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

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

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

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

To Vegas go all the spoils.

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

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

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

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

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

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

There’s a danger in thinking out loud. And, at this point the UFC must realize this better than anybody.

For the past couple of months, Chael Sonnen was assuredly fighting Anderson Silva in Silva’s native Brazil, and the only thing left was to sort out the nagging details. Those details finally got in the way, and now the fight is headed for Las Vegas, which is a bit of crushing news for romantics.

Yet when you think about it, didn’t this thing always feel too good, too tantalizingly ominous to be true? The brazen American getting dropped into hostile territory in an attempt to take the belt from the company’s best-ever fighter? This was dramatic overload. It was the “Rumble in the Jungle” -- only it wouldn’t be held at a neutral site. This was Sonnen being lowered into a burbling cauldron. It was the odds being stacked so impossibly against him that the situation shared more in common with movies than reality (think “Rocky IV”).

And from the American perspective, the sweeteners were Sonnen’s motormouth in conjunction with the immensity of the setting. The event was targeted for Rio de Janeiro's Joao Havelange Stadium -- a.k.a. Engenhao -- which could feasibly hold a record number of people (between 60,000-80,000).

Sonnen was played up to be the man of risks -- the security risk with an overnight bag of asterisks. Bold enough to walk the plank. Silva was to be the deliverer of comeuppance. The rectifier. Fighting in Brazil for Brazil.

For the sport of MMA, it was history in the making, in a setting as big as their rivalry.

Only it didn’t get entirely made. The rematch is officially happening on July 7 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the “fight capital of Earth” as Sonnen says. Another way of looking at it is like this: Sonnen/Silva II is happening in a common setting on a big weekend of fights.

In a news conference yesterday from Rio de Janeiro, Dana White broke the news of the switch and explained the problems they had in securing a venue in Brazil. White, Silva and Sonnen showed up in person first and foremost to apologize, and second to redirect hype.

No doubt this whole thing is a bummer for the UFC, who sensed the historical value we’re talking about.

It’s disappointing to Calgary, the Canadian city that is likely losing featherweight champion Jose Aldo to fill the void at UFC 147.

It’s disappointing for Silva, who has fought an 11 times in the States, once in Canada, once in Abu Dhabi and once in Rio as a UFC employee. He is 14-0 in those fights, which means he doesn’t exactly have any big druthers. But his fifteenth fight -- and remember, every fight these days could be his last -- was meant to be epic. It was meant to shatter the UFC 129 attendance record -- in his native country.

None of that will happen now.

The good news is the fight is booked -- that’s the practical thing to remember. UFC 148 now looks like the most loaded card of the year, a card the promoters could easily dub as “Rivals” with all the continuations in play -- Sonnen/Silva II, Urijah Faber/Dominick Cruz III, Tito Ortiz/Forrest Griffin III. It’s a lot of sequels and trilogies in a city where whatever happens is meant to stay there. And that’s a little salt on the wound to Brazilians and romantics and any fan of "Mission: Impossible."

Yet plenty of people will like this switch. There’s a lot of foot traffic in Vegas come Memorial Day weekend, and this fight becomes accessible. The American media will rejoice because now they can attend without having to secure visas. This thing becomes a lot more convenient to cover.

But we weren’t dealing in conveniences; we were dealing in historic backdrops. We were dealing in extreme inconveniences, which is exactly why Sonnen-Silva II in Brazil was so alluring. The “Rumble in the Jungle” wouldn’t have been nearly as compelling as the “Fracas in Las Vegas.”

And it’s disappointing to wave good-bye to what could have been, especially knowing the magnitude of the thing that nearly was.

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz expects Forrest Griffin to be his final fight with the promotion on July 7, and he hinted his future could be in the WWE. More »

It’s been more than 11 years since UFC 29 -- the last time the promotion held an event in Japan. As one might imagine, quite a bit has changed since then.

One of the most vivid memories Chuck Liddell has of that trip is a broken scale on which the fighters weighed in. At the time, it wasn’t uncommon for these professional athletes to make weight on a standard bathroom scale.

At that particular weigh-in, Liddell recalls his opponent, Jeff Monson, tipping him off to a slight malfunction.

“Somebody broke the scale that morning,” Liddell told ESPN.com. “My opponent came over and said, ‘Hey man, the scale isn’t really working. You can lose 10 pounds by leaning on it a different way.’

