ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

TORONTO -- The years of hard work and believing that one day he’d get a world title shot, even during difficult times, had finally come to fruition for TJ Grant.

He’d scaled the final hurdle on May 25 -- a first-round knockout of Gray Maynard. That victory, his fifth in a row, cemented Grant as the No. 1 lightweight contender. Next up: A title shot against then-UFC champion Benson Henderson.

Grant was ready and confident. He’d proven himself a worthy contender. This was his time and he was ready to claim what he always believed belonged to him -- the UFC lightweight championship belt.

But as is always the case with Grant, he wasn’t about to sit around and enjoy the spoils of his most recent accomplishment. Besides, his goal was never simply to land a title shot, Grant wants to be champion. He never takes shortcuts, and wasn’t about to start now. So he immediately headed back to the gym and began working on staying sharp and improving his skills.

There was Muay Thai and wrestling and some boxing. Then it was time to revisit jujitsu workouts. And that’s when Grant’s world turned upside down.

Two weeks after the biggest victory of his professional career, Grant was accidentally kicked in the head twice during a jujitsu training session. It truly was accidental, Grant says. There is no kicking in jujitsu.

A training partner’s foot caught Grant as he was trying to avoid a sweep. These things happen in sparring sessions sometimes, but this particular incident happened shortly after the Maynard fight. And Grant admits he got his bell rung in that contest, which likely caused the kick during training to do more damage.

It was later revealed that Grant suffered a concussion. He was forced to pull out of the Aug. 31 showdown with Henderson. former WEC titleholder Anthony Pettis replaced him.

Grant was devastated. He’d worked so hard to get to that point in his career, but he remained positive that, with rest, his opportunity would soon resurface. But just as he had come to grips with this setback, Grant began receiving attacks on his character.

He didn’t know any of his attackers personally. They conducted their verbal assaults online, accusing Grant of taking money from UFC officials to step aside in favor of Pettis. Anyone slightly familiar with Grant’s values knows he’d never do something of the sort. The accusations, however, pained Grant. And he was angered by it.

That, however, was just the beginning. After Pettis defeated Henderson, UFC officials again penciled Grant in as the top lightweight contender. He would fight Pettis for the title on Dec. 14 in Sacramento, Calif.

But who said lightning doesn’t strike twice. Another medical examination concluded that Grant would not likely be ready to fight in December. He’d made progress, but not enough to begin vigorous training. Grant was again pulled from a title bout.

And again haters went on the attack. But this time, Grant was prepared for the onslaught.

“At first I was heated, I was mad,” Grant told ESPN.com. “But now it’s actually hilarious. Since I pulled out of this fight [against Pettis] I’ve seen a couple of people write stuff and I just laugh. I mean I did just buy a new house. Maybe that’s because I got paid off, who knows. To me it’s a joke.

“I’m kind of numb to the whole situation. I’m just worrying about myself, and getting healthy. I don’t really care. I did what I had to do, I won five in a row. If I have to win another one to get a title shot, I will do that.

“If I get a title shot that will be awesome. But right now my No. 1 concern is getting healthy.”

Grant can taste the lightweight title and continues to believe his opportunity will come, sooner rather than later. He remains levelheaded. Grant does not intend to rush back into the gym until he is completely healed. Avoiding another setback is very high on his priority list.

But his patience is often tested. There is nothing easy about training for fights, but it pales in comparison to sitting around doing nothing. Inactivity is killing Grant. He has never experienced anything like it, and doesn’t want to go through this again.

It’s part of the healing process, but Grant doesn’t like it at all. He yearns for the day when he can return to physical contact. And he is slowly getting there. Grant has begun light workouts.

“I find that I have more injuries from sitting on the couch than from going to the gym and going through the grind,” Grant said. “Because my body is so used to being in shape and working all the time that when it’s not I get super tense and sore. I’m looking forward to getting back, though I am doing some light training now.”

Grant can’t say with certainty when he will actually return to the Octagon, but plans to keep a close on Pettis’ first UFC title defense against Josh Thomson. If his recovery continues going smoothly, Grant is hopeful of making his return early next year.

But he can’t make any guarantees. It’s one day at a time, and the first order of business is getting back in the gym to conduct full training. A giant smile forms on Grant’s face at the thought of returning to training camp. Grant knows when that time arrives, his sites will again be set on landing that elusive title shot.

