Author: Ben Fowlkes

Theirs is a rivaly more than two years in the making, so maybe it’s not surprising that even Chael Sonnen seems to be running low on fresh material heading into the rematch. The self-proclaimed “gangster” from West Linn, Ore., and number one contender for the UFC middleweight title dipped back into the same old bag of tricks for Tuesday’s UFC 148 pre-fight press conference in Las Vegas, lambasting middleweight champion Anderson Silva as a fake Brazilian with a fake belt who continues to hide the fact that he really speaks English.

But of course, this was the moment in the spotlight that Sonnen’s been waiting for, so he wasn’t without some scripted material to help him along. For instance, when he was asked whether he regretted any of the outrageous statements he’d made about the champ, the challenger was quick to pounce.

“First off, I offer absolutely zero apologies,” he said. “And secondly, listen guys, if you’re not willing to go too far, you will never go far enough in life. And I don’t care. I don’t promote fights; I pick fights. I’m like Jon Jones, I sound like Sean Combs, and I got trombone-sized stones like John Holmes.”

Three minutes in, and already Sonnen was speaking in rhyme. Silva, however, countered with a calm precision that cut immediately to his rival’s most sensitive spots.

“Chael, he tested positive for steroids, he offended a nation, he’s been charged with a crime,” Silva said via his manager and translator, Ed Soares. “…How can you take anything this guy says for real? This guy’s ridiculous.”

It wasn’t quite the bombastic Silva we heard on last week’s media call, the one who threatened to forcibly remove all of Sonnen’s teeth and make him swallow them. Still, “playtime’s over,” Silva insisted. “On Saturday, a lot of things are going to change. It’s going to be much different after Saturday.”

And Sonnen? Sonnen responded with many of the same bits we’ve all heard before. He berated Silva for “pretending” to need a translator, insisted that Soares could be replaced with an iPhone app, and claimed that he would have been fine fighting Silva in his home country of Brazil, since that would have been “neutral territory.”

“Anderson lives in a mansion in Beverly Hills,” Sonnen said. “Las Vegas is closer to him than it is to West Linn, Oregon. He’s got home court advantage.”

For his part, Silva reiterated that he didn’t think Sonnen deserved another crack at his title. He did, after all, get submitted by Demian Maia, who Silva himself had beaten up “for five rounds in Abu Dhabi.” And the mere suggestion that Sonnen might be able to stand and strike with him prompted a rare chuckle from the champ, who declared such a thing “impossible.”

And yet, though he thinks Sonnen unworthy and sees past opponents as being more “qualified” for a shot at UFC gold, Silva said he was perfectly willing to do what was required of him as a UFC employee, adding: “[I]f I have to go in there and beat his ass ten more times, I’ll beat his ass ten more times.”

It doesn’t seem to dampen his enthusiasm for the project that he views Sonnen’s method of hyping a fight “disrespectful” and unworthy of the UFC’s “elite” athletes, he explained.

“We can’t forget — especially you guys, as the American people — can’t forget the statements that this guy made about Lance Armstrong, who’s one of the greatest athletes in American history,” Silva said. “[Sonnen] talking about [Armstrong] giving himself steroids and doing all the things that he said that he did, but now also Chael has got the [testosterone-replacement therapy], which to me, and to a lot of people, is pretty much a similar type of thing that he was complaining about that Lance Armstrong was [doing]. Not only for myself, but I feel that the people responsible for the UFC and the athletic commission should take a second look at that.”

At this, a stone-faced Sonnen sat rubbing his hands. When asked for his response to criticism of his testosterone use, he declared it a “ridiculous question” before insisting: “I’m not proud of it. If I don’t take my medication I will die. I don’t need to apologize for that.”

Then again, if you ask Sonnen, he never needs to apologize. Not for anything he’s done or said, and certainly not to Silva, who, during the post-presser staredown, made every effort to invade Sonnen’s personal space again and again. With tensions so high, was he concerned about getting too emotional in this fight? Was there any truth to rumors that, win or lose on Saturday night, he might slip into retirement once this bout is over and done with?

The champion had the same answer to both questions, and in English: “Nope.”

As for a prediction, for that Silva lapsed back into his native Portuguese, saying, “I believe it’s going to end in the first round.”

With as long as it’s taken to get here, and with new material getting harder and harder to come by, maybe a swift conclusion — in either direction — wouldn’t be entirely unwelcome.

For a guy who hasn’t altered his hairstyle in 15 years, Tito Ortiz has been many different people over the course of his MMA career. He’s been a gifted self-promoter and a troublesome employee. He’s been a charismatic champion, a mediocre light heavyweight, and an undeniable draw. He spent a little time as a cautionary tale, then an even briefer spell as a lovable underdog. He was one of the first MMA fighters to become something akin to a celebrity, and he wielded that power for both the good of the sport and the benefit of his bank account, though not necessarily in that order.

