ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

There are at least two kinds of greatness in MMA. Greatness that’s current (like Jon Jones), and greatness that’s always been (like Dan Henderson). In a world of immediacy, we warm our hands more quickly to the former.

Henderson now knows the date for his title challenge with Jones, and that’ll be Sept. 1 in Las Vegas. He will celebrate his 42nd birthday just a week prior to the fight. In 1987, Jones was being introduced to onesies while Henderson was reciting lines from “Vision Quest” and winning state wrestling championships at Victor Valley High School in California. The vegetation on his ears is older than Jones.

If nothing else, Hendo definitely has the experience edge over the UFC’s current light heavyweight champion. He’s been at it a long, long time. Yet the books opened in Las Vegas with Jones installed as a 6-to-1 favorite for this UFC 151 clash. The 24-year old Jones would be a huge favorite over anybody in the 205-pound division, so nothing peculiar there. There’s no such thing as even money bet with Jones in 2012, unless he borrowed from Anderson Silva’s flight of fancy and fought his clone. (Ahem).

Yet what is interesting all these months ahead of the fight is that so many people consider it a foregone conclusion that the prodigy will smash the old ax grinder. In fact, the thing is being discussed as inevitable. Forget about odds, Henderson has no shot.

In a game that deals in shaping perception, this becomes the UFC’s task to mend for no other reason than this: it’s hard to generate buzz on a perfunctory matter. Between now and late summer the idea needs to be that Henderson does have a shot. This of course would be best sold as something believable.

And realistically -- why should that be such a tough sell?

Surely over the course of winning simultaneous titles in Pride FC and later taking the 205-pound belt in Strikeforce there should be some love for Henderson here. His list of casualties in the UFC, Pride and Strikeforce -- pan-divisional -- is next to impossible. He was wrecking guys like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva during their heydays.

As for his own prime? It’s apparently a dozen-year venture. Henderson knocked out Michael Bisping with that anvil right at UFC 100. Since then he finished Renato Sobral, Rafael Cavalcante and Fedor Emelianenko, and he decisioned Mauricio Rua at UFC 139. He did these things in his late-30s and early-40s. These are feats that, if lost on the media, aren’t necessarily lost on his peers.

Last week on MMA Live, Jorge Rivera had Henderson in his top five pound-for-pound fighters. Daniel Cormier told MMA:30 that he “should be mentioned as one of the greatest fighters of all-time, if not the greatest fighter of all-time, but he’s missing that UFC title. He has to be a UFC champion. I think if he is, Dan Henderson will universally be considered the best fighter of all-time.”

To be considered anywhere near the greatest of all time you’d have to believe Henderson has more than a puncher’s chance to beat the greatest of right now. Yes, Jones’ landslide run through the division trumps Henderson’s legacy in forecasting how things will play out. If Shogun, Quinton Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans failed to make Jones appear even remotely vincible, what makes Henderson any different? Nothing, it seems.

Jones is not only destroying opponents, but also our sense of imagination.

Yet the other reason that Henderson is unsung goes back to what Cormier was touching on -- he has been decorated as this sort of fugitive champion in other organizations, but not the one that we store greatness by. He hasn’t made it to the top of any weight class in the UFC.

And at 42 years old -- or any age, really -- Jones looks like a pretty imposing hurdle to get there. Imposing, that is, not unclearable. Henderson’s a guy that fights in squalls and yet has remained a lesson in perseverance for more than a decade. He has a chin, and what he gives up size he makes up for it in leverage, a tangible from his Greco-Roman days. And he has that “H-Bomb” right hand. He’s smart on how and when to deploy it.

Does all of that make for a competitive fight with Jones? Not necessarily. It still feels like a reach, as it will continue to feel until Jones is downsized into something human.

Yet given how long Henderson has sustained his own brand of greatness, it doesn’t feel like a given he’ll lose, either.

Hey, remember when Jon Jones beat Rashad Evans?

In case the mega-fight slipped your mind already, which isn't altogether implausible thanks to mixed martial arts' wacky news cycle, that happened Saturday.

For instance: On Tuesday, three major pieces of information were revealed.
Anderson Silva would not defend his UFC middleweight belt in his home country of Brazil against Chael Sonnen. Instead, it was announced, the pound-for-pound king will return to sweltering Las Vegas for a mid-summer bout against the self-proclaimed king.

Heavyweight Alistair Overeem was denied licensure to fight in the state of Nevada, meaning he's yet another casualty on MMA's growing PED hit list.

And Bellator champion Hector Lombard is relinquishing that title for a chance to compete in the UFC and shut up his doubters.

Here are some quick thoughts on what went down.

Silva-Sonnen 2 heads to Las Vegas

Rather than promoting one of the most intriguing stadium shows in combat sports history, UFC president Dana White confirmed in Rio on Tuesday morning that it was going to be impossible to promote the bout as promised.

A suitable venue couldn't be locked down, even if the promoter openingly salivated not long about the possibility of his middleweights fighting in front of 80,000 fans. Hotel space was a real issue as well, with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, a massive undertaking, was taking place at the same time.

Good news: we still get to see the fight.

Some winners and losers in all of this:

WINNERS

Zuffa

That's right. Even though they failed to deliver on the promise of a mega UFC championship fight in Brazil, the promotion comes out ahead since it won't have to cope with the logistic nightmare of competing with the Rio+20 conference. More important, a stateside Silva-Sonnen 2 fight will garner heavier media attention and potentially boost pay-per-view numbers for a card that's already stacked.

Nevada

Las Vegas needed major fights, and they just landed a marlin. UFC 148 was already stacking up as a solid offering and the addition of Silva and Sonnen to an event that featured Dominick Cruz defending his title against Urijah Faber and Tito Ortiz in a retirement bout against Forrest Griffin guarantees fans will flock to the sun-scorched city.

Sonnen

How could he not be? The challenger goes from needing to negotiate treacherous waters to remaining in the U.S., away from hostile Brazilian fans. The only stumbling block could be Sonnen's attempt to gain a therapeutic use exemption for his testosterone replacement therapy, but Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer is already on record saying he doesn't believe there will be any hiccups to the licensing process.

LOSERS

Brazilian fans

This was setting up to be a mega-event for Silva's countrymen, many of whom are now understandably upset. How could they not be? They lost the chance to watch arguably the best mixed martial artist of all time fight in a packed soccer stadium against the closest thing he has to an arch rival. By extension: Any MMA fan wanted to witness this spectacle.

Silva

It won't impact his performance in the fight, but, presuming he wins, moving the bout from Rio to Vegas certainly does dampen Silva's burgeoning stardom in Brazil. This was an unprecedented opportunity to shine in front of a nation that will soon host the Olympics and World Cup.

Nevada denies Overeem

The layers run thick but it boils down to this:

Alistair Overeem visited a doctor he claimed to know nothing about, allowed himself to be injected with something he claimed ignorance of, and subsequently tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone.