“So, we didn’t have to finish cutting weight that day. I just went over there, stood on the scale and kind of leaned.”

It’s safe to say that the American fighters set to compete on this weekend’s UFC 144 card won’t get away that easily at the weigh-in, but certain aspects of fighting in Japan haven’t changed over time.

Liddell and fellow former UFC champion Tito Ortiz both downplayed the challenges associated with competing overseas but added that it’s certainly a different atmosphere.

For Ortiz, the biggest difference was competing in front of the Japanese crowd, which is known for remaining silent -- as in completely silent -- during a match, except in key moments.

“You can literally hear a pin drop in between rounds,” Ortiz said. “Some fighters fight off that adrenaline. I myself feed off fans. There, everything was so quiet. I could hear my elbows bust off Wanderlei Silva’s face [at UFC 25].”

Liddell, who fought in Japan four times in his career, remembers a simple suggestion before his first fight there at UFC 29 going a long way.

Plenty of fighters who have fought overseas have commented on the need to adapt to the host country’s time zone immediately. Even if that means forcing your body to stay awake when you’re exhausted, the sooner you acclimate, the better.

It was especially important for Liddell, who said he didn’t arrive in Japan a week to 10 days out from the fight, as most UFC athletes do these days.

“The best advice I got was to get on the schedule over there right when you land,” Liddell said. “I sleep well on planes, so I didn’t have a problem with it. But if it’s bedtime when you land, go to bed. If it’s morning, try to stay up. Get on a normal schedule.”

“

You can literally hear a pin drop in between rounds. Some fighters fight off that adrenaline. I myself feed off fans. There, everything was so quiet. I could hear my elbows bust off Wanderlei Silva's face.

” -- Tito Ortiz, on UFC 25 in Japan

Of course, replenishing your body after cutting weight is a big aspect of fighting in the UFC. It’s a potential challenge for U.S. fighters on the UFC 144 card -- particularly those who either don’t like Asian cuisine or have never tried it.

Ortiz, who first fought in Japan at UFC 25 against Silva for the title, at first he resisted the idea of eating sushi after the weigh-in. Eventually that became the meal for that fight and, surprisingly, every one after.

“I wasn’t a huge sushi fan, but I decided to try it out because it has the carbs in the white rice and protein from the fish,” Ortiz said. “My weight got back up to where I wanted it to be, and my energy was through the roof -- I think because the food was so clean.

“A lot of fighters may think they don’t want to eat sushi or Japanese food after they weigh in. I’d remind them that’s an option. A lot of that stuff is good for your body.”

The minimal challenges the fighters will adapt to at UFC 144 should pale in comparison to the experience each of them is about to have. Both Liddell and Ortiz said all things considered, competing in Japan was a huge positive in their careers.

And perhaps the main reason for that is the Japanese fan base. Ortiz said the experience was the closest he’ll ever get to feeling like a true Samurai because of the respect he received.

Liddell laughed when recalling that the fans who approach for autographs often have something to offer in exchange.

“They’re fanatics. They are great fans,” Liddell said. “I get a lot more gifts over there. They’ll bring me something, like a CD or framed pictures. I get that here in the U.S., but not as much. It’s just a different thing.”

Dan Henderson turned down a fight with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira to establish a No. 1 contender in the UFC’s light heavyweight division. This shouldn’t have been surprising. And it’s definitely not arrogant, nor anything personal. It’s just that at 41 years old, Henderson isn’t looking to be a stay-busy fighter, and he’s much too wise to be duped by dangling carrots that are being restrung by the hour.

If you’ve listened to him in interviews ranging from recent to fairly old, you know that Henderson wants a title shot, either at light heavyweight or at middleweight. The good news for him is that his wants parlay into the better fact that he has earned a title shot. Nogueira doesn’t have the title. In fact, you’d have had a tough time selling Nogueira as even a barely lateral move for Henderson right now.

Think about it. Henderson has won seven of eight fights, and four in a row in the UFC. He just beat former champion Mauricio Rua at UFC 139 in what many consider the fight of the year. Nogueira has won a single fight in his last three, and that bout was his latest against Tito Ortiz at UFC 140. Ortiz has one victory in last five years, making him arguably the worst fighter on the UFC’s roster. If the judges weren’t squinting at UFC 114, Nogueira could have easily lost the split decision to Jason Brilz, too.

In other words, Nogueira isn’t exactly riding a wave of momentum right now. And beating Ortiz doesn’t nudge him into contention, so how does that put him in the spot of challenging Henderson in a title eliminator?

