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The winner of Miguel Torres; fight with Michael McDonald at UFC 145 could be propelled into a No. 1 contender bout in the bantamweight division, according to Renan Barao's coach. More »

Experiencing a brief exile from UFC was difficult for Miguel Torres. Fortunately, that chapter of his life is over.

Torres has been reinstated, and he's eager to get his bantamweight career back on the positive track with a victory April 21 over Michael McDonald at UFC 145 in Atlanta.

“I’m so happy to be back in the UFC and that they’ve given me such a game opponent like Michael McDonald,” Torres said. “Preparing for this fight, I only have one thought in mind, and that’s to finish my opponent at UFC 145 and show the world I am back.”

Staying mentally focused during training camp is just one hurdle Torres (39-4) must overcome. While the former WEC 135-pound champion has a more impressive résumé, McDonald isn’t someone to take lightly.

With only one loss in 15 pro fights, McDonald is currently riding a seven-fight win streak. He also has won each of his four bouts under the Zuffa banner.

Torres was released from UFC’s roster in December following an inappropriate tweet on his personal Twitter account. He was reinstated later in the month after performing community service, issuing apologies and meeting with UFC president Dana White.

The UFC has long been ahead of the curve on social media.

Compared to other, more mainstream sports organizations, the fight company has just flat been better at grasping the power of new-fangled tools like Facebook and Twitter. Born part out of ingenuity and part out of necessity, you could argue the UFC’s more accessible quasi-guerrilla marketing strategy is one reason it has been so successful at building its brand among young people during the last few years.

While the NFL and NBA continue to crack down on athletes using social networking, the UFC has gone whole hog, employing an Arizona-based marketing firm that specializes in new media strategies for corporations and celebrities and offering its fighters financial incentives for staying active on Twitter. As a result, the promotion and its employees have cultivated a vast network of followers it can utilize for direct marketing, keeping tabs on fan chatter and generating demographic information while controlling and shaping breaking news.

That’s the upside.

The considerable downside we saw play out in terms of very real world consequences on Thursday, when former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres got the axe a couple of days after tweeting a one-liner about “rape vans” he reportedly saw on TV. It was the UFC’s third public sexual assault joke in recent memory, but unlike the very similar remarks made by former “Ultimate Fighter” winners Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans, something about this one made it a firing offense in the eyes of UFC brass.

Naturally, this is the inherent risk in Zuffa’s social media marketing campaign. When you encourage somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 professional fighters to share their unfiltered thoughts with the masses -- Torres has nearly 50,000 followers -- in staccato burst of 140 characters or less, mistakes are going to be made. Mistakes that have been committed to writing and will live on forever in the unforgiving elephantine brain of the Internet.

Especially when you offer a cash prize to the fighter who does the “most creative” job.

Especially when there is nothing to tell said fighter what’s permissible and what’s not, no policy or guidelines in place aside from telling him to "use common sense."

Because of the lack of formal policy, it's still hard to discern exactly what made Torres’ gaffe so much worse than the others, even after hearing UFC President Dana White's explanation. Maybe it was because Torres didn’t have as good a justification for his specific rape joke as Griffin did for tweeting his a few weeks ago (it was sparked by what he was seeing on the news) or Evans did for speaking his into a microphone at public news conference this week (to get under an opponent and college rival's skin). Maybe it was just the third strike for fighters so soon after White had to reprimand those two jokers, or maybe it was because White found out about Torres’ remark during an interview with a reporter during a high-profile fight week.

Whatever the reason, Torres is now unemployed after broadcasting a thoughtless crack, probably while he was sitting on his couch on a winter night watching television. If that doesn’t speak to the reach and power of social media, I don’t know what does.

In any case, it’s strange that a company so ahead of the curve on reaping the rewards of social media has been so behind the curve in establishing a policy to manage its risks.

TORONTO -- On a fight card with so much philosophical curiosity, the headlining title bout between Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida is a perfect crescendo. In fact, the UFC 140 main event is being billed as “Art Comes Alive,” a play off two distinct aesthetics, each of which carries reports from the outlying areas of the more ancient arts.

