarry -- these guys caught hell for mistakes, for over-aggressiveness, for simply finding themselves on the ground. If Maia was on his back, he would sweep. He was mean in a scramble. He was quick to snatch limbs. If he got your back, it was a matter of time. Maia made guys feel paranoid about being on the ground. He wasn’t just good at triangles, he was a Bermuda triangle, where contenders -- wrestlers, boxers and otherwise -- disappeared.

Now Maia’s jiu-jitsu has gone AWOL, and it’s curious. Even the threat of it has vanished.

Against the wrestler Weidman, Maia was officially 0-7 on takedowns, but they all played out as half commitments. Truth is, it didn’t look like he really wanted to go to the ground. Weidman, also a solid BJJ player, wasn’t afraid to take it there, and did so a couple of times late in rounds. For a jiu-jitsu superior like Maia, who had uncanny Octagon control in his arsenal at one point in the career, it’s become OK to allow opponents to dictate terms. Which is not OK for sustaining a career.

Weidman did it. And so did Munoz. Against Jorge Santiago at UFC 136, Maia had things in his realm but settled on ground-and-pound. Maia at 34 looks less wise than the one who fought at 30. This is not an ideal trajectory.

What happened to the quiet contortionist that capitalized on every misstep? In those first five UFC fights, Maia took home "submission of the night" honors four times. That’s a lot of extra cash. Since then he has not been awarded a single end of the night bonus. If his stand-up has improved, that’s great; but all new elements should be working toward the one element that made him special -- his jiu-jitsu. Otherwise, the admission seems to be that either people have caught up to him, or that jiu-jitsu and Maia are no longer on speaking terms, or that he doesn’t trust jiu-jitsu to get the job done anymore.

Whatever the case with Maia is, it’s mysterious. And you get the feeling that if he doesn’t rediscover his roots soon, he’ll be done in the UFC.

Amid all of the fallout this week from the tepid results of the UFC’s second live show on network television -- where many of the criticisms are warranted and many are not -- it’s somehow fitting that the event’s most impressive performance came from a guy who didn’t even win his fight.

Arguably only Michael Bisping emerged from Saturday night’s largely underwhelming UFC on Fox 2 main card looking better than when he entered. By dropping a tight decision loss to top middleweight contender Chael Sonnen, Bisping actually improved his stock while many of the other the marquee names could merely tread water or -- in some cases -- took steps backward in the eyes of hardcore fans and MMA-centric media types.

Naturally, like most everything in the fight game, this had more to do with our own expectations than anything else.

As more than a 3-to-1 underdog headed into the fight, most observers thought Bisping would get crushed by Sonnen. We’d just seen the former Oregon wrestler tear through what seemed like a bigger, perhaps more dangerous version of Bisping in Brian Stann at UFC 136 and, on paper, we didn’t see any way the Brit could ward off Sonnen’s smothering takedowns and top control over three rounds.

In the end, Bisping didn’t pull off an upset, but he sure did a lot better than we anticipated.

While he couldn’t totally prevent Sonnen from taking him to mat, Bisping didn’t look out of his league, either. He proved surprisingly capable at using the fence to quickly get back to his feet and in the standup exchanges, he touched up his hard-charging opponent with crisp, if ultimately ineffectual punches.

Perhaps most shocking was the way Bisping afforded himself in the clinch. He held his own when Sonnen tried to muscle in close to him and even controlled some of the action when they locked up against the chain link -- though not as much as the UFC broadcast team would have you believe, especially in the first round.

Heck, some observers even thought Bisping won the bout, though a second viewing of the fight confirms that a 29-28 verdict in favor of Sonnen was probably the right one. In the end, the American eked out Rounds 2 and 3, though in total the fight was far closer than his unanimous decision win might otherwise let on. That one judge scored it 30-27 for Sonnen even seems unconscionable, as Bisping clearly controlled the second stanza.

All told, it was a great performance from a guy who has been dogged by skeptics and naysayers ever since winning Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show back in 2006. Even in defeat, Bisping moved up two slots on the ESPN.com middleweight Power Rankings -- from No. 8 to No. 6 -- and now appears well positioned to take on another high-caliber opponent in his next fight.

