Vitor will have to repeat this performance against Lindland's training partner to get his title shot.
After Silva vs. Sonnen, it became known that the current middleweight king suffered broken ribs before his title defense, and now after the fight may be out until early 2011. With Anderson Silva on the shelf for a good while, the question becomes what to do with the middleweight division.
The next title fight was to be with Vitor Belfort, a pugilist who earned the shot by acing Rich Franklin in the first round in a catchweight bout, and before that dismantling Matt Lindland and Terry Martin outside of the UFC promotion.
The fight had some serious juice, even if the road to get there wasn’t exactly earned. The two Brazilians don’t see eye-to-eye so, like Sonnen, this has all the makings of another great grudge match, and Vitor seems to have no problem providing the trash talk. In addition, Vitor’s aggressive boxing style would force Anderson to engage rather than fend off grapplers to a decision the way he did in very boring fashion with Demian Maia and Thales Leites.
But after an injury forced Vitor out of this title shot in April, he has since been on the shelf, and can he really wait two years for a title shot with Anderson in 2011?
Throwing a monkey wrench in Vitor’s plans both past and present is Chael Sonnen. In fact, Chael’s MMA career has been one big monkey wrench, ruining Nate Marquardt’s title hopes and ending Paulo Filho’s win streak in the WEC.
That theme came within a minute or so of continuing at UFC 117, as Sonnen punished the middleweight champ for five rounds before succumbing to a late round submission [the dreaded triangle: Sonnen’s career monkey wrench].
But after such a stellar performance against the seemingly immortal champ, not to mention the record number of PPV buys for a Silva fight, everyone seems more concerned about a Sonnen/Silva rematch.
But Chael, although desirous of a rematch with the champ, has made it clear he wants to stay active until Silva recovers completely.
So there’s an obvious problem: two title contenders and one title shot next year.
Luckily the answer is just as obvious as the problem: Vitor Belfort has to get off the shelf and actually earn his title fight and face Chael Sonnen.
The result creates no controversy. If Sonnen takes down Belfort, then we have a highly anticipated rematch for the fans with huge PPV numbers for the promotion. If Belfort KOs Sonnen, then he earns a legitimate opportunity to compete for the UFC middleweight strap.
Now such an obvious solution would be ignored by promotions such as Strikeforce [see Heavyweight division], but the UFC’s brass have always had a great handle on match-making so expect this fight to carry the still unannounced card at UFC 122.
Staying with the middleweight division, another fight that almost makes too much sense is Yushin Okami vs. Wanderlei Silva.
Wanderlei is coming off a long lay-off from knee surgery, but also off a win over big name, Michael Bisping. Silva is a guy that the UFC would love to have headlining title fights due to his exciting style and enormous fan base.
Meanwhile, Okami has neither trait [think of a middleweight Jon Fitch], but what he does have is a brilliant resume’ and a Japanese background.
Back in the Pride promotion, Wanderlei Silva was like a god whom Japanese fighters treasured the opportunity to face. Most recently Yoshihiro Akiyama was up to bat before losing to Chris Leben.
Okami doesn’t generate the juice of Akiyama, but the UFC would have an MMA-loving country more than intrigued by the fight.
The bout would also perfectly set-up the next middleweight championship as, assuming Anderson Silva wins his next title defense, would be facing either an exciting Brazilian striker, or a hated rival, whom he has a loss to, and sets up yet another win-win scenario in the UFC’s middleweight division.
