Eli Manning was in the midst of his opening monologue as host of Saturday Night Live over the weekend when, live from New York, the Giants quarterback offered to show off his local knowledge by taking questions from tourists in the audience. Immediately, an SNL cast member planted in the crowd asked where her family could find some of the city’s legendary Italian food. And Eli drew a laugh by pointing her in the direction of an Olive Garden across the Hudson River. “Hey,” said Manning, “I play for the New York Giants, and all my games are played in New Jersey.”

Dana White could have told the same joke.

Then again, the UFC president might not find the humor in his fight organization’s protracted and still-fruitless bid to have mixed martial arts sanctioned in New York, as it is in nearly every other state in the nation. Especially after Monday’s news that the State Assembly once again will not bring an MMA bill to a vote this year.

According to a report in the New York Daily News, a conference of Democrats discussed the bill behind closed doors and Speaker Sheldon Silver, even while acknowledging that members were “pretty evenly divided,” decided to not bring the measure to the full Assembly. The Manhattan legislator did acknowledge, however, that the tide is turning. “I think it’s evolving,” he told the Daily News. “I don’t think two years ago it was a 50-50 proposition.” Other legislators told the newspaper that the informal tally actually tilted in favor of the MMA bill.

Naturally, this turn of events left UFC officials disappointed, even perturbed. “I feel 150 percent if we had a vote on the floor of the Assembly, we would win,” Marc Ratner, the company’s vice president of regulatory affairs, told the paper. “Not to get a vote is un-American.”

And yet unsurprising.

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The meteoric rise of the UFC hit a pocket of turbulence Tuesday with the release of the ratings for Saturday’s UFC on Fox 3 card.

The May 5 telecast averaged 2.42 million viewers (for a household rating of 1.5), down from 5.7 million for UFC on Fox 1 and 4.7 million for UFC on Fox 2.

By comparison, the NASCAR Nationwide Series Aaron’s 312, which aired earlier in the day, outdrew it with a 2.0 rating. (And that’s not the highest series of racing in NASCAR). The Kentucky Derby drew a 9.0 overnight rating from 6 and 7 p.m. ET on NBC. It was narrowly beaten by the NHL Eastern Conference semifinal between the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals between 12:15 and 3:15 p.m, which posted a household rating of 1.6.

UFC on Fox 3 did earn a rating of 1.6 among 18-to-34-year-old men, its primary demographic, but that’s also down from the promotion’s first (4.3) and second (3.2) network-televised cards since it signed a seven-year multi-media rights agreement with Fox in August.

The main card of Saturday’s event at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., saw lightweight contender Nate Diaz submit Jim Miller. Johny Hendricks, Alan Belcher and Lavar Johnson also prevailed in nationally televised bouts.

UFC on Fox 3 faced competition from both an NBA playoff doubleheader on TNT and the undercard of the super welterweight championship fight between Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto on HBO Pay-Per-View.

UFC on Fox 4 is scheduled for August 4 at Staples Center in Los Angeles (8 p.m. ET, Fox), with Hector Lombard-Brian Stann and Ryan Bader-Lyoto Machida among the headlining bouts.

– Bryan Armen Graham

Alistair Overeem's license application was denied Tuesday in a meeting of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. (Kari Hubert/Zuffa LLC)

UFC heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem’s license application was denied by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Tuesday in Las Vegas, but the fighter will have the opportunity to re-apply again after Dec. 27, nine months from the date he submitted to a random drug test that revealed elevated testosterone in his system.

Overeem, who’d been removed from a headlining bout against champion Junior dos Santos at UFC 146 on May 26 in Las Vegas by the event’s promoters last Friday, also denied allegations that he had fled the scene once the March 27 random drug testing had been announced following a UFC press conference. Overeem said he hadn’t been told of the testing until he was en route to his lawyer’s office and returned for the test after he was notified.

After nearly three hours of testimony, the NSAC voted 4-0 to shorten the standard one-year waiting period for licensee denials, noting that Overeem and his legal team had presented a “superlative” explanation as to why Overeem’s testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio had come back at 14:1 — more than two times higher than the state’s allowable 6:1 threshold.

David Chesnoff, Overeem’s Las Vegas-based attorney, initially asked for a 45- to 60-day continuance to fortify his client’s case, but the NSAC unanimously denied the request.

Attorney Chesnoff told commissioners that the 31-year-old Dutch fighter’s T:E ratio had been heightened after he’d taken two anti-inflammatory shots provided to him by Dallas physician Dr. Hector Molina in January 2012. Dr. Molina had previously examined the fighter during Overeem’s application process with the Texas Dept. of Licensing and Regulation for a bout against Fabricio Werdum at Strikeforce in June 2011.

