On The Road To A Title Shot

Columns

The upcoming UFC events should be very interesting with four title fights in the next four events. Once those fights are over, the UFC will be looking for new challengers for their champions. Every division has a great list of talented fighters waiting to get their shot at the gold. Let’s look at each division and see what could happen in the near future.

Lightweight

The lightweight division will see one of it’s biggest fights soon as UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn defends against number one contender Kenny Florian. BJ has been a dominant champion at 155 with victories over Joe Stevenson and Sean Sherk. Florian has also shined lately with some dominant wins over Joe Lauzon, Roger Huerta and Joe Stevenson as well. These two men will face off for the title at UFC 101 but when the dust settles and the champion is left standing, what will happen next.

Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida will battle it out at The Ultimate Fighter 9 finale. Sanchez made a quick impact in the lightweight division with a win against Joe Stevenson at UFC 95 and positioned himself as a top contender right away. Clay Guida has looked impressive lately with a surprise win over Nate Diaz and will look to continue on that road against Diego. Whoever wins that fight should likely place himself as the next man to challenge for the title.

At UFC 98, former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk will fight Frankie Edgar. This is another interesting fight because both men have established themmselves as top contenders for the title. If Penn beats Florian and retains and Sherk beats Frankie, I doubt Sean gets a title shot next because of his loss to BJ at UFC 84. Chances are that the winner of Guida/Sanchez would get the shot.

Welterweight

At UFC 100 in Las Vegas, Georges St-Pierre will defend his welterweight championship against “The Pitbull” Thiago Alves. Georges is currently ranked as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, but Alves is a hungry contender that poses some very interesting threats to the champion.

Waiting for a title shot are Mike Swick and Martin Kampmann. Both men are former middleweight fighters that have looked great since dropping down to 170. Mike Swick has an upcoming fight with Ben Saunders at UFC 99 and a win could easily place him as the number one contender.

Martin Kampmann has won his last two fights at 170 and showed he was ready for the best fighters the division had to offer. These are two men that St-Pierre has never fought in the past and that he could fight if he retains his title against Thiago Alves. If “The Pitbull” emerges from Las Vegas the new champion, we may see a list of talented fighters waiting to get their title shot, in that list ould be Jon Fitch.

Middleweight

The future of the UFC middleweight division is really uncertain. With the champion Anderson Silva maybe going up to 205 or maybe even retiring, the division could turn upside down in a matter of months. As the king of the 185 division, Anderson Silva has beat the best fighters that was put in front of him and made it look easy.

Current coaches of The Ultimate Fighter 9, Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson, will fight it out at UFC 100 in what could be a number one contender’s match. Dan Henderson has been looking to get a rematch with Silva ever since his loss at UFC 82 and Bisping would want that same shot. Bisping has looked great since coming to the middleweight division and would love to test his skills against Silva.

Nate Marquardt is another fighter that would love a rematch against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. At UFC 73, Marquardt was TKO’ed in the first round against the champion and has been dreaming about a rematch since then. Nate has looked great in his last fights and made it back to the top of the contender’s ladder and should be getting a title shot very soon.

BJJ wizard Demian Maia is another fighter that would love a title shot soon, I don’t know if it’s been 100% confirmed that he would be the next challenger, but he will make his way towards that for sure. He’s undefeated  and it seems nobody can withstand his ground game.

Light-Heavyweight

This division is arguably the most stacked of them all. With fighters like Brandon Vera, Matt Hamill, Luiz Cane and Jon “Bones” Jones making their way to the top, the light-heavyweight division is a tough one to be in.

At the next UFC event, UFC 98, UFC light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will defend the title against Lyoto Machida. Both men are undefeated and both men are in their prime and they should have a war at UFC 98. The winner of the fight will be champion and next, he should watch out for the divisions best fighters.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson won a decision against Keith Jardine at UFC 96 and with that win, became the number one contender for the gold. Unfortunately, he was not cleared to compete for the title as soon as UFC 98 and Lyoto Machida was given the opportunity. If everything stays the same, Rampage should get a crack at the winner of Evans/Machida.

Forrest Griffin will make his return soon against Thiago Silva at UFC 101. The former light-heavyweight champion could easily get back in the contender’s column with a win in Philadelphia against Silva. Who knows, maybe Forrest could get his long awaited rematch against Quinton soon.

Heavyweight

The beginning of the heavyweight tournament began at UFC 91 between Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture and continued at UFC 92 with “Minautoro” Nogueira vs Frank Mir. Alot of people were surprised to see Brock and Frank come out winners of these two fights and now, they will unify the heavyweight title at UFC 100 in what could be the biggest heavyweight fight in UFC history.

It will be interesting to see who gets the first title shot after UFC 100 considering that Couture and Nogueira lost to them. We may see a fighter like Shane Carwin, Cheik Kongo or Junior Dos Santos rise to the occasion and try to capture the belt. Whatever happens, The winner of the Lesnar/Mir fight will have a tough challenger waiting for him.

This is what we could be seeing in the next year in the UFC. Who will be champion and who will get the first crack at the title I can’t say for sure, but the following months in the UFC should be very interesting and filled with some great fights.