There is no one to blame but himself. Go ahead and point fingers at Dallas-based Dr. Hector Oscar Molina if you want. He is not above reproach here, obviously, but he also didn't force himself on Overeem.

For losing out on a UFC title fight against Junior dos Santos next month. For seeking treatment from Dallas-based Dr. Molina, who admitted to mixing a water-based testosterone cocktail for the Greek statue of a heavyweight he claimed was designed to treat a rib injury. For taking one injection. And then another. For such willful ignorance, especially when he owed Nevada two tests at a time and place of their choosing.

In a way, don't you hope Overeem attempted to cheat the system? I mean, at this stage of the game, it's basically expected and would at least provide an explanation for this mess. Otherwise, the alternative is to believe Overeem is oblivious and stupid.

Lombard leaves, Bellator show's hand

Put up or shut up time for Hector Lombard.

Finally.

After Bjorn Rebney and his partners decided against matching an offer sheet from the UFC for the Cuban's services, the now-former Bellator middleweight champion will get every chance he deserves to prove he's the world's best middleweight.

I have my doubts he'll make much of a dent against the type of competition he's soon to face. Is Lombard (31-2-1) better than Rousimar Palhares or Alan Belcher, who fight May 5 on FOX? I don't think so. But this is the great part: We don't have to "think" about it anymore; let the speculation end.

Bellator's choice is worth dissecting because it says something about the way they're conducting business, and could foretell Eddie Alvarez's chances of remaining with the promotion four months from now.

Bellator essentially would have been forced into the pay-per-view business had they matched the UFC's offer for Lombard. That's a huge advantage Zuffa owns over its potential competitors, because no one other than the Las Vegas-based juggernaut can seemingly compel consumers to buy a fight. Bellator hasn't even tried, though they may at some point.

If not, Zuffa will just poach away fighters they want, like Alvarez, and there's not much Rebney will be able to do about it.

When Jon Jones fought Andre Gusmao at UFC 87, "Bones" was already a practitioner of creative hostility.

At the time, Jones was trying out unusual kicks and punches in a shed in upstate New York, envisioning those spinning elbows and saddle throws that fall under the umbrella of judo. He knew, even then, that he could "dirty box" from three feet out of harm's reach. I remember Tandam McCrory, the lank Barn Cat, preaching Jones’ use of range from back in those days.

The thing is, Jones was never really raw. But, at one point, he was mostly just creative.

Today, Jones is a coachable, maniacal center of poise who institutes and sticks to game plans -- game plans tailored to his overwhelming reach advantage, speed and the eventual surrender of his opponent’s optimism. These days you can visibly see guys lose spirit in a fight with Jones. You see theoretically sound ideas go right out the cage door.

His fight at UFC 145 was no different. Rashad Evans, the former light heavyweight champion, was supposed to close the gap between himself and Jones, and fight on the inside. This was Evans’ criticism of old foe Quinton Jackson, who couldn’t sneak inside Evans' striking range at UFC 135.

Once in, Evans was supposed to dump Jones on to his back like he did Phil Davis -- a lengthy wrestler -- and make it a grueling, grinding affair. Make it boring. It all seemed reasonable enough.

Yet, like Jackson, Evans couldn’t sustain close, and he settled into a stand-up fight with Jones, where he was forced to stay in the champion’s orbit. In other words, the danger belonged to him alone. When Evans did manage to get inside, Jones threw elbows from puncher’s range; when the wrists were locked at his waist, Jones threw shoulders.

As has become the custom, Jones did it his way. The big difference is that he’s traded in the unpredictable for telegraphy and “try and stop me.” Even scarier: The freelance improvisations that we saw against Stephan Bonnar and Jake O’Brien are still in Jones' arsenal, but they’re now situational. His cool dictates the fight.

The Jones of 2012 is a Zen-harnessed version of his already ridiculous self. Before, it was a showcase of a rare and gifted skill set you wondered whether would work on elite competition.

Now Jones is far and away the elite, and everybody else at 205 pounds is left studying the Mona Lisa. He knows it. The guys he fights -- and an increasing number of fans -- know he knows it and want to put a stop to it. They can’t. Even Evans, who had some trade secrets from his days training with Jones at Greg Jackson’s gym couldn’t stop it. Whatever vulnerabilities could be found in sparring sessions have nothing to do with the combined “it” factor that he saw on Saturday night. Jones slows the fight down. He fights without emotional projection, like it’s a casual undertaking to be gotten at with patience and skill and ungodly long limbs. He kills himself in training to make it look easy on fight night. He fights twice as much as Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre.

In MMA, it’s Jones' world right now.

And it’s why at this point a lot of people are sold on the fact that he has cleaned out the light heavyweight division. Dan Henderson lingers, but not many are convinced he’ll bring anything to the table that Jones hasn’t seen. Hendo has that right hand. He has the wrestling pedigree. He has willingness. All of it admirable.

But there will be questions, most common of which will be this: How do you defeat Jon Jones? Plenty of fighters have had their theories handed back to them by Jones with a wink and a "nice try."

So, Dan Henderson -- how do you, at 42, beat Jon Jones, the phenom who’s already fighting to his potential at 24 years old?

For as dominant as Jon Jones appeared to be Saturday night while earning a lopsided unanimous decision against Rashad Evans, the challenger had a glimmer of hope to win the fight. And if Evans goes home to cry like he joked he would during the UFC 145 postfight news conference, that'll be why.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion wouldn't reclaim his title for several reasons. First on that list of course: He fought Jones. The current king is on a tremendous run, and by all rights stands unbeaten after 17 fights regardless of what the rules say about what went down against Matt Hamill.

Had Evans done everything right he still probably wouldn't have won, such is the state of Jones' natural ability, tenacity and preparation. But that doesn't change this fact: Even if it was but a brief moment, Evans must have felt like victory was possible.

Following a brutally rough second period in which he was knocked around the cage by the champion's elbows to a degree I'd never seen before, Evans was in worst-case-scenario mode. He couldn't decipher range or timing and Jones had settled in. The challenger said later this was because he fell flat, which, if you wish, could be added to the list of reasons he didn't win, but that's not reflective of reality. Evans didn't fall flat in the biggest fight of his life so much as Jones rendered him ineffective.

That is, until early in the third round, when, after taking all those "sneaky" elbows to the face, Evans slammed home an overhand right that knocked the champion back. The punch didn't "hurt," Jones said, but it certainly fell within the limits of what's required to wobble him.

If Evans goes home and cries, it will be because this was the lone sequence in the fight when the notion of winning didn't seem completely off-base. And, quite possibly, it's the closet he’ll ever come to beating his former teammate and rival.

