Dos Santos To Play The Waiting Game For UFC Heavyweight Title

Clearly, the UFC heavyweight division is in the best shape of its existence.

Gone are the days of the Sylvia-Arlovski trilogy. However, after the top five heavyweights, the list takes a dramatic drop. You almost can't blame the UFC for wanting to save all the top contenders for the high ratings of a title fight.

With Brock Lesnar and Shain Carwin both holding UFC titles (Carwin has the interim title), it's obvious who the top two guys in the division are.

Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos can both be either three or four. Then you have the dark horse, Roy Nelson, to round out the top five.

Lesnar and Carwin are already slated to meet on July 3 at UFC 116. The UFC has made it clear that Cain Velasquez will be given the shot at the winner of that match, and will be out of action up until then.

Cain's last fight was in February and his next would likely be in the area of November or December. That is a waiting period of about ten months. Hopefully Cain can stay fresh while out of action for so long, but in my opinion, a young fighter like Cain needs to stay active. These are his prime years.

Either way, the UFC will be playing it safe and holding him where he is until he gets his shot. So what for the No. 4 contender, Junior Dos Santos?

On Sunday, it was reported that Dos Santos had asked for a fight with Cain and was turned down. Apparently, the UFC is planning on keeping Dos Santos out of action as well, until he gets his own title shot.

Dos Santos has already fought twice this year, winning both by first round knockout, but if he is to stay inactive until his own title shot, that would surely leave him out of the octagon for at least a year.

Is that a smart move by the UFC?

I'd certainly say no. No athlete can be at the top of their game when they haven't competed in over a year. I don't care how hard they're training.

It was a possibility for Dos Santos to fight Roy Nelson in the meantime, with the winner getting the next shot at the title, but the UFC recently reported that Nelson will likely face Cheick Kongo at UFC 116.

A bout with Nelson would have made perfect sense, but it seems the UFC doesn't want to take any chances of shortening their list of title challengers. This really seems like punishment for being so good and so exciting. A young fighter needs to stay busy.

I say give the man Heath Herring! What do you think?