Keller's Take
KELLER: Notebook - Who can beat Jones? Did Henderson fracture Shogun's skull? Remember when Tim Sylvia was the Baddest Heavyweight on the Planet?
Nov 22, 2011 - 11:54:47 PM KELLER: Notebook - Who can beat Jones? Did Henderson fracture Shogun's skull? Remember when Tim Sylvia was the Baddest Heavyweight on the Planet?

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BY WADE KELLER, MMATORCH EDITOR

-Chael Sonnen fighting before facing Anderson Silva in Brazil is a big risk. He could end up injured or on jury suspension long enough to prevent training or delay his availability to fight Silva in Brazil. Beating Silva in Brazil would be one of the most memorable MMA moment in history, and there's probably no one who would relish that scene more than Mr. Sonnen would. If he were to fight between now and then, and lose, it would put Dana White in a position to consider giving the shot to someone else first, including Dan Henderson. I'm not confident Henderson could beat Anderson Silva, and I'd rather see Henderson take on Jones.

-So far in today's MMATorch Poll, one thing is clear. MMATorch readers don't think Shogun Rua has a great chance to beat Jon Jones. We offered four top contenders and asked which has the best chance to beat Jones. Dan Henderson is in the lead with 41 percent of votes, followed by 29 percent for Rashad Evans and 27 percent for Lyoto Machida. Machida is next in line, though. I suppose losing to Jones, as Shogun did, logically would lead to this result, since the other three have yet to lose to him. I'm not sure what amounted to a draw on many scorecards Saturday night between Henderson and Rua should make people confident Henderson would do a lot better against Jones than Shogun did, though.

-There's a spirited discussion on the MMATORCH FACEBOOK FAN PAGE right now about the Jon Jones poll. Besides talking about why people voted for Henderson, Machida, or Rashad to be the best bet to beat Jones, we also talked about Anderson Silva taking on either GSP by moving down in weight or Jones by moving up in weight. MMATorch columnist Jason Amadi says he thinks Jones would crush Silva due to the size advantage. Silva is listed at 6-2 and Jones at 6-4. If that's legit, it's not a huge size advantage. As I wrote a few months ago, I think Anderson Silva is the best athlete in all of sports right now. As good as Jones has looked, beating Silva would impress the hell out of me because Silva has looked so dominant (with the exception of the 4.8 rounds against Sonnen, of course). MMATorch Facebook Fan Matthew Davis said: "If styles really do make fights, then I think Machida would match up well enough to have more of a chance of dethroning Bones than any of the others. That said, I'm with Wade in that I'd be much more interested in seeing Anderson Silva move up and take on Bones than the GSP vs. Silva match, which I think GSP would get squashed by a bigger, taller, quicker opponent." MMATorch Facebook Fan Desmond Reeder wrote: "I think Jones would beat Brock Lesnar. He most deff wouldn't be throwing Brock around like he does the 205ers, though. The reach wouldn't be that much different, either. It would be much harder, but I think he would pull it off. But I still don't think he would beat Silva, though. When you're the P4P champ, you make it happen." Join in the discussion (and LIKE us while you're there so you can follow along on future discussions on your News Feed): MMATORCH ON FACEBOOK.

-Quote of the Day from elsewhere in the MMA media world comes from www.MiddleEasy.com. In response to the MMAFighting.com report that Dan Henderson might have actually fractured Shogun Rua's skull on Saturday night, the blogger wrote: "Being a hermit can also greatly reduce the chance of Dan Henderson fracturing your entire skull. We're not talking about a concussion here. A literal fissure opening up within the plate of bones that protect your brain due to a person hitting you really hard on the head. See folks, that's what I don't go outside."

-If you haven't yet, check out the Flashback article today featurinig Shawn Ennis's "Lay of the Land" column from five years ago this week on the Heavyweight Division. It's insane how much better the division has gotten in the last five years. Tim Sylvia was on top five years ago, and it didn't get any better as Shawn delved deeper into the heavyweight ranks. FLASHBACK LINK.

-MMATorch readers loved Saturday night's UFC 139 (and for good reason). In our 0-10 poll, 50 percent gave it a 10 score, with 31 percent giving it a 9 and 14 percent an 8. That's 95 percent giving it an 8 or better; 99 percent gave it a thumbs up score overall (6 or better). That's a company serving its customer base a product they loved. Is there another product out there that would score that high with its customer base?

-Be sure to check out tonight's MMATorch Livecast at the Blog Talk Radio Network. It's the 33rd most popular sports show on the network out of 4,000+ shows. You can access the latest show and all past shows at this link: MMATORCH LIVECAST or subscribe in iTunes at this link: MMATORCH ON ITUNES.

-Also, we have a lot of new website readers lately, so it's worth a reminder that we are also available as a FREE APP for the iPhone, iPad (customized for iPad, actually), and Android. Check us out by searching "MMATorch" in the Apple App Store, Android Marketplace, or Amazon App Store. It's free and it mirrors our daily content on the web.

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Wade Keller is supervising editor of MMATorch. He has covered MMA since before UFC 1 for the Torch Newsletter, and is among the longest tenured reporters covering the sport. He is a double-black-stripe belt in tae kwon do and has practiced judo and jiu jitsu at the North Star Martial Arts Academy under Michelle Holtze and Tom Crone. He founded MMATorch.com as a dedicated MMA website in 2006 and launched the MMATorch App in 2008. MMATorch is among the top five most read MMA-dedicated brands in the world.