While two of the three judges scored the first round for Evans, I thought the third was his best stretch and gave it to him. Perhaps that was aided by the fact that the challenger managed to halt Jones' growing momentum and seize some for himself.

Hey, maybe the idea that Evans really had a crack at the fight is illusory. I don’t want to overstate this. It’s not as if Evans rocked Jones, then let him off the hook. He didn't, in part because the champion can take a punch.

The point is, Jones felt Evans’ power. The dynamic of the fight was there to shift in the challenger’s favor, and yet it didn’t. Instead, during the championship rounds, Evans accomplished little to establish any momentum. Or, as it were, simply go for broke. He fought as if beating Jones and reclaiming the title weren’t as motivational as he made them out to be in the lead up to the bout.

Evans essentially had one situation to feel good about over the 25-minute bout, yet in the end that punch could very well be the thing that makes him shed tears -- it represents a wasted chance. He needed to win this fight Saturday. A rematch won't bode well for Evans. Jones will only improve technically and mature physically in the time between fights. His confidence continues to mushroom, too. Perhaps Evans could pick up some tricks in the gym, but his speed won’t increase. He won’t get any taller. His arms won’t lengthen by 10 inches.

Jones is on the upswing; Evans, on the downswing.

And in a game that requires making the most of one’s chances, the challenger didn’t help himself very much when he could have.

ATLANTA -- No light heavyweight will defeat Jon Jones. At least not anytime soon.

“Never” is a word seldom used in mixed martial arts -- a sport where truly one moment can change everything. A fighter can be on his last leg, staggering to the fence, and still win a fight with one desperate, groggy swing.

In the case of the 24-year-old Jones (16-1), however, it seems destined not to happen at this weight class. The third defense of his UFC title against Rashad Evans this weekend at Philips Arena was supposed to be his toughest fight yet.

If it was, no one could tell.

Jones failed to finish Evans -- the first time that he hasn't stopped an opponent since January 2009 -- but he dominated every aspect of the fight.

He started to find his range late in the first round and carried that through into a spectacular second frame where he staggered Evans with multiple elbows. The round seemed to have an effect on Evans’ confidence the rest of the fight.

“I thought it was great,” said UFC president Dana White. “I thought [Jones] fought a great fight. He threw elbows like they were hands. I thought he fought a great fight and I thought Rashad did, too.”

Jones, inexplicably, slowed down a bit in the later rounds. Afterward, he attributed his hesitancy to a respect for Evans, a former champion and teammate of his.

“Rashad is an awesome opponent,” Jones said. “He’s definitely game. He’s fast. I think I was a little intimidated at some points to believe in my ability and, as a result, I didn’t fight as clean as I would have liked.”

During the postfight news conference, White stated fans expressed optimism on Twitter for Dan Henderson as the next challenge to Jones’ belt. White agreed, calling Henderson “a big test.”

While Henderson is one of the most successful fighters in the sport’s history, he’ll likely be 42 when he meets Jones. He’ll struggle, as all of Jones’ opponents do, with a significant size disadvantage.

A former Olympic wrestler, Henderson will want the fight on the ground, but he’ll have to become the first fighter to take Jones down to do it. Jones’ takedown defense in the UFC stands at 100 percent. It was difficult to say exactly how many takedowns Evans, a great wrestler himself, attempted -- as Jones thwarted each of them easily.

It’s not time for Jones to move to the heavyweight division yet. He’s still, presumably, years away from his prime and at a time in his career where his body is still changing.

He has nothing but high-profile fights ahead of him, much like Saturday’s. While many fans will no doubt say Sunday morning the contest fell short of expectations, it might just be that expectations need to be changed.

Until he moves on to the challenge of fighting heavyweights -- where he’ll more than likely remain successful -- expecting a test for Jones is downright unrealistic.

Jon Jones retained his light heavyweight title Saturday with a unanimous decision over Rashad Evans at UFC 145 in Atlanta.

Evans could never mount a consistent attack and lost by judges’ scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 50-45. ESPN.com scored the fight 50-45 for Jones.

The victory ends, or at least tempers, a long-running feud between the former sparring partners.

While Jones (16-1) successfully defended his belt for the third time, he displayed more caution against Evans than in previous title bouts. His cautious approach might be contributed to having faced Evans often in camp.

“I did a lot of things tonight that weren’t planned,” Jones said. “My striking was looking a little elementary. I didn’t want to make mistakes.

“But who I beat was very important to me.

“It felt completely different fighting [Evans]. Tonight I threw a lot of elbows. Those are the things you would never do to a training partner.”

The elbows, especially in the second round, slowed Evans’ attack. They also left swelling above the former light heavyweight champion’s right eye.

After suffering the injury, Evans spent much of the fight protecting that right side of his face. Evans also failed to take Jones to the canvas.

The lone time Jones was on his back came in the fifth round when he pulled guard. But that occurred with seconds remaining in the bout.

“He was pretty crafty and pretty tricky,” Evans said. "He threw some things he didn’t throw in practice, but there were some things he did better in practice than he did tonight.”

Evans suffered just the second loss of his career. He is 17-2-1 overall.

MacDonald finished Mills in impressive fashion

If Rory MacDonald was to be taken seriously as a welterweight contender, he needed to pass a presumed stiff test in Che Mills.

MacDonald passed the test with flying colors.

He dominated Mills in the first round, taking him to the ground quickly and landing hard punches. When the horn sounded to end the round, Mills’ face was bruised, cut and bloody.

By the start of the second, there was little doubt MacDonald would come out victorious.

He quickly took Mills back to the ground and again landed punches. Mills was on his back and had no strategy to reverse his misfortune.

And MacDonald (14-1) wasn’t about to help him find an answer. Once he got Mills’ back, MacDonald aggressively landed punches that forced referee Mario Yamasaki to step in at the 2:20 mark.

“Che was a great opponent,” MacDonald said. “I took this fight very serious. I’m very happy with the way the fight went.”

Mills fell to 14-5 with one no-contest.

Rothwell stops Schaub by TKO in Round 1

Brendan Schaub isn’t afraid to exchange punches with the biggest, strongest heavyweights in mixed martial arts. That lack of fear, however, cost him against hard-hitting Ben Rothwell.

During a vicious exchange, Rothwell landed a left hook to the head that rendered Schaub unconscious at 1:10 of the first round.

“I worked very, very hard,” Rothwell said. “I changed my workout. I’m not backing down. I know my chin can take some shots.”

Rothwell improved to 32-8. He is 2-2 inside the Octagon competition.

Schaub, who not long ago was one of the fastest rising heavyweights in the UFC, has dropped two in a row. He is now 8-3 overall.

McDonald knocks out ex-champ Torres

The road back to the top of the bantamweight division became a lot more bumpy for former WEC champion Miguel Torres.

Michael McDonald landed a hard right uppercut in Round 1 that sent Torres to the canvas. Torres was asleep before hitting the ground.

