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This Saturday, the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., hosts UFC 159. In the main event, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will defend his title for the fifth time against Chael Sonnen, who stood opposite of Jones as coach on Season 17 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” In the co-main event, middleweight contenders will battle when Michael Bisping takes on Alan Belcher.

Here are the numbers you need to know for Saturday’s fights:

4: UFC light heavyweight title defenses for Jones, tied with Chuck Liddell and Frank Shamrock for second most. With a win, Jones would tie Tito Ortiz, who defended the title five times from 2000-2002.

231: Jones has outlanded opponents in significant strikes 330-99 in title fights, a difference of 231. In 12 UFC fights, Jones has never been outstruck (nor has Sonnen in 11 UFC fights).

11: Jones (84.5-inch wingspan) will have an 11-inch reach advantage over Sonnen (73.5-inch wingspan). Sonnen has never faced an opponent with a reach longer than 77.5 (Anderson Silva).

16: Jones has stopped all 16 takedown attempts by his opponents in his UFC career. Sonnen, who is known for his wrestling background, averages four takedown attempts per fight.

38: Sonnen has 38 takedowns in his 11-fight UFC career, including at least one takedown in each of his past seven fights. Sonnen also does a good job advancing his position when getting the fight to the ground. In 11 fights, Sonnen advanced his position on the ground 29 times (2.6 times per fight).

5: Jones has six submission victories in his career, five of which have come by way of choke (four by guillotine, one rear-naked). Eight of Sonnen’s 12 career losses are by submission, five by choke (four by triangle choke, one by guillotine).

8: Years since Sonnen has fought at light heavyweight. Sonnen is making his first UFC appearance at light heavyweight since his UFC debut in October 2005 against Renato Sobral.

13: This is the 13th time that TUF coaches will face off against one another inside the Octagon. On six occasions, the coach with the winning fighter(s) also won the fight against the opposing coach.

5: Bisping has landed 854 significant strikes in his UFC career, five away from taking over second place all time behind Georges St-Pierre (1,153). Bisping averages 47 significant strikes landed per fight.

25: Combined UFC middleweight fights between Bisping (13) and Belcher (12). Both fighters are still looking for their first opportunity at the UFC middleweight title. Chris Leben (20) has had the most fights among active UFC fighters at middleweight without a title shot.

Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos needed to accomplish two things on Friday at Invicta FC: defeat Fiona Muxlow and look like a reasonable facsimile of her old self while doing it.

Not necessarily in that order. At least not in terms of degree of difficulty.


The victory was vital, I suppose, but it was also never really in doubt. In practice, the fight turned out to be as lopsided as it looked on paper, which is to say the win was so one-sided that it was almost completely hollow for the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion.

Santos dropped Muxlow with her first punch, a straight right that put the replacement fighter, who took the bout on 17 days’ notice, skittering into the frenzied survival mode we so commonly see in Santos' opponents. The rest was essentially cleanup. It took referee John McCarthy 3 minutes, 46 seconds to decide he’d seen enough, but each tick of the clock after that initial salvo felt more gratuitous than the previous. By the time the end came for Muxlow, she was backed up against the cage accepting a series of increasingly inevitable knees and punches and the overriding feeling that swept over us all when Big John stepped in was one of relief for her.

For Santos, we felt only a vague sense of confirmation. Yep, she’s still Cyborg.

Proving that Santos is still the most bloodcurdling figure in women’s MMA was the really essential thing here, because, after nearly 16 months of inactivity owed to a yearlong suspension for a positive steroid test, there were questions about whether she would show up in Kansas City looking as ripped, as relentless and altogether frightening as before. More to the point, because Cyborg still being leaps and bounds ahead of the competition is an integral part of manager Tito Ortiz’s plan to run the longest of long bombs on the UFC.

When Santos and Ortiz very publicly balked at the chance to cut to 135 pounds for an immediate shot at Ronda Rousey’s bantamweight title back in February, instead opting for a much slower burn in Invicta, it prompted copious industry-wide head-scratching. One of those heads belonged to UFC President Dana White, who alternated between describing the Santos-Ortiz negotiating style as “wacky” and “goofy” and then proclaimed Cyborg “pretty much irrelevant” when talks finally appeared to fall apart for good.

Ortiz claims Santos needs a multifight run in Invicta to gradually shed the pounds necessary to safely make the cut to 135. Maybe that’s true, but the perils of this route are obvious. What if something goes wrong, we all asked when the deal was announced. What if she emerges in the Invicta cage looking like something less than the terrifying knockout artist who cut a swath through women’s MMA during seven fights from 2008-11? What if she -- choke, sputter, gasp -- loses?