“I really have no idea when I will return, I could be ready to fight in January,” Grant said. “But at the same time I haven’t been on the mats, I haven’t done any training for however long. So I have to get myself acclimated to training and doing all those things.

“I’ve never gone three months with literally no exercise. That’s a big change. But I am exercising now, which is helping to keep me sane. And that’s a good thing.

“I’m optimistic to get back and once I’m 100 percent, I’m training and I feel confident then we’ll ask the UFC to let’s get a fight.”

Sometimes, the "best" fight isn’t necessarily the "right" fight.

During the news conference following UFC 164, a place where president Dana White typically refuses to answer any of the “Who’s next for so-and-so” questions, he was at least willing to admit the obvious.

What is the most tantalizing, intriguing, fun fight he could make right now for featherweight champion Jose Aldo?

"It’s 100 percent Anthony Pettis," White said. "Yeah, 100 percent. That is a sick fight."

So why then, less than 72 hours later, did White announce Pettis would defend the lightweight title against TJ Grant? Aldo’s schedule is open. Expectations are that his foot injury will heal within the same timeframe of Pettis’ knee. What gives?

We can safely assume here that if Pettis is the best fight available for Aldo, then Aldo is the best fight available for Pettis. Fans, media, probably even Grant would admit that absolutely, Aldo versus Pettis is "a sick fight."

The "right" fight though, is the one the UFC is going with. Grant (21-5) has this strange, unflattering quality of being somewhat overlookable -- but that can’t take away from the fact he is (A) The No. 1 contender at 155 pounds, (B) Deserving of the opportunity to achieve his dream and (C) A pretty sick fight against Pettis, himself.

When a belt changes hands, one of the first questions seemingly on everybody’s mind is: How long before it changes hands again? In the case of Pettis, the quality of the lightweight division suggests it will be difficult to hang on to the belt, but the quality of his recent three first-round finishes say he’s up to the task.

We know, however, that styles make fights and interestingly enough, Grant represents perhaps the absolute worst style matchup for Pettis at 155 pounds. And he happens to be up first.

“

If Pettis defends the title and gets that win, we'll probably be looking at Aldo next.

” --Dana White on a feature fight between Anthony Pettis and Jose Aldo.

If you picked Henderson last weekend, you probably did so because the best way to avoid dynamite is to smother it. Henderson tried to contain Pettis’ flash -- couldn’t.

Grant is big, first of all. A welterweight turned lightweight, who has been dominant since dropping weight classes in 2011. He can smother, but in a violent manner. Whereas few expected Henderson to really hurt Pettis (more control him), the same can’t be said in a matchup with Grant.

Does this fight possess the same combustible nature that Aldo versus Pettis would? We basically already answered that it doesn’t. White admitted as much.

Credit the UFC though, for promoting the correct fight, instead of necessarily the easy fight. Grant is the No. 1 contender at 155 pounds. Pettis is the 155-pound champion. Pettis has never fought at 145 pounds. Aldo has never fought at 155.

Also, notice what White told "SportsCenter" on Tuesday.

“If Pettis defends the title and gets that win, we’ll probably be looking at Aldo next,” White said.

Both Aldo and Pettis are 26. Aldo will undoubtedly become a lightweight at some point and Pettis isn’t going anywhere. If these two still haven’t fought each other by the time they’re 30, we can revisit this topic.

For now, "giving" Grant the fight he earned inside the cage was the right call.

A year ago at this time, TJ Grant had just earned a yeoman’s decision over Carlo Prater, to the attention of almost nobody. He was 2-0 since moving down to the lightweight division, but there was a colony of contenders well ahead of him in what had become the UFC’s most competitive weight class.

That’s when the pride of Nova Scotia began crashing through all the obstacles in his way.

Grant, a perennial undercard name to this point, surprised many by beating the brakes off of Evan Dunham at UFC 152 for three rounds. That performance was good enough for fight of the night honors, and set him up for a confrontation with the surging Matt Wiman. This was a bout of classic matchmaking: It was two heads of momentum coming together on national television, with an unspoken understanding that top ten status was on the line. Entering the fight, Wiman had won five of six, and had just derailed Paul Sass a couple of months earlier in Nottingham.