What will we be staring at on Saturday night? Only a complicated battle of Ma’ai (spatial distance) that promises to contrast restraint and aggression through lank, lean counterstriking, with plenty of front kicks, spinning elbows, judo throws and flying knees. Machida’s sense of harmony and timing with his circular in and out movements, against Jones’ Zen bouquet of distance striking with flying tassels.

At least that’s what the promo material is telling us. Jones was quick to point out some cruder truths at the UFC 140 prefight news conference. Namely the fact that he’s good with a medley but not great at any one discipline.

“I’m four years into my MMA career, and there’s so much that I don’t know,” he said. “Jiu-jitsu is a whole culture. Taekwondo is a whole culture. Muay Thai is a whole culture. Boxing, the sweet science ... I’m not even close to that yet. There’s so much I don’t know and so much my teammates [at Greg Jackson’s] are way better than me at; I just so happen to be one of the better ones at merging them all together.”

There’s a real chance, too, that somebody gets clubbed early and that’s that. Or that Jones scotches the colorful assortments we’re used to seeing and takes things to the mat, where he can rough up Machida with old-fashioned ground-and-pound. Or that Machida finally breaks through with news on Jones’ chin and claims another casualty via his left hand. The last seems the farthest fetched, since it requires the most imagination.

And that’s the difference between the lead-up to UFC 140 and the other three cards that Jones fought on in 2011 -- that people are beginning to take for granted his dominance. Worse, some are playing at hush words. With the folly of advanced notions, Jones’ invincibility is the subtext.

Fortunately, none of this extends to Jones himself, who has seen people in his rare position fall as quickly as they rose.

“The reason I know I’m not invincible is I know I’ve seen people that do great, and they end up losing,” he said. “I hope that never happens to me. So I stay on the prowl. I’m always working hard. The biggest part is training with Greg Jackson, where I’m surrounded by tons of top fighters from around the world.”

Torres cut a double standard?

It’s been a week of rampant news. If Georges St. Pierre’s ACL tear, the big Chicago news conference and the lead-up to UFC 140 weren’t enough, former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres was abruptly dropped from the UFC for a joke he made in poor taste on his Twitter feed.

His was yet another rape joke in a head-scratching moment of surplus rape jokes.

“If a rape van was called a surprise van, more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them,” he wrote. “Everyone like surprises.”

Torres later told Heavy.com that the joke was a quote from the television show “Workaholics,” but he didn’t wrap it in quotes or provide that context. And even if he did, Dana White said it wouldn’t have mattered, particularly with Torres being the third fighter in recent weeks to make light of something as unfunny as rape in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky allegations.

Wednesday, Rashad Evans told his Jan. 28 opponent, Phil Davis, “I’m gonna put those hands on you worse than that dude did to them kids at Penn State.” And a few weeks back, Forrest Griffin tweeted “rape is the new missionary.” The UFC has been very liberal toward Twitter use and in allowing people to speak their minds without policing etiquette. As such, the fighters have gone about saying what’s on their minds without fear of consequence.

But that stops with Torres.

What was it that made Torres’ worse than these other offenders? Something like a forensic trail back to reason. White explained to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani that in the Griffin case, Forrest was channel flipping and saw three stations reporting on different rapes, and -- seeing it in this ubiquitous light -- he tweeted that it was the new missionary. The joke clanked, and Griffin took a lot of heat for his insensitivity.

In the Evans case, White explained that he was trying to get under Davis’ skin. Davis was a wrestler at Penn State, and therefore it was a personal dig from a Michigan State grad (everything else was incidental). With both Evans and Griffin there was a rhyme or reason to their comments, flimsy as they were, whereas with Torres it was just twisted. Even if he was quoting a television show.

Is it fair? No. Cutting Torres for a joke in bad taste while keeping Evans and Griffin for the same offense looks like favoritism and/or selectivism. But even that’s not really the case. It seems the broader reason for Torres getting cut might be something as arbitrary as timing. It’s clear that White made an “enough is enough” example out of Torres on the fly, an action meant to convey that rape jokes won’t be condoned in the UFC. With no policy in place for social media/public decorum, this action will have to double as Wild West reckoning for future offenders.