"She ain't gonna lose …," an ever-confident Ortiz told MMAJunkie.com's Ben Fowlkes when he put voice to these concerns at the time. "You ever sparred with Cris? You ever tried to wrestle with her? Ever watched her wrestle, watched her spar? Have you ever watched her fight?"

Yeah, well, point taken. Never did Ortiz’s long-term plan for Santos’ career feel like less of a gamble than while we were watching her brutalize Muxlow. Granted, the 35-year-old Australian’s prospects were doomed from the moment she agreed to sub in for the injured Ediane Gomes last month, but it must have been reassuring for Ortiz & Co. to get proof that Cyborg can still deal with an overmatched opponent with the kind of extreme prejudice we saw from her against the likes of Jan Finney and Hiroko Yamanaka near the end of her Strikeforce run.

While not a particularly instructive affair, we’re now told the victory sets Santos up for an Invicta 145-pound title bout with Marloes Coenen later this year. Coenen will no doubt be a far more dangerous opponent, albeit one Santos already defeated back in January 2010 and one who had been competing at bantamweight prior to debuting in Invicta. If Cyborg wins that, she’ll have a shiny new belt to match Rousey’s, and it’ll start to feel more and more like Ortiz’s gamble might just pay off after all, giving Santos time to drop the weight while only stoking the fires of interest in a Rousey bout.

Still, let’s not kid ourselves here. Santos and Ortiz are taking tremendous risks each time Santos steps into the Invicta cage. They are still involved in the kind of clunky, long-range scheme that very seldom pays off in a sport this unpredictable.

If you strip away the veneer of dominance and the fearsome power, Cyborg has exactly one thing going for her right now: There are only two real stars in the landscape of female MMA, and, as of this weekend, she’s still one of them. Rousey and the UFC need her (and by extension, Ortiz) as much as the fighter and manager need the fight promotion and its golden girl. Rousey versus Santos is the one truly marketable superfight in women’s fighting at the moment, and no matter how big the honchos at the UFC talk, they’ll still be interested in it if and when Santos decides she’s ready.

But that delicate balance of power evaporates immediately should Cyborg make a misstep in Invicta. All it takes is one lucky punch or a momentary mental lapse on the ground and, suddenly, she’s not the perfect foil for Rousey’s good looks and slick submission game anymore. Suddenly, she’s just a former champion with a positive steroid test and a reputation for difficult negotiations.

If we’ve learned anything from MMA, it’s that the thing that “ain’t gonna” happen, often does, and, afterward, the people who wind up on the short end wish they’d grabbed the brass ring when they had the chance -- instead of putting it off for another day.

Here's some stuff to consider about Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos heading to Invicta FC instead of meeting Ronda Rousey in the UFC that makes it OK right now to shrug your shoulders.

Did Santos, her management, Rousey, Invicta FC or Zuffa come out looking great? Did any of them blow it? The answer is a big, fat meh. Winners. Losers. The line's a blur with this one. Despite a lot of not getting what was wanted most, in certain ways everyone came out ahead.

The only thing we know for sure is this episode has added texture and dimension to a fight that will happen if everyone is as good and smart as they think they are.

How they win ...

Zuffa: The UFC holds rights to Rousey, so they're way ahead of the game. They stuck to their guns on keeping one weight division, which is the smart move as new fans are indoctrinated into the ways of women's mixed martial arts. Again, they've refused to let a fighter dictate terms and get away with it. The absence of Cyborg shouldn't hurt too much because 135 features several appealing contenders.

Santos: After a year away from the cage because of steroids, Cyborg has a fight again. She'll compete for a promotion that quickly earned a reputation as the home for women's MMA. She'll face a legitimate challenger at 145 in Ediane Gomes. She won't have to kill herself to make 135 pounds, which she could if she had to, but only at a cost. Another year of destroying women would lather up fans for a fight against Rousey, boosting her leverage heading into another round of contract talks with Zuffa.

Rousey: If it comes together, Rousey-Cyborg has the makings of the biggest money fight in female combat sports history. This chapter does nothing but add to that. It's all part of the story and, hey, now it has gotten personal. Right? Rousey is a clear winner if she holds up her end of the bargain and gets that payday.

Primetime 360: Tito Ortiz and two attorneys are trying their hand at the management business. The Cyborg episode landed them press. If their female star remains clean and beats up the competition, the "flexibility" they said they opted for could pay off a year from now.

Invicta FC: The female-focused promotion landed Cyborg to a three-bout contract. Duh. So long as Invicta didn't do something foolish with the money or terms (and there's no reason to suspect they did), it's a no-brainer. Press interest will hit a new high for Invicta this April.

How they lose ...

