ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

In possibly the most important fight of his career, former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez exacted revenge against Shinya Aoki.

Alvarez, who entered the bout with just two fights remaining on his Bellator contract, dropped Aoki with a right hand. But patience has been one of Alvarez’s glaring weaknesses.

That wasn’t the case Friday night at I-X Center in Cleveland. Alvarez paused before jumping on the downed Aoki, who saw his seven-fight win streak come to an end.

With the victory behind him, Alvarez turned his attention to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney. The two are sure to begin discussing Alvarez’s future with the promotion.

“Bjorn Rebney, show me the money,” Alvarez said after improving to 23-3.

The win might also help remove some of the pain Alvarez has felt since losing his title to Michael Chandler in November.

“I was in a bad spot the past couple of months,” Alvarez said.

For Aoki, finding success in the United States remains elusive. It was his first appearance here since April 2010, when he was on the short end of a unanimous decision to Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Medlendez.

That fight took place in Nashville, Tenn. The rematch with Alvarez was Aoki’s third U.S. appearance.

The first outing between Aoki and Alvarez took place on Dec. 31, 2008, in Saitama, Japan.

Aoki is now 30-6 with one no contest.

Spang gives Rogers a taste of his own medicine

Brian Rogers takes pride in knocking out opponents in impressive fashion.

His latest fight, a middleweight tournament semifinal bout, ended similarly. This time, however, Rogers was on the wrong end of a second-round counter left hand from Andreas Spang.

The punch, which put Rogers flat on his back, came at the 3:34 mark.

Rogers nearly finished Spang early in the second round by landing hard right hands. One of the right hands wobbled Spang, but a tired Rogers could not apply the finishing touch.

That allowed Spang (8-1) to clear his head briefly and deliver the fight-ending punch.

“Brian Rogers is an incredible opponent,” Spang said. “He caught me with some hard shots.

“My left is my go-to weapon when I am hurt.”

Rogers drops to 9-4.

Hard-hitting Falcao gets past Vasilevsky

Not many fighters last three rounds with hard-hitting Maiquel Falcao. And with 23 of Falcao’s 29 wins coming by knockout, most refuse to stand with him.

But Vyacheslav Vasilevsky was undeterred and for two rounds held his own against Facao. But once the striking dust cleared, all three judges preferred Falcao and awarded him a 29-28 unanimous decision.

With the victory, Falcao moved into the middleweight tournament final.

“I don’t want to say too much,” Falcao said. “I just want to wait for the finals. I came here to win the title.”

One reason Falcao might have opted to say little was the difficulty he experienced standing with Vasilevsky in the opening round. Falcao was dropped by a right early in the first.

He also ate several left-light punch combinations in the second round. Falcao (29-4, one no contest) earned the win with a dominant third round, when he nearly finished the fight with a hard right hand.

Vasilevsky, who entered the bout on a 15-fight win streak, falls to 16-2.

Patient Hawn finishes Woodard in second round

Rick Hawn refused to allow the aggressive Lloyd Woodard to take him out of his fight plan. Instead, he remained patient and waited for his opportunity to open up.

That opportunity would come 10 seconds into the second round, when an over-aggressive Woodard left himself open. Hawn seized the moment and landed a hard right hand that sent Woodard to the canvas.

He would not get up, sending Hawn into the lightweight tournament final.

“We had a game plan for this guy,” said Hawn, who improved to 13-1. “We knew what he was going to do and that’s come out strong. I wouldn’t get sucked into that.”

Woodard falls to 12-2.

Weedman edges Michel by split decision

Brent Weedman believed striking power would serve him well in his lightweight tournament semifinal bout with Thiago Michel.

But in the end, it was actually Weedman’s superior size and strength that led him to a split decision victory.

Two judges scored the fight 29-28 for Weedman, while the judge had Michel winning 19-28.