For now, anyway.

“Bad Boy” or “People’s Champion”?

Tito Ortiz has re-imagined himself as a positive-thinking role model in the twilight of his career, and as such has officially changed his handle from the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” to “The People’s Champ.”

So at the UFC 140 prefight news conference somebody asked Ortiz what that means exactly.

“It’s just keep positive,” he said. “I asked a question on Twitter of all my fans, and I asked them what ‘People’s Champ’ meant to them. And it says someone that’s been a champion that’s giving back to their fans all the time throughout their career. And I’ve done that. I can remember back in UFC 33 out at Mandalay Bay, the first time I put my back to the wall and signed autographs for over seven hours. Every UFC I’ve ever been to, I’ve signed for seven hours each time I go. I’m there for the fans. And when you call yourself a ‘People’s Champ,’ you’ve got to be there for your fans. I’ve been there. And not only that, but just being an inspiration. Just showing with hard work and dedication and determination, you can achieve anything in life.”

Not exactly the heel-type talking that earned him a reputation back in the early UFCs, but the bad boy wasn’t all gone. When one reporter asked at what point he decided to move away from the bad boy character, Ortiz’s response was, “I don’t like you, so I’m not going to answer your question.” In other words, as much as the “People’s Champ” is there for his fans, the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” is lurking behind the sheen for select media.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Brian Bowles freely admits that whatever “it” is, he doesn’t have it.

Charisma, charm, mass appeal. Whatever you want to call it, it doesn’t come naturally to Bowles.

His reserved personality has been forced to the forefront this week, the situation only exacerbated because he’s fighting Urijah Faber on Saturday at UFC 139. While Faber is pound-for-pound one of the most outgoing characters in MMA -- his entire persona exuding a kind of laid-back California cool -- Bowles is the exact opposite.

Where Faber is gregarious, Bowles is quiet. Where Faber is over the top, Bowles is understated. Where Faber is one of the most popular figures in the sport, Bowles is perhaps one of the most under the radar.

And you know what? He’s OK with that.

“Some people are going to be popular and some people aren’t,” Bowles said in San Jose this week. “Some people are just gifted with that. He’s like the cool kid in school. You don’t know why he’s cool, but he is. I happen to not have it. Some people have it. Faber has it.”

One thing Bowles has had that Faber has not, of course, is the bantamweight championship. Yet somehow, despite the fact Bowles dealt Miguel Torres his first loss in six years at WEC 42, snapping his 17-fight win streak with a first-round KO and thrusting Torres’ career into a period of uncertainty he’s still trying to work out of, nobody seems to remember that.

Part of that is because Bowles refuses to run around shouting about it. Another part is that his reign on top was short, lasting just seven months before he was forced to concede the title to Dominick Cruz, bowing out of their fight at WEC 47 with a broken hand. It doesn’t help either that he had to spend a year on shelf nursing that injury and that while we was out, the WEC was absorbed into the much larger landscape of the UFC.

Bowles has won two straight fights so far in the Octagon, but seems at peace with the idea the few people yet know his name. He knows that will change so long as he can keep winning.

“I do feel overlooked ...,” Bowles said. "But I’m just now building up my momentum."

He gets his best chance yet to kick start that momentum this weekend, along with the chance earn another shot at Cruz and the UFC 135-pound title.

Bowles enters this bout as a bit more than a 2-1 underdog and Faber’s wrestling prowess arguably makes it a tough matchup for him. Despite the long odds however, he hopes to emerge from UFC 139 as the No. 1 contender and, he said, maybe even a little bit more popular.

“I look at this fight like it’s a chance for me to shine,” Bowles said. “He’s a popular guy. Fighting him is going to bring me fans either way, as long as I go out there and put on a [good] performance.”

Free was nice, and free was big -- and big was always the intention.

But now that we’re through with the privilege of bonus title fights on network television and dangling MMA in front of bemused pop culture, it’s back to our secular intrigues. Or, you know, back to opening the pocketbook to feed the MMA fix.