The fight would end at the 3:18 mark, dropping Torres to 40-5.

While Torres’ professional record still looks impressive on paper, it's deceiving: Four of his five losses came in Torres’ seven most recent fights.

“I was paying attention to his range,” McDonald said. “I wanted to make sure he didn’t get his jab off.”

McDonald improves to 15-1. He has won eight fights in a row.

Hominick drops third fight in a row

Former top featherweight contender Mark Hominick continues to struggle to find his groove.

For the second straight fight, Hominick failed to rebound from his UFC 129 unanimous decision loss to champion Jose Aldo.

Eddie Yagin registered knockdowns in the first and second rounds to edge Hominick by split decision.

Two judges scored it 29-28 for Yagin, who improved to 16-5-1. The third judge and ESPN.com had Hominick winning 29-28.

Hominick (20-11) ate right hands from Yagin during most of the bout. And in the first two rounds he was dropped by Yagin right hands.

Despite tasting hard right hands, Hominick found his rhythm in the third and punished Yagin with still left jabs and hard right hands.

But that knockdown in the closely contested second round proved too much for Hominick to overcome.

Bocek takes down Alessio

Mark Bocek is one of the most underrated lightweights in UFC. But he might have turned that around with a unanimous decision over veteran John Alessio.

The fight was scored 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27. ESPN.com had Bocek winning 29-28.

Bocek came into the bout as the superior ground fighter and wasted little time proving it. He took Alessio to the ground early in the first round and punished him with hard left elbows.

But while Bocek had the advantage on the ground, Alessio was better standing. And in the second he caught Bocek repeatedly with left-right combinations.

Bocek (11-4) would get Alessio on the ground briefly, but they stood for most of the round.

Alessio, a former welterweight, slips to 34-15.

Browne submits Griggs in first

Taking on hard-hitting Travis Browne is proving to be a difficult task. Chad Griggs became the latest heavyweight to learn this lesson.

Browne improved to 13-0-1 with a first-round submission of Griggs. The loss was just the second for Griggs as a pro.

Browne entered the fight determined to make a statement. He was disappointed after his most recent outing -- a unanimous decision over Rob Broughton.

During that fight at UFC 135 in Denver’s high altitude, Browne was sluggish as he gasped for air. But cardio never became a factor for Browne in Atlanta.

He landed a hard left knee that stunned Griggs. Browne than took his opponent to the ground, where he applied an arm triangle that forced Griggs to tap at 2:29.

“I belong here,” Browne said. “UFC heavyweights, watch out baby.”

Griggs fell to 11-2.

Brown hands Thompson his first pro loss

For the first time in his professional mixed martial arts career, Stephen Thompson suffered a loss.

Veteran Matt Brown used his experience and superior ground skills to punish Thompson for three rounds during their welterweight bout.

The judges scored the fight 30-27, 29-27 and 30-27 for Thompson. ESPN.com scored it 30-27 for Brown.

Brown’s experience would prove especially beneficial in the second round.

With Thompson finally able to get his striking game untracked, a wobbly Brown (14-11) landed a hard right hand. The punch put Thompson on his back.

On the ground, Brown landed an elbow that opened a cut on Thompson’s forehead.

Both fighters were exhausted entering the third, but Brown was able to take Thompson to the ground and punish him.

Brown would get Thompson (6-1) in a mounted triangle, where he began landing several left hands.

Longer Njokuani shuts out Makdessi

In a 158-pound catchweight bout, Anthony Njokuani landed kicks to the head and body of John Makdessi en route to a unanimous decision.

All three judges, as well as ESPN.com, scored the fight 30-27.

Njokuani (15-6, one no contest) stunned Makdessi with a hard left hook on the chin. He would utilize a 7½-inch reach advantage to land most of his strikes and stay out of harm’s way.

Makdessi, despite not finding a solution to Njokuani’s reach, continued to press the action throughout the fight. But entering the third round his left leg was showing the damage done from absorbing numerous kicks.

Makdessi’s left leg was badly bruised.

The fight, originally slated for 155 pounds, became a catchweight bout when Makdessi (9-2) came in two pounds over the lightweight limit during Friday’s weigh-ins.

Danzig ignores injured ankle to beat Escudero

In the battle of former TUF winners, lightweight Mac Danzig overcame a badly swollen right ankle to earn a unanimous decision over Efrain Escudero.

The judges scored the fight 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28. ESPN.com scored the fight 30-27 for Danzig.

Danzig controlled the standup with his jab and an occasional left hook. But Escudero nearly finished him in the first round with a right ankle hook.

Danzig, however, escaped the submission attempt and despite swelling to his ankle fought hard in the second and third rounds.

The damaged ankle did not prevent Danzig from applying pressure on Escudero, who could not find a rhythm in any of the three rounds.

Danzig, the Season 6 "Ultimate Fighter" winner at welterweight, improved to 21-9-1. Escudero, a TUF Season 8 lightweight champion, slipped to 18-5.

Clements punishes Wisniewski with strikes

Chris Clements landed hard strikes in the second and third rounds to earn a split decision in his UFC debut over fellow welterweight Keith Wisniewski.

Clements persuaded two judges who gave him scores of 29-28 and 30-27. The third judge favored Wisniewski 29-28. ESPN.com scored the fight for Clements 29-28.

After a close first round, in which Clements (11-4) was taken to the ground, he picked up his striking attack in the second and third. He hit Wisniewski with hard punches, elbows and spinning back kicks.

Wisniewski (28-14-1) absorbed the punishment and fought hard, but the accumulation of strikes began to wear him down late in the third round.

Brimage holds off Blanco

Despite tasting several front kicks in the second round, Marcus Brimage refused to back down in the third and secured a split decision over Maximo Blanco in a featherweight bout.

Two judges scored the fight for Brimage 30-27 and 29-28, while the third had it 29-28 for Blanco. ESPN.com scored it for Brimage 29-28.

Brimage (5-1) was the more aggressive fighter in Round 1, landing hard punches. But after tasting several front kicks on the chin, he fought more cautiously in the second.

Seemingly aware that the third round would likely decide the outcome, Brimage picked up the pace. He remained somewhat cautious of Blanco’s kicks, but took the risks and came forward.

Blanco, who made his featherweight debut after competing previously at lightweight, falls to 8-4-1 with one no-contest. He has lost two fights in a row.

By now, most everything that could be said about Saturday night’s UFC 145 main event has been said ad nauseam.

We’ve had more than a year to stew on the rivalry between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans, our collective patience tested through a couple of false starts and what have come to feel like interminable delays. We’ve already heard all there is to hear about their shattered friendship, the internal turmoil at Greg Jackson’s gym and the fallout from Evans’ eventual departure. We’ve listened to all their best prepared material, their juiciest off-the-cuff retorts. We’ve watched them snipe at each other in person, in print, on video, on Twitter and via text message.