Michel (10-3) got the better of the striking exchanges, but Weedman -- a former welterweight -- was able to get the fight to the ground repeatedly. On the ground, Weedman (20-7-1) controlled the action and landed knees to the body.

Eddie Alvarez, perhaps for the first time in his career, appears to be in a tenuous position.

The 28-year-old Philadelphian, a nine-year mixed martial arts veteran, is ranked outside the top 10 of the lightweight division for the first time in three years. He's coming off a title-ceding, physically taxing loss, just his third in 25 fights. And tonight's bout against Shinya Aoki, the man responsible for Alvarez's second defeat in 2008, is one of two remaining on his contract with Bellator.

"Obviously this fight has got enormous impact for his career," Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said of Alvarez, who was among the promoter's first signings and represented an early lynchpin of the company. "He can jettison himself right back into the top echelon of lightweights in the world, in terms of the overall industry's perception, or not. It's a big fight. There's no denying this is a big fight for Eddie Alvarez."

There's big. And then there's career-defining big. Alvarez is dealing in the latter. Yet he hasn't shown any signs that the stress has gotten to him.

"I'm sort of emotionless. I left all of my emotions in the gym. I've been away from my family training in South Florida and all my preparation is done," he said. "I feel better than I ever have going into a fight and that's not just a cliche statement. I really do. I feel like it's just another day. I don't feel any emotions toward anything.

"There's no questioning. There's no doubt. There's no fear of the future. What might happen? What may happen? I go into fights with a lot of that baggage and I don't know why, but I was able to let that go coming into this fight and it feels really good."

Working with a new camp, the Rashad Evans-led Blackzilians, and its associated management group, Authentic Sports Management, Alvarez underwent a "natural progression in my career," he said.

Regression, however, is a distinct possibility if he doesn't do to Aoki (30-5, 1 NC) what he could not when the Japanese lightweight finished a heel hook submission in 92 seconds.

"I really didn't respect leg locks in 2008," Alvarez said. "I didn't see them used much in MMA. I didn't see many people finished with them in MMA. So I didn't respect them enough to train properly for them. I went about my normal training and neglected that strength of his and I paid for it. It's different this time around. I respect his strengths and I made sure I had the ability to avoid them and defend them, and use what I'm good at."

Aoki comes into Friday's bout at the I-X Center in Cleveland, Ohio, ranked sixth by ESPN.com at 155 pounds. He called the 2008 result "lucky."

"This fight will test both of our skills," said the 28-year-old submission specialist. "That's how the fight will be."

Alvarez was tested to his limits last November against Michael Chandler. The fourth-round stoppage, widely acclaimed as one of the best bouts of 2011, cost Alvarez his standing as Bellator's only lightweight champion and forced him to the sidelines for six weeks with torn rib cartilage. Alvarez said he spent time away from mixed martial arts with his wife and children, all of whom have been fixtures at his fights over the years.

Where MMA takes Alvarez and his family is unclear. Redemption over Aoki, whom Bellator holds options on for multiple U.S.-based fights, would likely return Alvarez to the top 10 ahead of the final fight on his contract with Rebney.

"He was with me driving around in a crappy rental car, flying Southwest Airlines when we were trying to get this thing on ESPN Deportes," Rebney said. "He was a big piece of it. So I want Eddie to do as well as he can possibly do."

Alvarez believes Aoki is improved from the version that beat him three years ago. The Japanese fighter now has better striking, especially kicking, Alvarez said; yet he offers essentially the same threats as he did in 2008.

"He's a little bit different in the cage, but at the end of the day a fight's a fight no matter where it's at," Alvarez said. "The person with the biggest spirit, who comes focused that night, is going to win.

"It will be a display of just how much I've grown in the last three years. I was young, wasn't too confident in my abilities, and made mistakes, just like people who are young and immature do. ... My goal is the same as it was when I first started this sport, and that's to beat the guy on the other side of the cage. It will never change."