It doesn’t, really. Henderson was presented with a penultimate fight that suggested equal footing against a guy who really isn’t on equal footing. The idea was to play off the history of the two, with Henderson having lost to Lil Nog in Pride back in 2005. Backstories are fun, but they shouldn’t mess with present fortune. And backstories have nothing to do with a 41-year-old man with no sense of nostalgia.

And besides, Henderson doesn’t like putting on fights that fans aren’t into, and this rematch would be one of them. He also didn’t like the fact that it was proposed as a five-round fight, as he recently said on Clinch Gear Radio.

But it is a funny coincidence that news of Henderson turning down Nogueira came out on the same night that it was announced the UFC was headed back to Atlanta. It was the last time through Atlanta, at UFC 88 in 2008, that Henderson began his quest back into title contention. That’s how long it’s taken him to be in this position. That night, he beat Rousimar Palhares to get the thing back in motion at the improbable age of 38. Having just lost to Quinton Jackson and Anderson Silva in consecutive title clashes, Henderson’s odds of returning to title consideration were long. He was supposed to be entering his twilight.

Yet he went to Ireland and beat Rich Franklin (narrowly) and followed that up by defeating Michael Bisping at UFC 100 in what he thought was a case-making knockout for a second title shot against Anderson Silva. Turns out the UFC didn’t see it that way and, long story short, Henderson felt undervalued enough to defect to Strikeforce (where he became the 205-pound champ).

Here we are at the beginning of 2012, and he’s in the same situation he was in 2009, only slightly enhanced because his position forks into two separate weight classes as opportunity dictates. Much like when he came over to the UFC from Pride in 2007, actually. But while he’s been in this situation before, it’s (very likely) the last time he’ll ever be in such a position again.

Why squander it? Why let Nogueira play with house money while gambling with the idea of losing a title shot forever? And what would be the point of beating up Minotoro, aside from avenging a 2005 loss in Pride?

Henderson was right to refuse the bout and, abiding by Dana White’s famous refrain, to “wait and see what happens” with the Rashad Evans/Phil Davis fight. He’s simply too far along and in too prime a position to play the “why not?” game at this stage of his career. In fact, he already played it once by fighting Rua in his return to the UFC.

For as willing as he usually is to accept challenges that fans would be interested in, his willingness to be patient here is the right play.

There’s no upside in staying busy, but there is in standing still. At least while things sort out.

Editor’s note: Next week, the ESPN MMA page will roll out its official end-of-the year awards. With winners in each of the most popular categories seemingly pretty clear cut, however, ESPN staffers Chuck Mindenhall and Chad Dundas will take the final week of 2011 to offer up a few “alternative” choices.

The 2011 Submission of the year award should end up being the exclusive property of Chan Sung Jung.

Unless we miss our guess, Jung will get a near unanimous nod for SOTY after he essentially discovered the Loch Ness Monster of MMA concession holds by hooking up a twister -- a twister! -- on Leonard Garcia at a UFC Fight Night event in March. The 24-year-old “Korean Zombie” deserves the honor, too, after snapping his own two-fight losing streak and becoming the first fighter ever to use the spine-bending submission to finish a bout inside the Octagon.

Garcia tapped one second before the end of the second round, pigs flew and, somewhere, Eddie Bravo’s physical being dissolved into pure energy and advanced to a higher plane of existence.

So, yeah, pretty mind-blowing.

Not that there weren’t a lot of other great submissions this year as well. Here’s our picks for a couple “alternative” tap outs that could fly under the radar during this year’s MMA awards.

Chuck Mindenhall's pick: Tito Ortiz guillotines Ryan Bader at UFC 132, July 2, 2011 in Las Vegas.

Heading into his fight with Bader, Ortiz hadn’t beaten anybody since Frank Shamrock back in 2006. This is known as a drought. In that way, he was an heirloom that sat funny on the UFC’s mantle. And that night at UFC 132, Ortiz walked into the cage as a 5-to-1 underdog who had wiggled into one last fight through uncommon pleading.

