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The path from middleweight to welterweight has been a treacherous one as of late.

In recent months, a number of highly regarded fighters -- Jake Shields, Yoshihiro Akiyama and Nate Marquardt all spring immediately to mind -- have attempted the cut from 185 to 170 pounds and for very disparate reasons, none have hit the jackpot like we assumed they might.

At this point, any one of those guys could probably tell Demian Maia a few cautionary tales.

While the individual experiences of Shields, Akiyama and Marquardt don’t pertain specifically to Maia, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist should be warned after announcing on Twitter this week he’ll move from middle to welter: No matter who you are -- a champion in his prime, a high-dollar international free agent or a former top five stalwart -- this particular jump is far from a sure thing.

Not that Maia really has any other choice. He’s essentially found himself chased out of the 185-pound division after going 1-2 in his last three fights. His recent loss to Chris Weidman knocked him out of the ESPN.com middleweight power rankings and, though he once challenged Anderson Silva for the title, he hasn’t beaten a top-tier opponent since his submission victory over Chael Sonnen at UFC 95 back in 2009.

Oddly, Maia’s mediocre 4-4 mark during the last three years has coincided with a noticeable professional evolution. He’s received near unilateral praise for the obvious improvements he’s made in his standup game. He’s certainly more dangerous now than when he dropped fights to Silva at UFC 112 and to Marquardt at UFC 102, but so far, the proof hasn’t shown up where it counts the most: his win-loss record.

Now, eight months shy of turning 35, Maia seeks the instant coat of paint and spit shine that dropping a weight division can provide. It's true, when a former top contender steps down a class we have a tendency to look at him with fresh eyes.

The trouble is, he’ll enter a welterweight division that has never been more competitive and which boasts a current crop of contenders to rival even the shark tank of the lightweight ranks. Does the prospect of running up against guys like Jake Ellenberger, Nick Diaz or Johny Hendricks make 170 pounds seem preferable to 185?

Probably not. In fact, it might even be worse for him. The whole division is effectively on hold until Georges St. Pierre returns from knee surgery and with Carlos Condit, Diaz and Ellenberger already in the pole position, it’ll be a long wait in very dangerous territory before Maia even has a chance to earn himself a shot at welterweight gold.

If anything, this is probably a lateral move, and one he pretty much had to make. Moving down is just what you do when you feel like you’ve warn out your welcome in the place where you started. For most guys, like Akiyama, it’s just way of buying yourself a couple more fights.

Win one or two, then lose one, mumble something about how the weight cut takes too much out of you and move back up. Such is the cycle of life in MMA.

Word to the wise, though: Be careful. Lately, the move from welterweight to middleweight hasn't been a safe bet, either. Just ask Anthony Johnson.

Good news, fight fans: Now that he’s discovered the miracle of testosterone replacement therapy, Quinton Jackson says he can fight another 10 years.

The bad news? It looks like it won’t be in the UFC.

In touching off a tornado of controversy by admitting he used testosterone leading up to his recent loss to Ryan Bader and then engaging in a contentious war of words with his current employer during the past week, Jackson has essentially taken a BA Baracus-style flamethrower to his career in the Octagon.

That means, if we set aside for a moment the obvious ethical and philosophical questions of an athlete using a doctor’s prescription to tack an extra decade on to his career -- which Jackson himself seems perfectly happy to do -- the most pressing issue obviously becomes: Where?

Where exactly does a guy who has already retired once, has never seemed particularly motivated, has groused on and off about his pay and has made it clear that he doesn’t like MMA fans (only his fans) think he’s going to spend the next magical decade of his career fighting?

Clearly, if and when he becomes available, someone will sign Jackson, who is still talented and who (at least theoretically) retains a healthy base of fans.

In doing so, however, that person will also be taking a sizable risk.

If his first dozen years in MMA -- which includes at least one high-speed police chase, remember -- hadn’t convinced you, the last couple of weeks should serve as conclusive proof. After the initial wave of bad press over his now notorious interview with Fighters Only Magazine, “Rampage” has spent the last few days likening his treatment from the UFC to “slavery,” calling fans of the sport “sheep” and trumpeting TRT as pretty much the greatest thing to happen to him during the last few years.

In response, the UFC threw down its trump card, saying Jackson will finish out his contract with a bout against Mauricio Rua, the guy who TKOed him via soccer kicks the first time they met in Pride back in 2005.