The year 2012 will be an interesting one for former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. For starters, his contract with the promotion is up in October, meaning he could end up making the leap to the UFC around that time. That’s a prospect that makes plenty of fans happy, considering how deep the lightweight pool there is.

Or he could stay with Bellator, of which the Philadelphia native has grown into his role as its flagship fighter. In the meantime? Alvarez will have at least one more fight, and that’s an opportunity to try and avenge a 2008 loss to Shinya Aoki.

At least, that’s the nearly official plan.

“As far as I’m being told the fight’s going to happen,” Alvarez says. “I just don’t get why I can’t get it confirmed 100 percent. Right now it’s ‘verbally agreed,’ and that’s where we stand.”

Alvarez/Aoki II is penciled in for April 20 and will be held in the United States, though the exact location is still to be determined. As much as Alvarez would like the fight to take place in Atlantic City or in his hometown of Philadelphia, he doesn’t think that will be the case due to amount of cards Bellator has held recently in those markets. What he does know is that he was asking for this rematch well before he fought Michael Chandler. The last time the two fought at Dynamite 2008 in Japan, Aoki submitted Alvarez with a heel hook just a minute and a half into the fight.

That loss has sat in his craw for a long, long time.

Cut forward three years and Aoki and Alvarez remain two of the biggest non-Zuffa stars going. In fact, you could argue that Alvarez/Aoki is the biggest non-Zuffa fight that can be made right now, with both fighters still considered top-10 lightweights in consensus rankings, even with Alvarez having lost his belt to Chandler this past November. Alvarez has gone 7-1 since his first fight with Aoki, while Aoki has gone 11-2.

“As much as I wanted it, it was something that I thought I’d never get,” Alvarez says of the rematch. “When I went to Japan every other time before [the Aoki fight], it seemed like I was getting fan acceptance because I was fighting guys from other countries, like Brazil and Norway. Yet when I finally fought Aoki, I went over there and they treated me different. They nicknamed me the ‘American Knuckle Star,’ and pitted it as ‘Japan versus America.’ It really changed.

“

... when I finally fought Aoki, I went over there and they treated me different. They nicknamed me the 'American Knuckle Star,' and pitted it as 'Japan versus America.' It really changed.

” -- Eddie Alvarez, on the hostile environment he stepped into when he faced Shinya Aoki

“So it’s good to get the revenge back in my country -- just to come off a loss like the one I just came off of [to Chandler], and get back into a rankings fight finally. It rarely happens in our sport where you get two guys who are actually ranked, top name guys who get to fight each other. It’s a good fight.”

Where does this leave Chandler, who choked out Alvarez at Bellator 58 in a back-and-forth war that many considered the fight of the year? Alvarez says that though he wanted Aoki and ended up with Chandler the first time through, this time he wanted Chandler and ended up with Aoki. His druthers are being met, only completely out of order.

“Yeah, the Chandler rematch was my first option that I wanted,” he says. “But Bellator wasn’t going to let that happen, and I was sad that they opted to put me back in a tournament when I felt like the fight warranted a rematch in some way, shape or form. So, I was disappointed about that, but there was nothing I could do about it. It’s not what I want, it’s what the promotion is willing to give me.

“But this Aoki fight was something I asked of them even before the Chandler bout. And although we don’t have 100 percent contract in hand yet, it seems like they’re getting it done. I’m grateful they are going to bring Aoki over, someone who is in the rankings and someone where, if I actually beat him, it would do good for me.”

Alvarez’s future beyond Aoki is uncertain. It’s possible that April 20 will be the last time he represents Bellator in the cage. Whether or not that’s the case, he’s looking to close out his contract with a big bang to put himself in a coveted position.

“With Bellator, I have either two fights or eight months,” he says. “After that, we’ll see. They’re either going to give me Aoki and then another fight, or I have about eight months left.”

Either way, Alvarez refuses to look beyond April 20, because nothing good comes of speculating too far ahead.