Zuffa: Dana White said he didn't understand why UFC's offer to pay Santos to fight in Invicta was turned down when she ended up with the same promotion for less money. Santos said she didn't want to sign the eight-fight contract Zuffa offered. And so Zuffa loses if Cyborg puts herself in the best possible position. That's not so terrible. Zuffa still stands to make big money on this deal whenever it happens. Zuffa, too, loses if it continues to play up the narrative that Cyborg is running from Rousey.

Santos: She drops one of her next three fights in Invicta. That would be bad.

Rousey: Rousey has her mountaintop to defend. So long as she's the top female bantamweight in MMA, there's not much downside to seeing Cyborg compete outside of the Octagon. Fights will arise, money will be made, her fame will continue to grow. There is the chance, however, that if she's unable to fight Cyborg, Rousey can't take the title of the sport's best female fighter. And that's worth something.

Primetime 360: Cyborg loses. Zuffa decides it doesn't like how Ortiz and his team do business.

Invicta FC: Pay-per-view numbers are lower than expected. Cyborg falls on her face in the cage or screws up another steroid test. All the usual pitfalls.

Where it stands ...

Zuffa: Business as usual. They're invested in Rousey. If she should falter, though, it will be interesting to see what that does to UFC's interest in Cyborg.

Santos: She'll have to do what she has done and keep hurting women in the cage. Cyborg is lined up for big things if it plays out this way. She's taking a potentially riskier route to her goal, but the benefits could be greater.

Rousey: Let's check back on the 23rd.

Primetime 360: Ortiz's group also has wrestler Bubba Jenkins under contract, with a promise to focus on brand building and contractual protections. It was refreshing to hear a management group openly discuss the inner workings of contract negotiations. Hopefully that continues.

Invicta FC: As of right now, they're not a "feeder organization," per Dana White. The Cyborg signing isn't quite Fedor Emelianenko to Strikeforce, but it's a major moment for the young promotion.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- Vitor Belfort is the longest-tenured UFC fighter, an ante-Zuffaian heirloom who was Jon Jones long before there was a Jon Jones. If he’s distinguished, it’s because he’s learned to adapt within the meanest landscape in sports.

Now 35, he’s facing the Jon Jones of today -- the Jon Jones. Jones, the invulnerable. Jones, the colossus of the light heavyweight division, a division Belfort hasn’t fought in since 2007. It’s a legit old-meets-new with a sense of “martyrdom” underwriting it all. To go by the specs, Jones -- at 25 years old -- is the new “phenom.” Belfort, in his twilight, is the new “unenviable.”

Welcome to Toronto!

By now, it’s past the point of marveling at how UFC 152 came together through wild controversy and swerving circumstances. We saw UFC 151 go belly up; the Jones-Belfort main event is the consolation.

But Belfort makes his headlong clash into Jones seem like it’s always been in the cards. If you know anything about him, you know that when things happen by chance -- no matter the situation or how clumsily it falls into existence -- Belfort senses the divine hand in play. As a man of faith, his is always a macro view. He’s winking at the cosmos, with a secret he’ll happily let you in on.

And that is this: There is orchestration at work far greater than Jones versus Belfort. Anything can happen, Belfort reminds us, with faith and belief (and more immediately, a timely left hand). Remember when he was the "Big Thing" at 19 years old, and Randy Couture knocked him down to size at UFC 15 all those years ago?

These things are funny. Now the shoe’s on the other foot.

“I think the toughest fight is always the fight that is next,” he told ESPN.com. “Everyone has a different style, different body type -- every fight is hard. Nothing’s easy. In this sport, you don’t have easy things. You just have to enjoy the process and enjoy the journey. I don’t look at an opponent thinking, oh, my god. ... I look to the opponent as a chance. As a prize. Here’s my prize. I have to hunt that prize. But you have to enjoy the process.”

Belfort’s process is never dull, and the chances he takes, he rarely regrets. He’s currently training in southern Florida with a star-studded cast of sparring partners who have come to be known as the Blackzilians. What began as an orphanage for wayward fighters has become a who’s who of expatriates, former champions and promising upstarts. Belfort arrived in August.

And filling in the Delray Beach gym around him is a who's who of talent -- everyone from Eddie Alvarez and Gesias Cavalcante to Melvin Guillard and Matt Mitrione; from Thiago Silva and Michael Johnson to Tyrone Spong. Some of his training partners are guys he previously went to war against in the cage. There’s Anthony Johnson, the after-picture of a one-time welterweight who lost to Belfort earlier this year, and Alistair Overeem, a hulk who looks nothing like the man who defeated Belfort at the Pride middleweight grand prix back in the day.