So imagine the surprise when he dropped the younger, faster Bader with a right hand. Just like that, a resurgence of everything Ortiz “was” came flooding back. Next thing Bader (and everybody) knew, Ortiz was transitioning into a guillotine choke. And in another incredulous moment he rocked his head back and winced with the choke on so tight that Bader’s neck was striated red and white. The list of improbables grew. It couldn’t be happening. Yet it was. Everybody waited for the tap. Chuck Liddell -- Ortiz’s rival for so many years -- was squirming on his front row seat swinging his arms around like a DJ on invisible decks. Bader strained against becoming “that guy.” Too bad. He was, he tapped, and Ortiz held on a brief moment longer -- to savor it, maybe -- before jumping up and doing his gravedigger dance. It was a flash of nostalgia that fell over the scene. Ortiz was back. All his haters felt their hearts thawing out for a moment. All his apologists smited their chests.

How can that not stand out as one of the best submissions of 2011?

Chad Dundas’ pick: Joe Lauzon chokes Melvin Guillard at UFC 136, Oct. 8, 2011, in Houston.

No, Lauzon didn’t bust out some kind of previously unseen Argentinean Cravat hold to tap Guillard, but the moxie and nose for the upset he showed at UFC 136 will make his one of the first submissions of 2011 that I tell my grandkids about. Because I assume one of my grandkids’ primary interests will be obscure MMA submissions of the past.

Guillard rolled into their bout as a significant favorite after winning five straight fights in the Octagon. He also came to Houston with a ton of confidence, telling reporters prefight that Lauzon wasn’t big enough to compete at 155 pounds and that the 27-year-old Massachusetts native could only be dangerous if Guillard “let him.”

To all of this, Lauzon just sort of shrugged and said he felt like “The Young Assassin” was underestimating him, especially after Guillard turned up at the UFC fan expo to sign autographs and meet fans the day before their fight. Submissions, Lauzon noted, were his biggest strength and traditionally Guillard’s primary weakness, so he figured if he could get the fight to the mat, he’d have a chance.

He figured right.

Guillard came out blasting from the opening bell, fighting as though it never occurred to him that Lauzon could hurt him. He landed some solid shots, but left himself open for a counter left that sent him skidding to the canvas. When Lauzon pounced on the prone Guillard, it was as if the air sucked out of the Toyota Center in a collective “uh-oh.”

From there, it was academic. Lauzon transitioned to the back and applied a rear-naked choke that forced Guillard to tap just 47 seconds into the first. With it, Lauzon ended any hope of Guillard claiming an immediate lightweight title shot and instead launched himself into contention, as he’ll likely take on Anthony Pettis at UFC 144 in February.

Previously: Our picks for alternative Fight of the year.

Up next: Alternative KO of the year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Torres cut a double standard?

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

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

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

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

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

But that stops with Torres.

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

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

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

For now, anyway.

“Bad Boy” or “People’s Champion”?

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

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

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

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

At the risk of sounding overdramatic, it’s fair to say Ryan Bader will be at a crossroads in February, when he travels to Japan to take on Quinton Jackson at UFC 144.

Prior to this year, the 28-year-old “Ultimate Fighter” winner and former Arizona State wrestler appeared to be a fast-rising star in the UFC light heavyweight division. He was undefeated at 12-0 -- having run through his first five fights in the Octagon -- and seemed to possess the right blend of grappling skill, innate athleticism and fearsome power to go places in the weight class.

In 2011 however, Bader hit the skids in a big way, getting totally overwhelmed by Jon Jones in a 205-pound title eliminator at UFC 126, then dropping what looked like an easy bounce-back bout to Tito Ortiz five months later at UFC 132. He rebounded to craft a quick knockout over Jason Brilz in early November at UFC 139, but enough questions have already been raised about Bader’s place in the division to make his upcoming bout with “Rampage” one that could define his career moving forward.

Simply put, if Bader can beat Jackson -- who is fresh off his own title shot and still ranked No. 6 in the world on ESPN.com’s power rankings -- it’ll prove he can still have a place among the upper echelon of the division. If he can’t, he might find himself relegated to a sort of B-list purgatory. He'll be a fighter who can run through the likes of Brilz, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Keith Jardine, but can’t hang with the top dogs.

It goes without saying that Bader should very much want to fall into the first category, while the second would be a lonely place for a talented guy who’d never tasted defeat before February.

A victory over Rampage would mean those two previous losses likely won’t leave a longterm stain on Bader's career. After all, it’s easy enough to shrug off the loss to Ortiz as something of a fluke and at this point there is no real shame in losing to Jones. All the cool kids are doing that.