Chesnoff’s presentation focused on establishing a timeline to show that Overeem hadn’t taken the medication in the vicinity of a competitive bout and that he never intended it to give him a performance-enhancing edge.

Under oath, Overeem said he’d sought out the physician on another fighter’s recommendation primarily for a re-aggravated rib injury while on the road for a promotional tour and was given a mixed shot for the pain on Jan. 12 in Molina’s office that was ultimately revealed to contain a steroid-based component.

Overeem said he’d also self-injected a second shot from the same vial, given to him by Dr. Molina, on March 23 in Las Vegas under the physician’s direction — four days before the NSAC conducted its random tests. When asked, Overeem told the commission that he hadn’t asked Dr. Molina what was in the medication and the physician had never specified the shot contained steroid-based elements.

However, in separate testimony, Dr. Molina said he’d used the trade name for an aqueous testosterone in the mixture, when describing the medication to the athlete. In later testimony, Dr. Molina admitted he wasn’t sure what names he’d used in describing the drug cocktail he gave the fighter.

Throughout the testimony, both Overeem and his attorneys stated that the fighter had withdrawn from the UFC heavyweight title bout voluntarily, something that hasn’t been confirmed by the promotion to date. Overeem said he’d withdrawn from the bout to clear his name.

– Loretta Hunt

Anderson Silva (left) and Chael Sonnen (right) will finally wage their anticipated rematch at UFC 148 in Las Vegas on July 7. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC)

Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen are still scheduled to meet this summer, and that’s good news for fight fans.

But some bad news surrounding the rematch came Tuesday morning when the Brazilian UFC middleweight champion, his self-proclaimed beltholder of an opponent and Dana White, the fight organization’s president, showed up in Rio de Janeiro to announce that the bout no longer would be held in a stadium there on June 23, as scheduled, but was being moved to July 7 in Las Vegas.

The fight hasn’t exactly lost its luster — Vegas has more of that than anywhere else on the planet — but it’s lost a good bit of the grit and righteousness that have made this rematch’s backstory so intriguing.

You see, the fight is not simply between Silva and Sonnen. Chael, with his WWE-style bluster, has turned it into him vs. Brazil with his trash-talk ridicule of the country’s top fighters and even the nation itself. The mockery of the Nogueira brothers, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva and the like is fair game; they’re all big boys who can take care of themselves. But Sonnen’s rhetoric about Brazil has veered into ugly-American xenophobia.

“When I was a little kid, I remember going outside and sitting with my friends,” Sonnen said during the press conference. “We’d talk about the latest technology and medicine and gaming and American ingenuity.” Then he brought his story to the present day to draw a contrast, saying, “And I’d look outside and Anderson and the Brazilian kids are sitting outside playing the mud.”

That’s Chael at his mildest. In past diatribes, he’s characterized Brazil as backward in far more insulting ways. And he’s done so with little or no backlash, as the MMA media — and I must lump myself in the horde, unfortunately — mostly just yuks it up with the guy.

So Brazil deserved its shot at Sonnen. Sure, he appeared Tuesday in a Rio conference room, and I half-expected to see a shoe thrown at his head, a la George W. Bush before the Baghdad media. But a press conference isn’t enough. After talking the talk, he should have been made to walk the walk — that is, stroll out to the octagon in a soccer stadium filled with Brazilians excited to see him get beat up by the champ.

It’s just not going to work out in Brazil, however. My first thought upon hearing of the fight’s relocation was that the UFC feared for Sonnen’s safety. That might actually be the reason, but the public explanation is that the Rio stadium event fell apart because of the United Nations’ Rio+20 Conference taking place the same week, eating up hotel rooms and making a UFC event a logistical impossibilty. So there go the plans of sustainability for conference attendees who were hoping to catch the fights, too.

There still will be a UFC 147 fight card in Brazil — there’s no date set, but it’ll be in an arena, not in a stadium, and still feature a showdown of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil coaches Belfort and Wanderlei Silva, plus the reality show’s middleweight and featherweight finals and a Fabricio Werdum-Mike Russow heavyweight bout. White said Tuesday he might also put featherweight champion José Aldo on the card. So it’s not all bad news for Brazilian fans.

And by moving Silva-Sonnen II to Las Vegas, White has transformed UFC 148 into a Fourth of July fireworks spectacle. In addition to the fight for the middleweight championship, there also will be a bantamweight tile bout between The Ultimate Fighter: Live coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber plus a Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin rubber match (perhaps Tito’s final fight), Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le and Michael Bisping vs. Tim Boetsch.

