ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Strikeforce Heavyweight World Grand Prix wasn’t supposed to end with an undersized, inexperienced alternate as the last man standing.

Daniel Cormier apparently writes his own script.

Cormier (10-0) dominated veteran Josh Barnett over the course of five rounds Saturday, claiming the belt from a tournament he didn’t even have a spot in when it was announced in 2010.

Strikeforce is a difficult realm in the current landscape of mixed martial arts in which to make noise, but Cormier has been the exception to that rule. No heavyweight’s stock has risen more in the past two years than that of the former Olympic wrestler.

“If you look at the heavyweight group that fought in this tournament, I think it’s something Daniel should be very proud of,” Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told ESPN.com.

“It’s an amazing feat. I mean, Fedor [Emelianenko], Alistair [Overeem], [Antonio] Silva, Josh Barnett -- he didn’t have it easy.”

The improbable road through the Grand Prix started with a unanimous decision win over Jeff Monson in June. Cormier then went on to knock out Antonio Silva before handling Barnett.

Silva is currently the No. 10-ranked heavyweight on ESPN.com. Barnett was ranked No. 5 heading into the finale.

As is often the case in this sport, it wasn’t just the names of the competitors Cormier defeated. The most impressive moments hide in the details.

At the postfight news conference, Cormier admitted he had reinjured his right hand in the first round -- the same hand that caused a delay in the Grand Prix finals since September.

He hid it amazingly well the rest of the way and later speculated he’d undergo surgery now that the tournament is finished.

“I followed our game plan,” Cormier said. “Josh did great. He fought hard in there. He was in my face. I couldn’t believe some of the shots I landed on him and he was able to stay up. I think I broke my hand in the first round.”

His cardio held up well over the course of his first five-round fight, and he showed a terrific ability to slow down the pace during the only time he was really in trouble. After eating a straight right, then a knee from Barnett while regaining his balance from a body kick attempt, Cormier locked up his bigger opponent and survived.

As was the case when he fought Monson, the evolution of his standup was what stuck out most. He landed strikes on the inside and out, and seemed to have Barnett in trouble during the third round with knees from the Thai clinch.

“The thing I’m impressed with is that he comes from Olympic wrestling,” Coker said. “If you saw his fight against Jeff Monson, you said, ‘Who is this guy?’ He was a kickboxer in that fight, and today he was a complete martial arts fighter.”

Cormier will fulfill one more obligation with Strikeforce, a title defense of his Grand Prix belt against an unnamed opponent, possibly this year.

All that could wait Saturday night, however, as the 33-year-old Cormier simply wanted to enjoy the moment. For a man who suffered the loss of his father when he was young and a daughter to a car accident a few years ago, and who has experienced many wins in his career but perhaps never the big one -- it’s an understandable request.

“All the negative things that have happened in my life prepared me for this,” Cormier said. “Everything has kind of turned around.

“Not only is my career going well, but I’ve got two young kids and a great girlfriend. My family life is perfect. Everything is on the up and up.”

It took 15 months and some monumental forks in the road to arrive at the end point of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. No, it didn’t go the way people thought it would, nor the way many hoped. There isn’t going to be Fedor Emelianenko versus Josh Barnett. That fight, for its entire luster, never could come to terms with fate. Not in Pride, not in Affliction, not in Strikeforce.

However, of the eight-man field that was rolled out in January 2011 as the greatest stock of heavyweights ever assembled, Barnett was the steady. He was supposed to be in the final, and he is. He got there by competing in the quarterfinal (a submission of Brett Rogers) and the semis (a submission of Sergei Kharitonov). Isn’t it strange that the man with the most asterisks coming into the tournament was in the end the only one who could stick to the script?

On the other hand, Daniel Cormier’s course was improbable. He was an alternate to this tournament. A deep alternate. He was the 11th man in an eight-man field. Yet he worked over Jeff Monson on the same night Barnett clubbed Rogers in something called a “reserve bout.” Then Cormier found his entry when Alistair Overeem was unceremoniously removed. What did Cormier do? He obliterated heavy favorite Antonio Silva on the feet with speed and power.

And that’s how we arrive at the moment. The old “War Master” Barnett, against the opportunistic, understudy-turned-contender Cormier. The 1-seed versus the 11. Just how crazy has the 15-month journey been to San Jose? Crazy enough that sports books have these guys at even money heading into Saturday night.

Here are five things to watch for at Strikeforce this weekend.

Cormier’s lack of experience

Daniel Cormier is a nerves-of-steel guy. He is always relaxed. Right before his fight with Bigfoot Silva, he wore and expression that said, “I wouldn’t mind a nap” more than “I’m about to lay waste to somebody.” Needless to say, Cormier keeps himself cool under pressure.

This can be attributed to his wrestling days at Oklahoma State and later as a part of the 2004 U.S. Olympic wrestling team. Cormier has competed his whole life. You really believe that fighting -- for all its literal brutality -- is just another competition for him. He believes in his ability and knows he has deceptive explosiveness and speed. In short, his confidence shows in that calm expression.