This weekend Ortiz will add a new line to his resume when he becomes a UFC Hall of Famer at 37 years of age. If, as oddsmakers expect, he loses what is supposed to be the final fight of his career against Forrest Griffin at UFC 148, he’ll go in with a 16-11-1 career record that includes just one win in his last nine fights. Take away his three wins over Ken Shamrock, who was past his expiration date when their rivalry began and practically geriatric by the time it ended, and Ortiz’s career numbers start to look like something that wouldn’t even merit a return phone call from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva in the modern era of MMA.

But then, Ortiz isn’t a product of modern MMA. The fact that he’s hung around as long as he has and convinced the UFC to pay him as much as it has almost seems like a form of black magic. Maybe great salesmanship always seems that way. And, let’s be honest, Ortiz is being honored by the UFC more for his marketing and promoting skills than his pugilistic ones. Whether that’s right or wrong all depends on how you look at it.

Even with his early success against the Jerry Bohlanders and Yuki Kondos of the MMA world, I’m not sure you can call Ortiz a truly great fighter. Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture were both better light heavyweights from the same era. Wanderlei Silva has a better highlight reel. Jon Jones could retire tomorrow, and he’d have the more impressive body of work. Ortiz had his moment in the sun as the UFC light heavyweight champ, but even then he had to wait until after Frank Shamrock fled the company. Is that a hall of fame career? If we’re only talking about what happens inside the cage, then no. But that’s not why the UFC is shining the spotlight on him this weekend, and we all know it.

For instance, look at UFC president Dana White’s recent explanation on Sirius XM radio as to why Ortiz is a UFC Hall of Famer while Frank Shamrock, who beat him and left the company as champion, isn’t:

“Here’s the thing about the UFC Hall of Fame in all honesty, you know, the UFC Hall of Fame this is – these are guys that we have been inducting that have done a lot for the sport since we’ve (ZUFFA) have taken over, you know what I mean? Here’s a guy, you know, Frank Shamrock, Frank Shamrock hasn’t done anything for the new UFC. And when I say the new UFC I mean the regulated, since it’s been regulated, since it’s been back on pay-per-view, mainstream television, all the things that have been done over the last 12 years, the guys who have been inducted have helped us get to where we are. Frank Shamrock isn’t one of those guys.”

In other words, it’s not just what you did in the UFC that counts, it’s what you did for Zuffa. Of course, that doesn’t explain why Mark Coleman — who won exactly one UFC fight in the Zuffa era, and whose best years were spent in Japan’s Pride Fighting Championships organization — is in the UFC’s hall. It also doesn’t explain Dan Severn’s presence, or Royce Gracie’s. But that’s the nice thing about running your own hall of fame. You don’t have to explain anything. You can add who you want and exclude who you want, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

It makes you wonder just what we’re supposed to make of Ortiz’s inclusion. For years he was a walking headache for White, and a constant antagonist at the negotiating table and in the media. The two of them were still at each other’s throats before Ortiz’s UFC 132 bout with Ryan Bader, and any truce they strike for the sake of shared interests seems temporary at best. If White can see past his tortured personal history with Ortiz and recognize his efforts to help the sport and, occasionally, the company, isn’t that a triumph of sorts? Then again, if the UFC Hall of Fame starts honoring fighters more for their help with ticket sales than their actual accomplishments in the cage, how long before it becomes a glorified employee of the month award?

It’s a tricky question for MMA and the UFC. The sport is still so young. It wasn’t so long ago that it seemed to be teetering on the brink of permanent irrelevance, so it makes sense to honor those who did their part to haul it into the spotlight. Ortiz was one of those guys. It’s arguable whether he brought attention to the UFC only as a byproduct of his ceaseless efforts to bring attention to himself, but it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t some sort of pioneer. He showed the younger generation of fighters the value of self-promotion. He also showed them how to stand up for themselves to get what they deserve, even when it enraged the bosses. He showed the UFC the value of a good rivalry, and gave Zuffa its first real taste of pay-per-view success.

Those are career accomplishments that seem worthy of some kind of appreciation, whether it’s a gold watch or one of those vaguely condescending ‘lifetime acheivement awards.’ Ortiz definitely left his mark on this sport, even if it was more as a marketing expert than a fighter. Maybe it’s fitting that he should get the nod from White and co. this weekend, as part of one last PR push before he’s out the door for good. Maybe we can forget about his shortcomings as an athlete for at least a little while and enjoy the ceremony for what it is: a gesture of appreciation from one salesman to another, offered for the mutual benefit of both.