All’s well that ends well, then? That’s what White would have you believe. “This is going to be a global event. If we were going to do it here in Brazil, it needed to be done in a huge soccer stadium,” he said. “As we got into the logistics of trying to make this thing happen here, we just couldn’t pull it off. If we couldn’t do it here, then Las Vegas was the only other option.”

Silva took some convincing to make the move, according to While, although the champion was nothing but agreeable at the press conference. “I’m a UFC athlete, and I have fans all over the world,” he said. “Regardless of where this fight takes place, I will represent Brazil, and I will do my job and defend my belt.”

That was the professional thing for him to say. But the fans in his home country deserved better.

– Jeff Wagenheim

Dana White interacts with his more than two million followers on Twitter during Saturday night's UFC 145 card in Atlanta. (Bryan Armen Graham/SI.com)

ATLANTA — Dana White is a sick man.

It’s 8:51 p.m. on fight night and the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship has just been shot up with two bags of IV fluids in an anonymously marked lounge in the bowels of Philips Arena. Food poisoning, he explains, from a bad turkey burger during last night’s red-eye from Las Vegas.

“I can’t f—ing believe I’m standing here,” White says, nursing a three-quarters-full SmartWater bottle filled with a urine-colored fluid (“Pedialyte,” he says). “I thought I was going to die this morning. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t walk. I was sweating like someone sprayed me with a hose. I was sprawled out on the marble floor of my bathroom.”

Yet White is on his feet, peering at a MacBook screen over the shoulder of Kristin Adams, the UFC’s 28-year-old social media whiz, who is busy engaging with celebrities and fans buzzing about tonight’s UFC 145 card. His attention diverts to the flatscreen TV showing the undercard bout currently happening outside between Mac Danzig and Efrain Escudaro.

As Adams reads aloud tweets from celebrities posting about the fight — Criss Angel, Jerry Rice, Jim Norton, Kelly Slater — White dictates rapid-fire responses as he unboxes a new cell phone. He directs Adams to tweet out the number, offering his more than two million followers an opportunity to trade opinions with one of the most powerful and unorthodox executives in sports.

White spoke on the phone Saturday night with several UFC fans, who called a phone number he posted on Twitter. (Bryan Armen Graham/SI.com)

“There’s no service down here, they’re all going to voice mail,” he says. “Five voice mails, six voice mails, seven voice mails.”

Finally the phone rings; a fan calling from Sweden made it through. “Who’s this?” White asks, before reassuring the voice on the other end, “I swear to God it’s really me.”

Another caller rings from New Zealand. Another from North Carolina. Another calls from inside the arena and asks if he can attend the post-fight press conference. White gets an assistant to take down his seat location and cell phone number and makes it happen. “Thanks so much for the support, bro,” he says before clicking over to the next call.

It’s White’s hands-on approach that’s helped make MMA the world’s fastest growing sport, but it’s his willingness to reach out and connect with the fans that create a brand loyalty that ensures they’ll be long-term customers.

It’s hard to imagine Roger Goodell or David Stern shooting the bull with fans before an important game. “I don’t understand why though,” White says. “It’s so easy to do. It takes two seconds.”

– Bryan Armen Graham

ATLANTA — The well documented animosity between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans had seemed to abate during the week leading up to Saturday’s UFC light heavyweight title fight.

Then came Friday’s weigh-ins at the Fox Theatre, where the two estranged friends and former training partners stepped on the scale — then came together for an intense staredown worthy of one of the biggest grudge matches in the promotion’s 19-year history.

With the 4,678-seat erstwhile movie palace nearly filled to capacity, Evans (204 pounds) and Jones (205) both came in under the division limit. Both fighters drew mixed reactions from a crowd that seemed evenly divided in their support.

“It’s been a bit different because of the media and everything, but at the same time, I enjoyed the process,” Evans told UFC commentator Joe Rogan. “It is a lot of emotion involved, but at the same time, I’m looking forward to stepping in the cage and fighting Jones.”

“It’s a gigantic fight. I’m excited to be here, baby,” Jones said, amid an uncommon chorus of boos. “I’m ready to tear some heart out.”

Every fighter made weight Friday except for John Makdessi, who came in three pounds over the lightweight limit of 155 pounds and will forfeit 20 percent of his purse to opponent Anthony Njokuani.

Yesterday, Evans had observed how a fight actually starts at the weigh-ins. ”It’s really the last time you see your guy before you see him in the cage,” he said. “You get to see his energy, feel his energy.”