This weekend, if you want to enjoy the entire spectrum of fights going on -- and it’s a pretty stacked slate of fights spread over three promotions -- it will cost you approximately $75. A little more if you order UFC 139 in high definition (recommended). A little less if you prefer to skip watching Fedor Emelianenko take on Jeff Monson from Moscow at cockcrow (it’s your dime). But around $75 if you want to catch all the action going on behind the pay wall, along with the free preliminary bits and Bellator.

And if planned right, with DVRs and griddles, it actually looks like a ridiculous MMA marathon -- the exact opposite of the showcased 64 seconds of action from this past Saturday’s big event between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez.

Saturday night, UFC 139 is quietly one of the best looking cards of the year -- on paper anyway (which as you know is flammable). There’s the return of Dan Henderson to the UFC, who may or may not be fighting for a title shot against Jon Jones, taking on former champion Mauricio Rua. Their paths never crossed in the halcyon days of Pride when both were champions, a bit of restraint that plays nicely over the back-story -- but that’s a modest allure. The thing is, somebody will be knocked out. Could be Henderson, who never gets knocked out. And the same goes for the co-main event of debutante Cung Le and Wanderlei Silva. Le fights are rare, but he is the “Human Highlight Reel.” Silva is one knockout from either continuing on as he'd like to, or some alternative (which he refuses to contemplate).

Then there’s the Urijah Faber/Brian Bowles fight to determine who’s next for a shot at Dominick Cruz’s bantamweight belt; Martin Kampmann/Rick Story, which could headline a Versus show; Stephan Bonnar/Kyle Kingsbury, Ryan Bader/Jason Brilz, Tom Lawlor/Chris Weidman. It’s stacked. Miguel Torres is buried on the Facebook undercard fighting Nick Pace. Ditto Rafael dos Anjos and Gleison Tibau. And that’s just the first bill of fights.

There’s also one of the best Bellator cards happening on MTV2, with two belts up for grabs. Eddie Alvarez, who ESPN has ranked No. 4 in the lightweight Power Rankings, against Michael Chandler, and Hector Lombard in a middleweight title defense against Trevor Prangley. Bonus? Marlon Sandro and Raphael Dias. And when all that is through, at 7:30 a.m. on the East Coast the next day, Emelianenko fights Monson for $29.95. It’s a steep price for nostalgia on a three-fight skid, but it’s Fedor, and there are hopes and denials all over the place. The other thing? Somebody will get knocked out.

That’s a big bank of highly combustible MMA action for those willing to splurge. Four former Pride champions, three former WEC champions, two current Bellator champions, one former UFC champion, one reigning Strikeforce champion, and the teetering legacy of Stary Oskol all in a 12-hour window. Not all of it will be free, yet -- especially if you won’t be duped into early morning Fedor -- taken as a whole, this weekend’s fights can’t help but live up to the billing they barely received.

In other words, if you begin with hype and end with the price tag, it’s everything that last weekend wasn’t.

Going back to the Jens Pulver bout five years ago at UFC 63, Joe Lauzon has been a human bull’s-eye for name brand lightweights in need of a fight.

Last time it was Melvin Guillard, who wanted to stay busy while the title picture sorted itself out. It took Lauzon 47 seconds to explain why that was a mistake.

Now it’s Anthony Pettis, another antsy fighter, who kept busy despite establishing himself as the clear No. 1 contender while Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard held the division hostage.

We all saw what happened there. Clay Guida took all those Duke Roufusian dynamics and ground them into a fine powder -- so much so that Pettis returned against Jeremy Stephens with an added wrinkle in his game (wrestling). He won the fight through toil, bumming out frill seekers the way that Miguel Torres did by using his reach and jab in decisioning the shorter Antonio Banuelos.

That’s the rub against being a fighter where everyone has grown to expect the unexpected -- the only thing that can possibly feel surprising is disappointment.

And it’s one of the reasons why Pettis now casts an eye towards Lauzon, who rarely sees finish lines. In 27 pro fights, Lauzon has went to the judges' scorecards once, and that was against Sam Stout at UFC 108 while still not fully recovered from ACL surgery (he lost). Lauzon has taken home nine end of the night bonuses; hitching on to a fight against him means potential for a big payday. After two dull bouts (by inflated standards), Pettis looks at Lauzon and sees electricity. He sees a comer that he can convert into a highlight reel victory.

