UFC 146 was a night filled with decisive finishes at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, with none being more decisive than Junior dos Santos' second-round knockout of Frank Mir to retain his UFC Heavyweight Championship.
The question now, of course, is whether "Cigano" can become the first fighter in UFC history to successfully defend the heavyweight title more than twice. Just as important a question, though, is whom he'll seek his second title defense against, and what that will mean for the future of the division.
After former heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez tore through Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva in his first bout since losing the title to dos Santos, UFC president Dana White commented that Velasquez deserves the next shot at dos Santos. It makes sense, of course: after all, Velasquez was coming off of a major injury when he dropped the title to dos Santos, and is probably the most qualified heavyweight available for a shot at the title.
There's just one problem, though: What about Daniel Cormier?
Cormier, of course, won't be fighting for the UFC title anytime soon. The former Olympic wrestler has hand surgery on the horizon after his win over Josh Barnett in the finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, and when that's over, he has one fight left in Strikeforce before he can come to the UFC (unless, of course, White and the UFC pull some strings to bring him over sooner, as they've done with other Strikeforce fighters). However, there's little doubt that "Black Fedor" is a strong contender for a UFC title shot, and even Velasquez - who trains with Cormier at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose - has said so, going on the record with that comment last week during a pre-fight interview with MMAFighting.com reporter Ariel Helwani.
"He fought one of the best guys in the world," Velasquez said. "That whole grand prix tournament was guys of top caliber in the heavyweight division, so he definitely deserves it."
Still, while Velasquez is backing his teammate for a shot at the title, he seems likely to get there first, and American Kickboxing Academy has made waves in the past with its fighters refusing to get in the cage against one another. That was particularly true with welterweight contenders Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck, who have openly refused to fight one another, even after Koscheck left AKA to start his own gym. So, it's worth wondering what will happen if Velasquez should regain the heavyweight title and Cormier emerges as the top contender.
Velasquez seemed more open to the bout than Koscheck or Fitch has been for that matchup, saying "We'll talk about it if the time comes," but teammates refusing to fight each other is an eternal pet peeve of Dana White. That might be part of why White has mused publicly about Cormier's potential at light heavyweight: to avoid a logjam at the top with a champion and top contender who don't want to fight one another.
Of course, one suspects Junior dos Santos will have something to say about that possibility.