But with the current light heavyweight champion set to face a difficult gauntlet of fighters likely to include Lyoto Machida, Dan Henderson and Rashad Evans during the next 12 months there has never been a more opportune time to solidify your contender status in this weight class. If Jones should falter somewhere along this path, Bader certainly wants to be on the short list of challengers for the new champion, alongside guys like Phil Davis, Alexander Gustafsson and a suddenly re-relevant Mauricio Rua.

A loss on the other hand and the line of contenders in front of him starts looking very long indeed. Nobody wants to begin 2012 having lost three of his last four. That would only give more ammunition to critics who use the Jones and Ortiz defeats as evidence that Bader was overrated from the start.

Win or lose, all will not be lost for a guy as relatively young and able, but the path between Bader the promised land is sure a whole lot shorter if he can corral Jackson.

After years of walking around under the menacing handle “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” Tito Ortiz has re-fashioned himself as “The People’s Champ.” At UFC 140 in Toronto, Bruce Buffer will call out “Tito ‘The People’s Champ’ Ortiz.” This is what’s known as a juxtaposition.

Not all that long ago, Ortiz proclaimed deaf people had notoriously soft heads. Today, Ortiz rides on our shoulders.

And as with all the people’s champs, the people are the last to know. Chael Sonnen is another of "our champions." Neither of them are actual champions. But it’s a healthy delusion, and, in Ortiz’s case anyway, what’s wrong with a little reinvention? Becoming the opposite of what everyone knows of you makes for blown minds and timely storylines, no matter how far-fetched. Hulk Hogan went to the dark side late in his career; Ortiz steps into the light.

What’s not to admire?

Besides, this new “reimagining” might be more apt. In the last five years, what Ortiz hasn’t gained in victories -- remember that time? -- he’s picked up in maturity (presumably). It wasn’t he who Tweeted that picture of his noose; it was a common coffeehouse hacker.

When Ortiz did return to his winning ways and beat Ryan Bader at UFC 132, the place went into ballistics. Every hater clapped for him, even Chuck Liddell, who showed his affection for Ortiz on the cover of UFC Magazine by sporting a choice t-shirt where a relieved bladder also factored in. For a moment, Ortiz became a live piece of nostalgia for those who remember the halcyon days in the early-2000s, back when he was defending the UFC’s light heavyweight strap again and again.

Right around the time he was doing his grave-digger routine over Bader’s prone body, right when people were smacking their foreheads with goose flesh on their arms, precisely at that moment ... that was when he became our champion.

Next thing you know he accepted a short-notice fight against Rashad Evans -- after first refusing and a quick change of heart -- and declared, “anything for the UFC.” This sent Dana White into raptures. “I like the new Tito,” White said. He rephrased this many times. And since then it’s perpetuated.

Ortiz showed nothing but respect for Evans, even after the loss. Ahead of his bout with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, he isn’t throwing down any verbal judo. On Twitter, he’s inviting people to play against him on Call of Duty: Black Ops, and welcomes your trash talk as something “fun.” His running refrain has become “just believe.”

Not exactly the iconoclastic figure with the nimble middle fingers, now is it?

But hey, when every bout could be your last, and you’re still a popular fighter that can get by with about anything, why not? This is one title he doesn’t necessarily have to defend, because, whether we like it or not, we are his people. Even if this comes as news to us.

When last Rich Franklin fought in the UFC, the light heavyweight title was still securely fastened around the waist of Mauricio Rua, Dan Henderson was still training for his Strikeforce championship bid against Rafael Cavalcante and Rashad Evans had just seen his immediate title hopes dashed by injury.

Fine, with regard to that last one maybe some things never change, but if Franklin returns on schedule from shoulder surgery this summer -- as his manger said this week that he will -- it’s safe to say he’ll face a 205-pound landscape that has shifted dramatically in his absence. When the former middleweight champ does get medically cleared, what options will be available for him in the cage? And how long will the 37-year-old look to stick it out on the active roster?

For Franklin, there is both good news and bad news.

The good news is, there will arguably be more viable and marketable matchups for him in the light heavyweight division come summer, 2012, not only against previously scheduled opponent Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, but with guys like the resurgent Tito Ortiz and the newly re-re-acquired Henderson.

The Ortiz bout just makes too much sense not to book and after Hendo took a hotly contested split decision victory over Franklin back at UFC 93, it’s doubtful either would argue with a redo, under the right circumstances. “Ace” was already signed to take on Nogueira at UFC 133 prior to his injury, so why not make that fight happen, too? In theory, those matchups would give Franklin a nice three-fight landing strip on which to close out his legendary career, assuming that’s what he wanted to do.