Best of all, he sees meshing schedules for February.

Yet, it’s a bit of trickery what Lauzon does. He’s a cusp top-10 lightweight coming off a big win who doesn’t do any one thing particularly well; he can’t box, can’t wrestle, and his jiu-jitsu is best described as quite a bit better than decent. He’s not a polished anything. As such, he can’t help but be the most enticing thing on the menu to ravenous appetites.

There’s always somebody casting their druthers his way.

But the danger in handpicking Lauzon is that all those mediocre elements add up to something very hard to deal with, as he proved against Pulver in 2006, and recently against Guillard at UFC 136. He’ll use hodgepodge to hurt you, then turn into an incubus to carry the thing through. Nobody pounces quicker that Lauzon, even if he says that moment always feels like it’s in agonizingly slow motion. Pettis may not have the same vulnerability to submissions that Guillard does, but -- right into Lauzon’s wheelhouse -- seems to have similar notions. It’s either a perfect set-up for a spike for Pettis, or (yet another) perfect trap.

Either way, that’s a good fight.

And judging from how eagerly Lauzon accepted the challenge, he thinks so too.

As much as Miguel Torres would welcome a fight against Urijah Faber, he can’t help but mention it ain’t the fight it once was.

Not all that long ago the two were considered unstoppable forces in the WEC. That much was illustrated when they fought on the same card June 1, 2008 in Sacramento. Faber defended the featherweight belt for the fifth time that night. Torres did the same as bantamweight champion, the first of what would be three title defenses. Collectively, the two held a record of 56-2.

A fight between the champs then would have been a massive event, with the winner having a legitimate claim as perhaps the best in the world. Today, things are different.

“Now, there’s only bragging rights,” Torres told ESPN.com. “He’s coming off a loss. I’m coming off a loss. He’s had four title shots since then. He lost twice to Mike Brown, to Jose Aldo and now to Dominick Cruz. I lost fights to one of his students [Joseph Benavidez] and Brian Bowles.

“All the momentum we both had, we kind of lost. That fight is still one fans want to see, but I think this fight a couple years ago would have been a lot bigger.”

Torres isn’t crying over spilled milk. It’s not bitterness in his voice; it’s desire to get back to where he once was.

The 30-year-old fighter is still trying to get back to his feet from the knockout punch Brian Bowles landed on him at WEC 42 in August 2009. He’s 2-2 since then and continues, as he puts it, looking for a balance between “new Miguel and old Miguel.”

His spirits are high, despite suffering a unanimous decision loss to Demetrious Johnson in his last fight at UFC 130 in May. Many, including Torres, felt he won the fight. UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta even approached him immediately after.

“He came up and said it was a good performance,” Torres said. “I won’t say exactly what he said but he expressed his concern over the scoring. [UFC matchmakers] Sean Shelby and Joe Silva just said, ‘Don’t let it go to the judges.’”

The loss has left Torres fewer options in opponents. The UFC is known for passing on matchups between one fighter coming off a loss and the other, a win.

One fight in particular the loss ruined is a highly coveted rematch against Bowles, who edged Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 132 and should be in strong consideration for a title shot.

“One hundred percent, I would love to fight Brian Bowles,” Torres said. “That’s a fight I’ve wanted for the past two years. He’s the first guy to ever knock me out and take my title. It’s a grudge match for me.

“But he beat Mizugaki and Joe [Silva] has mentioned to me they never match up a guy coming off a win and off a loss. I’d have to run it by him and see what he says.”

A fight against Faber does make sense for the UFC, with both guys coming off losses in which they still looked impressive. Torres is open to the fight and would like to return to the cage in October or November.

It’s maybe not the fight it once would have been, but if it’s a step back toward that, Torres is in.

“It’d be a great fight for me because I never had the chance to fight him and we were on top for a long time,” he said. “What sucks is we both don’t really have as much to gain as we did two years ago, but it’s still a fight I’m looking forward to.”