Yet with only nine professional MMA bouts, and realistically only one of those against a top-10 opponent, how will he handle a submission specialist like Barnett? Even when training with the likes of Mike Kyle and Cain Velasquez, it’s hard to duplicate the strength and slickness of Barnett, who has been at this a long, long time (since he was 19 years old, to be exact). Cormier will very likely find himself in fixes he hasn’t been in before in the cage. How will he handle himself?

Barnett’s comfort zone

Everybody knows what Barnett likes to do. He likes to muscle you to the ground, straighten you out, and work for submissions from that top position. He’s not afraid to punch a hole in your head, either. Just ask Pedro Rizzo and Gilbert Yvel. But Barnett's most effective way of finishing a guy is to put him on his back and then fish for limbs to manipulate.

Dating back to 2006, Barnett has finished foes via toeholds, heel hooks, kimuras and arm triangle chokes. He does these things more with brute force than textbook jiu-jitsu. In Cormier, Barnett gets a guy who has never been made to fight off his back and has never had his shoulder joint pressured into a panic situation.

But the bigger questions are these: Can Barnett get Cormier to the ground? And if so, can he keep him there?

Melendez’s motivation
Trilogies are usually pretty personal grudge matches. In the case of Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson, it feels more like a necessary evil. At least to Melendez, who will be asked to duplicate what he did in 2009 when he smoked Thomson in the rematch to unify the interim and meaningful belts. That fight was so definitive that most thought he was done with Thomson for good.

Well, circumstance has made that impossible. Thomson gets a chance to strip Melendez of his belt a second time because the “Punk” was the best option available on Strikeforce’s depleted roster. It’s a rubber match that benefits Thomson a thousand times more than Melendez, because third chances rarely come along.

Which begs the same question that has fallen to Melendez for the past year: How motivated will he be to again prove himself against Thomson? Knowing the work ethic of “El Nino,” it’s easy to expect to see him in vintage form. But complacency is a hard-to-detect virus that usually gets discovered after it’s too late. Will Melendez suffer from this?

(Probably not, but you never know ...)

Thomson’s attitude

The first time Thomson fought Melendez in 2008, it was as if Thomson was showing up for a day of capers and fun. He was smiling the whole time. He was loose. There were moments when it almost felt like he was messing with his younger brother, just fooling around. Every so often he would do something to remind Melendez that, when serious, he could dictate things how he wanted.

But the key to that fight was that Thomson was first. He was quick with the leg kicks. He was effective with his combinations. He would shoot now and again for a takedown and keep Melendez off balance. Thomson thwarted Melendez’s wrestling. And by being the aggressor, he disrupted Melendez’s timing and flow. Can he do that again?

Remember, Thomson had broken (and rebroken) his fibula before that rematch with Melendez in 2009, and he was carrying some ring rust after 15 months on the shelf. Chances are we'll see a combination of those two fights with one similarity: that it goes the full five rounds.

Feijao returns

Though it’s getting very little fanfare, former 205-pound champion Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante returns to the cage on Saturday night against Mike Kyle. Remember, Cavalcante is the guy who beat Muhammad Lawal to win the Strikeforce belt not all that long ago. And, in his title defense against Dan Henderson, there was a moment where it looked like Cavalcante had Hendo in trouble.

It’s been eight months since Feijao beat Cuban freestyle wrestler Yoel Romero, a fight that Cavalcante finished even with a broken arm. He’s still one of the best 205ers in the world, and a win over a tough Kyle might make Feijao a tempting property for the UFC to bring over and fortify its own light heavyweight division. After all, the list of contenders for Jon Jones has shrunk down to Henderson and change.

It would probably be generous to say that Amir Sadollah’s split decision win over Jorge Lopez received mixed reviews this week.

Unless by “mixed” you mean that A.) A lot of people thought Lopez should’ve gotten the nod from the judges and B.) Folks on Twitter couldn’t decide whether it was better to have dozed off in the first, second or third round, there was not a ton of dissenting opinion about this fight. It just wasn’t that great, and getting sandwiched between the technical brilliance of Donald Cerrone and the wonderful insanity of Chan Sung Jung certainly didn’t improve anyone's perspective on it. As a result, it got fairly universally panned by critics.

Even Dana White acknowledged that Cerrone’s bout against Jeremy Stephens should have been the co-main event of the unfortunately named UFC on Fuel TV 3, instead of Sadollah versus Lopez.

Nine fights and nearly four years into his UFC career, Sadollah must present something of a unique quandary for matchmakers.

Despite scoring an important win on Tuesday night -- one that improved his record to 6-3 (which, let’s face it, somehow sounds way better than 5-4) and helped him bounce back from an August loss to Duane Ludwig -- he’s never going to be champion, or even top 10 in his weight class. Far worse, in the Lopez bout he struggled to look convincing against a 24-year-old unknown who came in with an 0-1 record in the Octagon and just a single career victory over an opponent anyone has ever heard of before (Waachiim Spiritwolf).

If a more intelligent, more likable guy ever took up mixed martial arts, I can’t think of his name, but the underwhelming performance against Lopez just puts an exclamation point on a run where six of Sadollah’s last seven fights have gone the distance. There might not even be a compelling case for putting him on television again in the near future.