“It’s out of my hands at this point,” he says. “Going into the Mike Chandler fight, I was too focused on what everybody else thought, about what the media thought, and things like that. I just need to relieve myself of that, and focus on the things that I can control, and that’s winning fights, going in there and performing and beating my opponents. Everything else just seems senseless to me.”

And to focus, Alvarez is training right now at Imperial Athletics in Florida with the star-studded cast of the Blackzilians. He says he’s proceeding with the understanding of an April 20 fight with Aoki, and in two weeks he’ll relocate back to his familiar Philadelphia gym to dig into the crux of his camp.

What’s he expecting to see come fight night? The same Aoki he saw the first time, with a few new wrinkles.

“I know he’s been in Singapore training a lot of Muay Thai, so I’ll be expecting more kicks to set up his takedowns,” he says. “But, I don’t think it’s any secret -- regardless of whether he wants to stand for a little bit or stand for a long time -- I know his ultimate goal, and that’s to try and get it to the floor. He’ll want to create some sort of scramble and get it to the ground. I feel like that’s his strength and that’s what he’s going to stick to.”

Eddie Alvarez may get his chance at revenge on Shinya Aoki yet.

Sherdog.com has learned that a clash between Bellator and Dream's respective lightweight champions Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki is being targeted for early 2012 in the Bellator Fighting Championships cage.

Bout agreements have been distributed, and both fighters are expected to sign shortly. Sherdog.com confirmed the news with sources close to the situation on Wednesday.

Though both men are reigning champions in opposite organizations, neither title will be up for grabs if and when they clash.

Alvarez and Aoki met on New Year's Eve 2008. The Japanese submission specialist ended the American's night early, slapping on a tight heel hook and forcing Alvarez to submit in just 92 seconds.

Since that defeat, Alvarez has yet to lose, rattling off seven straight victories in Bellator and Dream. The Philadelphia Fight Factory export won Bellator's lightweight title in 2009, running through the promotion's inaugural 155-pound tournament to capture the championship.

Alvarez has defended his title successfully once thus far, earning a hard-fought unanimous decision over Pat Curran this past April. Up next for the champion is another title defense this fall, as Alvarez will put his strap on the line against Season 4 tournament winner Michael Chandler at Bellator 54 on Oct. 15.

Aoki has won eight of his last nine fights, including five straight victories. The 28-year-old most recently submitted former UFC talent Rich Clementi, battering the American at Dream “Fight for Japan” on May 29 en route to a second-round finish via neck crank.

As Dream's lightweight champion, Aoki is no stranger to crossing the sea and fighting on American soil. “Tobikan Judan” has competed in Strikeforce twice in the last two years with mixed results.

Though he was dominated by Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez in April 2010, Aoki made quick work of Lyle Beerbohm when he returned to the hexagonal cage one year later.

Aoki is currently scheduled to meet former WEC champion Rob McCullough at Dream 17 on Sept. 24.

ESPN No. 5-ranked lightweight Shinya Aoki put away UFC veteran Rich Clementi with a second-round submission Sunday morning at Dream “Fight for Japan.” Also on the card, Masakazu Imanari and Hideo Tokoro advanced to the promotion’s 135-pound tournament finals on July 16. More »

Nick Diaz was the big winner on Saturday, as the Strikeforce welterweight champion took home the largest purse from the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego. Diaz earned $175,000 for his back-and-forth title defense against British bomber Paul Daley ($65,000) in the titular main event of Strikeforce’s April 9 show.

Strikeforce lightweight titleholder Gilbert Melendez also took home a handsome haul, as “El Nino” pocketed $150,000 for his one-sided battle with former Shooto champ Tatsuya Kawajiri ($97,612.50).

Also earning $150,000 for his efforts was Dream light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi. The Red Devil representative fought UFC veteran Keith Jardine ($25,000) to a majority draw after being penalized a point in round one for landing an illegal upkick to Jardine’s face.

