With the official news that Sean Sherk has been stripped of his lightweight belt, the UFC has finally moved a step forward. Unfortunately, there’s the four other weight classes that need help; the welterweights, the middleweights, the light-heavyweights, and the heavyweights.
After Steve Sievert “broke the story” that Sherk was keeping his belt even though he was found guilty of steroid use after his successful July 7th title defense, I could almost hear the collective groan from the anti-drug MMA crowd. Articles attacking and defending the 155 pound champ were posted everywhere, yet Sievert really didn’t say anything at all except that the UFC had yet to make their call on the Sherk decision. Luckily the UFC stepped up and announced that they were stripping Sherk of his belt. Now it looks the previously “interim” title fight between BJ Penn and Joe Steveson has turned into a championship match. Not too shabby at all considering the UFC just rid itself of the lightweight mess.
But, there’s more. Not only was the lightweight division in shambles, the welterweight division has an interim fight coming up as well. This fight, between our favorite French-Canadian George St. Pierre and everyone’s favorite tractor-lover, Matt Hughes, will decide who is next in line for a title shot against a very injured Matt Serra. Let’s just do everyone a favor and get rid of the “interim” and make it a 3 round fight like the rest of the non-title bouts, shall we Dana? And considering the injured Serra is dealing with herniated disc’s, why don’t we just make this the title fight as well? Does anyone want to wait 6 months before we see someone fight Serra? If we didn’t have the Penn-Stevenson fight, we would be waiting forever to see a good title fight. The middleweights have a dominating champ, Anderson Silva, who doesn’t seem like he wants to give it up anytime soon, the light-heavyweights will have to wait until the taping of The Ultimate Fighter 7 ends, the heavyweights have lost their champ.
So let’s talk about those welterweights. It’s Anderson Silva versus the rest of the world and the rest of the world means a twice-beaten Rich Franklin. Making TUF 7 full of 185′ers isn’t going to fix that problem either if The Ultimate Fighter finale last night was indicative of what should be expected from new TUF fighters. It’s obvious that we need more talent, but that’s up to the UFC to figure out. We already know that Dana hates MMA writers so I can only ramble so much before feeling useless.
Off to the light-heavyweights. With Rampage as the champion and the upcoming TUF 7 coach, expect to wait a while to see anything materialize. Although both coaches are slated to fight each other, this recent TUF season is a reminder that it isn’t alway the case due to injuries. I knew that Griffin’s win over Rua had set him up for a line to the belt, but so soon? I was expecting either Jardine or Wanderlei Silva (if he is able to end his losing streak and extend Liddells during UFC 79) to get the next crack. I guess it’s not a bad idea to promote a previous TUF fighter as someone who could be the light-heavyweight champ. Then if Griffin does win, should he fight Bonnar again?
The heavyweights. Randy Couture’s departure caused this division to look a lot more exciting, but we’re not sure who will be the next champion. Will Tim Sylvia walk around Maine with his t-shirt tucked into his jeans and a belt around his waist once again? Will Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira aka Big Nog become the next king of the mountain? Or will Brock Lesnar destroy everyone in sight to become a WWE to UFC success story? We still have to make it through UFC 79 and UFC 80 without too much controversy. Is that even possible?!
Loading ...