[Zeke's Chaingun]

Originally Posted by kimocomplex

fighters dont want to fight cans

they want to prove who is the best

but since alot of sherdoggers like to think about saving title challenges and building fighters...

Who is a can on that list? Those are decent fighters. And last I checked, the fighters always say that they will fight who their employer puts in front of them. The employer will do what makes the most sense.

You do know that when you say Top Ten, that there are only 10 people who can be in the Top Ten right? You also know I hope, that it is unrealistic that a single organization is going to be have ALL TEN of the Top 10 right? Then you must think about how many fights you can get out of just a group of Ten people...

[matty22]

how bout swick-marquardt and then have louiso-luigi.the winner of louiso-luigi faces anderson and the winner of that faces swick-marquardt for a title shot.

[mMaNiAc21]

great post...that just shows how stacked up the middleweight division is for the ufc at the moment..i wanna see Silva vs Marquardt....WAR SILVA!!!

[TheHegemon1]

I enjoyed the post, its nice to see someone put some thought in a post

I also hope to see Tanner back in the contender spot, now that he is working with a team again it seems like we will see a more focused Evan

[gerin]

marquardt, swick and silva are all contenders and should be fed to franklin in that order
i dont think franklin will have trouble with marquardt or swick
if he doesnt get tagged by silva early, he should take him down and gnp him too

i dont know how long franklin is out due to injury but marquardt should get the first title shot when he comes back
i havent seen enough of marquardts fights, but with wins over doerkson and salavery, hes already the number 1 contender
ufc should try to "protect" marquardt for now so he doesnt get a loss or injured before the title fight
give him an easy fight with someone like rivera, riggs, sonnen or maybe one of the tuf3 fighters like ed herman or kalib

swick has a pretty good winning streak, but i dont think hes ready for franklin yet
he needs to show he can take some punishment and go to the distance
let him fight someone like the crow or terrell then it will prove his contender status

silva had a spectacular showing in his ufc debut
but i dont think he should get a title shot right away even though hes ranked higher than other fighters
he should get at least 2 more wins to get a title shot
but silva shouldnt have any trouble with any of the ufc middle weight division except tanner
tanner would be his worst match up style wise

[Zeke's Chaingun]

I don't think Swick is a contender at this point. He is a good fighter but he is not at that level yet IMO. He is very good, but I don't think he is THAT good yet. I don't think Swick should get that level of fighter yet until he fights and beats someone like Doerkson, Rivera, Leben, or someone else of that calibur. Then maybe I'd want to see him take on the top of the UFC.

[mjmcnns]

Great post, Zeke. I would agree with you that Swick isn't at the level to be tossed in with a Silva, Marquardt, Loiseau, etc and it does nothing but hurt the UFC to have one of their golden boy prospects destroyed like just happened to Leben. Another poster said that people care about nothing but building contenders, and not about great matches, but I think the two are parallels. Yes, it's important to build contenders, but that also helps to develop better fighters, and subsequently better matches.

[Plissken]

First batch of fights I'd like to see, keeping in mind not being able to use TUF 4 fighters until October or so. These to build up future contenders if they win, and build up some newer fighters in the UFC.
Tanner/Doerksen.
Loiseau/Silva.
Marquardt/Vitale.
Lister/Prangley.
Terrell/Mayhem Miller.
Swick/Semenov.
Leben/Baroni (unless he's back in Pride's ww grand prix, though I think the Misaki fight was supposed to be the last on his current contract with Pride) or Lawler. If Leben wins after improving his standup technical skill, He'll gain a ton of confidence back.
Fiorvante/Santiago.
Salaverry/Sonnen.
Lindland/Lawler.

The UFC should try and get Salaverry (they easily can), Vitale, Frank Shamrock, Horn (too bad he was the victim of an injury and Tanner's bout with depression), and Lindland back within the next year if they keep up the good work. They'll probably get Lindland back win or lose against Rampage, give him at least 1 fight before fighting Franklin. Try and snag Villasenor and Oliviera (he can easily cut, just let him get more fights under his belt), and Jacare (also needs more fights under his belt) to the UFC too. I'm sure Lawler, Baroni, and Miller may take a fight with the UFC here or there even though they are getting paid well elsewhere.

