Post World War 84

by Chonbody on May 28, 2008 2:15 PM EDT

While it is at least amusing to debate whether B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk were able to pull off the spectacular fight promised and hyped by both ever since their aggressive exchanges following the main event at UFC 80, one man who came to deliver to your liver was the Axe-Murderer, Wanderlei Silva. Posting an impressive (0:36) second victory over both highly touted and often overlooked Keith Jardine puts Wanderlei in a very awkward position, and Dana White, president of the UFC, in an even stranger one. While Wand has twice dismantled now current UFC champ, Quinton Jackson, having 3 recent losses and one victory over Keith Jardine does not a title shot make. But we can at least assume that UFC president, Dana White, wanted Keith Jardine to lose baiting him against what seems to be Jardine's weakness, an aggressive inside hook swinging fighter. So where does this leave Wanderlei Silva? There are now several fighters in the UFC's LHW division who post impressive and undefeated records (Lyoto Machida, Thiago Silva, Rashad Evans) that could all make cases for title shots while a rumored Chuck Liddell vs. Shogun Rua bout would also be a reasonable tip of the hat for top contender. Yet, none of them stand out because of either stained losses or not being able to fight the number one contender (we were never sure who the number one contender was to begin with). A logical solution to sort the division out would be for a LHW grand prix tournament for all those mentioned but since that headline will never be official, UFC 84 should be seen as the closest thing to an actual tournament and therefore, viewers can expect a continuing ambivalence as to who will fight the winner of Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin. Expect all LWH winners who fought at UFC 84 to fight at least once more against each other and amusingly, the winner with the biggest highlight reel should step up to the championship plate next, undefeated record or not. The match ups that should take place and could all be the bout that take the winner to the top:

Rashad Evans vs. Wanderlei Silva

Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva

Chuck Liddell vs. Shogun Rua

Side note: The Ultimate Fighter t.v. show may very well be the cause of this slow process. Remember, the last time Quinton Rampage Jackson fought was in September.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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I don’t know if I would include Rashad or Lyoto in the title picture just yet. Both do not have a large enough fanbase at this point, in my opinion, and could use a few exciting wins before challenging for the title. I would love to see Wandy and Thiago Silva fight each other and Liddell should indeed fight Shogun, as originally planned. Should Wandy win I believe he should get the shot at Rampage, assuming Rampage defeats Griffin in July, due to his two prior wins over him in Pride. Then, if Chuck is also victorious, he should be next in line to face either Wandy or Rampage, both exciting matches. If both Wandy and Chuck both lose, that is a rematch everyone would like to see anyways and then I agree that whoever wins more decisively between Shogun and Thiago Silva, they should get the next title shot.

by scottish_rage on May 28, 2008 9:23 PM EDT reply actions

Actually

I could see what you said going that way as well (if that makes sense). The point of the article was to suggest that there is no clear number one contender for the LHW belt. At least all of the fighters both you and I mentioned will have to fight once, maybe twice more.

"Common sense is in spite of, not as the result of education. "
-Victor Hugo

by Chonbody on May 30, 2008 3:55 PM EDT reply actions