Considering all that, it would be tempting to look at the sum total of Sadollah’s stint in the Octagon and call it a disappointment. In fact, the exact opposite is true. As perhaps the most unlikely “big name” fighter on the UFC roster, his career has already been a total success.

Though he was 4-0 as an amateur at the time, Sadollah had exactly zero professional fights under his belt when he caught an express train to the UFC by winning Season 7 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show in 2008. He was 27 years old before he first set foot in the Octagon, and while his seasoning as a fighter was just beginning, his overall growth as athlete was probably already complete.

Imagine that. It would be a little like playing a few touch football games, winning a televised punt, pass and kick contest and then, in your late 20s, getting a starting job in the NFL.

Could anyone succeed under those circumstances? Could anyone be reasonably expected to compete? And while they tried to compete, would a bunch of people sit around posting messages on Twitter about what a crappy job they were doing tackling Adrian Peterson? Because that’s essentially what happens to Sadollah.

Fine, maybe most times it’s more like he's out there trying to tackle Danny Woodhead, but whatever.

Frankly, the fact that Sadollah has even won six fights in the Octagon as little more than a rookie is amazing and speaks to his exceptional talent. Clearly however, his entire UFC experience has been a case of too much, too soon. Even the organization appears to at least tacitly understand this, as you now can’t apply to appear on “The Ultimate Fighter” without a handful of professional bouts on your résumé.

At a stage when most welterweights would just be finding their sea legs, Sadollah is competing in high-profile, televised “co-main event” fights against (theoretically, at least) UFC-caliber opponents. At a point where most 170-pounders would just be starting to think about getting noticed by one of the bigger organizations, he’s already made the transition from "up-and-comer" to “sturdy UFC veteran.”

Has it worked out for him? Maybe is some ways. Certainly he's attained more exposure and made far more money than he might have by taking a more conventional route to the UFC. Maybe that’s the most important thing.

In a case like Sadollah’s though, you have to wonder. You have to wonder what his career arc would have looked like if he’d had 6-8 pro fights before coming to the UFC. You have to wonder if taking a shortcut to the top by winning “The Ultimate Fighter” was the best thing to happen to him as a fighter, or the worst.

In the UFC, the latest winner will always have the most compelling case. That’s the nature of hype, and hype has always been the game. More specifically, hype is the essence that drives the thing forward.

By know everybody knows this. And if they don’t, they should pay attention to Donald Cerrone.

Last week Nate Diaz beat Jim Miller to claim the disputed top contender seed behind titleholder Benson Henderson and challenger Frankie Edgar. On Tuesday, Cerrone beat Jeremy Stephens for three loud rounds only to make his case even louder in the aftermath: He’d like a fight in Denver at UFC 150, against anybody, but preferably against Nate Diaz, who put a surgical beatdown on him in December.

This was of course fishing on “Cowboy’s” part.

Cerrone knows the likelihood of the UFC granting a rematch of a one-sided fight that happened only a few months ago isn’t great. Having thought of that, he made another point clear: That he wasn’t himself that night in December. With that being his fifth fight in 2011, he was just an old husk, not the full ear of corn. Besides, he fought a dumb fight. Just too stubborn.

Now, the Donald Cerrone that methodically picked apart Jeremy Stephens -- that was the genuine article. That’s the one who would threaten Diaz’s bearings if the UFC would give him the chance.

Cowboy was just planting seeds. He knows he has a point. He was smart enough to make his point while momentum was on his side, having just beat Stephens impressively. Forget that Stephens isn’t a top ten lightweight, in the 155-pound division jockeying for position is mandatory. On UFC on Fuel’s post-fight show, Chael Sonnen said he’d like to see Cerrone catapulted into a title shot right away. That’s how swift the tide rolls back in for the latest victors.

Problem is, there will be others soon enough, and they will have arguments of merit and timing and will carry updated casualty lists.

So, just where do things stand in the UFC’s lightweight division? Because on June 22 in Atlantic City, N.J., Clay Guida and Gray Maynard -- two perennial contenders -- would like to know. The winner of that fight then becomes the day’s fresh case-maker. To help promote that fight, we’re sure to hear about the winner being in the proverbial title mix. We’ll hear each guy make his case for it, too.

At this point it might be easier to hold a raffle for the next lightweight title shot, provided that Diaz has the most tickets in the bowl. There are so many deserving fighters hovering near the top.

Was Cerrone overshooting to throw Diaz’s name out there? No. His aim was just right. Maybe his doing that gets Diaz’s blood boiling enough to call matchmaker Joe Silva to book it. And why not? Over the course of years, the UFC has been good about listening to those audacious enough to call their own shots. If Cerrone’s not given Diaz, he’ll likely get one of the scintillating young stars like Edson Barboza -- should he get by Jamie Varner at UFC 146 next week -- or Anthony Pettis. Pettis has been dog-eared for that title shot since downing Joe Lauzon at UFC 144 with that head kick. He’s the forever No. 1 contender B.