The Twitter Mailbag is back and ready to answer your endless stream of questions about the rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen at UFC 148. We’ll also find some time to talk about Tito Ortiz’s farewell fight and his tricky legacy, as well as get some answers about standard cornerman operating procedure from an actual cornerman.

Got a question of your own? You can find me lounging around on the Twitter at @BenFowlkesMMA. I’m the guy with the picture of the awesome dog in his avatar.

Will Burke @wjburke
@benfowlkesMMA @mmafighting despite what happened first time, does sonnen have a shot against Anderson? Didn’t Silva have a rib injury?

The word on the street after their first meeting was that yes, the champ had some injured ribs. Were they so injured that he was left completely unable to defend a takedown, or even strike with his characteristic ferocity? I doubt it, but if so he had no business taking the fight. If you’re so hurt that you can’t do anything, it’s kind of disrespectful to your opponent and your fans to get in there and go through the motions anyway. Silva pulled off the triangle choke in the end, so he was at least healthy enough to do that. Somehow, though, I don’t think he went into that fight with a plan to get beat up for 20 minutes before attempting the one move he felt physically capable of.

But okay, I see your point. Injury = variable. The thing is, that’s not the only variable to consider in this rematch. There’s also the question of how Silva will adjust now that he knows what Sonnen brings to the table. There’s the question of how Sonnen will adjust to Silva’s adjustments. Add in Sonnen’s testosterone levels, Silva’s rage levels, and what have you got? We don’t know. Not yet. That’s what makes the fight so exciting. It’s the only way to answer these questions, and there are a ton of them heading into this fight. All I can tell you is that I honestly didn’t think Sonnen had much of a chance the first time they fought, and I’m not going to make that same mistake this time around.

Jason Moles @TheJasonMoles
@benfowlkesMMA What will Tito Ortiz most be remember for, his championship reign, funny shirts, fights w/ Shamrock, or marrying a porn star?

I think Ortiz will be remembered for being one of the UFC’s first great personalities. He was a gifted self-promoter in an era of humorless bad-asses, and he gave people a reason to care about him even when he wasn’t actually fighting. He also built the rivalry with Ken Shamrock that would ultimately give the UFC its first taste of what a big, highly anticipated, successful pay-per-view might look like. He was a bridge from one era to the next, even if he proved to be somewhat ill-equipped for that next era.

I don’t think anyone could argue that he was ever the best fighter MMA had to offer. He came out on the losing end of one of the UFC’s most compelling and competitive early fights when he took on Frank Shamrock, and Chuck Liddell — a contemporary of Ortiz’s — proved his superiority beyond all doubt in two separate meetings. But Ortiz was one of the first fighters to make himself into a marketable brand. When you think about it, he made a kind of outrageous amount of money, especially considering that his best athletic years came when the sport was only just beginning to climb out of poverty. It’s also pretty amazing that he held on as long as he did, making as much money as he did, despite his woeful record in recent years. Maybe that will serve as Ortiz’s last lesson for the younger generation on the value of promotability.

Chris Manning @cwmwrites
@benfowlkesMMA Hemingway steps in on short notice fight in a PRIDE rules match against his arch nemesis Joseph Conrad. Who wins and how?

First of all, I must take issue with your characterization of Conrad as a nemesis of Hemingway. For one thing, Conrad was dead before Hemingway published his first novel. After Conrad died, and it had become popular to criticize him while exalting writers like T.S. Eliot, Hemingway wrote: “If I knew that by grinding Mr. Eliot into a fine dry powder and sprinkling that powder over Mr. Conrad’s grave, Mr. Conrad would shortly appear…and commence writing, I would leave for London early tomorrow morning with a sausage grinder.”

Ernest Hemingway: total jerk, but he loved him some Conrad.

As for who would win in a Pride-rules match that Hemingway took on short notice, I have to take Hemingway via brutal head stomps in the opening minutes. Unless, of course, he’s disqualified for repeatedly thumbing Conrad in the eyes, ala Gilbert Yvel.

Martin Lindgren @MarreoMedia
@benfowlkesMMA Do you think @titoortiz and Griffin’s [fight] gets enough attention? This being Tito’s last fight?

I think it’s getting exactly the amount of attention it deserves, and that amount is: some. Let’s face it, it’s not the most meaningful fight you could make in the light heavyweight division. Ortiz is on his way out the door (or so he says) with one win in his last eight attempts. Forrest Griffin is a comparatively robust 5-3 in his last eight, but lately it seems as if he can’t quite force himself to care as much as he knows he should. He’s still a competitor, and still doesn’t want to get his face beat in, but that fire he had back in 2005 is a barely glowing coal these days. If you would have asked most fans before this fight was booked, my guess is more people would have wanted to see Bill and Ted complete their trilogy before they ever thought to ask for Tito and Forrest III.