But Belfort’s main coach for this camp is the only one with an insider’s track to Jones, and that’s Rashad Evans. Evans is readying Belfort to do what has been so far impossible, and that’s pass through an immovable object ... that’s to get inside an 84-inch reach and try to lower the boom ... that’s to prove a man vincible who has heretofore been flawless. Belfort’s job, in a roundabout way, is to rearrange our perception about what can and can’t be done. That’s what’s ultimately at stake when it comes to one-sided matchmaking.

Beating Jones is something Evans himself could not do.

“I’m training with high-level guys, and we’re helping each other,” Belfort says. “Rashad’s been so important for me -- he has so much knowledge, so much experience. It’s so good to look into somebody’s eye, and you really trust that person and you bind with that person. There are amazing guys here helping me every day, different body types, guys who look you in the eyes.

“If you want to go to a jungle and you want to hang with the lions, you cannot be with the zebras and hyenas, you’ve got to go in the midst of the lions. So that’s what I did.”

No, Belfort is not rattling off "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" analogies just to produce a strong sound bite; he genuinely believes he is the Jones antidote. Jones is the latest obstacle in Belfort’s journey, a journey that can’t be fairly judged by simple wins and losses.

It began when he and Carlson Gracie came to the United States when he was 16 years old, and faith was the only game in town.

“He taught me so many things,” Belfort says of the late Gracie. “I brought him here. We motivated each other. He believed in me; I believed in him. So we made history, and we wrote our names on history, and nobody can erase it.”

Things have careened every which way since.

Belfort has fought and won magnificently (remember the original UFC Brazil, when he stormed Wanderlei Silva with one-twos the length of the cage?). He has lost heartbreakingly (the split decision to Tito Ortiz at UFC 51) and decisively (the dreaded Anderson Silva front kick at UFC 126). He has experienced triumph (winning the UFC light heavyweight championship against Randy Couture) and crisis (his sister being kidnapped in 2004). He has bounced around organizations, from the UFC to Pride to Cage Rage to Strikeforce and Affliction, and back to the UFC, in numerous countries from the United States to Brazil to Japan and Europe. He has been busted for elevated testosterone levels, back at Pride 32 following a bout with Dan Henderson.

The same Henderson, of all people, who is now TRT exempt. It’s been a lot of twisting and turning.

Belfort has worked at finding “the heart of God,” got married, started a family and has been posterized by a kick that later was accredited to Steven Seagal. All of it goes into his tapestry. And back in 1998, it was Belfort who was the young unbeatable, when he faced Couture at UFC 15.

If anything, Belfort has an empathy edge on Jones. In fact, he empathizes with Jones at a time when almost nobody else in the world can (or will).

“I remember there was a lot of pressure,” he says of the Couture fight. “I remember being so young -- I had a lot of pressure. Everything happened instantly for me. But the tendency before was, ‘Oh, I have to do this -- I have to.’ Now it’s, I want to. I turned the have to and want to. I have to be a good fighter? No, I want to be a good fighter. I have to be a good husband? No, I want to be a good husband. When you turn have to and want to, your life gets better. You see life different. You enjoy every day differently.”

In 1997, when Belfort first earned the nickname “The Phenom,” he knocked out a pair of heavyweights -- Tra Telligman and Scott Ferrozzo -- in a combined two minutes at UFC 12. He followed that impressive turn a couple of months later against the UFC’s most notorious barroom Hun at the time, Tank Abbott, at UFC 13. That time, he needed only 52 seconds.

He was barely 20 years old and, inarguably, by strict definition, a “phenom.” But it’s a handle that comes with a gradual expiration date, isn't it? Phenoms are generally young, those whose first impressions make the previous standards seem ordinary, right?

At 35 years old, can you still be a “phenom”?

“

At the end of the line, we're all going to die. It's how you live your life. How you leave your fingerprints in every moment of your life. Every moment is a moment when you can do something.

” -- Vitor Belfort, on why he didn't think twice about accepting a bout with Jon Jones

“Yeah, to this day I enjoy it,” Belfort says. “It’s pretty cool, and I try to live to bring it to reality, to my inner man that I have. My inner man, something that the cameras and people can’t see. For me, a phenom is a guy who could be a father, a husband, a human being, a guy who loves God, a guy who lives by what he preaches -- that’s a phenom. Being a performer, winning championships and being a great athlete, that’s just your job. But I believe phenoms are people who can go out there and live their private life the best way they can live it.”

Part of what makes Belfort Belfort is that he talks in such celestials. There’s very little separation between the “inner man” and the “outer man.” You ask him about a specific fighter or circumstance -- as with Couture and UFC 15, say -- and he takes you to the broader reaches. His sermonizing is legendary but never judging.

