Anderson Silva v. James Irvin

[Mr. Zhu]

I agree that the middle weight division holds no challenge to Silva. Franklin is the #1 contender there, and Silva beat him twice already (three times, if you count the TKO at the very end of the first round in their second match)

But, in my view, Machida is definitely the #1 contender for the LHW title. Ortiz recently left the UFC after losing to Machida, Jackson just lost the belt so he needs a fight or two before there's any chance of another title shot and he's currently having legal troubles, Wanderlei only has one win over Jardine after recently losing to Liddell, Liddell only has a win over Wanderlei (which is big, but still it's one victory) after losing consecutively to both Jardine and Jackson and his next fight is against a mid-level fighter Rashad in September. Shogun might be considered the #1 contender by fans, but after his recent loss to the current champ Forrest he's going to need to a major victory to be in the next title fight, but Liddell is tied up, he and Wanderlei are friends so they won't fight each other, Jackson probably won't be fighting for a while, and I don't think that challenging Silva would be a very good idea if he intends to get a title shot anytime soon.

That leaves Machida. His big selling points are the recent unanimous decision over Ortiz (which was huge considering that Ortiz is a former LHW champ, and is still a very strong fighter) and the fact that's he's currently undefeated - that's not easy to pull off in the UFC, especially in the deep waters of the LHW division. He's not as "exciting" as the other contenders, but MMA fans today are really aware of the subtleties of combat sports and Machida has quite a fanbase. He was also supposed to fight Forrest back in 2007, but that was called off due to injury, iirc. All signs point toward the next LHW title fight being Forrest v Machida.

First of all, the #1 contender in the Middleweight Division is no longer Rich Franklin, Rich moved up to 205 after his second loss to Anderson Silva. I believe the current #1 contender is Patrick Cote, after winning against Ricardo Almeida, earning himself the Middleweight Shot that he deserved. However, I still think he's going to be another quick victim for Silva... Cote is too premature to carry the Middleweight Belt, and is unlikely to win against Anderson Silva. Cote has shitty ground game which the Black Belt Anderson Silva will gladly take him upon it. Besides, Cote mainly resorts to standing up and banging against his opponents, but his reach is no where near Anderson Silva's so naturally his striking is going to be very limited.

The UFC have not yet announced an official contender for the LHW title, and I'm pretty sure at UFC Breakthrough 88 the winner will become the next LHW title contender, so it's pretty much down to Liddell or Rashad Evans. Of the two, I would have to choose Rashad to win over Liddell, no matter how impressive Liddell is, obviously, Rashad have been waiting for a chance ever since he won the Ultimate Fighter, which practically promises a title shots. Evans have also been headlining many UFC events, I think his time may be soon. When it comes down to it Rashad Evans carries a 16-0 record, and holds notable wins over various headlining LHW. At first Rua vs Liddell was supposed to take place at UFC 85, but then Rua pulled out due to an injury, resulting in Evans taking his place. But Liddell also injured himself near 85, and the fight was removed from the card. Now the fight is going to take place in UFC 88, and I'm pretty sure if anyone was set to fight Chuck Liddell, that guy was getting close to a title shot. After all, Liddell have always been lingering around the top 5 LHW throughout his career, and right now he's still amongst the top 5. I think it's safe to say that the winner at UFC 88 is going to move up to face Forrest Griffin..

And just an additional note... RAMPAGE WAS ROBBED BLIND IN THE LHW TITLE FIGHT!!!

Note the exclaimation marks...