Perhaps a returning Mark Munoz (No. 4) might even make sense for him, after the man originally slated to meet Sonnen at this event returns from a minor elbow injury. If not Munoz, then maybe the winner of fifth-ranked Yushin Okami’s upcoming UFC 144 tangle with Tim Boetsch or newly minted Top 10er Chris Weidman, who debuted at No. 9 this week after turning in Saturday night’s second-best showing by defeating Demian Maia on short notice.

We are often told there is no such thing as a good loss, but Bisping puts that adage to the test this week. While he overachieved, Sonnen, Maia, Rashad Evans and Phil Davis -- much like the overall UFC broadcast itself -- didn’t quite live up to our expectations.

As good as the UFC on Fox 2 lineup still is, especially considering it’s free, make no mistake -- it’s not as good as the original.

Let’s start with the co-main. Due to an injured right elbow, a surging Mark Munoz was forced to withdraw from his top contender bout against Chael Sonnen. In his place steps Michael Bisping -- a worthy replacement, having won five of his last six.

The focus, considering it’s Sonnen and Bisping, was immediately on the epic trash talk that was bound to follow. Nobody knew exactly who would say what, but we assumed it would be the stuff of legends.

As it turns out, though, the talk between these two never really got going -- certainly not to the amount it would have had this fight been promoted for months. What we are left with now is an unfortunately lopsided matchup, at least on paper. Whereas a fight between Munoz and Sonnen featured a lot of unanswered questions, the reworked one features a five-to-one favorite in Sonnen.

I feel obligated to state the mandatory line, “It’s MMA and anything can happen." Yes, it is possible Bisping stuns Sonnen in Chicago. But besides a puncher’s chance, there just aren’t many areas where Bisping can win this fight. Munoz, on the other hand, would have been a legitimate challenge to Sonnen -- not just a body to throw in the cage to keep him busy as he waits for the champ.

Bisping moving to the co-main left his first dance partner, Demian Maia, in search of a new opponent. On just 11 days notice, that man turns out to be budding prospect Chris Weidman who was then, somewhat surprisingly, marked as the favorite.

I love this matchup but hate how we’re getting it. I get it. Injuries are a part of the sport and sometimes guys have to take a chance and fight on short notice or adjust to a new opponent. That doesn’t mean I like it in a fight of this magnitude.

These are two of the top guys in the division. There’s no question they deserve to fight one another, but look at the outside variables that potentially affect this outcome. Less than two weeks for Weidman to cut weight and prepare for the toughest opponent of his career. Drastic style-change for Maia, drawing a powerful wrestler with submission skills after training exclusively for an elite boxer.

At the end of the fight, part of me will wonder if the outcome would have been the same had the two prepared properly for one another. I can live with that, but again, in a fight that will go a long way in terms of sorting out the division, I’d rather not have to.

The fact the UFC was able to move things around and still produce a high-quality card in a short amount of time speaks to the depth of its roster and the professionalism of its athletes to adjust to circumstances. I still love this card. But to say it’s actually better than the original? Come on, son.

It’s been a long while since Michael Bisping was an underdog heading into a fight. In fact, the last time was back in 2009 when he fought Dan Henderson at UFC 100. On that occasion, with all the tensions of the “Ultimate Fighter 9” still playing in the shallows of public perception, the Brit showed up as a 2-to-1 dog. And even then there were a lot of people that thought Vegas was sleeping on Bisping a little bit. (By the time Henderson’s right hand sent Bisping into the twitches, the line was long forgotten).

Since then the “Count” has been the “Bully” in Joe Silva’s matchmaking. Jason Miller, Jorge Rivera, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Dan Miller and Denis Kang were all long shots to beat Bisping. Ditto Wanderlei Silva, who managed to spring the upset. For the last three years, Bisping has grown used to being the mark, not the marksman. He’s been batting down the grabbing hands of opportunists on his climb, rather than clutching at the ankles of the guys above him.