Another Dream champ, lightweight Shinya Aoki, took home $73,637.50 for his easy submission victory over Lyle Beerbohm ($10,000). In a battle of famously colorful ring attires, Aoki outclassed Beerbohm on the ground, locking up a fight-ending neck crank just 93 seconds into the bout.

Strikeforce “Diaz vs. Daley” payouts:

Nick Diaz -- $175,000 def. Paul Daley -- $65,000
Gilbert Melendez -- $150,000 def. Tatsuya Kawajiri -- $97,612.50
Gegard Mousasi -- $150,000 drew with Keith Jardine -- $25,000
Shinya Aoki -- $73,637.50 def. Lyle Beerbohm -- $10,000
Robert Peralta -- $4,000 (including $2,000 win bonus) def. Hiroyuki Takaya -- $2,740
Virgil Zwicker -- $3,000 (including $1,000 win bonus) def. Brett Albee -- $1,000
Joe Duarte -- $2,000 (including $1,000 win bonus) def. Saad Awad -- $1,500
Herman Terrado -- $1,500 (including $500 win bonus) def. A.J. Matthews -- $1,000
Rolando Perez -- $3,000 (including $1,000 win bonus) def. Edgar Cardenas -- $1,000
Casey Ryan -- $2,000 (including $1,000 win bonus) def. Paul Song -- $750

Unless you were hemorrhaging blood in the shark-infested waters of La Jolla or a Paul Daley fan in the stands who spent your last sterling pound on a one-way ticket across the pond, it's hard to imagine a more depressing place to be this past Saturday in San Diego than the Valley View Casino Center, where an unfortunate Lyle Beerbohm found himself in the carotid-restraining clutches of Shinya Aoki.

MMA's premiere submission specialist discusses choking out a hapless Beerbohm, his thoughts on a rematch with Gilbert Melendez and his well-wishes for his family back home in Japan here.

If Ryan Seacrest happened to be a major celebrity in Japan, he would eventually be offered a substantial sum to be beaten severely in any number of the country's traditional New Year's Eve fighting events. The Japanese watch television in huge numbers on that night, and promotions have hired everyone from actors to pro wrestlers to fighters dressed in costumes to draw attention away from the standard music and variety programming.

Does it work? For a long time, it did. Any combination of Sumo, Bob Sapp or Olympic champions would usually produce tremendous ratings. But the decline of real fighters and the increasing reluctance (possibly related to the shrinking pay stubs) of the "special attractions" has taken its toll.

It's a real sign of MMA's erosion in Japan that only one event -- K-1's Dynamite -- is actually airing on New Year's Eve. The more serious Sengoku takes place Dec. 30. In both cases, fans can watch a series of competitive fights. But in K-1's arena, the need for ratings prompted the usual stunt work. Shinya Aoki will face Yuichiro Nagashima in a fight that alternates kickboxing rounds with MMA rules, and Bob Sapp will wrestle Sumo great Shinichi Suzukawa in an orchestrated, entertainment-only intermission. Both spectacles are likely to dwarf the night's most legitimate bout, a lightweight meeting between Strikeforce's Josh Thomson and Tatsuya Kawajiri.

Stateside, most of the attention has been directed at Todd Duffee taking a late-notice bout against Alistair Overeem. Duffee was touted as a UFC prospect before suffering a shock KO at the hands of Mike Russow (and his eventual release after reported head-butting with UFC management). But Duffee can strike, and he's a few levels above the kind of competition you'd expect Overeem to accept three weeks after a grueling K-1 tournament. Too good to believe, actually. Like most of the Japanese product, it's subject to change.

What:Sengoku Raiden Championship: Soul of Fight -- a 25- to 30-bout card from the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo; K-1 Dynamite 2010 -- a 15-bout card from the Saitama Super Arena near Tokyo

When: Thursday, Dec. 30, with replays on Jan. 14 and 21 on HDNet (Sengoku); Friday, Dec. 31, at 4 a.m. ET on HDNet (K-1).

