The furtue of the UFC Middleweight division in question
In the wake of UFC 117, fight fans as well as many media people have expressed interest in an immediate rematch between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and the man that dominated him for four and a half rounds only to come up short, Chael Sonnen.
It has been unofficially reported that Silva will be out until possibly March of 2011, which means an immediate rematch between the two is not a possibility. With that in mind, one must ask the question what does the UFC do with the middleweight division?
There are numerous possibilities that could play out here, but the best outcome for fight fans would be to have Vitor Belfort fight Chael Sonnen for the chance to fight Silva when he returns from injury. Then you have the winner of the Nate Marquardt vs Rousimar Palhres bout at UFC Fight Night 22 take on Yushin Okami and the winner of the bout should get the title shot after the winner of Sonnen vs Belfort.
If Silva is able to defend his title in those two fights then he should move up to the light heavyweight division and make a run at that title there.
If this happens then the middleweight division would be wide open and it would be anybody’s game. Aside from the five fighters mentioned above, there isn’t anyone in the division that at this point deserves to be in the cage with Silva.
Looking at the rest of the top fighters in the division there is nobody that stands out that could give Silva a run for his title. The rest of the top fighters in the division consist of Michael Bisping, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Chris Leben, Wanderlei Silva and Alan Belcher but he is out with an eye injury. Tough they are all very talented fighters; none of them at this point in their career pose any real threat to Silva’s title.
For now though we’ll just have to wait and see exactly how long Silva will be sidelined and what Dana White, Joe Silva and the UFC decide to do with the division.
This article also appears at The MMA Corner
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This is an awesome article, it shows they are really in need of Mr. Lombard
DANA,
HAVE SONNEN AND BELFORT GO AT IT FOR THE INTERIM UFC MIDDLE WEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP. THE WINNER GETS A SHOT AT ANDERSON SILVA FOR THE UNDISPUTED CHAMPIONSHIP.