The bad news is, the top of the division has only gotten younger and more crowded since he’s been gone, with Jon Jones currently appearing to have the title on lockdown and challengers already stacked three deep in Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans and perhaps the winner of Henderson’s UFC 139 bout against Mauricio Rua. With an upper echelon that stacked and that dangerous, it seems like we’ve probably seen the end of Franklin as a legitimate championship contender, no matter who much longer he sees fit to keep his fighting life going.

Saturday night in Denver, it was UFC play-by-play man Mike Goldberg’s turn to hand out the superlatives.

“A talent like never seen before in UFC history!” Goldberg declared, in the familiar cadence so inexorably linked now with action in the Octagon. “Jon 'Bones' Jones wants to challenge the light heavyweight record of five successful [title] defenses turned in by Tito Ortiz!”

Had Goldy been talking about any other 24-year-old making the first defense of a championship he’d held for barely six months, these words might have seemed like puffery. They might have seemed over the top, or at least like a very bad omen for the kid’s future, since the comments actually came before Jon Jones entered the cage to fight Quinton Jackson.

Yet on Monday, it feels like Goldy was just saying what many of us are thinking. After watching Jones effortlessly rout Jackson in their main event fight at UFC 135, the MMA community seems fairly evenly split between people who are ready to put Jones on the cusp of greatness and those who claim, more and more desperately perhaps, that they’re not fully sold on him.

In this case, the wonderful thing about the fight game is that over the next calendar year, we’re likely going to find out exactly what we’ve got in Jones. His win over Jackson was great -- anticlimactic in its dominance, actually -- but the next 12 months figure to be critical in determining his legacy in the sport.

It doesn’t take a UFC matchmaker to plot out the immediate future: Barring serious injury or other unforeseen setbacks, Jones’ next few bouts will come against a murderer’s row of competition that includes Rashad Evans, the winner of Dan Henderson versus Mauricio Rua and the winner of an expected, but as-yet unconfirmed fight between Lyoto Machida and Phil Davis.

If he can pull it off, it’ll put him one defense shy of Ortiz’s record and amount -- speaking of superlatives--– to the greatest run in the history of the UFC light heavyweight title. Not even Ortiz, Chuck Liddell or Randy Couture faced such a stiff level of competition during their respective reigns. If Jones emerges victorious from this gamut of challengers, he’ll solidify his place among the greatest 205-pounders ever and possibly topple Anderson Silva as the world’s pound-for-pound best.

If he can’t? Well, there is already a significant contingent of MMA fans ready to jump out of the bushes and scream, “Overrated!” Certainly, a second career defeat and the loss of his title during this stretch wouldn’t totally derail Jones’ career, but it would make him look a lot more like everybody else in the division -- a cadre of easy-come, easy-go champions who’ve been trading the belt back and forth for the past four years.

Precisely because of this weight class's chaotic recent history, we all know full well how dangerous it can be to declare anyone the future. This was a lesson learned the hard way when the UFC’s self-described “Machida Era” fizzled after less than a year. On the other hand, it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge the scope of Jones’ potential at this point.

It would also be unfair not to mention the very next thing Goldberg said about Jones after tabbing him a unique talent and a candidate to overtake Ortiz as the greatest 205-pound champion of all time:

“The pressure and expectations [are] larger than they have ever been.”

Considering how the next year of his career will look, you can say that again.

The last time the UFC trekked to Japan, Tito Ortiz won the company’s vacant light heavyweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Wanderlei Silva in the main event.

That was April 2000 and the win touched a run of five successful title defenses that lasted until September 2003 and made Ortiz’s bones as a surefire future hall of famer. For Silva, it was his last appearance in the Octagon for seven and a half years, but in the meantime he fought 25 times in Pride (almost exclusively in Japan) won that organization’s 205-pound title and solidified his place as one of MMA’s all-time greats.

Funny how things work out. As the UFC on Tuesday officially confirmed Feb. 26, 2012, as its first trip back to Japan in more than a decade, Ortiz and Silva are the only men from that original card at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium (it was UFC 25, in case you’re wondering) who are still on the promotion’s active roster.