That changes in Chicago. Against Chael Sonnen -- who fell to Bisping when Mark Munoz had to pull out of his scheduled fight with bone spurs in his elbow -- he is a 4-to-1 underdog.

This is unusual terrain for Bisping. And it’s an incredible line for a guy who has won four in a row (finishing his last two). In fact, it’s the kind of line that says two things: 1) For the last three years Bisping has had a cushy schedule for a guy who considers himself “title ready,” and B) we now view Sonnen as a tyrant. In the time it’s taken Bisping to make his way up the rungs enough for a bigger challenge, Sonnen has transformed from a journeyman to a contender, from an afterthought to a showman, and from cusp prelimer to PPV headliner. He contradicts himself ruthlessly in the media, but he keeps beating guys (coldly, methodically) and came close to cashing in Silva, too. The Sonnen case is one for 18th century exorcists.

Or maybe Malcolm Gladwell.

But Bisping has always been Bisping. And to become something other than Bisping he’ll need to beat Sonnen, who also happens to be the guy he can take his cues from. Sonnen stood as a lofty underdog against Yushin Okami at UFC 104 and Nate Marquardt at UFC 109. Heading into that stretch he scored a workman-like decision over Dan Miller, and before then had lost to Demian Maia (triangle choke). So what did he do? The only thing he could. He laid the pestle down on top-ranked Okami in a fight many thought he didn’t deserve, then ransacked Marquardt for three straight rounds to the point that he suddenly looked like a real impediment for Anderson Silva.

Out of nowhere, Sonnen beat two top-end guys who were trying their damndest to get back to Silva. This time it’s Sonnen who is trying to get back to Silva (even if he says otherwise), and it’s Bisping’s chance to spoil that return trip. In other words, here’s Bisping’s chance to become Sonnen. Win it, and he’ll assuredly be an underdog in his next fight, too. That’s the goal -- Sao Paulo against longer odds still.

Yet lose, and it could be another three years before Bisping’s an underdog again, and that’s no kind of consolation.

As you might have noticed, Chael Sonnen hasn’t quite been himself lately.

During the last few months, it seemed like most of the vitriol had drained out of MMA’s favorite bad guy. Somewhere between his shellacking of Brian Stann at UFC 136 and Anderson Silva’s latest injury, Sonnen appeared to have become resigned to the idea he might never get another crack at the soon-to-be 37-year-old middleweight champion. With that realization -- whether real or just the latest manifestation of his carnival barker act -- he backed off a bit on his customary trash talk.

In Sonnen's defense, it’s pretty hard to hurl the same kind of verbal barbs at opponents like Stann and Mark Munoz that he once chucked at “The Spider,” Wanderlei Silva and the Nogueira Bros. Who knows? Maybe combing through hours of old “Superstar” Billy Graham videos looking for one-liners just isn’t as fun when you’re set to take on guys you legitimately like.

If that’s the case, you could argue Sonnen got a reprieve this week when Munoz dropped out of their Jan. 28 scrap with an arm injury and the UFC tagged-in Michael Bisping instead. Truth was, there hadn't been much sizzle surrounding the original booking, with most of the prefight hype concerning whether the organization was merely jeopardizing any lingering hope for Sonnen-Silva II by having him fight a fellow wrestler as good as Munoz.

Those fears are somewhat alleviated against Bisping, as most everybody now expects Sonnen’s grappling will win the day. That fabled rematch with Silva now feels closer than ever. Even still, I’d hazard a guess fans are instantaneously more interested to watch Sonnen clean Bisping’s clock than engage in a slightly more competitive but infinitely less gratifying fight with Munoz, even if the buildup doesn’t play out exactly like we thought.

On the surface, a bout with Bisping seems like a slow pitch softball for a self promoter the caliber of Sonnen. If the former Oregon wrestler was just biding his time in recent days, waiting for another chance to channel his inner Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, he got it in spades against the swaggering Brit. Bisping’s very being seems to invite that sort of acrimony. You might even say, if you can’t talk trash against Bisping, you can’t talk trash.