And really, whether you believe in the higher power that he does or not, there’s a simplistic thing Belfort acknowledges that could serve as inspiration: that life is a running thing. That real life is always now. Say what you want about the level of Belfort’s competition the past few years, but he makes the most of his moments.

It’s no surprise that he didn’t hesitate to fight Jones.

“At the end of the line, we’re all going to die,” he says. “It’s how you live your life. How you leave your fingerprints in every moment of your life. Every moment is a moment when you can do something.”

Does he stand a chance? We’ll have to wait and see. But Belfort believes he does, enough that he volunteered to try. Yet, to put his attitude in perspective, if he “shocks the world” and beats Jon Jones, don’t expect him to be shocked along with it. He’s been knocked from the perch, and he believes it’s in his power to return the favor.

And at the bottom of all of the undercurrents and karmic nods, there’s a man who practices what he preaches. Losing to Jones won’t change that. And neither will winning.

But imagine if he does win, for a minute -- Vitor Belfort, the old “Phenom,” recapturing the light heavyweight championship and bringing his career full circle at 35 years old. That’s just storybook stuff right there.

In fact, it’s almost beyond belief. Good thing Belfort has enough to go around.

Jon Jones has lost arguably his No. 1 fan in Tito Ortiz as the UFC light heavyweight's reputation continues to hit the rocks following his decision to reject a fight at UFC 151. More »

On Monday, I offered five questions related to UFC 148, most of which, unsurprisingly, revolved around Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen.

Following an incredible fight week in Las Vegas, which featured more than 8,000 fans attending the weigh-in and culminated at the MGM Grand Garden Arena with Silva keeping his belt and record streaks intact -- consecutive wins (15) and title defenses (10) -- we now have the answers.

Chael Sonnen: champion?

Musing on the possibility, I suggested the answer would trump anything else we learned on fight night.

Well, Sonnen came closer than anyone else in the UFC to beating Silva, but a champion that does not make. He won't be remembered among a group of competitors who made good in the most pressure-packed moments. In fact, he'll likely be remembered for exactly the opposite.

It's important to say that there's no shame in losing to the best fighter mixed martial arts has produced during the past 20 years. None at all. But that doesn't absolve Sonnen for the way he lost. The first bout ended in a total meltdown. The second, pretty much the same.

If Sonnen were championship material, perhaps he wouldn't have squandered a minute-long stretch in mount to close out Round 1. Rather than making the most of a dominant position, Sonnen remained tight to Silva, failing to threaten his foe. That just won't do. Sonnen's inability (or lack of desire) to go after the champion in that position could have cost him a title; it's impossible to know for sure. What's clear, though, is this: Sonnen walked into the fight intending to play a tight, controlling game. As such, he was unwilling to lodge his forearm in Silva's neck and face, unwilling to lift his posture to attack, unwilling to do what was necessary to take the title.

Does someone need a perfect night to defeat Silva?

Sonnen obviously did, for all the reasons I laid out on Monday.

He was nearly perfect in 2010, made one mistake, and lost. On Saturday, he was solid in the opening round -- save the final minute in mount, which came after a slick guard pass -- before reverting to ordinary in the second. Takedowns didn't come so easily. Silva defended and moved the way he was unable to do with an injured rib the first time around. It seemed only a matter of time before something decisive was going to happen.

The hourglass shattered when Sonnen moved forward with an awkward, out-of-the-blue spinning back fist that will forever be preserved among savvy MMA fans in .gif form. The strike was so out of character for Sonnen that, in the moment it happened, most people, including myself, didn't realize what he was attempting to do.

Sonnen's remarkably foolish attack led Silva to duck, move and attack in one fell swoop. The champion, eagle-eyed as he is, pulled off something very few fighters are capable of. Silva wasn't perfect (he spent most of Round 1 on the bottom, defending with a long guard and avoiding most of Sonnen's short shots), but he didn't need to be. The onus was on the challenger, a challenger who can't seem to get it right in the most important moments.

Should the middleweight rematch rank among the biggest sporting events of 2012?

Judging by UFC president Dana White's reaction to predictive metrics Zuffa uses in establishing the moneymaking potential of an event, UFC 148 essentially blew away everything else.

There's no question that as fight week wore on, interest swelled. Sonnen-Silva 2 was treated the way it should have been by the sporting press.

None of this means it will rank among the biggest sporting events of the year. MMA isn't there yet. For as much as UFC 148 (and the entire week leading up to the fights) showcased how far the sport had come, it also served as a reminder that there's a long way to go.

UFC set a record for gate, making Sonnen-Silva 2 the first MMA headliner in Nevada to register among the top 35 boxing cards sanctioned by the state. That's a testament to the sport, the combatants and the promotion, but it also is a clear reminder of where MMA ranks relative to its fistic brethren (and other sports).

