The UFC’s second outing on primetime network TV was much like the first, a letdown when it came to the action, but a boon in the long run. The three televised bouts all went to decision, and were doused with a helping of boos along the way.

As sport theater, it was certainly a letdown, but from a business perspective, the UFC got exactly what it wanted.

That’s because the main event and co-main event perfectly set up a pair of long-awaited grudge matches. And not just any kind of grudge matches, but championship bouts.

The long-simmering feud between Chael Sonnen and middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva has been going on since August 2010, when Sonnen dominated Silva for over four rounds before submitting to a triangle/armbar in a heartbreaker.

Sonnen has wasted no time in essentially calling Silva a coward, questioning his desire to accept the rematch.

“Do I think that he’ll sign to fight? No, I don’t,” he said. “We’ll see. I’ve been wrong before. They’ve tried to get him to fight four times. That’s the one thing they don’t tell you. I’m not trying to go against the brass, but the one thing they haven’t revealed is that they’ve offered him the fight four times and he said no four times. Mysteriously, he’s supposed to accept on the fifth. The saying is ‘the third time’s the charm.’ I’ve never heard of ‘the fifth time’s the charm.’”

Yet UFC president Dana White guaranteed that Silva would take the fight, which is likely to take place in his home country in Brazil. As Silva’s fame has exploded -- he recently became the first UFC fighter to pass 1 million followers on Twitter -- Sonnen has become public enemy one in the country’s MMA circles, so much so that there have been questions about Sonnen’s safety should the fight be signed.

The enmity between the two men should lead to a huge gate in Sao Paulo, the city likely to host the event, as UFC is looking at soccer stadiums that can seat over 40,000 fans. It should also generate huge pay-per-view revenue in the US. The first fight between the pair received around 600,000 pay-per-view buys, and at the time, Sonnen was considered a huge underdog with little chance to win. Now with the knowledge that he came close to upsetting Silva once, along with the months of sniping between the two, that number is likely to increase substantially.

Just as likely to draw big at the gate and on pay-per-view is the light-heavyweight championship match between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones. The teammates turned enemies storyline has been a subject of discussion for nearly a year now, but fell into jeopardy when injuries sidetracked it from occurring.

Evans took a risk by facing prospect Phil Davis, but won, ensuring a date between the two in Atlanta in April.

After winning, Evans finally admitted that the possibility of the fight with Jones had hijacked some of his attention in the leadup to the Davis fight, and that he had to fight himself from blowing another opportunity.

Unlike Evans, UFC officials had to be looking right past Saturday night. Primetime shows will ultimately increase audience size, but you have to have something to sell them, and any fight promoter will admit that a good old-fashioned grudge match is an easy sell. That makes the UFC a double-winner.

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Julie Jacobson / AP

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Junior Dos Santos flattened Frank Mir with a huge right hand and finished him on the ground at 3:04 of the second round Saturday night, emphatically defending his heavyweight title at UFC 146 on Saturday night.

Rogerio Barbosa / AFP/Getty Images

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