In other words, it’s only special because it’s Ortiz’s last fight. And — sarcasm aside — that is special. This is the end of an era, assuming it really is the end and he doesn’t pop up on a fight card in Sri Lanka two years from now. I feel like Ortiz is getting what my colleague Jordan Breen would refer to as his “due daps” for this final fight. He was on SportsCenter this week, will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame next week, and — win or lose — will get to go out on what should be the biggest UFC event of the year. What else could he want? And, with his performances over the last half-decade or so, what else could he reasonably expect?

Punk Curmudgeon @punkcurmudgeon
@benfowlkesMMA Why do corner guys often pour a bit of water on the ring floor for fighters to wipe feet in at the start of a fight? #MailBag

This is one of those questions where I felt like I had a pretty solid answer, then realized that it sounded like something I read in Modern Jackass. So I asked someone who could give us a real answer: MMA trainer and cornerman extraordinaire, Mr. Greg Jackson. Here’s what he said:

“It’s traction, usually. Your feet can get a little dirty on the way to the cage, which can make you slip. Getting that off can help sometimes.”

For the record, I will now claim that I totally knew this all along. Totally.

Big Nate @BigNate870
@benfowlkesMMA what is MMA’s future with TRT? GOOD OR BAD?

Definitely bad, any way you slice it. It codifies and encourages the use of a powerful performance-enhancing substance by men who visit dangerous acts of violence on each other for a living. How could that be good? What’s the best possible outcome of allowing professional fighters to inject themselves with extra testosterone? What, they’ll be able to fight longer and take more punishment, far past the points where their bodies — if not for the aid of synthetic hormones — might have forced them to stop? I don’t see how that’s a plus for this sport.

David Jeffers @Davidjeffers
@benfowlkesMMA Mailbag. How do you feel about soccer kicks/knees to a grounded opponent? Do you believe MMA should have universal rules?

In theory, I like knees to the head of a grounded opponent. I think. It opens up more possibilities for action on the mat, and changes the stakes for guys who like to shoot in and dig for a takedown from their knees. Again, that’s in theory. Then I think back to how it looked in practice, such as in the Ricardo Arona-Kazushi Sakuraba fight, and I’m not so sure anymore.

The same goes for soccer kicks. In theory, how is it so much worse or more dangerous than getting kicked in the head while you’re standing up? But in practice, it seems most likely to be employed in situations where the fight should be over already. The One FC bout between Zorobabel Moreira and Roger Huerta is a prime example, but you could say the same of several of Wanderlei Silva’s wins in Pride. Most of the time, when one fighter is in a position that allows him to be stomped or soccer kicked, it’s because he’s already pretty much done. Remember when “Rampage” Jackson got booted in the mouth by “Shogun” Rua? Didn’t seem to me like ‘Page was on the verge of getting back up and mounting a comeback even before he got Rua’s foot upside his head.

As for the unified rules, in general I like them. There are a couple things I’d change, such as the ridiculous ban on the 12-to-6 elbow (but not, for some reason, the 3-to-9 elbow that employs the exact same movement). I also don’t like the practice of allowing fighters to put two fingers on the mat and call themselves a grounded opponent. But on the whole, I think it’s important to use one set of rules to limit confusion for the fighters, not to mention the refs. Those poor bastards have a hard enough time as it is. No need to make it any harder.

Noel Luperon @NoelLuperon
@benfowlkesMMA Is Chael vs Anderson Silva 2 Silva’s final fight? What does the division look like after he leaves?

Hold on, let me look into the future. Oh no, wait, I just remembered I can’t do that, because I’m not a sorcerer (if I were though, all of you jokers would be newts by now). What I can tell you is that, if he beats Sonnen in glorious and non-controversial fashion next Saturday, I think that would be a pretty sweet time to walk away.

justin keating @bigkeats
@benfowlkesMMA #tmb #mmafighting marquardt sick of answering TRT questions .. Should we stop asking or is it just [too] bad for him?

It’s too bad for him. If he’s going to do interviews, he has to accept that reporters are going to ask about the subjects that are on people’s minds. They have to. That’s their job. He doesn’t have to answer (though, with certain issues, not answering is even worse than answering poorly), but he doesn’t get to choose the topics. And, come on, is it any wonder that people keep asking him about TRT? It got him fired from the UFC and put a permanent mark on his career. Now, in his first fight since that incident, he says he’s off it. How could that not be a discussion topic leading into his Strikeforce title fight? He felt TRT was so vital to his health and career that he was willing to risk the UFC’s ire, but now, lo and behold, he’s discovered that he can do without it after all. It’s an MMA miracle. If Marquardt thinks that’s going to go away just because he’d rather not talk about it, he’s dreaming.