Silva-Sonnen 2 won't be remembered among the biggest sporting events in 2012. Had the fight gone down similarly to the first, perhaps I'd be saying something else. Nonetheless, it was an unmitigated success, offering proof once again that when real stakes are at play with compelling figures, MMA can move the needle.

Saturday's least competitive fight was?

Chad Mendes versus Cody McKenzie was the pick on Monday. I'm not trying to look smart here. It was just the obvious choice, and Saturday's result exemplified why. This was a showcase for Mendes and he delivered.

What story will be overshadowed by Sonnen-Silva?

I thought all of them would be, and they were. Even still, I was a bit surprised how much oxygen Silva-Sonnen 2 took up. From Tuesday's news conference, where Silva put his hands on Sonnen, to the mammoth weigh-in where Silva jabbed his shoulder into Sonnen's mouth, this fight deserved all the coverage it could get, and certainly benefited from plenty.

Thankfully, Tito Ortiz still got his due -- regardless of Forrest Griffin's oddities at the end.

Tito Ortiz has clarified to ESPN recent comments he made regarding Jon Jones, insisting he has nothing but respect for the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion. More »

Back in 2006, Ken Shamrock appeared on "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" via a satellite feed from northern California. Sitting in the Los Angeles studio was Tito Ortiz, a fugitive of Shamrock justice who in a short while would be forced to deal with some very cruel consequences in the cage.

The idea of the segment was to escalate a feud that began when Ortiz flipped the double bird at the Lion’s Den corner after he defeated Guy Mezger years before. This made for bad blood. When there’s bad blood, the idea is to exploit it. Good television is made of this.

“I’m going to take your soul,” Shamrock cautioned.

“I’m glad you didn’t have to go to the Wizard of Oz to find your courage, little lion,” Ortiz retorted.

That’s just fun. And the fun between those two carried over to a news conference when Shamrock said, “I hope to god you’re ready, because I’m going to beat you into a living death.” Ortiz came back with the only thing he could have -- hysterical laughter. Shamrock’s veins thickened and for a moment he became apoplectic.

When you’re selling pay-per-views, this is gold. Mission accomplished if you’re Tito Ortiz getting under Shamrock’s skin.

Same thing, it appears, for Chael Sonnen, who has disrespected middleweight champion Anderson Silva for so long that Silva finally announced his intentions to break a lot of Sonnen teeth and bones. If we’re to take Silva at face value, Sonnen will return to the mean streets of West Linn in a state of recalcification.

That’s trash talk -- a novelty for Silva, an uncontrollable urge for Sonnen.

It’s part of the fight game. The media provokes, the fighters respond. When fighters cross the line of good taste, media turns righteous. Righteous media makes divisions in the sand. In truth, we’re a bunch of barometers. Fighters know what a few choice words in the media means. It means an echo down the hallway.

But in all this reactionary give and take, bad-mouthing and moralizing, one thing happens that a fight promoter can live with -- people are talking about the fight. We are feeding interest into a conflict.

That’s the central idea.

Know why it works so well in MMA?

Because of where it’s headed -- to a fight. The ultimate culmination of a bunch of heated insults is to fight. If kids in school start talking about each other’s mothers, a flagpole appointment is made to settle the differences. The excitement feeds on itself and everybody shows up to watch. Same thing here, only gussied up with sponsors and cage lights. If ever there was an arena where people should talk smack about each other, it’s one where they will be forced to back it up in a cage. The use of metaphors - like a ball in other sports -- isn’t the case in fighting. Fighting is literal.

Far more literal than the words, which are often not literal at all. Frank Mir didn’t talk about breaking Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s arm before the fight, he just did it. If there’s a moral jurisdiction in this game, it’s in the actions, not the words. If we can accept the one, then we should at least be able to understand when the other is winking at us.

Back before UFC 94, B.J. Penn cut a promo for the UFC where he said, “Georges, I’m going to go to the death. I’m going to try and kill you, and I’m not joking about this.” He was talking about Georges St. Pierre, the welterweight champion.

Penn wasn’t exactly joking, but he wasn’t being completely serious either. This was him saying he wanted to beat St. Pierre up real bad. All the other stuff was just a mindset. It’s a declaration of serious intent. Just peacock warriorism, to align himself with Kurosawa characters.

In essence, Penn said this to help sell the fight.

There have been countless other examples. Dan Henderson said he wanted to punch holes in Anderson Silva’s face. Frank Mir said he wanted to make Brock Lesnar the first fatal casualty in the Octagon. Wanderlei Silva said he would kill Sonnen quick if they ever fought. Mike Tyson once told Jim Gray “my style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious. I want your heart, I want to eat your children -- praise be to Allah!” He was directing some of that to Lenox Lewis, and some to a spiritual government.