After that, it seems Jackson will be on his own, and if his most recent outburst isn’t enough to make independent MMA promoters think twice about signing him, well, that’s amazing. At this rate, though, Jackson could well enter free agency around the same time he turns 34 and might be facing a market with fewer options than ever before for such an independently minded fighter.

There is Bellator, which allegedly passed on signing Nate Marquardt when the welterweight fighter was released from the UFC in a haze of testosterone last year. There is BAMMA, where Marquardt eventually signed, then unsigned after his promotional debut was continually delayed.

There is ProElite, which has yet to make waves through three shows since it was brought back to life, and there are a number of new-ish organizations in Asia, where Jackson has said he feels most comfortable fighting, but where the MMA market has been on the wane during the past few years.

That’s about the size of the market and, frankly, none of it shapes up as a rosy future for “Rampage.”

Clearly, MMA is a “never say never” industry and the possibility exists that Jackson and the UFC could bury the hatchet between now and his showdown with Rua.

If not, it's difficult (bordering on impossible) to imagine a scenario where Jackson thrives in a smaller organization quite the way Dan Henderson or Nick Diaz did. He’s said he doesn’t care if he ever “make[s] $500 again,” but that seems like perhaps the most dubious claim of all, coming from a guy who’s already walked away from the sport once to chase a big-money future in Hollywood.

Who will pay what is sure to be a hefty asking price for a fighter who has been so inconsistent, has so much baggage and has proved to be such a public relations nightmare?

Someone will, but how much and for how long is anybody's best guess.

The lesson here is a fairly simple one: Never say never.

There was a time, not so long ago, when it seemed like fans had a better chance of hitting the lottery than ever seeing Nate Marquardt fight in the UFC again.

Marquardt, we all recall, was released from the world’s largest MMA promotion in June during a chaotic, whirlwind weekend that saw the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission yank him from a fight against Rick Story (who had already replaced the injured Anthony Johnson) when Marquardt’s testosterone levels proved inappropriately high during prefight exams.

At the time, it all seemed very final. The news of Marquardt’s firing was disseminated to the public via a succinct 12-second Internet video from Dana White. The UFC president later said he was “disgusted” with Marquardt’s behavior and likened extending his time in Zuffa's employ to giving him a “fourth chance.”

“Nate’s done,” White said in the days following. “I’m done with Nate.”

Fast-forward eight months, after the former King of Pancrase signed and then worked his way out of a deal with the UK-based BAMMA organization without ever fighting there, and Marquardt is back. The middleweight contender turned theoretical welterweight will become the latest addition to the beleaguered Strikeforce roster and will reportedly fight self-proclaimed uncrowned 170-pound champion Tyron Woodley at an event to be named later.

A sliver of ambiguity White left surrounding Marquardt last summer -- "I don't know about Strikeforce," White said when asked if the newly unemployed fighter might find a home there. "Don't even ask me about Strikeforce." -- has blossomed into a whole new beginning. What once seemed like a lifetime ban has been duly downgraded to a simple demotion to Zuffa’s slightly less popular broadcast platform. Fair enough.

What we don’t know, exactly, is why.

We don’t know what -- if anything -- has happened behind the scenes to change Zuffa’s mind. We don’t know if Marquardt has changed the particulars of his medical situation. We’re not sure if he is still undergoing testosterone replacement therapy, which last June he credited with, among other things, saving his marriage, or if he’s just promised to keep it within the legal limit this time.

Obviously, the circumstances of his dismissal haven’t changed. “Facts are facts,” White said at the time. Marquardt’s history hasn’t changed, either. He’s still the guy who tested positive for steroids following a win over Ivan Salaverry back in 2005. He’s still the guy who was already on notice in New Jersey for circumstances involving hormone therapy after his win over Dan Miller three months before he showed up to take on Story.

As of right now, we’re left to assume the only thing that’s changed is the passage of time.

It’s eight months later. Everyone has cooled down from that initial burst of activity and anger and realized an MMA world where Marquardt is still under contract to Zuffa suits everyone in the equation better than the alternative.

That’s nature of the fight game in 2012, of professional sports, really -- to be wholly uncompromising and yet incredibly transitory at the same time.