Joshua Flannery @YourPalJosh
@benfowlkesMMA which outcome of the Silva/Sonnen rematch is best for the @ufc?

If Sonnen wins, it sets up the possibility of a big money rubber match. If Silva wins, it solidifies the legendary status of one of the best (if not the best) fighters to ever put on a pair of gloves. Either way it goes, as long as it’s a good fight that ends without controversy or complaint, the UFC will like it just fine.

Andy Anderson @AndyAndersonMMA
@benfowlkesMMA will UFC 148 sell better than UFC 100?

Probably not, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it break one million pay-per-view buys, if only just barely. Unlike UFC 100, which had several must-see fights, UFC 148 has just one. It’s a good one, and it ought to do big numbers, but I’d be surprised if it did UFC 100 numbers.

Now, if the co-main event for this one featured Brock Lesnar in a hot dog eating contest against Takeru Kobayashi, plus Kyle Kingsbury in a posedown opposite the ghost of Rick Rude, then it’d be a very different story.

Pedro Figueiredo @pedromfdo
@benfowlkesMMA who do you think @RenzoGracieBJJ should face next in the UFC? #TMB

How about the truth? I realize that’s not so much a who as it is a what, but the truth is that Renzo Gracie — who I absolutely adore — has no business fighting in the UFC. Gracie is a wonderful, charismatic, endlessly lovable human being. He’s also a 45-year-old jiu-jitsu practitioner who has fought just twice in the last five years, with the quality of his performances diminishing rapidly as the years pass. Again, I love Renzo. If there was such thing as the world champion of awesome people, he’d be it. He’s just not a UFC-caliber MMA fighter at this point, which is to be expected.

Malthe Carlsen @MaltheCarlsen
@benfowlkesMMA I’m not sure if you’ve answered this before in the mailbag, bit which fighter(s) do you enjoy watching the most?

Nick Diaz is definitely on the list. So is Nate Diaz. So is Donald Cerrone. When I watch Jon Jones, I feel like I’m watching Picasso play around with some paints. Daniel Cormier’s fights remind me of what a building demolition would look like if a wrecking ball could smile. I could probably name a dozen more, but that would get tedious. If you really want to hear it all you should buy me a beer or six.

Sam Hunt @Jlloyd100
@benfowlkesMMA how would the world react to 4 1/2 rounds of silva takedowns and g’n’p only for sonnen to win with a last min triangle!?

Just a guess, but I think the world’s reaction would look something like this.

Jeremy Sexton @jeremysexton
@benfowlkesMMA Does the craziness happening with the CSAC mean anything for anyone outside of California?

Maybe it means we should stop acting like these state-run commissions are omnipotent governing bodies with the authority and the resources to adequately police a complex sport. Dana White loves to throw up his hands and point to “the government” when he’s asked why the UFC doesn’t take a more active role on issues like drug testing, but the CSAC’s problems serve to remind us that, sometimes, these athletic commissions are just like a lot of other state government bureaucracies, which is to say, a total mess.

Omar @omar_ortiz21
@benfowlkesMMA After UFC 148 What event are you most looking forward to? There does not seem to be much action going on after Silva Sonnen 2

I wouldn’t say that there’s not much going on, just that there isn’t much going on that’s anywhere near as big as the Silva/Sonnen rematch. The UFC has two more events in July after this, plus two in August. At the same time, I don’t know how many people are getting chills just thinking about “Shogun” Rua vs. Brandon Vera. It’s hard to get excited about a full event when the fight cards are, shall we say, subject to an awful lot of change lately. As far as single fights that get me pumped, I think the next one on my radar is Ronda Rousey vs. Sarah Kaufman in Strikeforce on August 18.

Matt Giesbrecht @MattGiesbrecht
@benfowlkesMMA Should Hioki’s loss illustrate that fighters should just take the title shot when presented? #mailbag

Not necessarily. If you can’t beat a fellow contender in the division, what would make you think you could beat the champion? And, as we’ve seen, if you lose in a title fight, it’s sometimes very difficult to convince the UFC to give you another one, especially as long as the same guy is still champion. If Hioki’s loss proves anything, it’s that he was right when he decided he wasn’t ready to fight the champion. Sometimes a little self-awareness can keep you from making a big mistake.

Max de Vries @MaxWdeVries
@benfowlkesMMA TMB: do you love MMA? Oftentimes you seem to be some kind of MMA-Theroux, in constant wonder of these crazy people fighting.