The juxtaposition was raw, and it got you to thinking. Did he really think Lewis’s children were edible? No. But he was clearly mad at Lewis. Same as when somebody says, “I’m going to knock your head off,” which is a fight game proverb at this point. Nobody is seriously thinking decapitation.

But it helps when there’s genuine animosity, like there is with Sonnen/Silva, and like there was with Shamrock/Ortiz. As Ortiz said recently, trash talking has got to come from the heart. That’s sort of the dark side of a Hallmark sentiment, isn’t it? Feuds that are real feel more personal to everybody. It helps if we care.

In other professional sports, threats of breaking bones and knocking heads can’t be tolerated.

In professional prizefighting, especially in the protective renegade ideology of the UFC, it’s not always endorsed but it’s certainly condoned. How could it not be? It’s part of the game to sell the bout. And the game itself is not a game at all. It’s a fight.

Any words spoken beforehand just build around a conflict, a conflict that invites itself to be resolved in front of as many people as possible.

LAS VEGAS -- Former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin is set to meet Tito Ortiz for a third time in the co-main event of UFC 148 on July 7. It’s expected to be the final fight of Ortiz’s career.

In a candid interview with ESPN.com, Griffin, who enjoyed the birth of his first child last year, spoke on how much time he has left in the sport, whether or not this recent string of losses for Ortiz has tarnished his career, and how comfortable he would be accepting a fight against a dangerous up-and-comer in the division.

ESPN.com: What was the experience of your last fight like, going to Brazil and trying to concentrate on Mauricio Rua while your wife was in labor back in Las Vegas?

Griffin: It really wasn’t that distracting. Maybe some time when I was down there and she was real good about censoring what she told me. The problem with that fight wasn’t anything other than Shogun hitting me in the head. That was more the problem with that fight than my wife being pregnant. It’s funny, I really didn’t think (about the loss). It was a s----- flight, I flew back with Dana (White). That’s a tough flight. You don’t want to sit next to your boss after you don’t do such a great job at work. After that, it was like, “we’re in the hospital.” So, I really didn’t think about it other than the flight home.

ESPN.com: Did you talk to Dana at all on the flight?

Griffin: I watched "Band of Brothers" with headphones on.

ESPN.com: Why do you think Tito Ortiz wanted you specifically for his last fight?
Griffin: I feel like, from his perspective, there’s a kid I beat once. I could have beat him a second time, but I was hurt. Let me put the stamp on him; let me show I can really beat this kid. I think too, you look at the guys he’s fought, I’m a guy with a big name who’s -- my name to talent ratio is pretty good, as is his. So, it’s a smart fight.

ESPN.com: Everybody is talking about his future, what’s yours? How much longer you plan on doing this?

Griffin: I don’t know. It’s not going to be a long time. I don’t foresee the huge comeback. I worked out with that (Alexander) Gustafsson kid. Young guys, man. I’m old now. I like what Rich Franklin has done, there’s still a lot of guys I can beat -- but I don’t know how many of those guys are in the Top 10. I’m still, I’d say, one of the Top 25 guys in the world at 205 pounds; problem is I keep fighting the top 5-to-10 guys in the world.

ESPN.com: Does it matter to you how you go out? Does it matter if you go out, losing five of your last six or whatever?

Griffin: Yeah. You’ve tarnished yourself. You should have quit while you were breaking even, which is kind of where I’m at now. Thing about Tito’s losses, if I’m fighting that level of guys, I don’t know if I’m losing six in a row but I might go 2-4. If you’re fighting great guys, you’re fighting great guys. It depends on the opponent.

ESPN.com: So, do you think Ortiz has hurt his legacy at all by sticking around too long or no?

Griffin: There’s a couple ways to look at that. From the perspective of a guy that’s in the sport and knows what it’s like to fight Rashad Evans -- he fought Rashad Evans at his peak -- and he fought (Antonio Rogerio Nogueira) at a bad time, I think he was kind of finding where he was at, so I think from the sport’s standpoint? No. From a fan’s standpoint? Yeah. Yeah, you look at the record and go, ‘Hey, he only had a .500 record.’

ESPN.com: Which is more important? The sport’s perception or the fan’s perception?

Griffin: For me personally, it’s guys who know what it’s like and to be respected by other guys in the sport more than the casual fan. It’s also important to me that the casual fan will cough out $20 for a t-shirt, too.

ESPN.com: Is there anything out there you still really want? A certain guy you point at and think, "I want him"?