Once again, most didn’t see Grant coming. And once again, Grant forced our eyes open with his poised no-nonsense dominance, this time finishing Wiman in the first round by letting his hands (and elbows) go. It was the first time Wiman had been finished since catching that famous flying knee from Spencer Fisher at UFC 60 in his promotional debut.

Grant, the soft-spoken redhead from the remote northeastern town of Cole Harbour, had arrived. That TKO was how he kicked off 2013.

The thing is, Grant’s encore at UFC 160 in May was better still, even if the stakes were sliding. When he battled Gray Maynard in Las Vegas, the promise was that the winner would get the next crack at Benson Henderson’s title. However, this promise was somewhat qualified, aimed more directly at Maynard, who had hovered as the No. 1 contender since defeating Clay Guida. Maynard was guaranteed a shot with a win. For the lesser-known Grant, Dana White later admitted, he needed to win and do it emphatically to get his chance at the gold.

So what did Grant do? He won. Emphatically. He came in and knocked the bluster from Maynard early, before pursuing him around the cage and delivering power shot after power shot until Maynard slipped to the floor for good. A little more than two minutes into the biggest fight of his career, Grant emerged as the No. 1 contender in a weight class that hadn’t exactly budgeted for woodwork contenders. If his approach seemed quiet, it’s because we weren’t listening. Grant pulled the trick of dawning on everybody slowly and all at once.

His impressive victories over Wiman and Maynard at the halfway point of 2013 is good enough to stick him at the top of this list. Now 5-0 since moving from welterweight to 155 pounds, Grant has earned his shot at Henderson and presents himself as a more than capable challenge.

You know what that means? He’s a win away from becoming fighter of the year.

---

No. 2: Vitor Belfort. What can you say about Belfort, who at 36 years old has become one of the game’s more divisive figures, yet keeps drawing X’s over guys' eyes? To close out 2012, he jarred Jon Jones’ arm off its moorings in an otherwise one-sided fight. That was what it was. In 2013, though, he kept Michael Bisping from getting a title shot by headkicking him senseless, and then followed that up with a spinning-heel kick KO of Luke Rockhold. With the new mohawk as his warrior’s mane, the old lion roars on.

No. 3: Josh Burkman. In some ways, the World Series of Fighting couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Jon Fitch, who was ranked No. 8 on ESPN.com’s welterweight rankings heading into his fight with Burkman, was a unique sort of UFC castoff who was supposed to rule his new terrain. That would have only served to show the depth of the UFC, that an expendable piece could be king elsewhere. Instead, it took Burkman 41 seconds to make a case that the face of the WSOF promotion was there all along. And how impressive was that choke?

No. 4: Pat Curran. Speaking of faces of their given promotion, Pat Curran -- together with Michael Chandler -- has become exactly that for Bellator. Curran hasn’t looked back since his 2011 loss to Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight belt. As a natural featherweight, he’s gone 6-0 and now sits among the best in the world at that weight class. So far in 2013 he’s held court, too: a hard-fought victory over Patricio Freire, followed by a first-round submission of Shahbulat Shamhalaev. At 25, he’s only getting better.

No. 5: Glover Teixeira. Teixeira has won what feels like 85 fights in a row (19 to be exact), and is 4-0 in the UFC. This would have most people in his position calling for an imminent title shot. Teixeira, on the other hand, is happy to just keep knocking the guy in front of him down. Adding Quinton Jackson and James Te-Huna this year to his long casualty list is enough to inflate the imagination as to what challenges he could present Jon Jones. By the end of 2013, we might just be in the shotgun seat to find out.

If you like fights, Tuesday was a head spinner.

I opened my podcast this week discussing the quality mixed martial arts on tap for June. Forget that. With all the bouts now announced, August is officially out of control. UFC will pull four events, two on pay-per-view, starting with Jose Aldo's featherweight title defense against Anthony Pettis in Rio de Janeiro. A lightweight title fight at UFC 164 closes out the month, when Benson Henderson defends against TJ Grant. And sandwiched in between, the first and second UFC events on FOX Sports 1 are loaded.

Henderson tweeted early Wednesday that he learned the date and location of his fight with Grant, which headlines a terrific card in Milwaukee, via Twitter. I'd hazard a guess that the UFC lightweight champion isn't the only fighter who found out like this. Plenty of them, men and women both, ought to be fired up. That goes the same for fans, which is why you shouldn't need to try hard to rattle off 10 contests that are worth getting excited about.