Can’t it be both? Can’t you love MMA and find yourself in a state of constant wonder at these crazy people who choose to do it? It’s a really bizarre thing when you think about it. Great masses of people gather to see two men — men who are, as my podcast co-host Chad Dundas would say, “stripped to the waist” — climb into a cage and fight one another until someone gives up or is rendered physically incapable of continuing. And it’s just for fun! It’s entertainment for us. That’s kind of insane, right? We build these structures around it to make it feel safer or more official. We have doctors and athletic commissions and rules and referees. But really, the impulse that drives people to come to Vegas and buy a ticket for this is the same impulse that makes middle school kids drop everything and run to where the crowd is when a fight breaks out among two of their peers.

I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong, or that we should feel bad about our desire to see it (and then talk obsessively about it later), but I do think we should maintain some perspective on it. Fighting is sports boiled down to its most basic elements. It’s the thing that athletes in other sports resort to when the structure of their own game proves insufficient. It’s also a hell of a way to make a living. It demands so much sacrifice, so much pain and suffering, and that’s just to make it to fight night. Normal people work relatively safe jobs that are like the steady drop of coins into a piggy bank, one day at a time. Fighters are out there defusing bombs in exchange for a lottery ticket. Even as they’re doing it, they don’t know if it will be worth it in the end.

I think that’s something many fans miss, or don’t fully appreciate, because often they only see the finished product. Covering the sport full-time after years of being a fan is like going from dating someone to living with them. You don’t just see them when they’re showered and rested and polished for public view anymore. I think we have to acknowledge the essential weirdness of this act in order to appreciate and respect it. We have to acknowledge that it’s kind of crazy for a person to be so willing to smash their bones to pieces while using their limbs to bludgeon another human being for money. We have to acknowledge how weird it is that we all want to see that so much that we’ll pay for it, again and again, and then complain when it isn’t violent enough. These are bizarre impulses, but they’re real impulses, and I think they exist for a reason. I think the best way to understand them is to talk openly about them. Or get drunk and paint ‘Just Bleed’ on your body. Whichever you prefer.

Well, it finally happened. After two years of listening to Chael Sonnen call him everything except a pretty, pretty princess, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva finally broke his stoic silence. On Monday’s UFC 148 media call, he fired back with terrifyingly specific threats (“I’m gonna rip all his teeth out of his mouth”) and brutally accurate character attacks (court records show that Sonnen is, in fact, a criminal, so there’s that).

On Tuesday night’s episode of FUEL TV’s UFC Tonight, Sonnen responded, calling the champ a “dirtbag” and a “dummy.” So now we’ve hit all our trash talk bases and, like reluctant boyfriends at a modern art museum, those of us in the MMA world are spinning around in circles and demanding to know: what does it all mean? Is Silva really and truly upset for the first time, and, if so, what took him so long? Is Sonnen glad to see he’s provoked a reaction, or is even he starting to wonder if a pissed off Silva isn’t more dangerous than a disinterested one?

Sonnen would have us believe he doesn’t care, that he expects to take some memorable physical damage in the rematch. “I’ve fought 49 men,” he said. “It’s not like I’ve never been to the orthodontist before. It’s not like I’ve ever had my jaw re-set. It’s not like I’ve never had to have my scalp stapled shut in ER.” And that’s probably true. You don’t become a professional fighter if maintaining the original positioning of your nose is of vital importance to you. At the same time, this is Silva we’re talking about. This is the guy who has proven that he can and will deliver a drawn-out beating when he feels like it. Sonnen might not mind being hit in the face, but what of his fear of losing? What of his fear of being embarrassed for 25 full minutes in the biggest fight of his life?

Even though it’s Silva who’s putting his belt on the line, it’s Sonnen who has the most to lose here. He’s the one who spent the last couple years as a gleeful antagonist to the world’s top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter. He’s the one who’s already lost once. If he loses the rematch — especially if he takes a beating in the process — this sport might remember him as little more than an entertaining foil to a great champion. At best, he’ll be the villain who helped an all-time great rediscover his ferocious sense of purpose. At worst, he’ll be a temporary distraction, a court jester, a man who was willing to trade his credibility for the sake of cheap attention.

But again, that’s only if he loses. If he wins, it’s a different story. Then he’s the guy with a genius plan to become a star and the skills to stay that way. It’s the difference between getting your own chapter in the MMA history books rather than getting your own paragraph.

For Silva, the stakes aren’t so high. His legacy is already established. He’s held the UFC middleweight strap for six years. Even if he loses now, at 37 years old, and retires immediately afterward, he’ll still be remembered as one of the best fighters to ever bite down on a mouthpiece. Sure, he’d have to listen to Sonnen run his mouth some more, and that would be its own special brand of torture, but it’s not the same as having the last two years of your life negated with a single loss. That’s a different kind of pressure.