Three of the five fights on the UFC 130 undercard on Saturday feature fighters in the 135-pound division, including former WEC champion Miguel Torres. He will put up his 39-3 record against the blinding speed of Demetrious Johnson. More »

Miguel Torres is finally doing what any trainer could have (should have?) told him to do years ago; Anthony Pettis and Gray Maynard continue to exchange unpleasantries and there might be a silver lining to Karo Parisyan's most recent loss. Plus, Dan Henderson wants a piece of Jon Jones but doesn't want to take a number. Chad Dundas and Chuck Mindenhall are on top of all the latest happenings that make the MMA world go 'round.

• Torres gets his grappling grove on

• The Pettis-Maynard beef stews

• Is it curtains for Parisyan?

• Things look up for fans north of the border

• Ivan Menjivar added to UFC 133

• Hector Lombard eyes Mousasi rematch

• Dan Henderson wants a crack at "Bones"

Miguel Torres has expressed fears over Urijah Faber ahead of his bantamweight title fight with champion Dominick Cruz at UFC 132. More »

British bantamweight Brad Pickett has suffered an injury and has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 130 bout with Miguel Torres. Stepping in to face the former WEC champion in Pickett's stead will be Demetrious Johnson, the promotion announced Wednesday evening.

"The fastest man in the division has answered the call, and Demetrious Johnson will move into Pickett’s spot to face the former divisional kingpin," said UFC president Dana White. "Both men have verbally agreed to the fight."

Headlined by a lightweight title rematch between reigning champ Frankie Edgar and the only man to ever beat him in Gray Maynard, UFC 130 goes down May 28 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Johnson has only tasted defeat once in his career, suffering a 2010 loss to the aforementioned Pickett in the American's WEC debut. Since coming up short on the judges' scorecards against the Brit, “Mighty Mouse” has won three straight, most recently besting Norifumi Yamamoto at UFC 126 in February.

Johnson was originally supposed to face surging Brazilian Renan "Barao" at UFC 130, but “Barao” will now square off with a to-be-named opponent at the event.

Once considered the world's top bantamweight, Torres hit a rough patch after defending his WEC title successfully three times. After losing his title to Brian Bowles at WEC 42 in 2009, Torres was submitted by Joseph Benavidez seven months later. Since that second defeat, the 30-year-old has returned to his winning ways, submitting Charlie Valencia at WEC 51 and then outpointing Antonio Banuelos at UFC 126.

There's no better direct-delivery system to popularize fighters (or fights) than coaching slots on Spike's 5-year-old "Ultimate Fighter" franchise. With 12 hours and three months of basic-cable promotion, it beats HBO's "24/7" series in volume alone.

With a January start fast approaching, UFC's Dana White told gathered media over the weekend that Chael Sonnen-Wanderlei Silva and Urijah Faber-Miguel Torres were under consideration for the slots. From a television producer's point of view, you want Sonnen. He guarantees good footage, clips and manufactured melodrama. Silva is a good man doing the slow burn in the background. It'd work.

Sonnen, who just got through a disclosure process for medically-approved testosterone, is still over the burner.

Even if Sonnen were spotless, there would be a stronger case to be made for Faber and Torres getting a promotional engine behind them for the UFC's introduction of lighter-weight classes. There is still a vast audience in MMA that hasn't sampled the WEC's product and has little conception of the appeal of those divisions. Faber is already a celebrity and both fighters have personalities, and recruiting bantamweights and featherweights would help get fans invested. Sonnen has many problems, but a lack of self-promotion isn't one of them. Haven't the WEC guys waited long enough for exposure?

Great fights tell stories and great fight cards are able to tell multiple stories at a time. Saturday's WEC event in Columbus, Ohio, presented three, each one working a dramatically different stage of the structure.

Dominick Cruz is clearly in the first act of his career. Three solid wins in 2009 earned him a title shot against Brian Bowles, which he turned into a bantamweight championship win after Bowles -- dominated for two rounds -- was unable to answer the bell for Round 3. Cruz is lanky and never stands idle: His style of peppering punches and cutting sharp angles is a pleasure to watch, but it's a game only the very young (Cruz is 24) and agile can play. What will determine Cruz's longevity is if he can anticipate the need to add other dimensions to his game before his footwork slows down.