Including the title fights, my list is Brad Pickett-Michael McDonald, Carlos Condit-Martin Kampmann, Sara McMann-Sarah Kaufman, Frank Mir-Josh Barnett, Lyoto Machida-Phil Davis, Alistair Overeem-Travis Browne, Matt Brown-Thiago Alves, Eric Koch-Dustin Poirier. I like each for their style, relevance and expected level of competition, and could have chosen others -- that’s how deep August has turned out to be.

It's strange how some factors, such as time to prepare, can influence perception. On Monday I thought a fight between Chael Sonnen and Mauricio Rua next weekend in Winnipeg would have been a nice way to fill the void left by Antonio Rogerio Nogueira's injury. Visa issues prevented Sonnen from getting into Canada, so the UFC scrapped Rua's appearance and transferred him and the American to the main event of the Aug. 17 card in Boston. Now with two months to prepare as opposed to two weeks, I really don't expect Sonnen to do much against Rua, and I’m not so into the fight.

Recognize Sonnen’s M.O., though, because I think it's fair to call it that. When Sonnen steps up to fight on short notice, he ends up taking on the same guy at a later date. Good fortune, I suppose. But as Sonnen always says, you don't get anything you don't ask for. In and of itself there's nothing wrong with this. Yet, even with the extra time, Sonnen doesn't appear to have much hope at 205. He's a middleweight fighting a larger man's game, and that could make him more susceptible to getting hurt. Shogun Rua needs no help in this department. That's why I didn't list his fight among the best in August.

However: Since I highlighted my top 10, why not choose a favorite?

Upon further inspection (I could easily have gone several directions and no one could have argued otherwise) Sara and Sarah get the nod. Women have lived up to their billing in the Octagon. McMann is on the cusp of something big. Kaufman can rise to the top again if she handles the physical grappler.

There's a lot to like here, even for McMann's crew, who were disappointed that they didn't hear from the UFC when Cat Zingano was injured. The story line between bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and McMann needs some fleshing out, and TUF comes off as a perfect place for both Olympic medalists to take the next step. Alas, we know that'll have to happen some other way, and the first step would be McMann toppling Kaufman.

In part, I felt the need to highlight it because of just how much news poured out of the UFC last night.

Owning the news cycle

Bellator MMA had designs on owning the news cycle Wednesday, when it was set to unveil Quinton Jackson as its latest addition. Up against nothing, Jackson’s ability to stir up press is formidable. But with so much stuff breaking the night before, that’s unlikely to happen. At the very least, Jackson’s news conference in Los Angeles won’t get the kind of play it could have.

Would it be cynical to suggest all this news was released as a response to the Jackson signing?

Take it as little more than speculation, and not even the informed kind. But having said that, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be true. Either way, this is undoubtedly part of the budding war between Zuffa and Viacom, which isn’t so cold these days.

Jackson did the smart thing by laying low for six months and allowing his deal to lapse so Zuffa couldn’t match even if it wanted to. This shouldn’t be a tough concept to grasp. Patience is key, and based on Eddie Alvarez’s experience, fighters in position to control even a little bit of destiny in their own hands is something that must be taken seriously.

Next on the list is Roy Nelson. If he beats Stipe Miocic on June 15, it’s worth watching closely to see what he chooses to do.

LAS VEGAS -- By now you know that Mark Hunt was basically a sort of side effect of the Zuffa/Pride deal back in 2007. Riding a two-fight losing streak at the time, he was an unwanted property that couldn’t be easily disposed of.

But even back then, he wasn’t done losing. There were all those losses in Japanese promotion Dream. First it was Alistair Overeem. Then it was Melvin Manhoef at Dynamite!! 2008. Then to Gegard Mousasi. All five of his losses were first-round finishes, either by knockout or armbar. He was 5-6 when the UFC, having failed to buy him out of the inherited contract, finally relented and threw him in the Octagon.

Know what he did then? He lost again. This time in 63 seconds to Sean McCorkle, now late of the UFC. To say his UFC beginnings were inauspicious would be an understatement. And that makes what’s going on with Hunt right now nothing short of remarkable. To be in title contention two years after sporting a 5-7 record in an organization where people generally have career winnings around 75 percent just doesn’t happen.