Where does the winner of Maynard/Guida factor in? What about if/when Eddie Alvarez makes his way into the UFC’s 155-pound cluster? It all depends on the what/when/where at lightweight. Who went last, who did what, who got the last word.

But if you can’t pass half a dozen contenders in one swoop, call out the guy at the front whom you suspect isn’t cut out for idling for months on end. Call out Diaz in a rematch, the guy who displaced you. And if that can’t be arranged, settle for a top-five fight in your hometown of Denver. That’s how you handle things coming off a dominant victory over a career .500 UFC fighter like Stephens.

Ask for it all, and settle for something far better than you might deserve.

Donald Cerrone gets a lot of credit for being exciting.

We laud his technical striking skills and proficient ground game, offering as evidence 14 stoppages among his 18 professional wins. We like to say he’s a “natural born fighter” -- a compliment in our world -- because he obviously loves his job so much. Spend a few minutes talking to the “Cowboy” and you come away feeling certain there’s nothing he’d rather do with his Saturday nights than beat somebody up for money.

He’s funny, flashy, confident-bordering-on-cocky and there’s an edge to him that’s just a little bit scary. In short, he’s everything fans want in an MMA fighter.

After watching him dismantle Jeremy Stephens on Tuesday at the UFC’s third live show on FuelTV though, one thing is clear: Amid all the praise we heap at his feet, we still don’t give Cerrone enough credit for being smart.

That’s a shame, because while the showy skillset and the flair for the dramatic will likely keep getting him big fights in the Octagon, it’s his brain that will give him a chance to win them.

Cerrone's unanimous decision win over Stephens was nothing if not shrewd. He clearly learned some things during his December 2011 loss to Nate Diaz, a fight where he let the prefight trash talk go to his head so badly that he sprinted out of his corner and into the teeth of Diaz’s attack at the opening bell. Though he lasted the full 15 minutes against the current No. 1 contender, the fight was clearly over by the middle of the first round -- it may have been over before it began -- after Diaz had already battered and frustrated him with his trademark speed-bag punches.

Leading up their showdown in Fairfax, Va., Stephens had tried his hand at getting into Cerrone’s dome, saying he thought Diaz “broke” the Colorado native during their bout. This time however, Cerrone proved above the verbal fray. Sure, he made Stephens eat his words (especially that ill-conceived line about how Stephens “[didn’t] care about his kicks”) but he did it with craft instead of wrath.

Getting suckered into a brawl against a power-puncher like Stephens is a good way to end the night explaining your strategy to the ringside doctor, so Cerrone opted for a slightly more advanced game plan. He engaged Stephens at range, punished his legs with a steady diet of -- ahem -- kicks and picked apart his defense with an unpredictable mix of punching combinations and even the occasional takedown.

That’s the longwinded way of saying Cerrone simply out-fought Stephens on this night.

The end result was that “Lil’ Heathen” looked completely out of his league and Cerrone reestablished himself as one of the UFC’s top-tier lightweights. Now 5-1 in the Octagon, he appears to have learned one of the cage’s most valuable lessons: Everyone loses. Everyone experiences adversity. The fighters that stick around for the long-term are the ones that make adjustments.

Cerrone made them wonderfully for this fight. Frankly, he needs to stay in that habit, because now comes the most important stage of his young UFC career. From here, he can either make his loss to Diaz look like an aberration -- that one time he let his emotions get the best of him and he got beat -- or he can fall back into the trap of being the guy who is good enough to defeat everyone except the best fighters in his division.

Of course, nobody wants to be the latter.

Ever active, Cerrone is angling for an appearance at UFC 150 in August, when the Octagon comes to his old stomping grounds in Denver. That timing would seem to dovetail nicely with the return of top contender Anthony Pettis, who reportedly had surgery for an undisclosed injury in March. If not Pettis, Cerrone could make a good first real test for Edson Barboza, provided the 26-year-old Brazilian can get by replacement opponent Jamie Varner later this month at UFC 146.

Whoever matchmakers line up next, Cerrone used his performance at UFC on Fuel 3 to remind us (and maybe himself) of what should be a golden rule for him moving forward: When he fights with his mind instead of running on pure heart, he ranks among the best in the world.

Writing about mixed martial arts, it's sometimes easy to come off like a hagiographer.

This little engine that could, surviving, thriving, making it to the top of mountain and all that.

There are days -- unfortunately more and more frequent -- when feel-good memories seem so distant. The impact of a rolling and rife drug culture. Power plays at the top. Lawsuits. Money matters. Twitter gaffes. Politics, union battles, media squabbles and, recently, high-pitched nonsense over television ratings. All part of the makeup of today’s not-so-innocent mixed martial arts. Life in the big city, I guess.

But you know what's never changed, what drew me in like, I imagine, many of you?

Action.

The ballast that steadied MMA through the rough patches. The fuel that helped cast aside a perception that almost killed it. The reason so many people are willing to spend so much money each month to watch mixed martial artists from across the globe do their thing.

Such are the wars of attrition, stunning moments, incredible acts of courage and fortitude.

They’re too many to count. Well, whatever the number is, go ahead and another add another because on Tuesday, Chan Sung Jung and Dustin Poirier offered a wonderful account of all the sport can offer.

