The Middleweight division is one of the most perplexing divisions in the UFC.  The only thing that seems clear about its future is a dominant reign by current champion, Anderson Silva.  Talented fighters in the division are seen as hapless losers, hardly what one would call a challenger to the dominant titleholder.  Silva is considered by many to be the top striker in all of MMA, and he is a BJJ black belt on the ground as well.

Silva has already tarnished the pristine and undefeatable look that Rich Franklin had in the Middleweight division.  Now, after suffering two TKO losses to Silva, Franklin can hardly be considered a contender for the belt anymore. That is, unless someone else dethrones “The Spider” Silva. 

The other top contenders in the division include: Yushin Okami (beat Silva by DQ), Dan Henderson (lost title match to Silva), Nate Marquardt (lost title match to Silva), Martin Kampmann, Patrick Cote, Ricardo Almeida, Nate Quarry, Thales Leitis, Chris Leben (lost to Silva), Jason Day, Dean Lister, Jeremy Horn, Demien Maia, and the former TUF 3 Champion and recent newcomer to this weight class, Michael Bisping.

Several key matches involving some of these fighters will be held at UFC 85 on June 7th.  One of these matches includes two fighters from this list of top contenders, as Nate Marquardt squares off against Thales Leitis.

Nate “The Great” is 5-1 in the UFC with his only loss coming in a title match vs Anderson Silva.  His most notable win came against Dean Lister, a fighter who is 3-0 against other UFC competition.  However, Nate still lacks a true stand out performance against another true top contender in the division.  After coming back from his loss to Silva, he took a step in the right direction by submitting the well-known UFC grappler Jeremy Horn.

Thales Leitis could be the man to give Nate his first big win.  Thales is on a three-fight win streak in the UFC since losing his debut by decision to Martin Kampmann.  He has finished the last two fights by submission. 

Since both fighters have made their names on the ground, the direction this match takes should be very intriguing. Nate is considered to be the more well-rounded fighter, and it’s likely Thales will look to push this fight to the ground before Nate will.  It is a toss-up fight.  Whoever prevails, the winner of this match will likely face the same opponent in the next fight.

Another fight on the UFC 85 Bedlam list is a preliminary bout between Martin Kampmann and Jorge Rivera. 

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