What we still don’t know yet is how anger will affect the champ. The first time he fought Sonnen, he mostly just shrugged and shook his head at the challenger’s antics. Then he went out and fought like a shadow of his usual self and needed a last-second submission to avoid a decision loss. For better or worse, this time he genuinely seems to want to hurt Sonnen rather than just beat him. Either that, or Sonnen’s fame has taught Silva the value of some forceful pre-fight talk.

The champ has never needed it before. He’s been so good in the cage that it hardly mattered whether he could sell a fight in interviews and promo pieces. Whether he’s deviating from that pattern now just for our benefit, or because he’s finally tired of allowing this be a one-sided conversation where Sonnen grabs all the headlines, we should know soon enough. Maybe we’ll also get to see if an enraged Silva is somehow even more dangerous than a calmly efficient one, and if Sonnen is as cavalier about parting ways with his teeth as he would have us believe.

After a jam-packed weekend of UFC action, there’s just no way to give every fight and every fighter his due attention. Not unless I wanted to write a 10,000-word version of Falling Action, which I don’t. So instead, this week we’re combining the two events, just as we did with the MMA Wrap-Up, and looking at the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between from two days of fighting.

Biggest Winner: Rich Franklin
Once again it’s “Ace” to the rescue for the UFC. Like a superhero with a Beatles haircut, he swooped into Brazil, replaced an injured Vitor Belfort, and became one half of a memorable main event on an otherwise forgettable pay-per-view. He even got his skull thumped on in a near-finish that fired up the local crowd, but he still did just enough to survive the round. Then he recovered like a 190-pound Frankie Edgar before going right back to work in the next frame. Franklin seems to have no memory of that, according to his post-fight remarks, but hopefully his family remembered to DVR it for him so he can enjoy it when he gets home. This was one more solid performance in a career full of them. Franklin was a good champion for the UFC back before Anderson Silva showed up and changed the landscape of the middleweight division. Ever since, he’s been an excellent role-player, filling in where needed and treating even the meaningless bouts like they’re title fights. It’s easy for that to go unnoticed, but you get the sense that Franklin does it not for the glory or the accolades, but for the same reason he can’t bring himself to walk away just yet: he really, truly loves this stuff. Does he have another middleweight title run left in him? Probably not as long as Silva is still around. Or Sonnen. Or maybe even Belcher. But one thing you know about Franklin is that no matter what you ask him to do, he’ll do it with everything he’s got. There’s always going to be a need for that kind of fighter — hell, for that kind of person.

Biggest Loser: Clay Guida
It was a stick-and-move performance with far more move than stick. The stats tell us that he was throwing more strikes than Maynard, but he appeared to be doing so on the run, which rarely makes a good impression on fans or judges. You can’t blame him for not wanting to stand in front of a bigger, stronger fighter and trade haymakers or blast doubles. Glorify the ‘going out on your shield’ mentality all you want, at a certain point it becomes indistinguishable from a pointless brand of self-destructive stupidity. At the same time, you don’t get the impression that Guida ever asked himself: ‘How can I put this guy away?’ He seemed to start from the assumption that he could only win by decision, then went from there in search of a strategy that would allow him to stay conscious long enough to give him a chance at it. Again, I can’t exactly blame him for that. He wasn’t going to outwrestle Maynard and he wasn’t going to knock him out. The greatest advantages he had were quickness and cardio, and he put them to work. I thought he won the first two rounds that way, and was at least in the conversation for the third. But even if he’d won the decision that way, public opinion (not to mention Dana White opinion, which often has more force behind it) still would have turned against him. Guida chose a smart way to avoid getting knocked out, but a terrible way to continue being a fan favorite. He’s a guy who got where he is not because he won every single fight, but because people liked to watch him either way. If he loses that, what is he left with?

Most Impressive in Defeat: Wanderlei Silva
Concerns about “The Axe-Murderer’s” chin can be put to rest, at least for a little while. For the second straight fight Silva showed that he can still take it and give some back without crumbling to pieces as soon as he’s touched. He may have ended up on the losing end this time, but he got a chance to demonstrate his durability even while showing off a little of the old reckless aggression. Is he going to be a champion again? Absolutely not. Can he still give you your money’s worth in looping hooks and bull-rush attacks? Sure he can. At least for a little while. One of these days they’re probably going to have to drag Silva out of the cage and strap him down in a cageside seat just to get him to quit fighting. But not today.

Least Impressive in Victory: Gray Maynard
You could argue that Guida didn’t give him much to work with, and you’d be right. Still, nobody looks good while doing the Frankenstein plod followed by lunging right hands that catch nothing but air. In the post-fight press conference, Maynard complained about Guida’s game plan, saying: “You can’t just go to the end of the cage and then back to the other end and back to the other end the whole time. You’ve got to give me a chance too.” Well no, actually, he doesn’t. If he can hit you and be gone by the time you hit back, that’s pretty much ideal. You’re not out on the basketball court playing a friendly game of HORSE. Your opponent is not obligated to let you have your turn. If he’s too fast for you to catch, and if he can hit you without being hit in return (something Guida did quite well in the first half of the fight), then it’s up to you to find a solution. It’s not your opponent’s responsibility to stand still and fight the way you want him to.