If there’s one constant in this industry, it’s that all things change. They change quickly, irreparably and forever.

Then, given enough time for everybody to get over it, they typically change back.

CHICAGO -- A lot of people drew blanks when trying to come up with ways that Michael Bisping could defeat Chael Sonnen. In the end, a lot of people were drawing blanks as to how Bisping lost. Such is life in fighting.

The penultimate stage to the middleweight title ended up being closer than expected, but Sonnen prevailed on the judge’s scorecards (30-27, 29-28, 29-28), and it looks like he’s headed to Sao Paulo for his long-awaited rematch with Anderson Silva. But it wasn’t the same dominant Sonnen we’ve seen against Yushin Okami, Nate Marquardt, Brian Stann and through nine-tenths of the Silva fight. This time he was challenged against the game British fighter, who came in with near stumblebum odds as a 4-to-1 underdog.

Though the third round was clearly Sonnen’s, through much of the first two stanzas it was Bisping who outstruck Sonnen on the feet and took turns controlling the action against the fence. He thwarted many of Sonnen’s double-leg takedown attempts, and when he did get taken down, he was able to use the cage to get back up. He worked Sonnen well in the clinch and scored with dirty boxing. But Sonnen did enough with the takedowns in the eyes of the judges to nudge things his way. In fact, one judge even gave Sonnen the second round, which played out pretty convincingly in Bisping’s favor.

“The only round I knew I had was the third,” Sonnen said at the postfight news conference. “I thought I might have had one of the first two, but I didn’t know [for sure] I had it. I heard 30-27; I knew that went for me. But I didn’t hear unanimous decision. If I’d heard unanimous I would have breathed deep right then.

"I thought it was a split decision. And that was my goal -- to win a controversial split decision.”

That last part, of course, was a joke on his part. But when asked if he knew the fight was close going into the third and that prompted him to fight with a sense of urgency, Sonnen said he didn’t have his bearings enough to fully know.

“Yeah, I knew we were in the middle of a close fight,” he said. “I went in there to win the third round -- I had a sense of urgency for sure. I think we both did. I think we both knew we were in the middle of a hard fight. But you’ve got to understand, [Bisping] hit me so hard in the first round, I wasn’t positive when we were in the third. I was just glad when it was over.”

In the toil, Sonnen may have lost a little steam for a rematch that has been could go down as one of the biggest in UFC history. Had he walked through Bisping as he did Stann at UFC 136, the collision course with Silva would look like just that -- a collision course. But doubt will inevitably creep back into the equation with him looking more vulnerable than he has in a couple of years.

But the rematch with Silva seems destined to happen nearly two full years after the first went down at UFC 117 in Oakland. Instead of 17,425 people cheering him on, there will be 100,000 people expecting his comeuppance in Brazil. When asked about the fight in Sao Paulo, Sonnen made it clear he won’t balk at the opportunity.

“It sounds like you’re concerned for my safety,” he said. “But in fairness, ladies and gentleman, you might want to pick up your local newspaper. Chicago isn’t exactly a haven for civility at all times -- I don’t know if I’m completely safe on the streets around here. And secondly, if those blowhards with their blow darts want to come at me, they can send anybody they want -- but don’t send anybody you want back.”

Might have been harder than people expected, but he got the job done. Now get ready for an inundation of Sonnen in both hemispheres.

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.

In the end, Luke Rockhold just said what we were all thinking.

After shoring up the initial defense of his Strikeforce title with a first-round knockout of Keith Jardine on Saturday night, Rockhold sounded pretty indifferent on the prospect of a bout with Tim Kennedy.

No offense to Kennedy -- he may be the promotion’s only real option as a No. 1 contender in the immediate future -- but even the middleweight champion seemed to tacitly acknowledge that Strikeforce 2.0 will fail without a significant influx of talent from its parent company.

“Right now all the best guys are in the UFC ...,” Rockhold said on Saturday, expertly sidestepping Kennedy altogether. “Those are the guys I want. I want to climb to the top, I want to fight the best in the world. I think they should bring over some top contenders.”

As bad as this makes us all feel for Kennedy -- nobody ever wants to fight him, seems like -- Rockhold is right.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if Strikeforce is going to live out this year and even see (e-gads!) 2014, it’s going to need more fighters. At this stage of MMA’s evolution, it’s hard to see anywhere those fighters (at least the ones any viewers have heard of before) would come from besides the UFC.