While a rematch been a resurgent Tito and a 185-pound Wanderlei seems unlikely (sure would be fun, though), the mere fact that both could potentially be available for the planned show at Saitama Super Arena is the first clue to exactly how pretty the UFC is sitting as it prepares to re-invade a Japanese MMA scene mired in a chaotic, half-decade long slump. With a recent show in Rio de Janeiro drawing rave reviews from fans, analysts and company employees alike, UFC brass also have a pretty good template for how to ensure these one-off international events are successful.

Fewer full beers will likely be heaved in the direction of the Octagon, fewer soccer chants will likely sung during the fights, but look for the company to make sure UFC: Japan is framed as a tribute of sorts to that country’s rich history in MMA, just as it did in Rio in August. Especially with the event planned for an arena that was previously the old stomping ground of the Pride organization -- and with Zuffa now owning the vestiges of that former promotion -- expect frequent nods (and probably a few knowing winks) to the past.

As promised during this week’s official announcement, the company will surely stock the card with homegrown talent, in similar fashion to when Brazilian fighters went 7-1 against foreign opponents at UFC 134. That means expect top draws like featherweight phenom Hatsu Hioki, middleweight Yushin Okami and newly minted welterweight Yoshihiro Akiyama to get the call. Akiyama especially appears to have been kept on the UFC roster for the express purpose of making his 170-pound debut at home.

In addition, the UFC has a wealth of non-Japanese fighters who are nonetheless known to fight fans in that country. Fresh off his win over Brendan Schaub in Brazil, former Pride heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has already said he wants to fight on the Tokyo show. With Brock Lesnar scheduled to return to the UFC in early 2012, and possessing his own modest fame in Japan from his days in professional wrestling (not to mention his only non-UFC MMA fight), could a meeting with Nogueira be in the offing? If not Big Nog, Lesnar could potentially fight former Pride and K-1 fighter Alistair Overeem oversees too, as soon as Overeem's signing is official. The major sticking point to those potential bouts could be the UFC’s ability to convince Lesnar, the notorious homebody, to make the trip.

No matter. With former multidivisional Pride champ Dan Henderson reportedly on the verge of a UFC return, and Pride standbys like Mirko Filipovic, Quinton Jackson and Mauricio Rua (just to name a few) under Zuffa contract, there is no shortage of other potential matchups that might make sense for the Japanese show, some of them very compelling. Oh, did I mention Tito versus Wanderlei II? A guy can dream, right?

As others have already pointed out, a single, stand-alone UFC show won’t be enough to breathe new life into the flagging Japanese fight scene. Yet UFC brass came away from Brazil claiming the country had sufficiently wowed them during UFC: Rio as to make it a frequent future stop. Certainly Japan is capable of similar fervor for MMA, as evidenced by the huge crowds and monster TV ratings the sport used to draw in Pride’s heyday. Perhaps the biggest unspoken possibility of all is that (if the political and social climate seems to its liking) the UFC might decide that, going forward, Japan is worthy of more than one show every 10 or 11 years.

Dana White said on Saturday he thinks the tide might finally be changing for Rashad Evans.

After years of being one of the light heavyweight division’s most successful yet seemingly least popular fighters, Evans might -- in the wake of his thorough domination of Tito Ortiz at UFC 133 – be on the verge of a breakthrough with fans who have long jeered him. At least that’s how the UFC President sees it.

“As he continues to grow as a fighter and a person, it’s kind of hard not to like Rashad Evans now,” White old MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani hours after Evans finished Ortiz via TKO following nearly two full lopsided rounds. “It’s kind of hard not to respect him.”

Indeed, what wasn’t to like about Evans’ showing last weekend? Despite the perhaps dubious level of his competition, he answered all of our questions about how he might be affected by a 14-month layoff, changing training camps and the distraction of an ongoing feud with frienemy Jon Jones. He turned in arguably the best performance of his career, showing improved striking and aggressive ground-and-pound while further distancing himself from early criticisms that he’s a boring fighter by crafting his fifth stoppage win in his past 10 fights.

Already a former champion, Evans ran his career mark to 16-1-1, reaffirmed his position as the 205-pound division’s No. 1 contender and looked better than ever while doing it. Even still, the Philadelphia crowd booed and heckled him on his way to the cage and, if anything, seemed indifferent to him on his way out.

Admittedly, they have their reasons: Then there’s the prefight (and sometimes mid-fight) dancing, the obligatory crabwalk into the cage, the sometimes brash attitude and, yeah, there are those sunglasses. Add to that the questions about his killer instinct after a stretch from 2004-06 where he won five consecutive decisions and his choice to sit out this past year to try to preserve a promised title shot against then-champion Mauricio Rua and you start to get the picture.