From the opening bell, intrigue. Jung started strong, working over Poirier, the 23-year-old once-beaten favorite, from top position. "The Diamond" glimmered with a technical, beautiful reversal. They stood and traded shots at the end of the first.

You sensed it then, right? That this one was going somewhere special.

Round 2 confirmed what we thought we knew, as Poirier somehow surveyed an onslaught of submissions.

The third forced a deep breath -- perhaps Poirier had a late-round comeback in him?

No.

Jung slammed the door on Poirier in Round 4, finishing an excellent fight with an awesome flowing sequence that showcased MMA’s dynamism: uppercut, left hook, flying knee, D’Arce choke.

There was just enough brilliance in there for the 25-year-old Korean to receive $80,000 in submission- and fight-of-the-night bonuses. And apparently he’ll skip to the front of the line, earning a UFC featherweight title shot against either Jose Aldo or Erik Koch.

There is -- or was -- an inherent parity to MMA. Dominance, such as the kind displayed by Anderson Silva or Georges St. Pierre, has been fleeting and rare. Eras have lasted mere months. Though the sport may be entering a time when great champions stand tall above the rest, you can’t count out a guy like Jung. He’s aggressive. Undeterred. Unafraid. And, it turns out, damn skilled. There will always be room for a fighter of his disposition in the UFC, as there should be.

I don’t mean for this to come off like Jung-Poirier was the best fight I’ve ever seen. But it might be the best fight I’ve seen on a Tuesday night, and as prolific as MMA is in 2012, with all the troubles it seems to bring upon itself lately, that’s something to seriously sit back and consider.

For all the out-of-competition drama that follows MMA (sports in general, really) and therefore occupies headlines, isn’t it fun when all that’s forgotten? Even if it’s for a few minutes?

The headliner on a card many might have been tempted to ignore, it turned out, produced a smell-the-roses moment. Just remember that the next time someone or something associated with MMA makes you want to slam your head against a wall.

Oh, and if this read like a portrait of saints, so be it. After what Jung and Poirier managed to pull off, it probably should.

In April 2010, Chan Sung Jung made his first appearance in front of a U.S. fan base against lightweight Leonard Garcia at WEC 48 in Sacramento.

Before his walkout at Arco Arena, the promotion played a video package in which Jung basically stated he wanted a brawl. He said he always wants a brawl, but few opponents would give him one once they got in the cage.

Typically, prefight video packages aren’t all that meaningful -- but this one was. Here was a fighter basically unknown in the U.S., begging for a brawl against one of the most notorious brawlers the sport had to offer in Garcia.

The fight, as you probably recall, turned out to be a consensus fight of the year candidate. Garcia would win a controversial split decision in a fight in which, according to fightmetric.com, the two combined to throw 273 “power” strikes.

As great a moment as that was in the story of the “Korean Zombie,” Tuesday’s win over Dustin Poirier at the UFC on Fuel TV 3 card in Fairfax, Va., might be better.

Jung (13-3) is such a better fighter today than he was two years ago against Garcia. He sparked a "Zombie" fever in the U.S. with his style, but mostly for entertainment value. When the WEC merged with the UFC in 2011, few expected him to rise to a title shot within three fights.

That’s exactly where he is, though, after a dramatic fourth-round stoppage over Poirier (12-2). It had every element we’ve come to expect from a Jung fight, but the biggest thing to focus on here might be the Zombie’s growing bag of tools.

His demeanor has changed, for starters. In an interview with ESPN.com before the fight, Jung said he had taken a more serious approach to a fight of this importance.

He didn’t grin widely during his walkout, which he typically does, and he was dialed in early. While Poirier tensely pumped his jab at the beginning of rounds to break the ice, Jung seized control with aggressive, purposeful offense.

“I don’t think I had a bad night,” Poirier said. “He came ready.”

Count the different ways Jung did damage in the fight. A beautiful trip from the clinch put Poirier down in the first round, where Jung opened a cut on his opponent's head with an elbow.

In the second frame, Jung caught a kick from Poirier and dumped him with a straight right hand. He’d work to mount, transition to an armbar attempt, to a triangle, back to an armbar.

Leading up to the finish, a visibly tiring but still aggressive Jung landed an uppercut flush to Poirier’s chin before following with a flying knee attempt. Poirier was simply overwhelmed at that point, leading to a D’Arce choke finish, of all things.

“In the beginning of the third round I looked into Dustin’s eyes and felt, ‘I can do this,’” Jung said. “Honestly, I didn’t know the D’Arce was going to come out. I hadn’t prepared for that.”

Was it enough of a performance to give fans a sense of confidence that Jung can win a potential fight against Brazilian star and current featherweight champion Jose Aldo? Probably not. Aldo (21-1) would still likely be a heavy, heavy favorite in that fight.

What it was, however, was proof that the 25-year-old Jung is more than a brawler with a good chin. He’s become a far more technical martial artist than the one who simply promised a good show during that first impression in California.

Title shots in the UFC don’t come easy, but adding things like the first “twister” submission in the Octagon and a seven-second knockout over an opponent in the top 10 to one’s resume sure helps.

