Rich Hansen's Take
HANSEN: Fights to Make After UFC 148 "Silva vs. Sonnen II"
Jul 8, 2012 - 8:30:48 PM HANSEN: Fights to Make After UFC 148 "Silva vs. Sonnen II"

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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist

I was tasked with the, um, task? (This is what happens when thesaurus.com goes down) of writing up future fights for the fighters on a one fight card. So, here's the column:

Anderson Silva: Defends his title against a yet to be named #1 middleweight contender.

Chael Sonnen: Normally losers don't fight winners, but there's no other fight to make for Sonnen than Vitor Belfort.

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Of course I then realized I was under my word count, not that I get paid by the word. So where to go from here? I guess I'm going to have to dig at least a little bit into the worst card of the year. So look past my lack of enthusiasm for last night's fights and realize that even though there were exactly 78 seconds of fighting and eight horrifically dull decisions last night, it doesn't mean that plenty of good fights aren't in the near future for them. Well, not for Cody McKenzie.

Forrest Griffin pitter-pattered and breathlessly heaved his way to an underwhelming decision over someone who had the same hair and bone structure of someone who kind of resembled Tito Ortiz. All Griffin has going for him at this point is a name, but unfortunately for him he also has less enthusiasm and less of a penchant for violence than Ghandi. Ghandi at age 2, I mean. So we either put him in meaningless fights against big names who are out of title contention (like maybe Tito Ortiz twice more, god help us), or against up and coming fighters who will slaughter him. So if he coaches season 16 of The Ultimate Fighter, he gets Stephan Bonnar. If not, he can be sacrificed up to Alexander Gustafsson.

Demian Maia looked fantastic for 47 seconds until Dong Hyun Kim succumbed to injury. Unfortunately, that's about 47 seconds of impressive fighting more than he'd displayed since defeating Chael Sonnen in February 2009. I'm not doing a good job hiding my disdain for this card, am I? Anyhow, if this Demian Maia reflects what we're going to see moving forward, then get his ass in the cage against Siyar Bahadurzada as soon as humanly possible. If not, then let him be three fights away from a Ben Askren fight for all I care.

Chad Mendes showed the world what we already know about him; that any time he fights Cody McKenzie his betting line should be at least minus infinity-squared. Other than that, we didn't learn dick. He's widely regarded as one of the five best featherweights in the world, and he should be facing one of the top five featherweights in the world. Preferably one with more notoriety than Mendes currently posses. Assuming Erik Koch is going to face Jose Aldo this fall, thus ruling out a rematch of their 2010 bout in the WEC, three names that make the most sense are Ricardo Lamas, Dennis Siver, and Chan Sung Jung. Lamas has no name value, so an imaginary Mendes vs. Lamas fight would be buried on Fuel, meaning it might as well be imaginary. Siver is fighting in September, so he's out. So bring on The Korean Zombie, with the winner getting Erik Koch in the winter for the title.

Cung Le is a lock to fight in the main event of the UFC on Fuel show in Macau. Assuming he didn't suffer a broken foot last night, which might render him unavailable for Macau, just make the Rich Franklin fight again.

Mike Easton wasn't in the most entertaining fight I've ever seen, but considering the step up in competition, that's fine, as a win is a win. It's eminently possible he's a contender, so let's put him in with Eddie Wineland, who himself may or may not be a contender. That's the great thing about combat sports; the chaff always gets separated from the wheat.

Melvin Guillard is confusing to me. He's brilliant one day, he's flighty the next day, he's wild the next, he sticks to a conservative game plan the next day. I refuse to consider him close to contender status at this point, nor should I seeing as he's one win removed from a two fight losing streak. Let's get a few more wins under his belt before we elevate him again, setting us up for yet another disappointment. Khabib Nurmagomedov makes sense.

Constantinos Philippou versus Riki Fukuda was a real letdown to me, since I'm a big fan of both guys. I should've seen a tedious punch fight a mile away. Oh well. Philippou is now on a four fight UFC winning streak, with his only loss in the UFC coming in his debut fight against Nick Catone. Philippou vs. Brian Stann would be fun, as Stann is likely to be the jilted lover in the Michael Bisping – Alan Belcher – Brian Stann love triangle. And while I'm not the biggest Stann guy, I think he's a little too big of a step up for Philippou. How about bringing back Jorge Santiago? How about Chris Leben after he finishes detoxing? How about Wanderlei Silva? Philippou would starch him, but would then have a high profile name on his belt. But I'm going to head to Strikeforce and suggest we bring over Robbie Lawler and may the best puncher win.


Other Fights To Make

Dong Hyun Kim vs. TJ Waldburger

Patrick Cote vs. Clifford Starks

Ivan Menjivar vs. Miguel Torres