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Touching gloves before a fight isn't enough to prove what's about to go down is civilized. Nor is a postfight embrace, or posing for a picture together -- bloodied and tattered, like Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua did after UFC 139 -- while the hemat...

The first UFC on Fox was a "bonus" that we had never asked for, nor did we complain when we got it (or, at least until Cain Velasquez made the work too easy that night for Junior dos Santos). That was the table-setter for the seven-year relationship ...

UFC on Fox 4 in Los Angeles proved that interest can be drummed up in retreads, but it was our collective imagination that became the real hero of the night. Let's face it, we were all squinting to see the title picture the way it was being drawn up ...

This is one sport where public outcry reaches important ears. After promising a title shot to the winner of Saturday night's Brandon Vera/Mauricio Rua bout on a media call, Dana White has had a change of heart. The news of Rua or Vera getting anot...

We might not know what's next for Anderson Silva, but we might know what's ahead for Jon Jones. It was announced during the UFC on FOX 4 news conference that the winner of Mauricio Rua and Brandon Vera will fight for the 205-pound belt next. No, i...

Former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz says he wants current UFC titlist Anderson Silva -- when Diaz comes back from his suspension. The time away has apparently opened up his imagination, and out flies his always-fascinating fancy. Silva's camp s...

Where did UFC 149 go wrong? What was the single, biggest offender? Oh, where to start. What went on in Calgary was one of those perfect storms. There was the eccentric that didn't go eccentric (Brian Ebersole). There was hype that fizzled befo...

Glover Teixeira's greatest enemy to date has been access. For the last few years, visa problems have kept him out of the UFC. Before he defeated Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 146 to point a sudden "I'm coming" finger at Jon Jones, the last time he'd fough...

Quick: What's 1-2-0-1 since 2009, recently fired yet brought back via a strange case of inhuman urine, that beats up the occasional "Fireman?" That would be Brandon Vera, a fighter who had such a big buzz on his name back as a heavyweight that he...

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...

Dan Henderson turned down a fight with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira to establish a No. 1 contender in the UFC's light heavyweight division. This shouldn't have been surprising. And it's definitely not arrogant, nor anything personal. It's just that at 41...

If it had occurred all the way back in summer of 2011, Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua would have fought three not entirely memorable rounds. If things played out just as they did at UFC 139 without circumstantial revisions, Henderson would have won a...

Free was nice, and free was big -- and big was always the intention. But now that we're through with the privilege of bonus title fights on network television and dangling MMA in front of bemused pop culture, it's back to our secular intrigues. Or...

On Nov. 20, Fedor Emelianenko will fight Jeff Monson. If you're at the Olympic Arena in Moscow, Russia, where the fight is being held, this takes place at a reasonable hour; in the United States, it occurs either during your snooze button moments or ...

Jon Jones ran down a purse-snatcher in Paterson, N.J., just hours before he took (by force) Mauricio Rua's belt. It was an act that was universally lauded. And yet, he is the second-most noteworthy Jones on what's becoming a niche vigilante circu...

While we're into all these new cross-promotional intrigues, why not entertain former Strikeforce champion Muhammed Lawal's sincere request to fight former UFC champion Quinton Jackson in Japan? Mo knows Jackson. He wants Jackson. Jackson wants Jap...