The popularity -- and correlating distractions -- of mixed martial arts has made securing fighters for interviews slightly more difficult than a few years ago. They’re pushed and pulled in a lot of different directions, and a Web site request for comment doesn’t usually trump sponsorship obligations, family, or sleep.

On the whole, though, combat athletes tend to make themselves more available and amenable than their MLB, NFL, or PGA equivalents, most of whom insulate themselves in a Snuggie’s worth of PR and league foot soldiers.

Shocking then, that Tim Sylvia turned down an interview from Fighters.com shortly before Friday’s rebound bout against Jason Riley in Nebraska. Sylvia, savvy media player he is, apparently asked for some of the questions beforehand. And he might’ve been right on board until the interviewer -- identified only as “Chad” -- previewed this home run: “Did you bed [Andrei] Arlovski’s ex-girlfriend, Patricia Mikula?”

Chad, Chad. Do you think “Stuttering” John Melendez passed a list of questions over to Ringo Starr’s publicist before asking what we did with the money his mother gave him for singing lessons? If you have to go there, go there unannounced.

The ambush interview can be amusing in the right hands, but in the end, using a crowbar to peer into an athlete’s personal life is only going to result in a greater divide between press and personalities. And if that happens -- if performers begin to look and sound as clinical as the bores in other sports -- fans are going to have a harder time relating. That’s a big, big component of this sport’s success: athletes as accessible, regular people. Not bubble boys.

You loved him as “Aryan #1” in 2007’s “The Death and Life of Bobby Z” and as “Man in Coma” in the Ray Mercer documentary: now see Tim Sylvia as a serial killer.

First reported by Fighters.com and confirmed by Sylvia’s manager Monte Cox, Sylvia is performing stand-in duties for Michael Myers in “Halloween 2.”

Currently, he's in Boston shooting "Oxy Morons."

Former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia was removed from his Aug. 1 Affliction bout with Paul Buentello after suffering a knockout loss Saturday to Olympic gold medalist and former boxing champion Ray Mercer.

Affliction VP Tom Atencio informed Sylvia that they couldn’t take a chance on the California State Athletic Commission forcing him off the card.

Aside from being “extremely embarrassed,” Sylvia told me Tuesday that he is ready to go but understands the problematic nature of his knockout loss.

Former WBO heavyweight boxing champion Ray Mercer will have a little more of Tim Sylvia to contend with when the pair meet Saturday night at Adrenaline III inside the BJCC Arena in Birmingham, Ala., for an impromptu MMA bout.

The 6-foot-8 Maine native usually sheds down to within five pounds of the 265-pound heavyweight limit during competition. However, Sylvia weighed in Friday at 311 pounds to Mercer’s 257-pound frame –- a far cry from the former UFC champion’s usual tale of the tape.

The bout, originally intended as a six-round boxing match, has fended off criticism since its inception. It took its biggest hit yet Thursday when athletic commission reps stepped in to squash it all together, claiming it had not been properly approved and regulated.