Oddly however, Sonnen -- true to his penchant for the unexpected -- hasn’t played it that way. At least not yet. In the hours after the switch was announced he seemed fairly complimentary of the former “Ultimate Fighter” winner, even going so far as to tell USA Today’s Sergio Non: "I'm a Bisping supporter. I'm not on the anti-Bisping bandwagon. I never have been."

Perhaps this will change. With 10 days yet to go before the fight, perhaps Bisping will say something to set Sonnen off or find a way wheedle under his skin in the same way he’s done with most of his previous opponents. Maybe this whole thing will devolve into the epic beef session we all assume it will be.

If not though, perhaps Sonnen (for one fight only) has the opportunity to play the most interesting role of his UFC career: Fan favorite.

Chael Sonnen, good guy. How does that strike you?

If you said “weird,” you’re right. And that’s exactly what makes Bisping a more intriguing matchup for Sonnen than Munoz ever could be.

When Dana White announced that Mark Munoz was out of his UFC on FOX 2 fight with Chael Sonnen just 11 days before the Jan. 28 card, it sent MMA’s Twitter feeds into dawning.

It trickled in like this: Too bad for Mark Munoz (he’s such a nice guy, and let’s hope he’s OK). Great for Michael Bisping (and very deserving). What happens to Demian Maia (somebody plug Rousimar Palhares in, and let him charge). Great for Chris Weidman (what an opportunity to fight Demian Maia).

It’s a lot of epiphany to absorb in one scroll and, as always, people exercised their right to congratulate other people as publicly as possible.

One interesting thing was that many seemed to think that the new makeshift lineup was better than the original, if not far more just -- Bisping should have been fighting Sonnen all along. In other words, we were sitting on a pile of unaired complaints until yesterday, which is exactly why UFC matchmaker Joe Silva doesn’t have a Twitter account.

Yet there was one thing that nearly everybody outside of England agreed upon -- with the new pairing of Sonnen and Bisping in a middleweight title eliminator, Sonnen just got clearance to land in Sao Paulo for his fight with Anderson Silva come June.

Michael Bisping, for as sturdy and willing and ultimately successful as he is, won’t match up well against a guy who fights horizontally. British fighters aren't known for their wrestling. Worse, the British can't stop Americans from wrestling, not with snarky verbal protests, anyway. This thing looks one-sided. Even Vegas opened the books with Sonnen better than a 4-to-1 favorite. With odds like that, it looks like a Strikeforce event.

Yet despite all the quickly digested excitement of the Chicago card rearrangements, think about the (potential) gift this is to Sonnen.

He went from fighting a guy in Munoz who looked like a huge monkey wrench in his plans to rematch Silva, to the type of fighter he is accustomed to dominating. Sonnen doesn’t do Muay Thai plum, and he doesn’t tolerate jab-and-retreat. He tackles. Then he buries his head in chests and flails the loosest appendages he can toward the supine man’s head. He did it to Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami and Brian Stann. His thing is to conquer.

Against Bisping, it’s hard to envision it going much differently. Bisping should show up to Chicago with a bow on top.

At least, that’s the thinking. While Chris Weidman looks like a Charlie Brenneman special for Demian Maia, Bisping appears more like a turnstile for Sonnen. The puncher’s chance will always be in play, but he might need to land it from his back.

And if Sonnen does walk through Bisping as so many believe, he might consider throwing out this all-purpose word in his postfight speech: Obrigado.

After all, there will be millions of paulistanos saying the same thing.

Chael Sonnen has summed up the task facing him at UFC on Fox 2 at the end of the month, insisting Mark Munoz "destroyed" Anderson Silva when the two trained together. More »

CM Punk is a professional wrestler, and Chael Sonnen was a collegiate one. They’ll show up in Chicago together to face Mark Munoz, who wears his wrestling pedigree very no-nonsense on his ears.

It’s a lot of wrestling, some of it literal and some of it very lucrative lies. And if there’s anything that Sonnen has figured out in the last couple of years, it’s that we like being lied to. In cases like his, the truth can be so uninteresting.

