Bob Emanuel Jr.

For Carlos Condit, the waiting is finally over.

Condit saw his opportunity to fight for a title in the Ultimate Fighting Championship change several times over the past six months, due primarily to the antics of Nick Diaz and the health of Georges St. Pierre.

The posturing comes to an end, however, on Saturday night when Condit fights Diaz for the interim UFC welterweight championship in the main event of "UFC 143," which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and air live on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. EST.

For the past few years, Anthony Johnson has endured a tough task in the days leading up to his fights.

Johnson, who made his debut in the Ultimate Fighting Championship in June 2007 with a 13-second knockout of Chad Reiner, typically shed more than 40 pounds to make weight.

Over the past few years, the Ultimate Fighting Championship found a unique way to deal with its competitors. Its parent company, Zuffa LLC, bought the competing promotions and absorbed them into UFC.

It happened with Japan's PRIDE organization and the California-based World Extreme Cagefighting in 2007. Their promotions and assets were eventually folded into the UFC.

Although his work is not yet done for the year, Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion Jon Jones already has turned in one of the most impressive calendar years in the brief history of mixed martial arts.

Jones dispatched a top contender in Ryan Bader in early February via a second-round choke. Just six weeks later, he ran through Mauricio "Shogun" Rua with a third-round TKO to capture his first UFC championship.

A hand injury delayed his next bout until September, when he returned to defeat another former UFC light heavyweight champion, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, with a submission in the fourth round.

Last weekend, two of the year's most thrilling mixed martial arts battles occurred on the same night.

Many expected the main event of UFC 139, when former Strikeforce and PRIDE champion Dan Henderson eked out a hard-fought decision against former UFC champion Mauricio Rua, to be a memorable fight. But the Bellator Fighting Championship lightweight title bout between Eddie Alvarez and challenger Michael Chandler was an unexpected surprise.

Alvarez, regarded as one of the world's top five lightweights, predicted a victory in the second round. Chandler matched Alvarez punch for punch, however, and secured a submission victory in the fourth round to win the title.

Georges St-Pierre typically is unflappable.

St-Pierre, the Ultimate Fighting Championship's welterweight champion since December 2007, is the consummate gentleman in public and in interviews. St-Pierre rarely has a cross word for an opponent and avoids the prefight insults of most contemporaries.

Most young mixed-martial-arts athletes experience their evolution in the sport in their mid-20s.

Bellator Fighting Championships middleweight Bryan Baker is no different from most in many respects. The 26-year-old's skills are constantly improving, and he is just two fights away from challenging for the middleweight championship.

The difference, however, lies in Baker's recent past. Early last year, Baker was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. He fought in Bellator's second season and reached the middleweight-tournament finale, where he lost to Alexander Shlemenko.