UFC on Fuel: Is Diego Sanchez a Prelude To a Title Shot for Jake Ellenberger?

UFC welterweight Jake Ellenberger faces a tough test in his quest for a six-fight win streak tonight, when he will square off against Diego Sanchez in the first ever UFC on Fuel. 

Sanchez, "The Ultimate Fighter" season one victor, will try to build momentum from his most recent wins against Paulo Thiago and Martin Kampmann.

UFC on Fuel, the first event in a seven-year contract between the Fuel television network and the UFC, will mark another UFC event that fans do not have to pay for.

According to fightmatrix.com, Ellenberger ranks third on their list of top 10 fighters in the welterweight division. He's ahead of former contenders Jake Shields and Josh Koscheck, both of whom are trying to climb back up the ladder towards a title shot, after their losses to Georges St. Pierre.  

For Ellenberger, the news of Nick Diaz and his failed drug test has to be bittersweet. On one hand, he now finds himself in the top three contenders in the welterweight division, but Ellenberger did not fight his way into the top three.

Diaz's drug test has also affected the order of the title fights. Carlos Condit, the man who beat Diaz at UFC 143 and the last fighter Ellenberger lost to, holds the interim welterweight title. George St. Pierre is still injured, waiting to unify his title and Condit's interim title.

Condit was poised to challenge Diaz in a rematch, but with Diaz's hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Comission in April and a suspension likely to follow, it seems Condit is going to wait to challenge St. Pierre sometime in the late summer or early fall.

During the main event tonight, if Ellenberger continues his strong performances and is able to handle Diaz, it would seem he would have an inside track on the winner of the GSP/Condit bout.

My guess is that White pits Ellenberger in one final test against either Shields or Koscheck before the Condit/GSP clash. If he takes care of business tonight and in that fight, his shot at the champion should come sometime before 2012 ends.