Why you should care: Because MMA's Evil Knievel, Ikuhisa Minowa, will force an entertaining fight with 2004 Olympic judo silver medalist Hiroshi Izumi; because it will be incredibly fun to see Aoki strapped up in kickboxing gear; because Kawajiri is Thomson's strongest opponent in years outside of Gilbert Melendez and Gesias Cavalcante; because Sapp has the lungs of a coal miner after only two minutes of activity and might need resuscitation; and because Sengoku's Marlon Sandro-Hatsu Hioki fight decides the identity of the best featherweight not in the UFC.

Fight of the night: Sandro-Hioki if you like craftsmanship; Tatsuya Mizuno-Sergei Kharitonov if you want to see someone donate blood.

Hype quote of the show: "If everything goes well with this fight, maybe I'll just switch to a three-week training camp." -- Josh Thomson to Knoxx Gear on the late-notice New Year's tradition.

Questions: K-1 Dynamite and Sengoku

Can K-1 ever repeat its past successes on New Year's?

Last year might have been K-1's last gasp as a viable television property during the holiday. The promotion was able to attract a sizable audience based largely on interest in kickboxing legend Masato's retirement fight. Names such as Kazushi Sakuraba and Aoki continue to be scheduled but appeal primarily to devoted MMA fans and not casual viewers who have been spoiled in past years by the popularity of Sapp and actor Ken Kaneko and fights involving massive size disparities.

The show remains a free-for-all -- Sapp is here, along with flexible rules -- but the Japanese public may no longer be interested, even at that price.

Why is Thomson taking the risk against Kawajiri?

Lack of planning is a notorious trait among Japanese fight promoters, who often cobble together cards by measuring production in days instead of months. Where foreign fighters once were content to trade prep time for sizable cash purses, the shrinkage of the sport in Japan and reliable employment in the States has made that deal less attractive over time.

Thomson, a former Strikeforce lightweight champion, accepted a fight with the dangerous Kawajiri on three weeks notice. At this level of prizefighting, it's unreasonable to expect a standout performance with minimal notice. If Thomson wins, there's no penalty. But if he loses, few will remember he entered the ring at a disadvantage.

Will Sandro stick around Japan?

Sandro is Sherdog.com's No. 5-ranked featherweight, an impressive feat considering the majority of that division's talent (Jose Aldo, Michihiro Omigawa, Mike Thomas Brown) resides in the UFC's newly created division. If he can defeat Hioki in Sengoku's most relevant bout, the American promotion might be able to make him a financial offer that would trump his obligations -- which might not even exist on paper -- to Sengoku.

The problem? Sandro is on Team Nova Uniao, the same gym real estate as Aldo. That friendship could prompt him to stay put. But being the best in the country -- instead of the world -- might eventually begin to feel like a consolation prize.

Will a weight cut finally euthanize Sakuraba?

MMA's running joke has long been Japan's treatment of Sakuraba, an all-time great whose career was derailed after Pride booked him in a series of brutal mismatches. At 41, assisted living can't be far off.

What better way to celebrate New Year's than to book him against vicious striker Marius Zaromskis? K-1 figured it out: Force Sakuraba to cut to 170 pounds for the first time in his career to make it an official dream welterweight fight. A dehydrated body might unfold into a televised execution.

What would a Duffee win mean for the heavyweight division?

It wasn't long ago that Duffee's promise in MMA was the subject of magazine covers and protein shake ads. He seemed to possess the vaunted "big man's athleticism" that's normally the exclusive property of pro football.

