With UFC 134 in the books, and Will Cooling’s play by playviewable here, there are plenty of possibilities to be found with the winners and losers. With the dust settled, and Anderson Silva setting yet another UFC record en route to another resounding win, it is time to play Joe Silva and see where five of the main fighters on this card will end up next.
Anderson Silva vs. winner of Brian Stann-Chael Sonnen – This is the obvious matchup for good reason. A rematch with Sonnen gives Silva the ability to shut up the American wrestler for good. A fight against Stann gives him a favorable standup fight that’ll probably end up with Stann knocked out. Either way both fights could be compelling.
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Dan Henderson – Rashad is the #1 contender and will probably get Jon Jones early 2011, perhaps the NYE card if his hand has healed. If Rua is in the mix, perhaps needing another victory to be truly back in title contention after the Rashad/Jones/Rampage triangle sorts itself out. Henderson could get a title fight immediately but he’d have a long layoff. Both could use a stay busy fight and this is a matchup that hasn’t happened already. It would give you a credible number one contender no matter who wins between Rua and Henderson. Henderson has questions of credibility considering the lower level of competition he’s faced since knocking out Michael Bisping at UFC 100. Rua could use another good victory before challenging Jones/Jackson/Evans.
There is some history to this as well. Henderson beat Shogun’s brother by decision in Pride and a chance to avenge some family honor could be interesting as well.
Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz – The series is notched at one apiece. Tito is healthy but clearly not a contender again. Forrest is starting to find himself in that category as well. Why not settle the issue on the undercard of a bigger event? Both guys are not going to be elite again, most likely, and this has the shades of being another scrappy fight like the prior two were. It’d make a great secondary fight, an upper-tier one right underneath the two big drawing fights.
Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Brock Lesnar – Brock wants top notch competition when he comes back. He still has to be considered a top five contender to the title and needs a couple victories to get another shot at his title. Big Nog just disposed of a wannabe-contender and is showing signs that he might have something more left in the gas tank. This makes an awful lot of sense. On the one the hand, if Brock wins he gets a tremendous scalp into his MMA trophy collection. Big Nog needs a top level opponent to see if this win was just a fluke or if he has something left to challenge for a title.
Stanislav Nedkov vs. Alexander Gustafsson – The UFC likes to throw talented prospects against each other and this could be a great fight. Gustafsson has shown flashes of brilliance but has lost to some top guys. Nedkov stopped a tough guy in Luiz Cane and Gustafsson beat Matt Hamill into retirement. Both are also exciting and this would go a long way in determining just how far either is from contending.
