A familiar face returns to The Octagon this Saturday night at UFC 94, as “The American Physco” Stephan Bonnar returns to the cage, after more than a year out of action.  The man who helped launch the UFC into the mainstream more than 4 years ago has recovered from a bad knee injury, and has his sights set on a 3rd straight win.

I had a chance to talk to Bonnar (14-4) on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of his matchup with Jon Jones in Las Vegas this weekend.  It was a pretty cool interview, as we hit on everything from his rehab process from that aforementioned knee injury from his experiences inside The Ultimate Fighter house to who he thinks will have his hand raised after the main event between GSP and BJ.  Safe to say the guy is as laid back as he’s always been, but at the same time, he’s got his mind focused on a tough fight.

For many fight fans like myself, we really got hooked on MMA and the UFC in January of 2005 when Spike TV joined with Dana White’s promotion to launch The Ultimate Fighter reality series.  It was a concept that seems very simple now, but at the time, it really was ground breaking thinking.  Getting 16 of the best young fighters in a house together, having them split into teams, train their asses off every day, and eventually square off inside The Octagon in elimination fights.  The winner was crowned The Ultimate Fighter and got a 6 figure UFC contract.  Knowing what we know now, with names like Evans, Griffin, Jardine, Bisping, Diaz, Leben, Sanchez and Koschek have fared, we’d have called this a brilliant concept.  But at the time, it wasn’t so cut and dried.

The show had good success early on and grew a solid garnered a new group of fans to the sport.  It was raw, in your face, crude, profane, funny, and violent…all the ingredients of a successful show aimed at guys under 30.  But it wasn’t until the first ever Ultimate Finale when this thing really took off.  The final fight at 205 pounds saw 2 seasoned fighters square off when Stephan Bonnar took on Forrest Griffin.  In a fight that turned into an instant classic, Griffin took a unanimous 3 round decision over Bonnar…a fight where you could feel the electicity in the building intensify after each landed punch.  Both fighters became extremely popular following, and Bonnar would win his first 3 fights afterwards.

He took decision wins over Sam Hoger and Keith Jardine along with scoring a 1st round submission over James Irvin in the 12 months following the Griffin fight.  Bonnar would run into the undefeated (hey, he still is) Rashad Evans in June of 2006 and lost a 3 round decision.  It was a fight where he was distracted, but a fight he wasn’t happy with because he failed to follow his gameplan.  2 months later, at UFC 62, Bonnar would step in for the long awaited rematch with Forrest Griffin with the exact same result as the first meeting…a unanimous decision victory for Griffin.  But, to paraphrase Bonnar in our interview, “I don’t dwell too much on my losses, you can’t gain much from doing that.”

It looked like a good attitude to have, because Bonnar would win his next 2 fights over Mike Nickels and Eric Schafer before being scheduled for UFC Fight Night 13 in a battle with another TUF contestant, Matt Hammil.  But a week into training, he messed up his knee, and it set things back quite a bit…not only did he have to pull out of the fight, but insurances issues followed as well.  But the long road back seems to be almost over, as The American Physco is ready for his fight in 15 months.

He takes on Jon Jones on Saturday night, a guy fighting in just his second fight with the UFC…overall Jones is 7-0 in his mixed martial arts career, coming off a unanimous decision at UFC 87 in his debut with the promotion.  This guy is an athlete, no question…a former standout D Lineman at Syracuse in the ACC, he’s also a former state champion high school and JuCo wrestler.  He’s also only 21 years old, making him the youngest fighter signed to a contract on the UFC roster.  He’s long and skinny, but he’s got incredible power in his hands and also has a good Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game, so this is no easy fight.

But Bonnar is an experienced guy with a great all round skill set, which is scary enough.  Add to that a hunger to get things back on track, and it becomes a little scarier.  I asked him if he cared where he slotted in in the UFC’s Light Heavyweight Division…he said he didn’t really care, and that some guys get too worked up about where they are ranked.  All he can control is how he fights and if he looks good in the cage or not.  Many would infer from his first fight with Griffin that Bonnar is a standup type fighter, which isn’t totally accurate.

Bonnar is a former Chicago Golden Gloves boxer and has extremely good footwork, he can stand with the best of them at 205 pounds.  But he’s just as versed at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and has 7 of his wins via submission…he can finish from a dominant position, but he can also submit you from his back, with a triangle and 2 guillotine victories to his credit.  He wouldn’t give up much of his gameplan for the Jones fight, but you can imagine the gameplan is going to be to try and get the best of the youngster while standing.  If Bonnar can get inside Jones’s sizeable reach, he’ll have the clear striking advantage…eventually, Jones is going to try and take things to the ground.  Bonnar may end up on his back, but as outlined above, he’s very comfortable when fighting from his guard.

It’s going to be tough for Jones to pick up his second UFC victory against a seasoned vet like Bonnar, and with Bonnar being as motivated as he is, it becomes even tougher.  I call a unanimous decision for the Chicago based Bonnar, who trains most of the time with Xtreme Couture in Vegas.  He’s had a gruelling training camp…in his words, he’s “been going through this sh.t for 3 months now.”  It’s good to see one of the most popular guys in the last few years back inside The Octagon, now it’s on him to make sure all that, uh, crap is worth it.

Later today, I’ll preview the rest of the undercard at 94, including the return of Jon Fitch and a great battle at 205 pounds between a couple of 13-0 fighters.  Saturday, John Pollock joins us on Sportsline Saturday from The Fight Network to preview the whole shebang, while we’ll also get some local celebs weighing in on the fight as well.

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