Scientists are currently scrambling to invent new and interesting ways for these two to call each other names.

As for the rest of us, we’ve asked the legends to break it down for us. We’ve asked the pros. We’ve asked the man on the street. The burden placed on this feud was only compounded by a recent unprecedented lull in UFC programming, and now that it’s finally fight week, public sentiment could probably best be described as “Oh, just get on with it already.”

It’s been an amazing buildup -- mind-blowing, honestly -- once you consider that very, very few people actually believe the outcome is in doubt.

Lost in all the shouting about who stabbed who in the back, the soothsaying about Jones’ unlimited potential and the reassuring platitudes about how there’s nothing at all weird that the 24-year-old light heavyweight champion is being sponsored by the UFC for this bout remains the one largely unasked question that is perhaps most essential to the Jones-Evans saga, to the future 205-pound division and to the company’s current Jones-centric marketing efforts:

So, uh, what if Rashad Evans wins?

As of this writing, Evans is more than a 3-1 underdog to the effectively undefeated champ. The overwhelming consensus seems to be that while he might prove to be Jones’ stiffest test at light heavyweight, you’d have to be crazy to actually pick him to win. Conventional wisdom says Evans will ultimately be too undersized and too, you know, not Jon Jones-ish enough to pull off the upset.

That Evans feels overlooked and underestimated in this bout is a given (he’d had to have spent the last year willfully ignoring everyone and everything to feel differently), and the stakes loom even larger for him than simply being shortchanged by fans and media types. Not only is he facing the guy unilaterally considered to be the future face of the sport, his former-teammate-turned-nemesis, but Evans’ own camp released a video this week in which he admits he thinks even the UFC doesn’t want him to win.

"To me, it honestly feels like they don't want me to have the belt,” Evans said. “That could just be my paranoid mind thinking, and it probably is. They're probably just indifferent to the whole thing, but in my mind I feel like they're like, 'Oh man, we don't want this dude to be champion. We don't want him to be champion.'”

Evans backed off that statement a bit in its aftermath, saying it was just an effort to psyche himself up for the biggest fight of his life. Let’s be honest, though: If it turned out that secretly, deep down Evans really did believe the UFC would rather have Jones as its 205-pound titlist, we’d understand, right? After all, it’s Jones standing next to Dana White in that Bud Light ad, not Evans. It’s Jones who has his own signature line of UFC apparel, who smiles confidently at us from the front page of the UFC’s official store this week.

Evans has historically had a rocky relationship with UFC brass, and though his evolution as a fighter has been downright remarkable, nobody is saying he’s the future. Nobody's jumping the gun with rampant speculation about how he’ll fare as a heavyweight once he cleans out the 205-pound division.

If the rest of us have had more than a year to watch his rivalry with Jones grow stale, Evans has had a year to wallow in it. After all the talk and talk shows, after the backstabbing and the beer commercials, he doesn’t have to carry the weight of our expectations, nor does he get to enjoy our fawning reviews of his every move. He doesn’t have a $150 tracksuit with his name on it. He’s not “getting real close” to a deal with “a major shoe company.”

All Evans has is a chance to prove us wrong.

When you’re not lucky enough to be the popular pick as the future Greatest of All Time, maybe that’s all you can hope for.

ATLANTA -- If there is one piece in this entire Rashad Evans/Jon Jones/Greg Jackson puzzle that often gets overlooked, it’s Mike Van Arsdale.

Van Arsdale, 46, spent years coaching at Jackson’s camp in Albuquerque, N.M. in a role, he says, he was rarely paid for. He viewed the experience as “an internship.”

Even though he was highly involved in the camps of major fighters, Van Arsdale paid his bills with money made from personal training sessions with non-fighting clients. Instead of sitting cageside during his fighters' bouts, he watched on TV.

That role changed forever for Van Arsdale in May 2009, after Evans lost his UFC title to Lyoto Machida at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Today, he says his stable of fighters in Boca Raton, Fla., is 30 strong and he'll be in one corner one of the most anticipated fights of 2012 when Evans meets Jones at UFC 145 this weekend.

In an interview with ESPN.com, Van Arsdale discussed his perspective on the grudge match between the former teammates, his team and that moment in 2009 that he believes led him to becoming a head coach.

ESPN.com: What would you say your role was at Jackson’s and did you ever receive credit for it?

Van Arsdale: My role was to coach the team. When you’ve got a head coach that the gym is named after, obviously he gets all the credit. I understood that. I basically did it as an internship. Did I get credit for it? No. I don’t think people even knew I was there. I don’t remember doing any interviews or anyone saying, “Mike Van Arsdale is training anyone.” It was tough not making a living for what I did, especially with five children. But as far as feeling good about fights? I remember training fighters 10-12 weeks, getting up in the morning with them, then jumping in the air when they won from my spot on the couch because I wasn’t in their corner. I still felt good about it, though. I learned a lot from that experience and now it’s my time to coach.

ESPN.com: Did you always plan to be a head trainer in the future?

Van Arsdale: I was content not coaching fighters until I went to visit Rashad after he lost to Machida. I went to the room prior to the fight to see him, but there were so many people in there. Security was patting me down saying I couldn’t get in. Then after the fight, I went in there and it was just him and his wife. I said, “You mean to tell me there was a full room before and now there’s just you and your wife? What a bunch of fake people. And I’m not trying to talk about the coaches in there. There were people in there calling themselves his friends, too. After the fight -- nobody. The very next day he asked me to coach him.
ESPN.com: What is your relationship like with Greg Jackson?

Van Arsdale: Greg and I have a good relationship. I used to live at his house and was one of his fighters. After that, I helped him run his gym. I don’t think he was happy when I left because I was doing a lot of work but he’s fine now. He’s fine, I’m fine. I like and respect Mike Winkeljohn. He was like my ally at the gym. I’m pretty sure they plan on winning this fight and I plan on winning, too.

ESPN.com: How has it been preparing for a fight against a Greg Jackson fighter, a trainer you know so well?

Van Arsdale: There’s nothing different. I don’t think about the coaches. I think about the guy we’re fighting. He has a lot of talented fighters but as far as being able to predict things -- none of us are able to predict anything. You can only prepare for battle. You don’t win your fight on fight night. You don’t sit in your corner and tell them how to win the fight. Nobody is the coach of the year. Nobody is smarter than everyone else. The only smart coaches are the ones that don’t over-train guys.

ESPN.com: You know Rashad. How has he been during this camp?

Van Arsdale: The only thing that’s different is the media won’t leave him alone. Other than that, we’re training how we always do. Does he want to win this fight? Of course, but he doesn’t want to win this one more than he wanted to win the last one.