If the hostility exuding from both fighters Friday is any indication, their light heavyweight title showdown Saturday at Philips Arena should be a cracker.

(Watch the entire weigh-ins here.)

– Bryan Armen Graham

Chael Sonnen hugs a fan after inviting her on the Fox Theater stage on Friday. (Matt Dollinger/SI)

ATLANTA — Chael Sonnen has never been one to shy away from contact or controversy.

Regarded as one of the top middleweight fighters in the UFC, Sonnen is better known as the pound-for-pound trash-talking champion in a sport riddled with challengers. Not only is Sonnen one of the UFC’s biggest personalities, but he’s also one of its most quotable – challenging topics much like he does opponents.

Promoting his new book, “The Voice of Reason: A VIP Pass to Enlightenment,” Sonnen graced the Fox Theater stage in Atlanta on Friday for a question-and-answer sessions with fans prior to the official UFC 145 weigh-ins.

Sonnen’s next scheduled fight is a rematch against Anderson Silva at UFC 147 in Brazil, but reports are circulating that Sonnen-Silva II will be moved to UFC 148 in Las Vegas due to a logistical conflict with a United Nations conference in Rio slated for the same time of the original event.

That might be a blessing for Sonnen, who saved his harshest words for Brazil and its many fighters, including Silva, on Friday. Rather than rehash everything that came out of Sonnen’s mouth (some of which this blog probably shouldn’t repeat), here are the top 10 PG-13 quotes from Sonnen’s memorable appearance in Atlanta:

10) “The tooth brush was actually created in Brazil. If it’d been created anywhere inAmericaor somewhere else it’d be called the teeth brush.”

9) “I’m not a martial artist, I’m an award-winning author. I don’t even know what the word ‘martial’ means. I’m not 100 percent I could spell it and I don’t think I could define it.”

8) “I’ll never be a closet champion. Come one, come all.”

7) “I haven’t even agreed to (fight Silva). My demand has not been met. Anderson has his list, I have but one request. There will be 80,000 people in attendance and my demand is simple: silence. When I come through the curtain, they will sit down and shut their mouths and show respect to their American guest. Or I will go back in my car, back to the airport, back toAmericaand (they) won’t even see me fight.”

6) “I don’t think you can give yourself a ring name. When I was young they used to call me ‘foreman,’ not because I was in charge, but because I did the work of four men.”

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Jon Jones (left) is a heavy favorite to defend his UFC light heavyweight title against Rashad Evans on Saturday night in Atlanta. (Kevin C. Cox/Zuffa LLC)

SI.com analysts Ben Fowlkes, Loretta Hunt, Jeff Wagenheim and Jon Wertheim provide their predictions for UFC 145 on Saturday in Atlanta.

Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans

FOWLKES: Evans might have the best chance yet to find out what Jones can do off his back, but nothing I’ve seen from the current champ gives me any reason to doubt him. He might have a harder time with Evans than he did with Lyoto Machida, but I think Jones still gets his hand raised via a late finish. Jones by TKO.

HUNT: At the end of the night, when Jones’ hand is raised, Evans — the most successful fighter to come out of The Ultimate Fighter series — can take stock in knowing that nobody can beat Jones right now except Jones himself. Jones by TKO.

WAGENHEIM: I don’t know if Evans is good enough to beat the champ, but he’s good enough to give Jones what no one has given him before: a scrap. “Bones” has too much fight and too much flair, however, to skip to anyone else’s Lou. Jones by KO.

WERTHEIM: Most anticipated fight on 2012 so far. Even discounting the obligatory trash talk as hype to pump pay-per-view buys, for the first time, Jones faces an opponent he truly dislikes. He’s younger, healthier, more creative and has a sizable reach advantage. Short of catching Jones, it’s hard to imagine Evans becoming the first fighter to solve the Jones riddle. Jones by decision.

READERS: In an SI.com poll, 76 percent of our readers said Jones will beat Evans.

Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills

FOWLKES: Going from Chris Cope to Rory MacDonald is a huge leap in level of competition, and I’m not sure Mills is totally ready for it. Despite his age, MacDonald fights like a seasoned vet these days — one with very few weaknesses. MacDonald by TKO.

HUNT: If Georges St-Pierre really called MacDonald the next St-Pierre as Dana White claims, that speaks volumes to what the UFC champ/future legend must be seeing training alongside the 22-year-old prospect. Mills, a European circuit vet, is in for a tough night. MacDonald by KO.

WAGENHEIM: MacDonald was climbing the welterweight ladder hand over fist until an injury last fall stopped him cold. Now it’s time for the hot prospect to resume his ascent. MacDonald by submission.

