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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief UFC 100 has come and gone, and it's opened up a lot of new doors for the heavyweight division in the UFC, at least in terms of future match-ups. The main event saw Brock Lesnar establish his dominance over Frank Mir in a brutal beating, stretched out over seven minutes. With the man now firmly placed as the man in the UFC, and Frank Mir humbled, if only ever so slightly, let's take a look at what's in store for these heavyweight foes:
Brock Lesnar
There are a number of options for the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion that would be very interesting, to say the least. With what he showed against Mir and with the fact that every six months sees him getting better exponentially, whoever comes next will be in for the fight of their life. The first two to look at are Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez, as UFC President Dana White's already discussed their bout as essentially a number one contender fight.
Carwin and Velasquez face off in October, so if that winner indeed gets the next crack at Brock, it's likely he doesn't fight for the remainder of 2009. That said, a fight between either would pit him against a stronger wrestler than Mir, and a bout with Carwin would see him face the hardest puncher he's seen yet. Though to be honest at this point I'm not sure that even with their wrestling bases they'd be able to handle the behemoth at this point.
The other possible opponents to get him another fight at the end of '09 would be the a rematch with Randy Couture if he gets past Nogueira on August 29th and the fight that everyone wants to see if they somehow managed to pull off signing Fedor Emelianenko. A year end fight with Brock Lesnar in the UFC for Fedor would be one of the single biggest pay-per-view fights ever. While a long shot, it's the most exciting potential opponent there is for Brock.
Frank Mir
Frank Mir, should he choose to stay as dedicated to training and being in shape as he was for the Nogueira fight and this last Saturday, is going to be a dangerous opponent for many top heavyweights. An in focus and prepared Frank Mir can defeat anyone without Lesnar as a surname. So what does he do next after this fight?
Well, the first thing he'll need to do is go back home and take the time to heal before thinking about his next move. From there, he'll have any number of potential fights available to him. By the time he'll be ready for a return, Couture and Lesnar will have fought, as will have Velasquez and Carwin. Should Couture lose to Nogueira, a rematch with a healthy Nogueira would be a welcomed fight. Many have backed off on how impressive Mir's victory over Nogueira really was and he'd have a chance to put a stamp on it in a rematch.
Should Couture win and not be in line for a rematch with Lesnar, Mir's a great opponent for him as well. A match-up with the loser of Carwin and Velasquez would also provide a great fight, as would a fight between the winner of Cro Cop against Junior Dos Santos from UFC 103. Any one of these would be a great fight, and right now I'd lean toward the loser of Velasquez-Carwin or the winner of Cro Cop-Dos Santos as two of the likely candidates for when Mir's ready to return, although there's one other opponent that I think would be really intriguing as well, and that's Cheick Kongo.
Kongo's a guy that's not going to be trying to do anything on the ground against a guy like Mir, and so the intrigue going into a bout between the two would be whether it becomes a stand up war or whether or not Mir would be able to bring it to the ground to work his submissions. Again, all of these are viable options, and it showcases the higher and more exciting profile the UFC's heavyweight division has gotten to compared to two to three years ago, as any of the names mentioned here would be worthy and exciting match-ups for Mir. He'll want a rubber match with Lesnar down the line, but there's a lot of guys he'll need to get through to get there.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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