Yet here were are. Hunt faces Junior dos Santos Saturday night for the chance to fight for a title.

“I think it’s one of the coolest stories in sports right now,” Dana White told ESPN.com. “We didn’t want to bring him into the UFC. He was older, he was on a losing streak, so we just said, ‘We’ll buy your contract out. You don’t have to fight, we’ll just pay you.’ He said, ‘no, I want to fight in the UFC and earn my money.’ And we said no. So he got his lawyer involved, and we went back and forth, and we said, ‘Fine, OK. Let’s do it.’ Now the guy goes on this tear and he’s fighting the in the co-main event against the former heavyweight champion in the UFC.”

Good thing Hunt had legal representation out there in New Zealand. His resurgence is a story that involves brute power, heart, exhaustion, dual visas, cake, public outcry, cosmological eyes and, in all fairness, a dose of luck. For instance, he’s filling in for Alistair Overeem at UFC 160 this weekend. A timely win over dos Santos takes him one step closer to becoming the most unlikely contender the heavyweight division has ever known.

“It would make sense that the winner of this fight gets the next shot,” White said. “It’s a fun fight, and it’s an interesting fight. If you break this fight down, Mark Hunt probably has the bigger punch and the better chin. But, Junior decides to take this fight to the ground, he definitely has the better wrestling and jiu-jitsu.”

In any case, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that you can’t write off Hunt. Can he continue to buck the odds and fell dos Santos as he did Stefan Struve and Cheick Kongo? Hey, that’s why they take off their shoes. So that we can find out.

Barnett back in White’s good graces

Not long ago, when Josh Barnett submitted Nandor Guelmino to begin his “Warmaster” second phase, he fell into character when discussing his future.

“I just want to keep killing and keep killing and wading in pools of blood and guts until there’s nobody left to kill anymore,” he told MMAFighting's Ariel Helwani on that final Strikeforce card. When pressed about which promotion that sort of pillaging could fall under, he said, “It doesn’t matter, I’m a mercenary. Something will come up. Somebody will need somebody’s head taken off and they’ll call me up. In a perfect world, I’d fight everywhere.”

That obviously didn’t pan out to specification. The UFC, which has been contentious with Barnett going back many years, offered him a contract a couple of months ago that Barnett turned down. On Wednesday, upon realizing the market for marauders of Barnett’s stripe (and price tag) was tremulously weak, Barnett signed a multifight contract with Zuffa.

Now it’s a case of bygones being bygones. The last time Barnett fought in the Octagon was in 2002, at UFC 36, when he beat Randy Couture for the heavyweight title. That’s when things got ugly. He was subsequently stripped of the title when it was revealed that he tested positive for steroids.

“Josh and I have had a very interesting past,” White told ESPN.com. “He’s one of these guys who doesn’t really care about much. He’ll fight over here, he’ll fight over there. But we made an offer to him. He didn’t take the offer and went around and shopped for a while, then came back and said, ‘I want to sign with you guys.'"

Wrote Barnett on his Twitter account, “The enemy has returned. I’ve signed w/ the UFC & no heavyweight is safe. They’re all due a lesson in violence from the Warmaster.”

A perfect first opponent for Barnett is Frank Mir, and there are indications that this is the direction the UFC is headed.

Grant granted a second life (and making most of it)



Usually when Gray Maynard steps in to fight as a lightweight, he’s the massive 155-pounder in the cage. That was especially true in his series with Frankie Edgar. It won’t be that way against TJ Grant, a former welterweight who has reinvented himself in the lower weight classes, going a perfect 4-0 heading into Saturday’s tilt.

Just as he was heading into his fights with Evan Dunham and Matt Wiman, Grant is understated in how he has turned things around, but he does make one key distinction. “I’m getting to fight guys my own size,” he says.

And realistically, when you look back at Grant’s opponents at 170 pounds and where they are now, that’s a big factor. Guys such as Dong Hyun Kim and the UFC’s No. 1 contender at welterweight right now, Johny Hendricks. Remember -- Grant gave Hendricks all he could handle at UFC 113 before Hendricks earned the majority decision.

