Heavyweight: (C) Cain Velasquez
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-According to MMAmania.com, Velasquez injured his shoulder and had to get surgery on it following his dominating performance last October versus Junior Dos Santos.
Who he should fight: Winner of Werdum vs Browne on UFC on Fox 11.
Who he should fight after: Stipe Miocic, Alistair Overeem or Roy Nelson.
-Shall Velasquez get past the winner of Werdum/Browne, Velasquez will have basically cleaned out the Heavyweight division. It might be a long shot but Stipe Miocic takes on Junior Dos Santos on UFC 173, and if he can get by the former champion he has a strong case for a title shot. And if not, Dos Santos already has lost the trilogy fight against Velasquez, and I doubt that Dana White would give the fight a fourth try. Other challengers that may get a shot are Alistair Overeem who recently got back on the win column, and Roy Nelson, who is taking on Big Nog in Abu Dhabi.
Light Heavyweight:(C) Jon Jones
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Next fight: Glover Teixiera at UFC 172
Who he should fight: Alexander Gustafsson
Who he should fight after: Daniel Cormier or Phil Davis.
-Since Jones' coming out party in 2011, dominating all of the big names of the Light Heavyweight division, the 205 division has never looked as competitive. Alexander Gustafsson was able to make Jones look human after all in their first fight, and his next opponent Teixiera should not be underestimated.
Middleweight:(C) Chris Weidman
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Next fight: Lyoto Machida at UFC 173
Who he should fight: Vitor Belfort
-After Vitor Belfort decided not to apply for a Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) license to fight since their banishment of Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT), Belfort would have to take 90 days to adjust to training without TRT according to his doctor. This forced the UFC to pull him from UFC 173 and put Machida in that slot.
Who he should fight after: Jacare Souza, Michael Bisping or Luke Rockhold.
Welterweight:(C) Vacant (Pending UFC 171, see last post)
Next fight: Johny Hendricks vs Robbie Lawler
Who he should fight: Condit/Woodley winner
Who he should fight after: Rory MacDonald, Matt Brown, Shields/Lombard winner or Dong Hyun Kim.
Lightweight:(C) Anthony Pettis
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Next fight: Coaching TUF 20 against Gilbert Melendez, venue TBA.
Who he should fight: Jose Aldo
Who he should fight after: Khabib Nurmagomedov, Josh Thomson, Nate Diaz, TJ Grant or Benson Henderson (Rematch).
-The UFC's newest champion Pettis has yet to have a title defense. Realistically, it is not a guarantee that Pettis would get past Melendez, and it is probable that he wouldn't get past Aldo. But if he does get past both, he will have a roster full of contenders in this talent rich division. Top of that list is American Kick Boxing Academy's Khabib Nurmagomedov, who everyone is trying to avoid.
Featherweight:(C) Jose Aldo
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Next fight: None scheduled.
-Aldo was originally linked to a fight with Anthony Pettis after his fight with Ricardro Lamas, but the fight was scrapped when Gilbert Melendez inked a new deal with the UFC that gave him a TUF 20 coaching gig along with a title shot.
Who he should fight: Mendes/Swanson winner. (Rematch)
Who he should fight after: Move up to 155.
-Aldo has literally cleaned out the Featherweight division, even the match up that he should fight (above) he has already beat both Mendes and Swanson by KO (knee to the face).
Bantamweight:(C) Renan Barao
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| Photo courtesy of mmajunkie.com |
Next fight: None scheduled.
Who he should fight: Raphael Assuncao or TJ Dillashaw
Who he should fight after: Dominick Cruz
-Dominick Cruz has not fought since October of 2011 due to various injuries. Although Cruz has never officially lost the UFC Bantamweight championship, Renan Barao has been taking care of the division for him, defeating the likes of Urijah Faber (twice), Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland.
A fight against Cruz will finally prove who the real champion is. I anticipate that Cruz will probably need to have a warm-up fight to prove that he can still perform at the same level that he did when he was still active in the UFC.
Flyweight:(C) Demetrious Johnson
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Next fight: None Scheduled.
Who he should fight: Ali Bagautinov
-As of right now Bagautinov is the only fighter who deserves a title shot right now, based on his resume, that hasn't already lost to "Mighty Mouse."
Who he should fight after: Brad Pickett, John Dodson (Rematch) or move back up to Bantamweight.
-Why Brad Pickett? Pickett just recently moved down to 125 on UFC Fight Night: London, picking up a win against UFC newcomer Neil Seery. But Why does defeating a newcomer propel him into a title shot?
It doesn't. Pickett is the only person in the flyweight division to hold a win over Mighty Mouse in the past, and that would make for an interesting story.
Other than that you can throw John Dodson back in there.
The Flyweight division is still fairly new to the UFC, and they are still working on developing its contenders, but as of now Johnson seems to have the division on lock.
Women's Bantamweight:(C) Ronda Rousey
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| Photo courtesy of greydogsoftware.com |
Next fight: None Scheduled.
Who she should fight: Cat Zingano or Alexis Davis.
-At the moment there are only two fighters that really deserve a title shot, and they are Zingano and Davis. Zingano pulled off an upset against Miesha Tate at TUF 17 finale winning by TKO in the 3rd round, and Davis beat a credible challenger at UFC 170 in Jessica Eye.
Who she should fight after: Cyborg Santos, Holly Holm or Gina Carano.
-None of the fighters on this list is currently in the UFC, with the exception of Carano who still has a few fights left on her Strikeforce contract. If Carano can come back to the sport of MMA and get one quality win, I see uncle Dana giving her the shot.
Holm is currently with Legacy Fighting Championships, but there are reports that Holm is going to meet with Dana White during the weekend of UFC 171 in Dallas.
The Cyborg fight would be a no brainer if Cyborg can successfully make weight, the UFC will have it's first ever super fight in the women's division.
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