With that in mind, here are five compelling opponents for Rockhold who could all come to Strikeforce during 2012, without really upsetting the balance of power in the UFC 185-pound division:

Brian Stann: Stann shapes up a perfect future foe for Rockhold, given his status as a highly regarded up-and-comer recently knocked out of the thick of the UFC title hunt with an ugly loss to Chael Sonnen. At this point, the bigger fight company wouldn’t really miss him (much), but he’d be a huge addition to Strikeforce. Stann is just 31, a former WEC light heavyweight champion and would certainly have the chops to put up a better fight for the Strikeforce champ on his feet than Jardine did. The million dollar question might be whether Stann could keep the fight standing and -- in the event it went to the ground -- steer clear of Rockhold’s submission game. Up next, Stann is scheduled to meet Alessio Sakara in April in a fight he absolutely must (and should) win to maintain his status as a hot prospect. After that? Anything may be possible.

Alan Belcher: With the uncertainty of a 2010 eye injury now behind him, Belcher kicked off his full time return to competition with an expeditious beatdown of Jason MacDonald in September. He was briefly rumored as a next opponent for Vitor Belfort before Belfort got funneled into a matchup with Anthony Johnson (and then a TUF: Brazil coaching gig) and the UFC has yet to place him with an official upcoming fight. If matchmakers aren’t exactly sure how to pace the talented Duke Roufus-trained striker, a fight with Rockhold could be just the ticket.

Rousimar Palhares: If the UFC balked at sacrificing prospects like Stann or Belcher to Strikeforce, it could always think about somebody like Palhares. The fireplug submission specialist has beaten everyone he’s faced in the Octagon save for Dan Henderson and Nate Marquardt, but the company doesn’t seem to have him ticketed for big things, as evidenced by back-to-back fights against Dave Branch and Dan Miller. He’d be giving up a ton of height to the 6-foot-3 Rockhold, but things might get interesting if he could get the fight to the mat. Up next for him, Palhares fights Mike Massenzio on Jan. 14 at UFC 142.

Tim Boetsch: “The Barbarian” has proved cutting to middleweight was the proper move after unanimous decisions over Kendall Grove and Nick Ring. Still, not sure anyone is yet fully on board with him as a legit threat to the top of the division. That all changes if he beats Yushin Okami next month at UFC 144, of course, but if not? He’d shape up as a compelling litmus test for Rockhold, and a markedly different one than the guys listed above. To beat him, the Strikeforce champ would have to either stay off his back or become just the second man ever to submit him. The first was light heavyweight Phil Davis, which could put Rockhold in rarefied air if he were to pull it off.

Nate Marquardt: Call this one sort of an honorable (but likely impossible) mention. It’s been nearly six months since Marquardt was summarily dumped from the UFC after the summer’s testosterone therapy debacle. He’s finally scheduled to make his BAMMA debut on Feb. 11, taking on Yoshiyuki Yoshida for the British promotion’s welterweight title, but so far he hasn’t exactly started his post-Zuffa career like gangbusters. It’s probably out of the realm of possibility the organization would have him back, but if a change of heart occurred sometime during 2012, he’d make a great test for Rockhold.

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.

Friday marked the fifth anniversary of Anderson Silva's hostile takeover of the UFC middleweight championship. He has since defended the title a record nine times, often in spectacular fashion, and at the age of 36 continues to accomplish things followers of mixed martial arts have never seen before.

Though he seems capable of fighting forever, Silva's handlers suggest the long-limbed Brazilian sniper will compete just four times more before calling it a career. If that's true, each remaining contest needs to be regarded as an event, something special. With rare exception, this is not a fighter who takes punishment to win. Just the opposite. He dishes it out in ways that scramble the mind.

In recognition of arguably the best fighter in mixed martial arts history, here are five defining moments of Silva's UFC reign.

Fractured Franklin

Of course it starts here. There's no point in separating Silva's equally violent finishes against Rich Franklin. They should be remembered together for their brutal, exacting efficiency. Silva won the UFC belt in his second fight with the organization. Franklin (22-1 at the time of the first encounter in Las Vegas on Oct. 14, 2006) appeared as if he'd never been in a fight before the way Silva treated him. It's quite honestly shocking and a testament to Franklin's resilience that he chose to fight again after having his face rearranged the way it was. In the rematch a year after losing the title, Franklin wasn't any better, and again succumbed to knees from the clinch. The message was clear: don't step in the cage with Silva unless you're willing to suffer the consequences.