“I’m glad to see Johny Hendricks doing so well,” he told ESPN.com. “We had a close fight, and it was a good fight, very entertaining. I got a lot of experience fighting at 170, and win or lose -- we all learn from losses, right? Blah blah blah. But it’s true. And if you stay humble and you have the right people talking to you and have a good mind for it, you should learn more from losses than wins, and that’s what I always try to do. Every fight is a learning experience.”

As for fighting Maynard in a title eliminator, Grant says that he has toiled a long, long time to end up in this spot.

“At this point in my career, Gray’s the toughest,” he says. “He’s tough. He’s polished and he’s a veteran. He’s not raw in any way -- he’s definitely the most talented fighter I’ve fought at this time in my career. I’m ready for it. I’ve got 25 fights to get me to this point. I’ve got all the experience I need, and all the skills I need to be successful. I’m ready to rock and roll Saturday.”

WAR, what is it good for?

Nick Diaz has plans to start up his own Stockton-based fight promotion -- the ominously titled WAR -- which has drawn anything from smirks and raised eyebrows to genuine curiosity and support over the past week.

So, what does one of the game’s more notorious promoters, Dana White, have to say about Diaz and his latest foray?

“Good luck Nick,” White says. “Obviously it looks very fun from the outside, and it looks easy like you’re printing money. It’s anything but. The fight business is a very tough business that you have to be married to 24/7, and it’s not as fun and easy as it looks.”

Though White was fairly withheld in how he addressed WAR, he did say that the door is open for Diaz if he elects to keep fighting. Diaz, of course, is right now sort of conditionally retired -- meaning he’ll only fight again if it’s against somebody that piques his interest enough, somebody like Anderson Silva or a rematch with Georges St-Pierre.

It’s not likely he’ll get either of those, but ...

“If Nick wants to fight all he’s got to do is pick up the phone and call,” White says. “He’s under contract. If the promotion thing doesn’t work out he can come back and fight.”

Heavyweights are now a staple of Memorial Day weekend. Last year, UFC 146 was to be a heavyweight extravaganza like none we'd ever seen. The whole main card was heavyweights, so the word "unprecedented" was being thrown around pretty dramatically. And why not? The Octagon was going to be littered with dinosaur bones at the end of the night.

You remember the fallout before the fallout, though.

Junior dos Santos was scheduled to face Alistair Overeem -- the one man who could turn that gentle giant's smile into a look of constipation -- for the belt. Then the first domino fell: Overeem's test from his previous fight with Brock Lesnar came back with -- to put it gently -- spiked testosterone levels, which meant dos Santos was re-saddled with Frank Mir.

Cain Velasquez, who was supposed to fight Mir that night, was then given Antonio Silva. That meant Roy Nelson, who was supposed to take on "Bigfoot," ended up fighting Dave Herman. Mark Hunt, still for the most part a journeyman at this point, was supposed to fight Stefan Struve, yet didn't end up fighting at all because he got injured. So Struve fought Lavar Johnson -- if we're being generous enough to call what happened that night a "fight."

The players are (basically) the same a year later for UFC 160, yet perceptions are slightly different. Overeem again was supposed to appear on the heavyweight showcase, yet again against dos Santos. And once again, he was scotched from the card, this time due to an injury. That means Hunt, and his visa issues, rides an unlikely four-fight winning streak into a confrontation with dos Santos. The winner (likely) will get a shot at the heavyweight belt next.

As for the belt, it's back in the possession of Velasquez, who defends his title on Saturday night against a familiar name: Silva. The stakes are different this go-round, but the memory of Silva's blood covering the canvas floor at UFC 146 is still fresh. One might say too fresh.

And that's your mystery heading into UFC 160: Will history repeat itself? Which, when you think about it, opens up the broader query: Why is history repeating itself?

(Answers: Probably; and because history has a wicked sense of humor.)

FIVE STORYLINES

Woodwork contenders

What was a bottleneck situation at the top of the lightweight division is now a mile of open highway. The winner of Gray Maynard and TJ Grant will get the next shot at Benson Henderson's belt. We've seen Maynard in that penultimate spot before. But Grant? Talk about a quiet approach.

Hunt as Cinderella

Because you've heard about Hunt's improbable rise from the ashes a million times doesn't make it less amazing. To sum things up: He was inherited in the PRIDE deal, lost to Sean McCorkle in his UFC debut, was left for the scrap heap at 5-7 in MMA, and now is a fight away from a title shot. Hollywood couldn't dream up something this unrealistic.