The upset loss to Russow shut it all down. Duffee's idea of a rebuild is to tackle a peaking Overeem on short notice. While Overeem isn't in prime condition -- he finished a K-1 tourney only three weeks ago -- it's a risk that most athletes wouldn't be willing to take. If Duffee wins, it would have a dramatic effect on Strikeforce's heavyweight matchmaking into 2011. Overeem would no longer be the top of the mountain, and big fights with Fedor Emelianenko or Fabricio Werdum would be muted. If Duffee loses, the hole he started digging with Russow will only get deeper.

One loss can be passed off as an anomaly. Two in a row is a freefall.

Red Ink: Aoki versus Nagashima

With nearly 50 fights on the schedule -- more than some promotions put on in an entire year -- New Year's in Japan is a blender of competitive fights and sideshow attractions. At least one of the bouts will manage to amount to both.

For K-1's Dynamite program, Aoki has agreed to an alternating-rules bout with Nagashima, an experienced kickboxer with modest MMA skills. A coin toss decides which round begins the fight. If a stand-up round is needed, Aoki and Nagashima will switch to larger kickboxing gloves. The premise was first used by K-1 for a Jerome Le Banner-Sapp fight in 2004, an event notable for Sapp begging his corner not to send him out for a striking round against the kickboxer.

Is it ridiculous?
Absolutely. Aoki is no great striker, even by MMA standards. Likewise, Nagashima has no business being on the ground with anyone. But rather than book a squash match, Nagashima is being afforded a chance to ply his trade.

What it means: Absolutely nothing.

Wild card: Everything.

Who wins: Aoki might be better able to avoid Nagashima's strikes than Nagashima is able to avoid a clinch. Still, this is a format James Toney would appreciate. Aoki by submission.

It's entirely possible Strikeforce's Gilbert Melendez will give Shinya Aoki a shiny new scar or two on April 17, but his promoters in Japan are assuming he'll return with little damage: According to MMAJunkie.com, Aoki could face Tatsuya Kawajiri in a Dream event in July. Despite Aoki's status as Dream's lightweight champion and Kawajiri's stature as a ring veteran, it hasn't happened yet. Kawajiri has fought damn near everyone else, though, including Melendez. It's an incredible lineup for Aoki, which means it probably won't happen. (TKO, act of God. Never fails.)

Thursday, Sherdog's Loretta Hunt reported that Wanderlei Silva will face Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 116 on July 3 in Las Vegas. Akiyama, a judoka who gained infamy in Japan for allegations he "greased" against Kazushi Sakuraba in 2006, broke his orbital bone in a win over Alan Belcher at July's UFC 100. Because Silva enjoys punching orbital bones, Akiyama may want to configure his game plan accordingly. (Traditionally, Silva is 3-0 against judo players and roughly 102-0 against Japanese fighters.)

The ugliest news of the week also comes from Hunt, who quotes Strikeforce wrangler Scott Coker as saying that Brett Rogers "qualified" for a heavyweight title shot against Alistair Overeem on May 15. Parity for that is apparently lasting at least a round against Fedor Emelianenko before you start seeing cartoon birds around your head.

It's not the first example of a challenger contending for a major title off a defeat: That honor goes to Ken Shamrock's '02 fight with Tito Ortiz after a loss to Don Frye, but at least Shamrock had the decency to drop the fight in a different promotion.

I get that Strikeforce wants fireworks, but the long-term cost to the integrity of their titles might not balance out. Maybe we're not so far off from television and European titles, Vince McMahon-style.

The problem with Strikeforce's compressed schedule is that it often doesn't leave room for improvisation. Without Fedor Emelianenko, their April 17 show in Nashville lacks anyone that will induce a nervous gut reaction in audiences. Herschel Walker would seem to be a proper substitute, but he simply doesn't have enough time to train for that date.

Walker's absence takes the show's narrative in a different direction: Without a mass-media hook, ratings will depend almost exclusively on the appetite for solid fights between anonymous (to network viewers) athletes on over-the-air television. Shinya Aoki, Gilbert Melendez and Gegard Mousasi are all capable and intriguing fighters, but they have none of the resonance that an ex-NFL player or a Russian bruiser would for viewers torn between free fights or a repeat of "Spider-Man 3." These are not facts that thrill me, but they are what they are.