Manhandling Marquardt

Sandwiched between the Franklin exclamation points, Silva was tasked with two title defenses. The first failed to materialize because Travis Lutter couldn't make weight to secure the biggest opportunity of his career. So it would be the second when Silva affirmed his status as UFC champion. Nate Marquardt was thought by some to have a legitimate shot of knocking off Silva. Nope. It wasn't close. Silva toyed with Marquardt and stopped him late in the first.

Hammering Henderson

In terms of perceived threats, none loomed larger over Silva than Dan Henderson. If anyone was unconvinced of Silva's greatness when he stepped into the cage to meet the former Pride middleweight champion on March 1, 2008, they could not have remained so afterwards. Silva felt the brunt of Henderson's challenge early, fending off takedowns and, by most accounts, losing a rare round. But when action shifted to Round 2, Silva was typically brilliant. He denied Henderson's takedowns, unloaded with heavy, accurate punches, and secured a capping rear-naked choke. There was no denying it, Silva was putting together a special run.

Stunning Sonnen

Chael Sonnen didn't care what Silva pulled off in past fights, and he fought that way over the course of four-plus rounds in last year's dramatic championship contest in Oakland. Silva took over 200 punches as he drowned underneath the powerful wrestler. But those struggles didn't indicate a decline in skill or lack of will. Not at all. Not after the stunning truth was revealed late in Round 5 with a triangle choke submission. Silva will have to manage something otherworldly in his next four fights to top what he did against Sonnen, and many will rightly regard this summer night as the finest of Silva's career.

Battering Belfort

As if just to remind us that he's capable of anything, Silva snapped off a front kick to Belfort's jaw in February. It was a brutal finish of a man who had never been knocked cold before, and it said that the Sonnen fight wasn't the start of his decline. Just the opposite. Silva is as dangerous as ever. He reaffirmed that in August against Yushin Okami.

Dan Hardy has been labeled "ignorant" by fellow British mixed martial artist, Tom Watson, regarding recent comments made about Nate Marquardt. More »

PHILADELPHIA -- The truth is, if you look at Chael Sonnen’s history of skewering opponents before a fight, you won’t find many examples. He had things to say about Paulo Filho, particularly heading into the second bout, but the microscope wasn’t on like it was with Anderson Silva, when he made it fairly plain that he wasn’t a fan. But he was completely respectful of Dan Miller, and he was nothing but class leading up to Yushin Okami at UFC 104. The worst he would say about Nate Marquardt ahead of UFC 109 was that it was a “must win” for him. That was more cliché than lambast.

We’ve seen a billion Chael’s since then, or at least seemingly. He says we’ve seen one. One real Sonnen -- the one who will stick to being reverent of his opponent at UFC 136, Brian Stann. He says he hasn’t fallen out of character for any of the aforementioned fights because he was never in character.

“I don’t manufacture conflict,” he told ESPN.com while at a media event in Philadelphia. “I don’t go out and say anything bad about Anderson Silva -- I don’t like Anderson Silva. I made that known, and I make no apology for it. I do like Brian Stann and I’m not going to pretend I don’t. I see guys in this sport continually attempt to imitate me and copy me and to be like me, [but] they get it wrong -- I’m real. What you see is what you get. If I didn’t mean it, I wouldn’t say it.

“When it comes to Brian Stann, when it came to Nate Marquardt, when it came to Yushin Okami … those are great guys and I won’t say otherwise in the attempt to draw attention to myself or to the event. The event has enough attention, I’ve got enough attention, tickets are moving just fine. I’m not in the business of hyping or selling a fight.”

Sonnen’s treatment of Silva ahead if UFC 117 was novel. For one thing, up until then not many people had been irreverent toward the long-time middleweight champion (at least not in public). For another, it was hard to stay up with the Sonnen soundbites while holding your bearings -- he took things to a different level that blurred media senses. He was telling people what they had and hadn’t heard, which is the closest to a Jedi trick we’ve seen in MMA. He contradicted himself with impossible audacity. There were moments when you wondered if Silva really did speak the King’s English, but even an MMA novice suspected that a Nogueira black belt was harder to come by than a Happy Meal toy.