ESPN.com: At one point, Rashad said if Jon held the belt he’d move to middleweight or heavyweight. Was that ever realistic?
Van Arsdale: Moving to 185? Absolutely not. Heavyweight -- probably not a good idea. That just shows you, though, the level of loyalty Rashad Evans actually does have. He would have never fought this kid just because he made a commitment not to. This is a different generation. The new school generation is a little more ruthless than the old school generation. The old school generation would actually honor something like that. The new school is thinking, “I’m going to make it no matter what.” I’m not saying [Jones] is a bad guy for doing that.

ESPN.com: How confident are you in this fight?

Van Arsdale: I never say that nothing can happen or there’s no way we can lose but I’m in the 90 to 95 percentile we’re winning this fight. The only reason there’s any percentage there that we won’t is because this is MMA. As far as knowing Rashad and what he’s capable of and how he’s prepared -- I think it will be a good fight but I don’t see how Jon can win. There are a couple ways he could, but I don’t see those scenarios going down. I know everyone is thinking Rashad is going to lose but that is just another lesson for all the people to learn.

ESPN.com: Talk about training Rashad in Florida this past year.

Van Arsdale: The funny thing is I never try to make him the best Rashad he can be. I just make sure he beats the guy he’s fighting. You don’t want to give everything away if you want to have a long career. Athletes can’t peak over and over again, especially drug-free athletes. I asked him how many fights he wants to win and we’re not halfway there yet. So, unless he tells me we’ve only got one more fight, I’m not trying to get everything out of this guy. Example, for Phil Davis, he didn’t have to be in the best shape to beat that guy.

ESPN.com: Have you peaked him, though, for this fight specifically?

Van Arsdale: No. I don’t have to, to win this fight. It’s not the last one. We did enough to beat this guy.

Dan Henderson recently made the suggestion to ESPN that Jon Jones will "definitely" be taken down by Rashad Evans at some point in Saturday's UFC 145 title showdown, and at Wednesday's news conference Jones responded to the claim. More »

You'd guess by now Jon Jones knows everything he could wish to know about Rashad Evans.

Not so.

There’s never enough intel -- not for Jones, especially when he’s days away from a fight the UFC light heavyweight champion has pondered over for far too long.

So while participants on a conference call designed to hype the main event for UFC 145 heard Evans lambaste Jones as a cocky liar and his old trainers as patently selfish, Jones gleaned something else. Something he thought was telling.

"They say if you want to get into a man's head, listen to the words that are coming out of his mouth,” Jones explained an hour later.

Apparently, among Jones’s many other gifts, the 24-year-old budding superstar is capable of filtering meaningful data, what he called "the true intent,” through the incessant noise of a melodrama.

On Friday, after listening to Evans speak, Jones came to the conclusion that his challenger, rival and former friend is distracted. This is significant, Jones went on to say, because it signals that Evans, in some measure, isn't fully focusing on what it will take to win Saturday’s upcoming five-round title bout in Atlanta.

This is the champion’s take: While Evans has revenge on the brain, Jones is thinking tactics.

As insights go, it may not be Jones’ most impressive. Evans basically confirmed as much. Of course he wants win and regain the UFC belt, but the 32-year-old mixed martial artist is no less eager to teach hard lessons to the current titleholder and the team for which he once fought.

The champion sees Evans as being "more caught up than the fans are” in the drawn-out tale of how their rivalry and fight came to pass, and of the potential payback aimed at trainers they once shared.

“Rashad's biggest thing is to win this whole prefight drama,” Jones said. “He's stuck on winning over fans. He wants people to hate me and hate Greg Jackson. That’s the only thing he cares about, and in the process he has stretched the truth on numerous occasions.”

“

He's stuck on winning over fans. He wants people to hate me and hate Greg Jackson. That's the only thing he cares about, and in the process he has stretched the truth on numerous occasions.

” -- Jon Jones, on Rashad Evans being caught up in emotions

Evans is certainly emotional about his situation, which any reasonable person should understand.

Not only does the challenger feel wronged by people he considered close friends; he lived the sporting truth that no matter how good you are -- and he’s excellent at this fighting stuff -- inevitably someone younger, faster, bigger or stronger is waiting in the wings. In this case, that happened while he was still in his prime.

Jones can claim to knows Evans’ thoughts or feelings, but for all his alleged intuition, he’s never actually experienced betrayal by a camp he helped build. He has no clue, at least not yet, what it’s like to have someone more talented than him come into his domain, divert attention away from resources that were dedicated to him and usurp what was once his.

Jones is the golden boy of the moment, and golden boys, for periods of their lives, know no such things.

The UFC light heavyweight champ has only begun his ascent. Youth, talent and physically unique dimensions, including a dominant shot-blocker’s wing span, all made up for the fact that he remains new to this game. Despite holding the belt, a distinction earned just three years after he stepped into the mixed martial arts world, Jones isn’t nearly as good as he projects out to be.

“If you tell him to go out and try something he'll just make it happen,” trainer Mike Winkeljohn said. “It's kind of incredible.”

Compared to Evans, whom Winkeljohn worked closely with for four years when the light heavyweight trained out of Jackson’s camp in Albuquerque, N.M., the trainer said Jones doesn’t do what’s “real normal for most people.” He doesn’t second-guess himself, in part because he’s come to rely on his faith and an ability to improvise in the Octagon.

Half the time, Jones said, he doesn't even know what he's going to do in a fight until it happens.

“Rashad has tendencies,” said the son of a pastor from upstate New York. “He's fought so long he's figured out his favorite moves. I don't have favorite moves. He has no clue what to expect.”

That’s not quite right. Evans has some idea; after all, they have plenty of history in the gym. Depending on who’s doing the recollecting, Evans either put the kid in his place or, as Winkeljohn suggested, had “the fear of God” injected into him.

What the former Michigan State University wrestler may not be familiar with, especially over the last year or so, is how calculated Jones has become. Just as he listens and deciphers to find true intent, Jones also has developed a habit of saying only “what I want to be heard.”

This could be why some people, including and especially Evans, suggest Jones as fake, a fraud. Though the two can be confused, there is a wide difference between someone who isn’t the genuine article and someone who is coldly premeditated. Jones leans towards the latter.

During last week’s conference call, for instance, Jones made an impassioned defense of Jackson after Evans unloaded on the trainer. Offering a verbal one-two, Jones hammered home the notion that the bond he shares with the man Evans felt betrayed by is stronger than ever. He was clean and precise with this words. In real time it sounded like an articulate, honest-to-goodness endorsement of the crew set to work his corner this weekend.

Was this, as it appeared to be, a full-throated endorsement? Or was it more; a message designed specifically for Evans’ burning ears?

"Everything is said for a reason,” Jones answered. And he left it at that.

In this way, the young champion has come to emulate a man he respects more than any other to grace the sports world. Muhammad Ali is the greatest for many reasons, not least of which was his poetic license to verbally accost the opposition.