That’s why CM Punk -- who will be in Sonnen’s corner on Jan. 28 for UFC on FOX 2 -- may well be the perfect symbol for what Sonnen has become in a relatively short time. That is, an off-stage stage performer where the real and fictive versions clumsily fall into each other. In the cage, he’s an otherwise grinding wrestler. Outside, he’s cocky, offensive, audacious and sometimes hilarious, who oversteps the line, then erases it and tells you the line never existed. He’s so good at one thing (talking) that it distracts us from the other thing he's really good at (fighting). That he wins makes us care about the madcap nature of what he says. It’s ingenious, really, and not the easiest thing to pull off.

What is he pulling off, exactly? Versions.

When you deal in Chael Sonnen, you’re dealing in versions. And that’s a fine thing to be dealing in when the broader picture is entertainment. Sonnen realized this just before he upset Nate Marquardt at UFC 109 and began “sticking his finger in Anderson Silva’s chest.” It was almost like he’d been pulled back on a bowstring for 30 odd years and then let go. Silva, who’d never been disrespected in his fighting life, was the target. Silva still is, unless you believe the latest things coming out of Sonnen’s mouth -- that Silva is cold product, and Georges St. Pierre and Jon Jones had better be on the lookout.

Hey, keep them guessing. And better yet, keep them interested.

And these are reasons why we love him, and that’s why we hate him. Sonnen can quip on anything, and you could make a case that he’s better than Muhammad Ali in that regard because it’s his material (Ali’s was largely sourced from Angelo Dundee, the poet who sat quietly behind the curtain like the guys singing for Milli Vanilli). If Ali and Sonnen share something in common, it’s that they transcend consequence. To hear him tell it, West Linn, Ore., is a place where a man can get boot-stomped for looking at you the wrong way.

So why the fuss about CM Punk in his corner come fight night? It’s not because Sonnen believes a step-up enzuigiri might work effectively against Munoz, but more because it’s always something. Sonnen is the author of his own mystique, which has things in common with Chicago’s hometown legend, CM Punk. In fact, one doesn’t know where the fun starts and the hypocrisy ends. After all, Sonnen was caught red-handed for PEDs after UFC 117, and CM Punk has went on record bashing PED users.

Inexplicable they should come together? Totally. Blur up the reality and it’s a match made in heaven.

After all, they both know the value of entertainment -- and also that, when you’re in demand, small details in history hold nothing to the blazing present. For the last thing, perhaps Sonnen realizes this more than anybody.

If the teaser trailers can be believed, Chael Sonnen’s second recent appearance on a Canadian television show went better than his first, though this week’s offering from MMA’s best self promoter is still likely to fetch its fair share of headlines.

In November, Sonnen quite purposefully made a stir when he walked off the set of TSN’s “Off the Record” after a contentious (and possibly staged, at least on the fighter’s part) interview with host Michael Landsberg. From the looks of the outtakes from Sonnen’s upcoming do-over on the show, he and Landsberg get along fine this time, but the middleweight contender doesn’t miss out on the opportunity to make any number of outlandish statements on his own.

Chief among them: that he’s “done” chasing a rematch with 185-pound kingpin Anderson Silva and that, if he defeats Mark Munoz next month in their title eliminator, he’ll ask UFC brass for a bout with champions like Junior dos Santos, Jon Jones or Georges St. Pierre instead.

“I’m going to become the No. 1 contender on Jan. 28, but despite what you might think, I’m not going to use that voucher to fight Anderson Silva,” Sonnen says. “I’ll be looking at dos Santos, Jones and possibly St. Pierre. I will take that voucher to Dana White and I will pick one of those three guys. My time with Anderson is done.”

Obviously this sounds like just more theater from Sonnen. If he defeats Munoz to once again become the middleweight division’s top contender, there is little possibility the UFC passes on the chance for a second big money bout with Silva. The company is reportedly already eyeing a June fight for the champion in Brazil and it just doesn’t make much sense to have that be against anyone other than Sonnen.