Featherweight contender Chan Sung Jung looks to keep the momentum going Tuesday night, when he meets the highly touted Dustin Poirier in the main event of the UFC on Fuel TV 3 card.

Following a disappointing 0-2 showing in the WEC in 2010, Jung was one of the more memorable figures of the sport in 2011. After avenging a previous loss to Leonard Garcia in March, Jung made quick work of Mark Hominick in December, shocking the Canadian fan base with an early knockout at UFC 140.

While Poirier (12-1) is the one attracting attention as a future dance partner to current champion Jose Aldo,
Jung (12-3) would have a case of his own for that opportunity with a win Tuesday. ESPN.com spoke with the man they call the Korean Zombie in the buildup to the fight.

ESPN.com: Is there any difference to your approach for this fight, considering you’re on a two-fight win streak and have the makings of a run at the title?

Jung: This is my dream. Winning the title is my dream. As I get closer to that, it definitely makes me want to concentrate more on obtaining that dream. Especially as far as preparing for this fight and making strategies, it was easier for me to be serious. I don’t really consider myself a “young” fighter. If I was given the opportunity to fight for the title tomorrow, I would do it. It’s the sort of thing I have a desire to do, but I’m also very confident I’m able to do it right now.

ESPN.com: Have you been told at all by the UFC where a win on Tuesday would place you?

Jung: I haven’t really heard anything directly as far as if I get the win, I’ll be in title contention. I think it really depends on how the fight goes. If I win convincingly, that would probably put me in a good position to get a title match.

ESPN.com: What are your thoughts on Poirier and had you had an eye on him before now?

Jung: I think he’s a really good fighter. He’s a physical guy, very strong, doesn’t have any real weak points in his game. I think very highly of him. I really got to know about him after his last fight against Max Holloway. Before that, I had heard his name but didn’t know much about him. After that fight though, he got my attention.
ESPN.com: Does it mean anything to you to headline a card and are you surprised at all how much the UFC fan base, especially in the U.S., has embraced you?

Jung: It definitely is important to me. It’s another thing I had as a goal. I’m very honored to be in this position. This is something along with winning a title I always wanted to do. When it comes to MMA fans in America, they don’t seem to have any discrimination as far as nationality or anything. They just really like exciting fighters. I’ve been surprised and I appreciate the reaction I get from fans. In the past year and in the past few months, my popularity and my visibility has gone up quite a bit.

ESPN.com: How difficult were those two losses for you in the WEC?

Jung: Those two losses were really hard for me. I pretty much suffered as much as a person can suffer from that. I put a lot of pressure on myself, so it was disappointing for me to lose like that in my first two fights. That’s one of the reasons I decided to go and do a little bit of training with Team Alpha Male, with Urijah Faber, because I felt like I needed to change something. I feel I learned a lot from those losses and it paved the way for me to come into the UFC and do well now.

ESPN.com: What is the biggest difference in you now as opposed to two years ago?

Jung: I’ve changed a lot both mentally and physically as a fighter. Two years ago, I was immature. I was stubborn about the way I fought and about my striking. It’s like I wasn’t fighting an MMA fight. I just wanted to [do] everything on my feet. That’s something I was stubborn about, but since then, I’ve changed that.

ESPN.com: Have you given any thought to fighting Jose Aldo, or do you try not to?

Jung: Fighting Jose Aldo is something I thought about even before I came to the WEC and the UFC. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot. If I were to fight Jose Aldo, I really don’t have a strategy. I haven’t really thought about that part of it at this point. But it is something I would like to do. Right now though, my focus is 100 percent on Dustin Poirier.

Gilbert Melendez concedes he will not be making a switch to the UFC anytime soon because he plans to see out his contract with Strikeforce. More »

The mixed martial arts purist in all of us is probably supposed to be a little horrified that Muhammed Lawal reportedly plans to straddle the fence between our sport and professional wrestling.

Given the special kind of ridicule many fight fans reserve for pro wrestling, reaction to Lawal’s new hybrid, multifight deal with Bellator Fighting Championships and TNA Impact Wrestling will no doubt be, eh, mixed. No pun intended.

The obligatory insults about “fake fighting” and the handwringing about how this will look to the mainstream have surely already begun on message boards and in comment sections. The fact that Lawal will enter the world of professional wrestling while his legitimate fighting career still lingers under the cloud of a positive steroid test likely won’t (and shouldn’t) be forgotten, either.

But the truth is, this move may well be a homerun for Lawal, who described it as “a dream come true.”

Considering his impressive amateur credentials, his flair for the flamboyant and his renowned mind for the fight game, you can’t really blame King Mo for looking in the mirror and seeing the complete package. He’s always presented himself as a singular talent; now, he has his chance to prove it in the kind of sink-or-swim environment that will obviously stoke his competitive fires.

If he, Bellator and Impact can pull this off, Lawal’s unconventional new deal will give the former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion unparalleled exposure and, at least in theory, the kind of unique bargaining power he’s always believed he would one day enjoy.

It’s a gamble, yes, but it seems like a calculated one.