In any case, this split his audience up into love/hate positions with him (often interchangeable, and very close to the same). Against Stann we won’t catch any of that. He likes Stann. He doesn’t like Silva. It’s just that simple.

“Stann’s a stud, and I tried to not get on the docket with him,” he said. “I did everything I could to get an easy fight. I tried to get [Lyoto] Machida to lure into a fight, I tried to get Wanderlei [Silva], I tried to get Anderson. I tried to get every easy fight I could think of, and Joe Silva didn’t like it so he called in the Marines.”

It admittedly felt good to see things take a positive turn for Nate Marquardt when the embattled fighter inked an exclusive, multifight deal with the UK-based BAMMA organization, as first reported by ESPN.com’s Josh Gross on Friday.

As positive as things can get, that is, for a guy who is still persona non grata in the UFC. A guy who, despite remaining the No. 5 middleweight in the world according to the ESPN.com rankings, appeared to have few good options left after Bellator and even the re-launched ProElite organization recently decided they weren’t interested.

Marquardt and his controversial testosterone replacement therapy have been a hot topic of conversation among message board certified, comment section-approved medical experts ever since he was unexpectedly yanked from the main event of UFC Live 4 and subsequently fired from the company via 12-second internet video in June. Fact is, those of us who aren’t doctors still have no real idea if Marquardt is a cheater or just a victim of his own naiveté, but seeing him at least temporarily close what must have been the most difficult four weeks of his professional career on Friday was a welcome sight.

As obscure as it is in the states, BAMMA appears on the rise after successfully staging six events in England since its debut in 2009. The promotion will undoubtedly move quickly to try to put Marquardt into a fight with Paul Daley for its vacant welterweight title and the middleweight championship currently held by Tom Watson also looks like easy pickings for a fighter the caliber of “Nate the Great.” With the UFC still only committed to one or two shows per year across the pond, the potential exists for BAMMA to be at least a modest regional success (and a profitable one) with Marquardt as a star attraction.

Yet, even as he finds a provisional home in the UK, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Marquardt’s long-term prospects remain pretty bleak so long as he’s unwelcome in the UFC and/or Strikeforce. More and more in MMA, it feels like there are the Zuffa properties -- with their pay-per-view events and cable television deals and accident insurance -- and then everybody else.

It also won’t help Marquardt’s public image that his next fight will take place in England, where drug testing and regulatory efforts are largely left to promoters. Despite what BAMMA Vice President Liam Fisher told Gross about the promotion introducing “mandatory PED tests for title fights and random PED tests both pre- and post-event,” some fans will no doubt see this move as Marquardt trying to avoid further run-ins with American athletic commissions, like the ones in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that contributed to his UFC ouster.

At 32 years old, he’ll still be able to have some marketable fights and make a little money, but so long as Marquardt remains locked out of the UFC, he’ll never again attain the heights he reached while making a run at the middleweight title in 2007 or as relevant as it appeared he was on the verge becoming again with a potential foray into the UFC welterweight division. Those are just the facts, stinging as they are.

Debate will no doubt continue to rage online about what Marquardt may or may not have done to bring about the end of his UFC career. What’s that old saying about opinions? They’re like web sites, everybody has one? Something like that.

In the long run, the only opinions that will matter about Marquardt belong to the guys who hold the keys to the Octagon and, so far, they appear unwavering in their declaration that the former middleweight No. 1 contender will never fight for them again.

At UFC 131 in Vancouver, Dana White broke the news that going forward all main events -- title fights and non-title fights alike -- would be five-round affairs.

At the time, when I asked him if this would be universal for altered main events that are put together on short notice, he stated simply, “no exceptions.” That seemed like a pretty straightforward way to think -- save for the fact that there’s been nothing but pretty exceptional things happening for the last few months to card headliners, making for a complicated case-by-case basis of five-round main events.

In short, it’s hard to imagine five-round headlining spots being universal, given the recent trend of altered main events.