The dark horse of this predicament is Dan Henderson, who has gotten several positive audience pops in recent months at Strikeforce events and is coming off a sensationally hyped performance at UFC 100. Certainly a portion of that show's 1.5 million pay-per-view households will remember Henderson annihilating Michael Bisping and tune in to see what he attempts to obliterate next.

Unlike the UFC, which can sell low-watt cards based solely on that acronym, competing promotional entities are heavily reliant on personalities. When Kimbo Slice skipped EliteXC's second CBS telecast, ratings went down 40 percent from the inaugural installment. Aoki talking trash in Japanese is probably not going to burn up the Nielsen boxes.

Mired in the black hole that was MMA in the 1990s, there were doubts -- some from people with serious financial interests in the sport -- that grappling would ever be tolerated on a grand scale. Punching with tiny gloves is easily understood and respected; a man wrapping his legs around another man's torso can meet with some resistance, for reasons ranging from homophobia to absolute boredom. Once fighters learned to avoid the traps of the closed guard, those situations turned into stalemates.

After a deadly dull UFC 33 event in 2001, the MMA Unified Rules of Conduct were quickly altered to give referees the power to stand up athletes who were in a static position on the ground. That, more than anything, probably saved the UFC's butt on a commercial level. Now, according to athletes such as Jon Fitch and Shinya Aoki, the closed guard may be a thing of the past.

"The closed guard is dead," Fitch told Fox Fight Game. "Strong wrestlers … will just pound you out all day long."

But just as Fitch's comments are grappler-dependent -- he says Aoki and Demian Maia are skilled enough to mount an effectively threatening guard -- his argument for wrestlers is also reflective of which one he's talking about. Matt Hughes is the last guy you'd want to be on the bottom of, because he can create enough space to deliver punishment and has the knowledge to stay out of problems; greener fighters are more susceptible to attacks from the bottom.

MMA is a cyclical activity: Certain trends die off for a bit, only to come back stronger. If the guard is indeed dead, it will be only until someone figures out how to reanimate it.

I do not envy fighters, who are expected to be barbaric enough to twist and torque each other's limbs until screaming or surgery is imminent but not so barbaric they can't hug afterward. The line between respect and sadism is a mile wide, yet they are expected to navigate it in a matter of moments. Tough gig.

Occasionally, some deeply disturbing behavior will leak through. We've seen it in B.J. Penn (licking an opponent's blood off his gloves), Renato Sobral (holding on to a choke for a beat too long), and Mike Kyle (hitting after referee intervention).

The postfight adrenaline dump responsible for these actions is also at fault for New Year's display of callousness by Shinya Aoki, who bent Mizuto Hirota's arm until it snapped and then pranced around the ring in glee -- stopping only to hover over Hirota and shove a middle finger in his face.

This is not the kind of footage you hope ends up on SportsCenter.

And yet I suspect that some of us were entertained by it because it broke up the banality of postfight camaraderie: hugging, smiles, hand-raises, back-patting. Aoki did not cause any further harm to Hirota after the fight was called; Aoki's body -- like most fighters -- was racked with endorphins. He was more or less intoxicated. If he spent two or three days reflecting, then traveled to Hirota's hospital room to fling a bedpan at him, I'd be more inclined to assign fault.

The upside for those disturbed or annoyed by Aoki's juvenile reaction is that he's the minority: most fighters are respectful and congratulatory. (Some, like Fedor Emelianenko, appear to have no chemical reaction at all, which is almost equally alarming.) So what if he's a big jerk? It's all part and parcel for this sport's appeal: you can like the villains, or you can wait for someone to kick their ass. In an arena where you can get your face caved in any time, no bad deed goes unpunished for very long. If you think Aoki has got one coming, you'll almost certainly be satisfied.