The idea of the former Oregon wrestler moving up (or, laughably, down) in weight to take on one of the UFC’s other champions is admittedly intriguing, but it remains unclear how that would fit into the UFC’s upcoming calendar, even if the organization would let him do it. Dos Santos is fresh off a knee injury and already scheduled to take on the winner of Brock Lesnar’s UFC 141 fight with Alistair Overeem, there is no shortage of 205-pound challenges afoot for Jones and St. Pierre’s own blown ACL could keep him out for the duration of 2012.

No, whether he likes it or not, it appears Sonnen’s path back to a middleweight title bout remains set if he can slip by another powerful wrestler in Munoz at the UFC’s second live broadcast on network television. It’s probably Silva or bust, so long as the 36-year-old champion can get his shoulder in working order in time.

Like any good performer, Sonnen just understands the importance of keeping his audience’s attention. And even if his way is less accurate, it's still a lot more fun.

“The bottom line is, I’m done with the guy,” Sonnen persists. “He and I have no business. He’s cold product. He’s like jheri curls and Pepsi Clear, OK? He’s yesterday’s news. I destroyed this guy back when he was tough [and] that was years ago. He’s so far over the hill and past his prime it’s not worth talking about.”

Jon Jones likes Anderson Silva, and Silva likes Jones -- and they’ve not kept it a secret. They’ve been admiring friends who’d just assume never have to see each other in the cage. Each has his own territory, and neither is enthusiastic to trespass.

In fact, traditionally, both take media theoreticals of a superfight match-up between them as a form of flattery. The “wow, that would be an immense challenge” sort of response. The thing is, all this mutual reverence begins to feel like trepidation -- from the UFC as much as from them. "Each could destroy the other." That’s a concept that neither guy is particularly used to. Yet it’s the same idea that piques fan interest in seeing it. What happens when indomitable meets indestructible? Silva’s impossible movement and precision striking against Jones and all that reach and creativity? Somebody comes across more mortal, is what, while the other transcends to mythological proportions.

In a sport all about finding out who the best fighter is, in 2012 it might boil down to those two names -- particularly with Georges St. Pierre currently out of the picture while he recovers from an ACL tear.

This is why a superfight between Jones and Silva should at least be discussed. You have the definitive No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world in Silva, who has never lost in the UFC, against a 24-year-old phenom who lay waste to the 205-pound division in 2011. Both guys still have challenges in their respective divisions, which is the bigger point of contention with the UFC, a promotion that likes those champions with wanderlust to leave things tidied before straying off. Jones still has a bone to pick with Rashad Evans, a challenge in Dan Henderson, an intriguing match with Phil Davis. Silva has the bane of his existence in Chael Sonnen, along with less intriguing challenges with Mark Munoz and Michael Bisping.

The other contention is that Jones would never make 185 pounds, so it would be up to Silva to be the interloper -- and he has cooled on the light heavyweight division of late. It doesn’t help matters that Jones has his sights set the other way, toward the heavyweight division, once his reign at 205 pounds is done and he’s finished growing into his frame.

Put it all together, and each champion is safely out of the other’s way for now. And that probably means that each is out of each other’s way for good. Silva will be an avuncular 37 years old when he fights next, after his rest period to recover from bursitis in his shoulder, and Dana White points this fact out. When pressed on the mega-potential, White oscillates on the idea of this particular superfight between having no interest in it and being mildly intrigued.

Either way, there’s not exactly a sense of urgency to make it happen.

The only way it could become a possibility is if Silva and Jones take a sudden turn and develop a distaste for one another. And it’s possible that Silva took umbrage at Jones’ indelicate handling of his better friend, Lyoto Machida, at UFC 140. We know that Silva can be sensitive in such matters. Should he go on record saying he wants to fight Jones, the competitor in Jones would welcome it. It would be up to Silva to fire some shots, because he’d be the division traveler, and as the best fighter in the company the UFC would field his requests.