For a guy who takes pride in bringing a healthy dose of entertainment value to MMA, it’s sort of a perfect fit. For a fighter who describes himself as a “moneyweight” and an unabashed member of “Team Get Dat Paper,” the financial possibilities are obvious.

If there’s a drawback here, it’s probably not with Lawal, but with his partners.

From an MMA standpoint, it’s not clear what professional challenges Bellator will be able to offer him. The company’s current 205-pound champion is Christian M'Pumbu (yes, I had to look that up), a relatively unknown 34-year-old who isn’t within spitting distance of the light heavyweight top 10 and whose last fight was a nontitle loss to Travis Wiuff. Coincidentally, Wiuff is the guy Lawal defeated in his MMA debut in September 2008, back when the journeyman fighter had just 66 professional contests on his resume.

A quick glance at the 14 other 205-pounders listed on Bellator's website makes it clear this will be a high risk-low reward situation for Lawal. Unless the fight company can go out and sign a number of other top-tier light heavyweight free agents -- from a crop that may not even exist -- every fight in Bellator will be one Lawal should win impressively, and that will make his every appearance there a referendum on his own standing in the sport.

Since he began his MMA career with three consecutive TKO victories in 2008-09, we’ve been waiting for King Mo to become the break out star we believed he could be. So far, though, his fighting life has been punctuated by both highs (i.e. winning the Strikeforce title from Gegard Mousasi in August 2010) and lows (losing it to Rafael Cavalcante in his next fight). From the outside looking in, it doesn’t appear that Bellator will be able to offer up the kind of consistently top-shelf competition necessary for Lawal to boost himself to that next level.

Were I a 31-year-old athlete still very much in the process of proving I was as good as I said I was, that would concern me. Unless, of course, I was just there for the paper.

From a professional wrestling standpoint, the company formerly known as Total Nonstop Action has been trying hard (almost embarrassingly so) to revamp its product in recent months. It has rebranded itself as Impact Wrestling -- or TNA Impact Wrestling, or something, no one is exactly sure -- changed its overall look, made some key additions to the creative team, launched a sister promotion in India and has vacillated awkwardly between trying to establish new talent and trotting out dusty old standbys like Hulk Hogan and Sting.

Somewhere in there, former New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs and one of the dudes from “Jersey Shore” both made guest appearances.

Impact is by no means the complete disaster some wrestling fans make it out to be, but it’s also not the kind of organization I would feel tremendously confident in were I a talented, moderately well-known and self-admittedly green rookie like Lawal.

Unless, of course … right, right, the paper.

Certain fans will gripe, but the truth is we’ve never seen a deal quite like this one, so we have no idea how it will work out. For a guy who seems to enjoy pushing the envelope as much as Lawal does, that’s an exciting (and potentially lucrative) proposition. Hopefully, it all works out for the best.

As both Bellator and TNA are currently constituted though, it would be a disappointment (at least to fans) to see Lawal spend the remainder of his athletic career there.

Perhaps in a perfect world, he’ll help elevate both Bellator and Impact Wrestling to new heights of legitimacy and profitability, while in the process making himself a bigger and bigger star.

Either that or he will use this deal as a launching pad into the UFC or WWE, depending on which path -- and which paper -- he wants to pursue.

Daniel Straus won the Bellator Season 6 featherweight tournament title Friday night in Atlantic City, N.J., with a unanimous decision over Marlon Sandro.

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

Straus was able to keep a majority of the bout standing, where he utilized good footwork and a right jab to avoid Sandro’s hard overhand rights.

But Straus also showed that he wasn’t afraid to compete with Sandro, a skilled jiu-jitsu practitioner on the ground. He attempted several takedowns.

And in the final round, after surviving a standing submission attempt by Sandro, Straus tossed his foe to the ground and attempted a rear-naked choke. Sandro survived the choke as the horn sounded to end the fight.

Despite the victory, Straus was in no mood to celebrate.

“I’m going to keep improving,” said Straus, who upped his professional record to 20-4. “I have to get a lot better. It wasn’t the best fight in the world.”

The loss snaps a three-fight win streak for Sandro, who is now 22-4.

As a result of capturing the tournament title, Straus secures a shot at the featherweight championship.

He will face either champion Pat Curran or top contender Patricio Freire. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said Friday night that he is targeting an August bout for Curran and Freire.

Galvao gets job done versus Marx

Bantamweight Marcos Galvao took a step closer to fulfilling the promise he made to his dying mother in March.

Galvao rarely took a backward step en route to a unanimous decision over Travis Marx. The win sends Galvao to the Bellator Season 6 Bantamweight finals.

All three judges scored it 29-28 for Galvao, who improved to 12-5-1. ESPN.com also had the bout for Galvao 29-28.

“That win was for my mom,” Galvao said. “Her birthday was on Thursday, this is for her.

“It’s been my dream since my childhood. I know I’m going to win this tournament. It’ll be for my mom.”

Galvao impressed the judges with hard kicks to Marx’s thigh. He also landed hard right hands and stiffed several takedown attempts.

Marx falls to 19-4.