Most Pointless Hysteria: Complaining About Greg Jackson’s Game Plans
From fighters to fans to a not-so-subtle stab from UFC president Dana White himself, plenty of people were quick to lay the blame for Guida’s performance on Albuquerque’s preeminent fight trainer. Some griped that this was just one more instance of Jackson teaching his fighters to avoid fighting. Others claimed he was single-handedly killing the sport of mixed martial arts. Nevermind the fact that, on this same fight card, Cub Swanson — another of Jackson’s fighters — earned the Knockout of the Night bonus for his finish of Ross Pearson. Nope, Jackson gets no credit for that, just like he gets no credit for any of Jon Jones’ spectacular finishes, or Donald Cerrone’s resume of destruction, or Diego Brandao’s human buzzsaw routine. These days, it’s only when one of his fighters disappoints that people obsess about Jackson’s influence. As if the good stuff is all the work of the individual fighter, while the bad stuff is the result of a Jackson-led conspiracy to ruin MMA. This is ridiculous, and it ought to be obvious to anyone who’s paying attention. Jackson isn’t MMA’s destroyer anymore than he is its messiah, though he’s been accused of being both at various points. What he is, however, is an extremely successful coach with a ton of fighters in his care. Inevitably, some nights are going to be better than others, but you can’t give Jackson all the blame on the bad nights unless you want to give him all the credit on the good ones.

Underappreciated: Brian Ebersole
He survived an early knockdown and a near submission at the hands of grappling wunderkind T.J. Waldburger to win his fourth fight in four tries with the UFC. This, from a guy who wasn’t really even supposed to be here, a guy who, for a long time, was seen as just another journeyman fighter racking up wins in nowhere promotions. He says he wants to move to lightweight now, even after going undefeated as a welterweight in the UFC. If he can get down to 155 pounds without starving himself, he could be a problem for a lot of very good fighters in an already crowded division. Don’t let the chest hair fool you, this man is to be taken very seriously.

Overappreciated: TUF Brazil finalists
After long periods of tedium interrupted by brief spasms of violence, Cezar Ferreira and Rony Mariano Bezerra were crowned the winners of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil. But despite the UFC’s attempts to make it seem vaguely historic, it came off feeling like a lot of hype for relatively little action. Don’t get me wrong, Ferreira and Sergio Moraes combined for their fair share of action (can’t say the same about Rony “Jason” and Godofredo Pepey), but pay-per-view quality performances these were not. Then again, that’s the case with most TUF finales. It’s just that most TUF finales are on free TV, so expectations are low to begin with. By trying to portray the TUF Brazil finals, which featured one non-finalist playing the part for the sake of convenience and expediency, as if it was somehow more significant than any other season of the UFC’s long-running (emphasis on the long) reality show is hard to swallow. If you want to tell us we’re watching unpolished up-and-comers compete for a place at the table, fine. But just because they all have the same stamp on their passport, that doesn’t make it a vital piece of UFC history.

Lost in the Madness: Fabricio Werdum
There aren’t many ways to take on a heavy, unheralded underdog and still come out looking good, but Werdum found one. The jiu-jitsu expert absolutely throttled Mike Russow with his new and still improving stand-up skills, knocking out a guy known for his durability and making it look easy. Not a lot of people are going to be blown away by a win over Russow, despite the fact that he was 4-0 in the UFC coming into this fight. I understand that. He hasn’t exactly draped himself in glory so far, plus he just looks unimpressive, and a lot of fans write him off based on the flab factor alone. But what else can you possibly ask of Werdum in this situation? If a first-round knockout — even against a relatively mediocre opponent — isn’t enough to convince you to give the guy at least a little bit of credit, then you’re essentially saying that Werdum would have been better off staying home on Saturday night. Instead, he took a fight that had a lot of downside and very little upside, and he made the most of it. He also showed off some striking skills that ought to have a few other UFC heavyweights worried. If a guy who’s that good on the ground starts believing in his stand-up, that’s trouble.

After two days of MMA action, the Wrap-Up returns to do a little high school English class-style compare and contrast of the dueling UFC events this past weekend. What does it mean when the more meaningful fight at UFC on FX 4 disappoints, while the hastily thrown together, just-for-the-hell-of-it catchweight bout at UFC 147 entertains? I might not know either, but it won’t stop me from talking about it from behind a desk for a couple of minutes.