WERTHEIM: What does matchmaker Joe Silva know that we don’t? Mills might be a promising fighter but this is a big step up. McDonald — superior on every dimension — takes the fight to ground and wins by strikes. MacDonald by submission.

READERS: In an SI.com poll, 59 percent of our readers said MacDonald will beat Mills.
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Stephen Thompson won six world kickboxing titles and amassed a mark of 63-0 as an amateur and pro before joining the UFC. (Kevin C. Cox/Zuffa LLC)

ATLANTA — Of the six preliminary fights airing on FX before Saturday’s UFC 145 pay-per-view telecast, none is more intriguing than Stephen Thompson’s meeting with veteran Matt Brown.

A six-time world champion kickboxer, Thompson became an overnight sensation in February with a spectacular first-round knockout of Dan Stittgen in his UFC debut, a four-minute stoppage that earned the Simpsonville, S.C., native a $65,000 bonus for the Knockout of the Night.

“There is a little pressure [to follow up] a four-minute knockout in your first UFC fight,” Thompson, 28, said at Thursday’s open workouts at Georgia State University. “But you’re fighting better guys now. Matt Brown has been in the fight game for a very long time. He’s got a lot of experience. So I’m not expecting to go out and knock this guy out. If it happens, it happens.”

The 32-year-old Brown felt his knockout of Chris Cope on the same card as Thompson’s debut was more deserving the bonus, making no secret of it. Ultimately, he asked to face Thompson — a request Dana White, no enemy to drama, was happy to grant.

The media in Thompson’s native South Carolina have done their part to hype the fight. When Thompson appeared on a local radio station — “93.3 The Planet,” he recalled with a smile — Brown called into the station while his opponent was being interviewed on the air. (Brown confessed Thursday the radio station had orchestrated the dust-up by scheduling the call.)

Thompson trained with Rashad Evans for a week in Florida while preparing for Saturday’s sophomore outing. The two first met when Thompson was flown to Albuquerque to help Evans prepare for his May 2009 fight with Lyoto Machida. They’ve kept up a good relationship and Thompson has been training with him ever since.

And though Evans is a 5-to-1 underdog against Jon Jones in Saturday’s main event, Thompson is bullish on the former champion’s upset chances.

“The guy’s a monster man, he’s a beast,” Thompson said. “He’s so ready. Mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, he’s there. So I’m excited to see that one.”

– Bryan Armen Graham

Georges St-Pierre made an unscheduled visit to the UFC 145 open workouts Thursday at Georgia State University in Atlanta. (Kevin C. Cox/Zuffa LLC)

ATLANTA — Georges St-Pierre is the UFC welterweight champion and widely regarded as the biggest draw in mixed martial arts, having attracted more than 750,000 pay-per-view buys to six different events over the past four years.

But he’s also a fan. And no one is looking forward to Saturday’s light heavyweight title showdown between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans more.

“As a fan of the sport, it’s definitely a fight I want to see,” St-Pierre said Thursday at the Georgia State University Sports Arena, where several fighters on Saturday’s card held open workouts for media and fans. “Both of these guys are incredibly talented. I believe that a mistake from one of these two guys will be fatal.”

St-Pierre, who turns 31 next month, hasn’t fought since making his seventh consecutive defense of the UFC’s 170-pound title with a points victory over Jake Shields in April 2011. He pulled out of an October defense against Carlos Condit due to a knee injury suffered in training. Two months later, it was revealed St-Pierre would be sidelined 10 months after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

“I’m in good shape now, but I’m not in fighting shape,” said St-Pierre, who explained the graft in his knee needs more time to fuse before he moves on from light exercise. “In two months it’s going to 100 percent. I don’t want to mess it up. If I try to jump or go too fast, I will have to do it all over again.”

St-Pierre spoke highly of rising welterweight prospect Rory MacDonald, who fights Che Mills in Saturday’s co-feature bout. The 22-year-old MacDonald, who trains alongside St-Pierre at Tristar Gym in Montreal, says he wants to be a world champion within two years — in the division St-Pierre currently rules.

“I’m not interested in fighting him,” St-Pierre said, repeating himself multiple times. “There are a lot of welterweights. I don’t think we have to do it now. In two years, who knows? Maybe I will go to middleweight. Who knows what’s going to happen?”

Ever the diplomat, St-Pierre abstained from predicting Saturday’s winner — but he said it won’t take long to see who’s in the driver’s seat.

“After the first round, we will have a good idea of who will impose his dominance,” he said. “After the first round, we will see who will be the winner, who will be able to impose his game on the other guy.”

– Bryan Armen Graham