The man Bowles beat to briefly hold the title was Miguel Torres, and his second act might be rapidly approaching what students of storytelling refer to as the ordeal -- the moment when all seems lost, and the protagonist is at his lowest point. Torres needed a convincing win over Joe Benavidez to propel himself right back into contention; instead, he was taken down, split open and choked out. There's no ambiguity here. Torres, once the division's biggest star, is 0-2 in recent outings, both convincing stoppages. Competing at 135 pounds does not give him much opportunity for reinvention. He's not about to drop to 125 and 145 presents even bigger dangers for him. Any corrections need to be made without the gimmicks.

It's obvious that the star of his last act is Jens Pulver, who now has seven losses in his past eight fights. The 35-year-old was the UFC's first lightweight champion and remains the only man to defeat B.J. Penn at 155 pounds. But potent hands are not enough when athletes are faster and fresher, and so Pulver has been forced to make a series of tearful speeches. After being submitted by Javier Vazquez, he may have finally and inevitably dried up.

One road might lead him to a livable wage as a commentator; another might see him taking headline fights in Midwest states against jokers in gloves. The fighter is wired to take the latter; here's hoping Pulver has the sense to choose the former.

Next for Cruz: He and Benavidez both want a rematch of their WEC 42 fight, which Cruz won via decision. Why not?

Next for Torres: A rematch with Bowles to determine who rematches the winner of the rematch between Cruz and Benavidez. Perhaps 135 isn't as deep as previously believed.

Next for Pulver: Commentating. He's good at it. Most fighters aren't.

Awards

The 1,000-yard stare award: Fill-in commentator Stephan Bonnar, who stared into the camera like he was under hypnotic suggestion.

The bring-in-the-troops award: Zuffa, for plunking in familiar talking heads Dana White and Joe Rogan to hype up the WEC's pay-per-view debut on April 24.

Comeback kid award: Bart Palaszewski, for getting roughed up against Karen Darabedyan in the first round and then pulling out a slick armbar submission in the second -- like the Hail Mary punch in boxing, only without the scrambled brains.

Reality in combat award: Pulver, for knowing he's probably done in the sport but not explicitly promising to step down: Pulver had the awareness to realize the moments immediately after a fight are a poor time to plan for the future.

The oxymoron award: "Classy MMA crowd" is not a phrase you'll find me using often, but the Ohio chant for Pulver following his loss was spectator sportsmanship at its best. Arenas are quick to harass athletes and slow to show affection. It was nice to see them put Pulver on their shoulders, if only figuratively.

This and that

…Still think the UFC brand isn't the most dominant in combat sports? According to MMAJunkie.com, 8,345 was the total attendance figure for the WEC event at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Saturday, a significant dip from the 17,000 that attended UFC 96 in the same venue this time last year …

…Anthony Pettis earned a $10,000 mercenary's bonus for his impressive knockout of Danny Castillo on the undercard. Referee Jerry Poe was slow to respond to Castillo being toppled, which meant he sustained a few surplus punches without cause. You can't blame Poe, who intervened as quickly as he could, but you might make the case that Pettis needed to display a little restraint. Dan Henderson's icing after knocking Michael Bisping cold last summer was an equally ugly sight; athletes and officials should acknowledge that blows after an athlete has already been knocked cold play with fire …

…Benavidez pocketed $10,000 for submitting Torres, well-deserved in light of the fact it was the first time Torres has been forced to tap in his career …

…Bowles, who lost to Cruz after refusing to answer the bell for Round 3, circulated pictures of an obviously afflicted right hand on Sunday. Some fighters have fought through fractures, leading some to comment that Bowles was looking for an out or lacks the ability to stand attrition. But fighters fight for a prize: Was Bowles getting paid enough to risk long-term problems?

Had he been acknowledged at all, West Virginia native Brian Bowles was on radar in summer 2009 as a tough and determined bantamweight who was destined to become another victim of a ferocious Miguel Torres, the then-37-1 star attraction of the bantamweight division.

