In case some of you haven’t been paying attention, the Apocalypse is set to take place tomorrow.

If there are any athletes who might survive on the post-apocalyptic planet, it would be mixed-martial artists.

Here are the five guys I would like to be around tomorrow, once The Rapture saves those who will be saved.

1. Matt Hughes – As his walk-out song goes “A Country Boy Can Survive”. Hughes is a farm boy that can probably do anything and everything as long as he has a pair of boots and a piece of John Deere equipment that he can break down into parts. He can certainly kill any other living animal and will likely know how to build a fire and refine liquid into water. The question is, will he spend too much time making smart-ass remarks about how much of a girl you are for trying to get your IPhone to work? You also would have to put up with his stories about how boring a fighter Georges St. Pierre is.

2. Lyoto Machida – Machida is almost like an animal more than a human when you consider his cat-like speed and reflexes. I would think no zombies stand a chance against him. Also, the man drinks his own urine, so a lack of water won’t be a big issue for him. Let’s just hope if we can’t find food that he thinks your bodily releases will also make for a good replacement.

3. Forrest Griffin – The man wrote a book about it, so I have a sense he is prepared. He doesn’t seem too concerned with bathing or looking good, so he wouldn’t waste time with that. He also is a scrapper, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him try and take down a cougar or a lion for food. Problem with Forrest is, he might kill you, and not just for necessity.

4. Chael Sonnen – As a man in an apocalyptic world, you are going to need to tap into your survival instincts and really draw on adrenaline and testosterone. Well, Chael has plenty of that. In fact, he has some by the bottle full. So, you may have to put up with a lot of idiotic statements that he will later claim he never said, but at least your motor should always be on high.

5. Roy Nelson – Sure, he doesn’t look like much of an athlete, but the guy can hit hard and he can choke out any zombies or animals that might attack. He has a big appetite, so food will always be a priority in your survival group, which means you should eat well. Also, his belly should make a nice pillow during the down times

The road to getting back inside the octagon just got a whole lot tougher for Chael Sonnen.

On Wednesday, the California State Athletic Commission voted 4-1 to uphold an indefinite suspension against Sonnen that will keep him from returning to competition for the foreseeable future. Josh Gross of ESPN.com has all the details.

The suspension, issued April 19, came after the commission’s legal counsel felt Sonnen may have perjured himself during testimony at an appeal hearing in December related to his ban for elevated levels of testosterone following a UFC middleweight championship fight against Anderson Silva on Aug. 7. The commission also addressed whether Sonnen’s guilty plea in January — to money-laundering charges related to his real-estate business for which he was sentenced to 24 months probation, a $10,000 fine, and loss of his real-estate license — brought “discredit” to the state as a licensee.

The indefinite suspension runs through June 29, when Sonnen’s license in California expires. Sonnen will be placed on the MMA registry used by regulators to monitor medical and administrative suspensions. He is free to apply for licenses in other jurisdictions, but California requested that other commissions contact it in the event that Sonnen requests a license.

The trial has the attention of most everyone in MMA as Sonnen was still coming off his near win over Anderson Silva last summer, as he won four-straight rounds against the champion before being submitted late in the fifth round.

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Chael Sonnen is not known for biting his tongue.

I don’t know if he was provoked or not (probably not) but Sonnen decided to throw out his opinion of Georges St. Pierre on his twitter account recently

I watch hockey and rugby. Anything that has a remote chance of breaking out into a fight. Which is exactly why I stopped watching George.

I get it. It is kind of humorous, but Sonnen is quickly becoming more known for his one-liners than his fighting.

A couple of things stand out to me about this.

1. Sonnen criticizing anyone’s inability to finish fights is laughable given the fact that 15 of his 25 wins have gone to a decision. In fact every win he has in the UFC or WEC came by decision.

2. St. Pierre is a champion that actually won the title when he got the opportunity, something Sonnen managed to let slip away.

3. Maybe if Sonnen worried more about his legal issues and steroid usage, he wouldn’t have to throw out punch lines to stay relevant in the eyes of MMA fans.

I respect what Sonnen can do in the octagon, but he is far from the most exciting fighter in MMA and he has yet to hold a championship. His act is starting to grow tiresome and is starting to cause me to laugh at him rather than with him.

In an article that hasn’t gotten a lot of play nationally, I discovered this piece by Steve Keating from Reuters.com

The article discusses the World Anti-Doping Agency and their desire to see the UFC step up their drug testing for their fighters.

With a record 55,000 mixed martial arts fans expected to pack into the Rogers Center on Saturday for UFC 129, organizers say every fighter stepping into the cage for a title bout will be tested for performance-enhancing drugs.

But the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and USADA say they have had no role in the UFC’s anti-doping efforts and have not tested a single fighter.

Instead, testing has been left to individual state and provincial athletic commissions, which USADA chief Travis Tygart describes as woefully inadequate.

“They want, for public relation and marketing reasons, to say they have something that makes them look better than they truly are,” Tygart told Reuters.

“Why don’t they have better rules to give athletes and sports fans comfort that there is not a rampant culture of cheating with dangerous drugs going on in their sport?

“They’re trying to pull a fast one here.”

The UFC may be dropping the ball a little bit for this event when it comes to drug testing, but as a whole, the organization has seemingly done a good job of keeping fighters honest.

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This week I turn my rankings to the middleweight division.

Really, the field is Anderson Silva and everyone else.

Still, here is my take. If you need to go back and find my pound-for-pound, heavyweight, or light heavyweight rankings, click on the links.

1. Anderson Silva (28-4) – Silva is my top fighter in any weight class, let alone middleweight. “The Spider” is like an artist in the cage. He rarely throws a strike that doesn’t land and he doesn’t waste energy while fighting. Everything he does has a purpose and thought to it. Chael Sonnen may have found a small hole in his game with his takedown defense, but he still managed to submit Sonnen and then bounce back with a devastating front kick to Vitor Belfort in the first round of his last title defense. Up next is Yushin Okami, had poses the right skill set to give Silva problems.

2. Chael Sonnen (25-11-1) – Sonnen is almost here by default. The other top guys in the group have either lost to him, or lost to someone that he has beaten. Sonnen is a grinder and a tremendous wrestler, but he has a clear weakness in his submission defense. Eight of his 11 losses have come by submission. Sonnen is also coming off a long layoff from a steroid suspension and legal issues. We will see if he can get back to being the fighter that nearly dethroned Silva.

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