But should they stay reverent of each other, throwing high fives across the Equator, a superfight between Jones and Silva just doesn’t look all that imminent. In fact, it looks like a non-event, best left to our speculation as to how something as immense as that would play out.

Let's be as real as it gets, since this is the Ultimate Fighting Championship we're talking about.

If any other athlete said what Rashad Evans said to Phil Davis Wednesday, it's a big story. An unfortunate one. Especially on a day like today.

But in the UFC, where the boss says what he wants when he wants, there are few things if any that qualify as beyond the pale. For good or for ill, that's simply the unvarnished reality exposed in the wake of this wild rocket ship to the top of the sporting world.

For those who missed it: The UFC held a news conference in Chicago Wednesday featuring UFC president Dana White and six fighters -- Evans, Davis, Chael Sonnen, Mark Munoz, Michael Bisping and Demian Maia -- slated to compete on the company's official start with FOX. It was a terrifically entertaining scene. Funny. Witty. Charming. Sweet, even. Evans brought his young son, who ranked only second to his dad on the day's best-dressed list, and placed him atop his lap until temptation and a microphone got the better of the lad.

Fifty minutes into a 52-minute event, Evans and Davis, light heavyweights set to square off in the main event on Jan. 28 at the United Center, began jawing at one another. It was a fan who prompted the exchange. Someone wanted to know from Evans which version -- vicious striker or controlling grappler -- he should expect to see against Davis, a NCAA Division I champion wrestler for Penn State University in 2008.

Evans happily took the bait. Davis needed to be knocked out, he said.

Not that anyone needs to be knocked out, but it was good-natured stuff. We love this. Fans beg for it. Promoters pine for it. Media loves the copy and the angles that spin out as a result. Davis smiled and came back sharply, referencing reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Evans' sincerest rival, who apparently questioned his former teammate's ability to take a punch. Again, nothing wrong with that; all's fair in love and MMA.

"You'll have to find out for yourself, right?" Evans retorted.

"I was already thinking that," said Davis.

Evans, his son no longer on his lap, turned up the volume.

"I bet you won't put your hands on me," Evans said. "I bet you'll be the first one to take a shot."

They talked over each other until Evans again guaranteed Davis would be the first one to take a punch.

His reasoning: "cause I'm going to put those hands on you worse than that dude did them other kids at Penn State."

White stood between the fighters at the dais, smiling, wringing his hands and giggling. The crowd laughed, clapped and gasped, knowing full well Evans had just used Jerry Sandusky as a punchline. Davis flung his head to the table, like an ostrich, looked up and had no response.

How does one respond to something like that? A couple more questions from the audience and that was that.

Evans apparently had no idea that Sandusky was led from his home in handcuffs again on Wednesday after two more victims revealed to police horrific accounts of the former Penn State football coach's alleged sexual abuse. In the green room awaiting the mid-afternoon news conference in Chicago, Evans instead watched the sentencing of another disgraced public figure, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who received 14 years on federal corruption charges today.

I'm not suggesting Evans can't say what he said. Of course he can. The question is -- should he?

Will the UFC, as positioned by its ownership, emerge as the biggest sport in the world if its marquee fighters continue to speak on the organization's largest public stages the way Evans spoke today? Hey, they've made it this far, warts and all. Sure they have. But that was then and this is now. White suggests the first two years of the FOX deal are the most important 24 months in the history of the company. Why? People will watch like they've never watched before. That surely includes people who don't understand -- and never will understand -- the backward culture that has long existed in MMA that makes Evans' statement just another shoulder-shrug moment.

Even if it was made in jest, even if it wasn't premeditated, which Evans' publicist Jen Wenk said it wasn't, even if it was a one-time declaration that won't be uttered again during the promotion of the fight, which Wenk said it was and won't be; even if you believe it was somehow appropriate to suggest, let alone at an event attended by his own little boy, there has to be some threshold. Some crossable line.

Or can the language used from time to time by UFC fighters and management continue unabated like that rocket ship to the stratosphere of sport?

I don't know the answer. I tend to think not. But one thing seems certain: we'll eventually find out.