Griffin: No, there really isn’t. Part of it is I’ve just been watching Tito. I’ve been in that mindset. I know a lot of guys I don’t want to fight. I really don’t watch that many fights. I watch the guys I’m interested in.

ESPN.com: What if the UFC set you up after this fight in a situation where it looks like you’re kind of that stepping stone for the younger up-and-comer? Would you accept that?

Griffin: Probably. Yeah, why not? I’m game. I’m going to pick my fights wisely, but at the same time -- yeah. I’d be an accomplishment for a guy. I don’t know, it’s tough. I can think about that in two weeks.

ESPN.com: Are you really going to miss this when it’s over or do you consider it more a job, a career and when it’s over, it’s just over?

Griffin: It’s funny, that’s kind of a pertinent question. Right now, it feels like I’m one of those guys that will just go, ‘Yeah, work is work.’ But when you get away from it for a year you’re like, what do I do? What’s my identity? I’ve been doing this and this alone for eight years. I haven’t had a job in awhile. I don’t know how to write a resume. I forgot how to type, obviously if you read my tweets.

Tito Ortiz has made the bold claim that he would beat Jon Jones if the pair both fought in their primes. More »

Depending on the outcome of his fight against Forrest Griffin at UFC 148, Tito Ortiz will exit the Octagon for the final time carrying a 17-10-1 or 16-11-1 record.

That may not sound like the win-loss ledger of a "Hall of Fame" fighter (tell that to Randy Couture), but there's no denying Ortiz's influence on the UFC registers placement of his name alongside other all-time greats.

And so it is, the fan favorite "Huntington Beach Bad Boy" will become the eighth fighter chosen by UFC brass to gain access to an excessively exclusive club when he's inducted at the UFC expo in Las Vegas next month.

Ortiz accomplished enough over his long, important career to earn the distinction that should come with being a Hall of Famer. He put together a record reign as light heavyweight champion and gladly accepted the role as UFC's go-to fighter when Zuffa took over the company. During the first year of Zuffa's UFC ownership, Ortiz headlined three of their first four cards and tirelessly worked to sell the shows. Prior to the boom that came with Spike TV and "The Ultimate Fighter" reality show, Ortiz proved with Ken Shamrock that there was hope for UFC on pay-per-view when they clashed at UFC 40. As an aside (one that means something to me), Ortiz was never implicated in the performance-enhancing drug mess that touched so many fighters, including the aforementioned Shamrock and his compatriot Royce Gracie.

Even more impressive than Ortiz's role in building UFC was his ability and willingness to create, brand and market a bankable persona, which sometimes led to ugly, public squabbles with his promoter and former manager Dana White.

"I think he's a guy who pound-for-pound -- at the time we were hurting -- tried to do more damage to [the UFC] than anyone in the history of this company," White told MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday.

“

I think he's a guy who pound-for-pound -- at the time we were hurting -- tried to do more damage to [the UFC] than anyone in the history of this company.

” -- UFC president Dana White, on Tito Ortiz in an interview with MMAWeekly

"Tito's never been about the company of the UFC," he continued. "Tito's been about his own brand, Punishment, and Tito Ortiz."

White's wrong.

Ortiz has done plenty in the name of the UFC, but he also never stopped looking out for No. 1, which is something he's preached to fighters young and old, leading some people to express surprise that Ortiz was gifted with the UFC's hall blessing in the first place.

If you believe White when he says Ortiz wasn't a company guy -- disputable considering how much money he made for Zuffa -- let me ask you this: So what? Should a fighter have to be a company guy to earn what he deserves? Should White need to be "totally cool" and have "no beef with Tito whatsoever" for Ortiz to be HOF eligible?

These are reasons I choose not to regard the UFC Hall of Fame as being the same thing as hallowed grounds associated with other sports. Eventually, I hope, MMA media will come together and do it properly, though that surely won't prevent the UFC from picking and choosing who it recognizes among the best ever to compete in the Octagon. Nor should it. But I'll say this: The White-washing of the UFC "hall" is unseemly.

After all, the light heavyweight division's first champion, Frank Shamrock, can't get a sniff of it and he beat Ortiz in one of the organization's great contests, and went 5-0 in UFC competition, each bout a title fight.

Why? Because he fell out of favor with president White.

Likewise, Pat Miletich -- the organization's first welterweight champion who defended the belt multiple times and went on to mentor and train many of the Octagon's finest, including too-exclusive club member Matt Hughes.

There's no sane explanation why Ortiz should receive accolades the week leading up to his retirement bout while Shamrock and Miletich (and fighters past, present and future who dare look out for themselves, even if it means upsetting the powers that be) get frozen out. Ortiz deserves his time in the spotlight as much as they do.

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.”