With BJ Penn's facial reconstruction of Diego Sanchez this passed Saturday, It appears that Dana White's comment on BJ being one fight away from clearing out the division is an understatement, as it appears to me that the division is thoroughly cleared of credible challengers as of Saturday. Gray Maynard aside, the fighters in the UFC's lightweight division are either not anywhere near ready for the nightmare that is BJ Penn, or have not really strung together a consistent run of wins that make them a clear cut contender.
For example, Sean Sherk just lost to Frankie Edgar, so no dice. Tyson Griffin is a quality fighter and just had a very impressive win against Hermes Franca, but he just dropped a decision to Sherk 2 fights ago. Even Frankie Edgar, who is Maynard's closest rival in contendership, just dropped a fight to Maynard himself 3 fights ago. This leaves Gray as the only lightweight that has put together some semblance of a contendership run towards a title shot with a 6 fight streak inside the confines of the octagon. It can be more than assumed then that should Maynard "bully" has way passed Nate Diaz in their upcoming fight, Maynard will be the man to face off with the Prodigy. The caveat being that Diaz has actually already defeated Maynard, given that it was on the TUF show, but he was defeated and finished in that fight by submission.
While a 7th octagon win against Nate Diaz will more than give Maynard a proper resume for a title shot, the fight certainly does not have the appeal of the Florian or Sanchez fights promotionally. Not to mention that stylistcally, it is not a great match up for Gray, as Penn' ability to stuff take downs like pizza crust and his marked striking and grappling advantage make this fight appear to be a severely one sided affair.
Unfortunately, this problem does not get any better the higher up you go in weight. Looking at the welterweight and middleweight divisions is like looking at a mirror of 155. Lots of rematches and pseudo-contenders that really are not ready for the kind of terror that awaits them at the top of the mountain. George St Pierre is possibly the most well rounded fighter in the world. He has a fight scheduled against Dan Hardy, who, while a good fighter in his own right, matches up to GSP about as well as Maynard to Penn. As in not very. Then we come to the consensus number 1 fighter in the world in Anderson Silva. Silva has shown the kind of dominance that legends are made of. No fighter in the world would be a betting favorite against him save heavyweights that outweigh him by anywhere from 20 to 60 pounds.
All things considered, things could be worse for the UFC than having champions who are supremely dominant (UFC 108 would one of those problems, yeesh!). The solution to this issue has more or less presented itself in the form of these champions moving up in weight and challenging themselves at a higher weight class. BJ fought St Pierre earlier this year, and Silva has made 2 treks up to 205 to test the waters. BJ still regularly talks about his desire to move back up to welterweight and make a run at St Pierre. Should he dispose of Maynard or whoever the next title challenger is at 155 lbs, a run at welterweight would be an interesting proposition. However, Penn must concede that he needs to put on some quality mass and keep his conditioing program at full bore to really make an impact. Carb loading and hoarking down spam moco is not going to get him passed the welterweight elite, much less GSP.
For St Pierre, after Hardy and a possible match up against Josh Koscheck, The Anderson Silva superfight cannot be that far off, as he'll have then beaten the majority of deserving contenders. On the Silva tip, Anderson's manager Ed Soares has already spoken to Dana White about possibly having the Spider vacate the middleweight title and make his way to 205 permanently. I would personally advocate for this as a fight with Vitor Belfort and a rematch against Nate Marquardt are less than appetizing at this point.
-R
For example, Sean Sherk just lost to Frankie Edgar, so no dice. Tyson Griffin is a quality fighter and just had a very impressive win against Hermes Franca, but he just dropped a decision to Sherk 2 fights ago. Even Frankie Edgar, who is Maynard's closest rival in contendership, just dropped a fight to Maynard himself 3 fights ago. This leaves Gray as the only lightweight that has put together some semblance of a contendership run towards a title shot with a 6 fight streak inside the confines of the octagon. It can be more than assumed then that should Maynard "bully" has way passed Nate Diaz in their upcoming fight, Maynard will be the man to face off with the Prodigy. The caveat being that Diaz has actually already defeated Maynard, given that it was on the TUF show, but he was defeated and finished in that fight by submission.
While a 7th octagon win against Nate Diaz will more than give Maynard a proper resume for a title shot, the fight certainly does not have the appeal of the Florian or Sanchez fights promotionally. Not to mention that stylistcally, it is not a great match up for Gray, as Penn' ability to stuff take downs like pizza crust and his marked striking and grappling advantage make this fight appear to be a severely one sided affair.
Unfortunately, this problem does not get any better the higher up you go in weight. Looking at the welterweight and middleweight divisions is like looking at a mirror of 155. Lots of rematches and pseudo-contenders that really are not ready for the kind of terror that awaits them at the top of the mountain. George St Pierre is possibly the most well rounded fighter in the world. He has a fight scheduled against Dan Hardy, who, while a good fighter in his own right, matches up to GSP about as well as Maynard to Penn. As in not very. Then we come to the consensus number 1 fighter in the world in Anderson Silva. Silva has shown the kind of dominance that legends are made of. No fighter in the world would be a betting favorite against him save heavyweights that outweigh him by anywhere from 20 to 60 pounds.
All things considered, things could be worse for the UFC than having champions who are supremely dominant (UFC 108 would one of those problems, yeesh!). The solution to this issue has more or less presented itself in the form of these champions moving up in weight and challenging themselves at a higher weight class. BJ fought St Pierre earlier this year, and Silva has made 2 treks up to 205 to test the waters. BJ still regularly talks about his desire to move back up to welterweight and make a run at St Pierre. Should he dispose of Maynard or whoever the next title challenger is at 155 lbs, a run at welterweight would be an interesting proposition. However, Penn must concede that he needs to put on some quality mass and keep his conditioing program at full bore to really make an impact. Carb loading and hoarking down spam moco is not going to get him passed the welterweight elite, much less GSP.
For St Pierre, after Hardy and a possible match up against Josh Koscheck, The Anderson Silva superfight cannot be that far off, as he'll have then beaten the majority of deserving contenders. On the Silva tip, Anderson's manager Ed Soares has already spoken to Dana White about possibly having the Spider vacate the middleweight title and make his way to 205 permanently. I would personally advocate for this as a fight with Vitor Belfort and a rematch against Nate Marquardt are less than appetizing at this point.
-R
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