Frank Mir has turned up the heat on Junior Dos Santos ahead of their UFC 146 main event, insisting the heavyweight champion has "no chance" of winning if the fight hits the mat. More »

The UFC has confirmed it will film an Australian edition of the hit reality television series, T"he Ultimate Fighter," in an Australia versus UK battle dubbed "The Smashes." More
»

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If your first thought after learning that Dominick Cruz tore an anterior cruciate ligament was anything like mine, then you've wondered whether or not a fighter who made his name off speed and movement is in danger of stumbling back to the pack.

It will be a year before we know the answer to that important question. In the meantime, Cruz's division apparently must march forward, which means Zuffa booked an interim bantamweight title fight between Urijah Faber and a to-be-determined opponent.

As is usually the case, the creation of a belt and a stand-in champion isn't needed. It's especially less so considering Faber fights on July 7, when most of the prefight coverage is expected to zero in on Silva-Sonnen 2. A healthy Cruz against his rival Faber, both off the reality show, wouldn't have generated a ton of interest considering the circumstances. So why push a fake belt? I don't get it.

At best, Faber versus TBD is a worthy No. 1 contender fight. And that's not so terrible. There are bouts at 135 pounds for Faber that line up to be terrific contests.

Renan Barao, ranked third at 135, is the obvious choice. Zuffa can break up his match against Ivan Menjivar, serendipitously scheduled for July 7, and it wouldn't upset too many people. If not the Brazilian, then an argument can be made to slot in 21-year-old Michael McDonald. I think that's the wrong way to go for the youngster, but it would be a fight with intriguing possibilities.

No matter how it pans out, hopefully Cruz makes a full recovery. It would be a shame to see someone who’s worked so hard, has so much potential, and hasn’t yet cashed in, take a knock that permanently changed the way he fights.

Is Koch ready?

Two weeks after what promises to be an epic UFC event in Las Vegas, Erik Koch’s title challenge July 21 in Calgary against featherweight champion Jose Aldo will feel small; maybe like it’s not even happening.

Depending on the outcome, of course, the 23-year-old Koch may wish it hadn’t. Then again, he wouldn’t be the first kid to come out of nowhere and pull off something many of us felt was impossible. And let’s be real here, there are few things in MMA more difficult to do than defeating Jose Aldo.

I thought it interesting that Hatsu Hioki, who based on his résumé is as ready to fight Aldo as any fighter in the world, has decided to take his time. Rather than jump at the chance to fight Aldo, Hioki meets Ricardo Lamas in a preliminary bout in June. The decision confused me, and it left the door open for Koch.

The first thing to notice when looking at Koch’s record, which is nowhere as good as Hioki’s, is his level of competition. He’s fought scrappy guys that helped make him look good. That’s not Aldo. Aldo is an offensive machine. I have the feeling Koch is in big trouble here.

Ratings ebb and flow

Somewhere between a heavyweight championship attraction and a card filled with scrappers is the truth when it comes to UFC ratings on Fox.

The number of households that tuned into Saturday’s network event, headlined by Nate Diaz and Jim Miller, plummeted compared to the previous two fight nights, but attempting to extrapolate what that means for future cards is risky business.

The May 5 card averaged 2.4 million viewers, a drop off of more than 50 percent from the first offering in November (5.7 million viewers), and this January (4.7 million). There were plenty of things to do Saturday, including a bevy of sports-watching options, not the least of which was Floyd Mayweather fighting Miguel Cotto on pay-per-view.

The UFC should regard the 2.4 million number as a baseline, the minimum number of viewers that will tune in to a Fox card. Considering the disappointment (and some have called it that) of Junior dos Santos’s early knockout against Cain Velasquez, and the decision-heavy second offering headlined by a five-round snoozer between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis, if people tuned in to watch a card without any star power and/or title fights they’re likely the most passionate watchers out of the casual group.

UFC’s third event on Fox was its most typical: just a solid lineup of action and good MMA. Had the evening gone another way, then there might be something to really worry about for Zuffa. But the bottom line is fighters performed and viewers likely felt as if the experience was worth doing again on Aug. 4.

Weekend viewing options

Zuffa is off until a Tuesday night fight card featuring Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung, but that only opens the space up for multiple promoters. (By the way, with Hioki bowing out, the winner of this fight would have been my pick to face Aldo at UFC 149.)

May 10: Former Bellator featherweight champion Joe Soto has dropped to 135 and will fight for a respected regional title when he takes on Chad George at Tachi Palace Fights 13. The card streams on Sherdog.com

May 11: Speaking of ratings, Bellator and MTV2 earned an increase with the return of Michael Chandler on Friday. That’s a great sign for the lightweight titleholder. This week, Bellator heads to Atlantic City. Featherweights Marlon Sandro and Daniel Straus fight for the fight to get next crack at the 145-pound title after Patricio Freire. Should be a competitive fight.

On HDNet, Legacy Fighting Championship 11 from Houston features a mix of prospects and veterans. If you caught my podcast this week, you heard the interview with Chad Robichaux. The decorated special forces veteran, making his flyweight debut against Joseph Sandoval, has formed a non-profit -- Mighty Oaks Foundation -- to aid military personal stricken with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.