Imagine if the UFC had enacted this frill-based privilege before UFC 130. That was the card where Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard became Matt Hamill versus Quinton Jackson on a few weeks' notice. Forget that the world would have been subjected to two more rounds of a blasé match-up, the bigger problem is that Hamill and Jackson would have had to alter their camps to train for five rounds rather than three. Similarly, when Shane Carwin stepped in late for Brock Lesnar at UFC 131, he would have had more to think about than just Junior dos Santos. Would it have played a hand in his decision to take the fight? Probably not. But he had been training for a three-round fight with John Olav-Einemo up until then, and it’s a pretty sizable shift in thinking for a guy whose main concern for the last year was gassing out.

But over the last couple of weeks the proposition of five-round main events has gotten stickier still. If there were truly no exceptions, the UFC Live on Versus card in Pittsburgh would have been that much more complex. Anthony Johnson versus Nate Marquardt on plenty of notice became Nate Marquardt versus Rick Story on relatively short notice which became Rick Story versus Charlie Brenneman on virtually no notice. How easy is it to prepare for an extra couple of rounds if you’re Brenneman, who was only hoping for the off chance of a hypothetical three? Even for a fighter who is physically ready, the mental adjustment is significant.

And then this stuff with UFC 133 began happening. Would Tito Ortiz have still have taken the fight against Rashad Evans if it were a five-rounder? Ortiz is stepping in for Phil Davis on a little three week’s after spending a day in contemplation about whether to accept it or not. Would he have been as willing if the fight with Evans -- whom he fought to a full 15-minute draw at UFC 73 -- was a set-in-stone five-round fight? Maybe, but it’s that much more to ask.

The bottom line is, if we are to take this recent string of events at face value, for the UFC to make all main event bouts five-rounders without exception it will have to convince its roster to be ready for 25 minutes of fighting at all times. Either that or it will have to make some exceptions, and have five-round main events operate on a case-by-case basis.

Maybe then Lyoto Machida could argue for Anderson Silva money on the premise that he’d be working time and a half.

B.J. Penn turned up the heat on Nate Marquardt on Thursday by telling the axed UFC star to prove he is clean if he wants to fight the Prodigy. More »

Nate Marquardt has launched an angry backlash at the men criticizing him for his recent suspension from the sport, calling the likes of B.J. Penn and Paul Daley "cowards" and "bullies." More »

• Rumor Central: Marquardt takes down names » Sonnen seeks challenges »

Testosterone replacement therapy has become a hot topic in mixed martial arts during the last 12 months. Often overlooked in the discussion is Dan Henderson, who’s been using the treatment to commission’s standards for more than four years.

Recent turmoil brought on by Chael Sonnen and Nate Marquardt’s use of TRT has prompted a handful of fighters and media to wonder if commissions wouldn’t be better off banning it from the sport altogether.

That would be unfortunate for Henderson, who was the first athlete to ever receive a therapeutic exemption for TRT in Nevada -- prior to a fight against Wanderlei Silva in 2007. Since then, he’s received exemptions in multiple states.

“My levels were so low they were off the charts,” Henderson told ESPN.com. “I was always tired and getting sick a lot.

“I couldn’t even tell you [how to abuse it]. I’ve never gone above normal ranges. All I know is that I’m not as tired and I don’t get as sick as I used to.”

According to Henderson’s understanding of the treatment, a patient of TRT typically never exceeds “normal” testosterone levels, as was the case with Marquardt in Pennsylvania.

Although he’s not officially required to monitor his testosterone levels when not in competition, Henderson says he does to regularly as a precaution.

“I always do it on my own just to cover my own a--,” Henderson said.

Henderson did say, however, a little more monitoring from commissions in between fights might discourage the few fighters who have been cleared to use TRT from abusing it.

Even though Henderson monitors his own levels, never, he says, has the commission randomly tested him away from a fight.

“The only time people get monitored now is at the fights,” Henderson said. “I think it might be good to have stricter monitoring where people are getting tested throughout the year.”

Current policy calls for medical documents proving an applicant’s need for the program. In 2010, The Nevada commission also adopted a rule from the World Anti-Doping Agency, which denies any applicant whose condition is a result of past steroid use.

For now, it seems unlikely any commission would seriously look into banning TRT.

Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada commission, is a strong proponent of allowing TRT when necessary.

“You don’t want to stop an athlete from doing it if he’s got a legitimate chemical deficiency,” Kizer said. “In situations where they need it to live a healthy, long life, maybe have kids, whatever, you don’t want to take that away.

“But, it is fair that the burden falls on them to prove they need it and that they are following it.”