While watching George St. Pierre’s dominating win over Jon Fitch at UFC 87, I couldn’t help but think, what is it going to take to knock off one of the current UFC champions?
Let’s start with the lightweight division.
Champ: BJ Penn
Kenny Florian stands to be the #1 contender after beating Roger Huerta. Although Florian looks better with each fight and took apart a very good Huerta, does anyone really believe he can beat Penn? Sean Sherk who beat “KenFlo’ was destroyed by Penn. While the lightweight division is stacked, there’s such a wide margin between Penn and everybody else, which is why he’s looking to move up to take on St. Pierre. Bottom line unless he vacates the belt he’ll be champion for quite sometime.
This brings us to the Welterweight division:
Champ: George St. Pierre
This division is also loaded with talent but again GSP just dominated the #1 contender (Fitch). Matt Hughes is out of the equation, Matt Serra will not catch lightning in a bottle twice and GSP has already defeated Josh Koscheck. Who does that leave us with? Diego Sanchez, Thiago Alves, Marcus Davis and Mike Swick. All are very good fighters but not at the level of St.Pierre, at least not yet. Ironically, the one guy who does stand a chance is not even in the same weight class (BJ Penn). When Penn and GSP do meet, which they more than likely will at the end of the year, after all is said and done, Penn will be holding both titles.
There’s even more of a gap in the middleweight division.
Champ: Anderson Silva
Is there anyone out there that can beat this guy? Maybe, but we haven’t seen him yet. All you have to do is look at what he did to both Rich Franklin (twice) and Dan Henderson. Silva made it seem as though they were in the cage for their first time. What’s insulting to the fans, is every time there’s a new opponent for him, the UFC (Joe Rogan, Dana White) tries to convince us the guy has a chance. Don’t you love it on the promo’s when Joe and Dana will say “ this is stylistically a bad match-up for Silva, he’s never faced anyone with this kind of wrestling”. The fact is, there’s nobody in the middleweight division that can touch him, I’m not sure there’s a light heavyweight that could beat him. Now for the light heavyweight’s.
Champ: Forrest Griffin
I can’t say the same for this division; it’s pretty much up for grabs. Lyoto Machida, Wanderlei Silva, Thiago Silva, Shogun, Rampage, Chuck Liddell or even Anderson Silva could be champ within a year or so. That’s what makes the light-heavies fun to watch, anyone can beat anyone. Examples: Thiago Silva beat Houston Alexander who beat Keith Jardine who beat Liddell and Forrest who beat Shogun, anything can happen. My prediction is Forrest won’t be champ a year from now. The heavyweight division is similar to the light heavyweight.
Champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Everybody likes to beat up on this division because it’s not as stacked as the others; still there are some very good fighter’s there, especially when you look at the new guy’s. Cain Velasquez is on a tear and Brock Lesner in a year’s time could be simply unstoppable. By the way I predict this to be his next test (Lesner-Velasquez). You also have Frank Mir and a very underrated Fabricio Werdum to add into the mix. It’s a little early to tell but Shane Carwin seems to be solid as well, and let’s not forget Gabrial Gonzaga. This is not that bad a division; will any of the aforementioned be able to dethrone Big Nog? There’s always a chance but probably not for a while, this most likely won’t happen for a year or so. At that time I believe Lesner will be the guy to do it and once he’s had that amount of experience he’s going to be very scary and hold the belt for as long as he wants it. That’s my Gut feeling anyway.