Ok if Marquardt wins he definitely gets next title shot. If he loses the title shot I'd love to see Tanner (if he wins), fight Marquardt to see who gets back into one of the top contender spots.
If Swick and Leben win, they fight; if Leben wins that he'll have at least 3 or 4 more matches before getting a shot. If Swick wins, he'll need at least good 2 more matches with well known fighters before his shot, one of those well known fighters would need to be a good technical standup fighter (and both top 10 fighters) like Loiseau.
Silva wins, he gets the shot after Marquardt, probably fighting a fighter that is good on the ground, but not too much of a threat to him in the process before the fight. If Loiseau wins expect him to rematch Rivera and probably give him another 2 fights before he gets another shot.
If Lister, Salaverry, Lindland, and Miller (especially if he beats Lawler) or Terrell win, I'd expect Lindland to get the shot after Silva if he wins, though probably after the TUF 4 winner fights Franklin. The winner of Terrell/Miller fights Salaverry, and Lister faces the TUF 4 loser.

All of my matchups assuming they can get Lawler, Miller, Baroni, Salaverry, Vitale, and Lindland back now and then or for good. Baroni, Vitale, Lindland, and Salaverry being the easier grabs, as Lawler and Miller are making big cash in ROTR, though I'm sure they can get them to fight periodically sort of like they can with K-1 fighters. I'd fully expect Franklin, Marquardt, Tanner, Terrell, Silva, and Lindland to be the big guns there for a while. I'm still tough on Loiseau (probably not for a good reason) because of the dominant loss to Franklin and losing to Tanner before the cut. Lister needs some 185 fights before I can judge whether he'll get there. Not sure if Salaverry can break the cusp of the 6, but he has a definite shot against Silva with his good all around and excellent ground skills. Swick needs more fights under his belt before I can judge him, especially with higher ranked fighters. Riggs was a good test, Semenov would be another before he can fight someone like Loiseau or Salaverry and then one of the big 6. If the UFC can bring in Sakuraba, besides wanting to see Sak/Shamrock 2, Sak/Frank Shamrock, Sak/Horn (if they can get him back). Sakuraba would eb a gopod fight for any of the UFC's top 10 (in the company) 185'ers. Sak/Terrell, Lister, Salaverry, and Swick would all be nice matchups.

[Superdude]

[quote=Zeke's Chaingun]Rich Franklin's going to be out for some time, but while he has been gone some interesting things have been developing in this division with Anderson Silva being brought in, and with The Ultimate Fighter 4 having taken place with the winner of the show earning a title shot at the Middleweight Champion sometime in the near future.

While Franklin has been gone we've seen a Top 5 Middleweight enter the UFC and dominate Chris Leben who was on a 5 fight winning streak in the UFC. This shakes things up a bit as before the introduction of Anderson Silva, Nate Marquardt was long considered to be the #1 contender, especially now since Jeremy Horn is no longer signed with the UFC.
Since the UFC is unlikely to launch Silva into an immediate title shot in effort to build up more credibility and a larger fan base, what will happen in the UFC until then? Here are my ideas:

Silva needs at least one more fight, possibly two since his contract is for three fights. After winning three in a row his contract would need to be renewed, convienently in time for his title fight. At this point lets consider possible fights for Silva.

QUOTE]

Come on. I can appreciate that you spent a few hours making this post, but honestly does anyone give a shit about any match other than Silva vs. Franklin? Not me.

[gerin]

Originally Posted by Zeke's Chaingun

I don't think Swick is a contender at this point. He is a good fighter but he is not at that level yet IMO. He is very good, but I don't think he is THAT good yet. I don't think Swick should get that level of fighter yet until he fights and beats someone like Doerkson, Rivera, Leben, or someone else of that calibur. Then maybe I'd want to see him take on the top of the UFC.

hes not the number 1 contender yet, but with leben's loss, hes number 2 or number 3 for sure
looks like they might throw him loiseau in ufc 62
that would be a huge test for him
if he gets passed loiseau, he should be the number 1 contender instead of marquardt