Jones is different than Ali here -- he said he’s different than Ali in several areas, but wouldn’t elaborate -- in that he generally kills with kindness.

Jon Jones, the smiling assassin.

That is, until his old buddy Evans comes up.

"I don't look at Rashad as a former friend,” Jones said. “I look at him as someone who's trying to take things away from me. He doesn't care about me. He doesn't care about my kids. Why should I care about him? This is a game, and my job is to destroy him."

This Saturday’s main event between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans is the cautionary tale of what becomes of elite teammates who coexist in the same weight class.

It’s fitting for this card, because you know who looks a lot like the Jon Jones of two years ago? Rory MacDonald -- the guy who is being showcased in the co-main event at UFC 145 against Che Mills. Why a showcase? Because it’s an honest-looking challenge in a fight everybody expects the upstart to win. Just like when Jones fought guys like Brandon Vera and Vladimir Matyushenko. These fights happened right after Jones relocated from an anonymous upstate New York gym to Greg Jackson’s contender’s den in Albuquerque, N.M.

That was around the time he began training with Evans, who started off as his mentor -- the big brother who had a hand in molding raw talent. Even with Jones’ radar going off, it didn’t seem like Jones was coming for Evans' legacy at the time -- at least, not to them. To us, it always appeared different.

You see where things ended up.

Another win narrows MacDonald’s path to the top. The top is the determined goal for a young fighter who wants to rewrite history at 170 pounds. That means the top will also present itself as a crossroads, because Georges St. Pierre -- a training partner that MacDonald calls his mentor -- currently occupies that rarified space. MacDonald moved across country, from British Columbia to French Quebec, to train with St. Pierre.

Since then he’s won a pair in a row, including a one-sided drubbing of Nate Diaz. To be the best, you learn from the best.

Problem is, there can be only one best.

When I spoke to MacDonald for a piece in ESPN the Magazine last month, he laid it out.

“There’s no question that I’m going to be champion; it’s about when,” he said. “And that’s not my only goal in this sport. First, I’m going to get that done, but you guys will see in the future, I’m going to accomplish things that nobody else has done in this sport. I have a long career ahead of me; I just have to stay smart.”

Right now, MacDonald and St. Pierre are leaving such eventualities to blow around in the abstract. That’s fine. There are a million scenarios that could prevent a GSP/MacDonald encounter down the road. MacDonald, only 22, could slip along the way -- or move up in weight. Ditto St. Pierre, who has flirted with middleweight. St. Pierre could retire, or never recover from that knee injury. He could even lose to Condit.

Easier to imagine? He just keeps being GSP, the dominating force who is forever vigilant of complacency -- the last of his known vulnerabilities (thanks to Matt Serra).

But MacDonald is coming. If he beats Mills (and does so impressively), he’ll be a consensus top-10 welterweight. From there, all rungs take him a little bit closer to detachment. There’s a reason it’s lonely at the top.

“At the moment, you know, Georges is a friend of mind, and we train at the same gym with the same trainers with the same regiment,” he said in the Magazine interview. “Georges has looked out for me for the last year and been a good friend, and I have to respect that. I just never say never, but Georges is a friend of mine, and it’s something I can’t answer right now. I don’t foresee it.”

Neither did Jones see the clash on the horizon with Evans. Not seeing it doesn’t mean it’s not on course to happen, it just means it’s preferable not to look.

In a year or two, it could be MacDonald in the headlining spot fighting for the belt. His potential is great enough that it doesn’t seem far-fetched in the slightest. If and when the time comes, to achieve what he's after, the man standing in front of him can’t matter.

Facing an opponent he truly dislikes isn’t something new to top UFC light heavyweight contender Rashad Evans.

Two years ago, he took on -- and defeated -- Quinton Jackson. After his unanimous decision win at UFC 114, it was difficult to imagine Evans ever disliking an opponent more. But Saturday at UFC 145 in Atlanta, Evans will face a guy he seems to despise far more than Jackson -- 205-pound champion Jon Jones. And the feeling is mutual.

A year ago, Evans and Jones were friends and training partners. Today, however, they struggle to look one another in the eye without getting the urge to throw a punch. The disdain between them is powerful and has been on display the past few months leading to Saturday's showdown.

But with the fight only a few days away, Evans is done being angry with Jones. Sure, he'll articulate his dislike for Jones if asked, but he will do so without going off the handle.

It’s time to fight, and Evans refuses to let anything prevent him from being his best at UFC 145. So the former light heavyweight titleholder has put his emotions in check.

“When it comes to having a big fight and the buildup leading to it, emotions are involved,” Evans told ESPN.com. “You have to be able to divorce yourself from your feelings.

“What it comes down to is making it just another fight. Sometimes when guys have so much dislike for one another, it becomes hard to do.

“But at the same time, if you treat it professionally you will be able to do it.”

By taking his emotions out of the equation, Evans is fully prepared to execute his fight plan. And it’s no secret that a big part of that plan involves closing the gap between himself and the rangy Jones.

At 6-foot-4, Jones will tower over the 5-11 Evans. But a five-inch height disparity isn’t much of an issue for Evans; he’s had to look up to just about all of his Octagon foes.

What makes Jones more complicated than others is his 84.5-inch reach. It’s the longest in UFC history.

Evans knows that getting under Jones’ long limbs will be a key factor in leaving the cage victorious Saturday night. And he believes he possesses the technique to accomplish that goal.

“Boxing is my fundamental striking base,” said Evans, who will carry a 17-1-1 pro record and a four-fight win streak into the bout. “I’m a boxer in training. It’s definitely something I will look to implement in my strategy.

“It’s what I do; it’s what I’m comfortable with.”

But boxing won’t be the only technique Evans plans to utilize. Every weapon in his arsenal will be on display against Jones. He's also incorporated a few wrinkles into his offense and defense that might give Jones pause.

“

It goes without saying that I am going to do what I can to upset the opposition, something a little bit unexpected. If I do everything that is expected, I probably won't win. I've got to mix it up.

” -- Rashad Evans, on throwing a curveball at Jon Jones

“It goes without saying that I am going to do what I can to upset the opposition, something a little bit unexpected,” Evans said. “If I do everything that is expected, I probably won’t win. I’ve got to mix it up.”

This will be Jones’ first time competing in such an emotionally charged bout. Jackson tried unsuccessfully to throw him off; they didn’t have enough history.

But the timing of a fight with Evans couldn’t have come at a better time for the 24-year-old champion.

“From his first UFC fight until now, all of his opponents have been pretty good,” Jones’ manager, Malki Kawa, told ESPN.com. “He’s fought Stephan Bonnar, Brandon Vera and Vladimir Matyushenko.

“Then you’ve got Ryan Bader, a legend in [Mauricio] Shogun [Rua], another guy who’s probably going to make the Hall of Fame in Rampage, and he turns around and beats a guy most people haven’t been able to figure out in Lyoto Machida.