Yet fans’ distaste for Evans sometime feels out of proportion to all that. Though he’d certainly be included on a list of MMA’s most-hated fighters, his reasons for his being there aren’t as pronounced as some others.

Evans isn’t viewed as a self-styled pro-wrestling heel like Chael Sonnen. He’s not seen an over-the-top bully like Josh Koscheck. He’s not regarded as a pitiable sad sack like Tim Sylvia. He’s just a cocky guy in an industry full of cocky guys. He’s a guy who speaks his mind and, deep down, maybe does half of those antics mentioned above because he knows they make you mad.

Is it time we cut him a little slack? Probably, but for his part – and despite White’s prediction of a coming sea change -- Evans isn’t holding his breath.

“I think the fans boo me because they love me,” he joked at the UFC 133 postfight news conference. “I’m going to get a shirt that says ‘Boo if you love me,’ so maybe then they might stop, but it doesn’t bother me. Somebody’s going to be the villain, it’s just the way things work. I don’t mind being the villain, because I know I’m not a villain in life. If they boo me, they still paid to see me, either way.”

PHILADELPHIA -- In case you haven’t heard, Tito Ortiz has won a single fight in five years and Rashad Evans hasn’t stepped in the cage in a year and a half. These work as story lines heading into their rematch from a 2007 draw. It’s a lot of question marks to run through in prospect. Optimists are saying Ortiz, analysts contend it’s Evans, while realists are cautioning everyone that this could be a colossally boring main event. Somebody’s right, and it’s going down -- the two meet (again) in Philadelphia, maybe to establish a No. 1 contender (which Evans is already).

Got it?

For Ortiz it’s a resurrection tour he’s taking through Ryan Bader and now Evans. The greatest thing he has going for him? Confidence. He fought a month ago and the new Ortiz looked like the old Ortiz. His fans have slinked back out from their holding tanks, just in time for him to crash back into relevance. What would a win do for him? It’s so preposterous it’s hard to write … but, potentially earn him a shot against the Jon Jones/Quinton Jackson winner. If you’d said that before his fight with Bader, people would have thought you just came from the booby hatch.

Nobody saw this trajectory.

For Evans? It’s a gamble. The good news is the dealer is showing a six and he has 19, so he’s in a superior position. The bad news is we’ve seen fights on short notice plenty before where the sizable underdog comes through. Charlie Brenneman did it to Rick Story, Melvin Guillard did it to Evan Dunham, Dustin Poirier did it to Josh Grispi, Keith Jardine did it to Gegard Mousasi (ahem) and so on. The point is, when guys are asked to step up and take a high-profile fight from whatever place of counted-out anonymity they’re in, they hold their own as often as not. This fight has a little bit of that going on.

Ortiz isn’t coming from an anonymous place, but he is coming back from injuries, doubt and obsolescence. Imagine the scene if he beats Evans. It will be pandemonium.

Booked to win

Speaking to Strikeforce/UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby last night, he pointed out that, when creating a title fight, he has the champion’s fall in mind. “I’m only interested in the guy who will beat the champion” he said.

In other words, no soft lobs in the UFC, which is one of the distinguishing factors on how business is done in Zuffa versus how it’s done in boxing.

Restoration project

Greg Jackson won’t be with Brendan Schaub or any other fighter in Rio de Janeiro for UFC 134. Why? Because he will be in Hawaii, cornering the man he intends to resurrect -- Andrei Arlovski. Arlovski fights on the same night (Aug. 27) in ProElite’s newly rebooted model. The chants of Arlovski being a shot fighter have gotten to Jackson, who says he intends to prove all reports of his demise premature. His opponent, Ray Lopez, isn’t exactly household name…but he’s a place to start.

Too civil?

At yesterday’s news conference, everyone was professional and gentlemanly. But you know who gets the “emphasis on hammering home a point” award? Rashad Evans. Check out how he handled a question about who has the most to lose in his fight with Ortiz:

“The truth of the matter, what it comes down to no matter what happens after this fight, the bare essentials comes down to this right here: Neither of us wants to lose to the other person.”

That’s bottom line stuff.

Tito Ortiz is highly unlikely to get the next UFC light heavyweight title shot -- even if he beats Rashad Evans this weekend. More »