Bowles either refused to read that script or simply tossed it out: he knocked out Torres in one of 2009's biggest upset victories. While Torres regains his bearings on Saturday's undercard, Bowles will defend his belt for the first time against Dominick Cruz, the 14-1 positional player who was once a contender at 145 pounds. It will be a good fight; Torres' return will be a good fight. The WEC traffics almost exclusively in good fights. It's as good a guarantee as you can get in the fight game.

What: "World Extreme Cagefighting 47: Bowles vs. Cruz," an 11-bout card from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio

When: Saturday, 10 p.m. ET on Versus

Why you should watch: Because both Bowles and Torres are clearly working toward a rematch that could be the bantamweights' biggest ever; because Jens Pulver has exhausted all other options in MMA and desperately needs a win against Javier Vazquez to remain a player; and because Judo player Karen Darabedyan will one day find it necessary to launch someone through the air.

Fight of the night: Torres-Joseph Benavidez, which should be energized with Torres' frustration at getting knocked off his perch.

Hype quote of the show: "I hope I'm not the guy that retires him. … But chances are I probably will be. I don't want to be the one that closes the coffin, but I'm going to have to be. Better him than me at this point." -- Vazquez on Pulver and fighter morbidity, to UFC.com.

Questions: WEC 47

Q: What does Torres have to do in order to make a statement?

A: Torres was previously the world's undisputed toughest man at 135 pounds, but a knockout loss to Bowles in August dulled that shine considerably. Beating Benavidez on Saturday is a must, but the difference between Torres being written off as a stuttering fighter and being hailed as one who's righted his own ship could be in finishing off the notoriously hard-nosed Benavidez, who has never been stopped.

Q: Is Ohio a proper test of the WEC's brand power?

A: Thousands of gym rats and fight fans converge every March for the Arnold Classic, a celebration of garden-hose vascularity and protein powders. The UFC ran there in 2008 and 2009 to great success: even a Quinton Jackson-Keith Jardine-headlined UFC 96 drew 17,000.

The WEC has normally been content to run in smaller venues: the Nationwide Arena might be a way to bolster attendance and expose more prospective fans to the brand by piggybacking on an established organization.

Q: Is Pulver running on fumes?

A: A former UFC lightweight champion, Pulver has won once in the past four years while dropping six: it's speculated that a loss to Vazquez on Saturday could get him hustled to the exit. Fortunately, few of Pulver's several losses came as a result of neural disconnect: he was submitted in half of them and knocked out in two.

Age is kind to no one in combat sports, but it's especially harsh on lighter fighters that see speed disappear and refuse to complement power they never had. At 35 and with 11 years of pro competition behind him, there may not be any camp or psychological change that can dispute that.

Red Ink: Bowles-Cruz

Take out the second act of any Bowles fight and you're left with an ending that wasn't all that obvious in the opening minutes. Bowles is clearly fit, fast and capable, but he displays little of the dizzying offense or athleticism that we see in other fighters. He can be taken down, clocked and otherwise made to look very human.

But he wins. All the time. Skip to the finish and see Bowles ending bouts inside of the distance. He is not a steamrolling fighter and not a guy who's going to plow through you at the bell. Instead, he'll dig in. Eventually, you'll make an error that leaves you vulnerable for a half second. And maybe his low-gear pace is intentional: it gives him a chance to see that opening and put his fist through it. He has never won a decision because he's never gone to a decision.

Cruz, Bowles' opponent Saturday and the first challenger for Bowles' 135-pound title, bounces on the balls of his feet, loops punches powered by a long frame and doesn't appear to have a huge deficit anywhere. With a 14-1 record, he doesn't make many mistakes. He's also one of a handful of MMA fighters who realize "combinations" can include kicks.

What It means: For Bowles, a chance to prove his KO over Torres was no easy luck; for Cruz, an opportunity to dethrone Bowles before he barely got used to the smell of the leather.

Wild card: Bowles is thought to have smarter hands, but Cruz's reach can be off-putting.

Who wins: Bowles, after Cruz puts him in some brief trouble.