Woodwork contenders II

With a relative dearth of 205-pound contenders to challenge Jon Jones, Glover Teixeira's name could go from being whispered in polite company to shouted from the mountaintops with an emphatic win over James Te-Huna. But let's take it a step further: Can you imagine if Te-Huna wins? Suddenly a second New Zealander is on your radar from UFC 160.

Return of Brian Bowles

"Where's Brian Bowles?" became MMA's game of "Where's Waldo?" in 2012. So where was he? Finding that drive, baby. Citing apathy as the reason he took some time away from the fight game, the one-time WEC bantamweight champion returns to face all 6-foot-1 and 135 pounds of George Roop.

Woodwork contenders III

Right now Khabib Nurmagomedov has one more victory in professional MMA than he does letters in his name (19 wins, 18 letters). If he beats Abel Trujillo, he'll be a sparkling 20-0. Nurmagomedov is tomorrow's bottleneck at the top of the 155-pound division.

FIVE QUESTIONS

Can things be different for Silva this time?

The more basic question: Can Silva compete this time against the relentlessly aggressive, forward-moving wrestler Velasquez who has cardio for days and a chin made of cinder block? It feels as if we're answering our own question.

Can Hunt KO dos Santos?

Dos Santos has never been knocked out. Knocking people out is what Hunt does. In a fight where the ground is designated for slips and one-way trips, a single punch from either guy ends the co-main. Can it be Hunt on the delivering end? (Smiles and shakes head approvingly.)

Is there still wonder to "Wonderboy"?

Remember when Stephen Thompson had that hot roulette player's moment after knocking out Dan Stittgen in his UFC debut with a head kick? Matt Brown brought him down to earth in a hurry in April 2012 with a one-sided decision. This bout with Nah-Shon Burrell will tell us if it's back to "Wonderboy" or if he's a "one-hit wonder."

Is Cain the greatest heavyweight champ ever?

Take away that glancing moment in the ballyhooed first bout with dos Santos -- a bout that Velasquez should never have been fighting in the first place (knee) -- and the answer is "yup." But what are we talking about? This is the ultimate proving ground, so we'll ask him for more proof. More proof!

Does KJ Noons belong in a fight with Donald Cerrone?

The short answer is no. The correct answer is LOL. Even if you omit the Ryan Couture fight (a loss that he actually won), Noons still lost three of his previous four fights. Cerrone is coming off of that Anthony Pettis incident where his liver got rearranged. In other words: Cerrone's the proverbial hornet's nest that Noons is walking into.

WHO'S ON THE HOT SEAT?

Robert Whittaker

He did beat Brad Scott in his UFC debut, but a loss to Colton Smith, just as the UFC is tightening its belt rosterwise, makes young shakers expendable. (However, if Robert Whittaker knocks out Smith like he did Luke Newman on "TUF: The Smashes"? Then it's "Watch out for the Aussie!").

Jeremy Stephens

If the fact that he's opening the prelims portion of the card doesn't tip you off, the three-fight losing streak will. This move to 145 pounds is Stephens' "all-in" moment. Another loss and it's adios, "Lil' Heathen."

KJ Noons

It would feel a little merciless of the UFC to cut him, particularly because it'd be on the heels of a likely loss to Cerrone, but Noons needs a good showing to remind everyone of the guy who beat Nick Diaz in 2007. A fifth loss in six fights, though, is either a red flag or a white one, depending on how you squint.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

Because Velasquez might as well dig his hooves in the mat before he charges at Silva as if Silva were a red cape ... because "Bigfoot" has fists the size of pet carriers, yet his gloves weigh 4 ounces, just like everybody else's ... because if you put dos Santos' and Hunt's combined knockouts on a highlight reel, it'd run longer than the average romantic comedy ... because Grant versus Maynard is dog-eared for fight of the night ... because "Cowboy" Cerrone is mad, and Noons, by stepping in with him, is saying "come hither" ... because Grant fights like Ulysses S. Grant ... because Te-Huna and Teixeira will require smelling salts ... because Dennis Bermudez was already in one fight of the year candidate (against Matt Grice) and Max Holloway is a gamer ... because Mike Pyle can make it four in a row against Rick Story ... because what could be more fun than watching Hunt try to stuff his foot into a glass slipper?

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.