Wednesday, November 4, 2009

I've fallen and I can't get up!!!!!

It seems that this time of year is quite a bad time for certain titleholders under Zuffa's two flagship promotions: the UFC and WEC. Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar's showdown with knockout artist Shane Carwin has been postponed due to Lesnar apparently contracting something similar to the swine flu. A light-heavyweight title rematch between Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida has to wait because of Machida getting hand surgery. Those hoping to stop the middleweight phenom known as Anderson Silva will have to wait while he heals from recent elbow surgery. Welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre is still recovering from a groin injury suffered in his last fight in July. This leaves lightweight titleholder BJ Penn as the only healthy champion in the organization right now, as well as the only concrete title fight in the coming months.

This may be a blessing in disguise though. This gives time for the light-heavyweight and middleweight contenders to sort themselves out. At middleweight, there is a three-way log jam between Vitor Belfort, Nate Marquardt, and Dan Henderson. All three have a claim to the #1 contender spot. Belfort recently destroyed Matt Lindland and Rich Franklin, Marquardt defeated many top contenders since his first fight with Silva, and Henderson knocked (overrated) UK standout Michael Bisping's head into the second row in his last fight. However, with Henderson in a contract dispute with the UFC, and the fates of Marquardt and Belfort uncertain, this will give time for the division to sort itself out. It's the same story at light-heavyweight. The rematch between Machida and Rua being delayed will only help as well, since the only clear cut contender, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, is now apparent off doing movies.

Things aren't much better in the WEC either. Lightweight champion Jamie Varner has been out nearly a year due to injuries suffered in his title fight with Donald Cerrone early this year. This is especially discouraging since the WEC has only three weight classes. He hopes to clash with Interim lightweight champion Ben Henderson in January. At least we have Jose Aldo vs. Mike Brown to look forward to...

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