“They’ve all been good opponents, and Rashad is just the latest in a line of good opponents Jon has faced in the past year or so.

“That he is fighting Rashad now is good because he’s got the confidence and a good mental base that has come along with experience.”

Jones (15-1) will be making the third defense of his light heavyweight belt.

This is a fight week that has stretched on for a year -- which is nothing for a conflict that has always been the case.

Even when Jon Jones and Rashad Evans were training partners in Albuquerque, N.M., one fighter was never going to be "off limits" to the other forever. As UFC president Dana White peevishly reminds everyone, brotherhood has nothing on matchmaking logistics, especially when there’s room at the top for only one. For all the things that Jones and Evans shared in common in those carefree early days at Greg Jackson’s gym in the desert, that they shared a weight class was always the bit of taboo.

Ultimately, they never stood by each other so much as in each other’s way.

That’s why this weekend’s clash carries an air of inevitability to it, as well as a strange feeling of “let’s get this over with.” It’s an uncomfortable fight. And yet the best way out, as has been said, is always through.

That’s how things will be in UFC 145’s main event. All delusions have been shattered in the most public way possible. All the acts of betrayal stored into banks of motivation. The house Evans helped build in Albuquerque is coming after him with the new, young prizefighter, the pupil who looks to surpass the master. His replacement. The guy holding the belt he once owned.

These things cut deep.

In other words, this fight has the kind of cinematic undertones that make busybodies of us all. The Jones/Evans conflict broke down barriers -- within each other and externally. It divided a gym that had, up until then, functioned on Zen-like bonds.

Imagine how awkward it’s been on somebody such as former UFC contender Keith Jardine, who was Evans’ BFF before Jones arrived? Jardine still lives in Albuquerque, that forsaken place where Evans was scorned, and still shares the mats with Jones.

Imagine, too, what it’s been like for Jackson, who is the stuck-between that had his guts twisted at for the last year over this ordeal. This is a fight that opened up the teammate versus teammate debate to the point Mike Winkeljohn and Jackson had a sit-down with their den of fighters to emphasize what must be done in pursuit of the ultimate goal (as in, getting a UFC belt and all the perks that come with one).

From that point on, the word “never” was taken out of the collective vocabulary at Jackson's.

Jackson fighters became realists in the Jones/Evans fallout. In fact, a lot of people did. But none more so than Evans, who set out in search of himself like a modern-day Yojimbo, ending up in Florida with the most intense cast of strays ever assembled in MMA as a "Blackzilian" -- an assemblage of fighters who have gathered at Imperial Athletics in Boca Raton, Fla.

But what MMA fans remember Evans for most is that he was once the type of champion to champion a young cat such as Jones, to help him get his bearings and swagger, and finally to put Jones in a place to make him miserable.

Everyone succeeded on the fool’s errand. That place is the here and now.

And it’s Evans task to reel Jones back in, to kick out the scaffolding he helped build. And it’s Jones' job to be the cruel bearer of news: that Evans' day is done and that this is his time. The top isn’t big enough for the both of them.

Which, of course, it never really was.

Chuck Liddell has ridiculed the oddsmakers who have made Rashad Evans a huge underdog against Jon Jones at UFC 145, insisting there is one massively important factor at play this weekend: The challenger knows the champion is not invincible. More »

It will shock absolutely no one to learn that Jon Jones is the future.

Readers who have encountered even a smattering of MMA-related news during the last couple of years understand this to be true. Unless you’ve made it a point not to know it, you already know that Jones is the near unanimous pick to shepherd the UFC and the sport it is slowly but surely making famous into its next phase of unfettered growth and popularity.

No bones about it.

That said, it may have taken some people by surprise this week when Jones claimed that he and his management have received a rather unprecedented stamp of approval from his employer heading into UFC 145.

At least according to the fighter himself, when Jones puts the light heavyweight title on the line against Rashad Evans on Saturday in Atlanta, his primary sponsor will be none other than the UFC.

“We came up with a strategy to keep it clean and be sponsored by the UFC itself,” Jones explained to MMA Weekly after his previous main sponsor, Form Athletics, recently shuttered its doors. “I’m glad the UFC wanted to work with me ... I think I’m a good company guy. The UFC asks me to do anything and I always do it and I never tell them 'no' for anything.”

Depending on how you look at it, this is either very strange or very fitting news.

On one hand, if there is one athlete in this sport that investors, corporate sponsors and the UFC itself should look to hitch their wagons to, it’s the 24-year-old champion.

Even if guys like Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre remain MMA’s best-known draws, Jones’ impossibly long strides are certainly nipping at their heels. He may already be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world (though it’ll probably take a couple of more wins for the pundits and prognosticators to make it official) and his eventual coronation as the sport’s most recognizable face seems just as assured.

Since the UFC has already very much put itself in the Jon Jones business as of late, showcasing him on beer commercials and network television spots and the late night talk show scene, perhaps it is not that big of a leap for the organization to slip him a few more bucks to wear UFC brand apparel to the Octagon on Saturday. After all, it already markets a line of Jones-centric gear on its website.

The word “sponsorship” might not be exactly the right term, as it's hard to "sponsor" someone who already works for you, but some people will likely not view this as a particularly earth-shattering or even noteworthy development.

Others, however, might note a developing problem of public perception here for the UFC. Especially if Evans is not also sponsored by the fight company.

The UFC already regularly straddles the divide between being a simple fight promotion and the de facto guardian of the entire MMA industry. It routinely plays the dual roles of widely known national sports league and secretive privately held company. Its president consistently wears more hats than perhaps any other comparable sports executive, fashioning himself as a postmodern mashup of Don King, Roger Goodell and Mark Cuban and doing it all better than the three of them combined.

Some of that is by design and some of it is just the natural result of being MMA’s most dominant force. Great power, great responsibility and all that.

Yet even for an organization as adaptable as this one, in an industry as amorphous as ours, sponsoring Jones -- or any fighter -- only further blurs the line of what the UFC actually is and how it views its own place in the MMA landscape.

In terms of the actual, bell-to-bell competition, it’s always been vitally important that the UFC stay above the fray. In the past, it’s done a pretty good job of that. The company has always explicitly maintained that it has no real stake in who wins and who loses its fights, saying it just wants to put on good shows for its fans. This is just as it should be. Once the UFC starts “sponsoring” certain fighters, however -- and again, that’s Jones’ word, not necessarily the one the UFC would use for this particular business realtionship -- it becomes more difficult to maintain that position.

If Jones is the only fighter to walk to the cage this weekend decked out in the UFC logo, it will be pretty easy for fans to think (rightly or wrongly) that the company is playing favorites.

You think that’s awkward? Imagine how Evans will feel if he doesn't get the same treatment.