Why Is Kaplan Fighting Again?

David Kaplan must be a great guy.

He was a contestant and winner of $50,000 on the Singing Bee TV show. He majored in International Studies in university, and became a recruiter for the CIA after graduating. He was a standout college and high school wrestler.

His father was a member of the JAG Corps. He entered the Octagon for his UFC debut to the song "Tenderness" by General Public, which fans loved.

In short, he's smart, funny, athletic, and comes from a slightly prestigious background.

On The Ultimate Fighter Season Eight, he was highly touted as one of the top fighters on Team Mir, and no one doubted it. He is a solid wrestler who claimed it's impossible to knock him out.

Team Nogueira fighter and runner up on the show, Phillipe Nover, stunned everyone, when he annihilated Kaplan in their first round fight. He knocked Kaplan to the ground with powerful strikes, eventually taking his back and submitting him by rear-naked choke.

Later in the house, a drunk Kaplan begged Light-Heavyweight fighter Tom Lawlor to try and knock him out with a free hit. Lawlor flattened Kaplan out with an open-handed slap to the face, clearly knocking him unconscious.

Kaplan later denied he had been knocked out. Yeah, right. Maybe he was just resting his eyes.

However, since Kaplan had lost to Nover, a fighter compared to the likes of pound for pound greats Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva, it made sense to give him a shot in the Octagon anyways.

Nover went on to lose the championship match on the show finale to wrestling stand-out Efrain Escudero, showing he had a long way to go to live up to the generous comparisons.

Kaplan went on to lose to Junie Browning, the villain of the house on TUF 8, and possibly the whole history of the show.

Browning, like Kaplan, was promoted heavily early on as one of the top fighters in the Light Weight class on the show. But after squeaking by first round opponent Rolando Delgado, getting smothered by Escudero, and acting like a raving, drunken, lunatic for the entire show, expectations among fight fans for Browning fell dramatically.

Browning went so far after the show as to confirm he had partially acted the way he did to make himself a television star, hence valuable to the UFC. It worked.

Both Kaplan and Browning were back to face each other on the main card of the TUF 8 finale. Browning destroyed Kaplan. He did everything right.

Browning out-fought Kaplan on their feet and on the ground, winning by armbar.

While Browning showed vast improvement in the fight, Kaplan again disappointed. Because of Browning's improvement, however, the argument could again be made that Kaplan lost to a future star in the sport.

But after a quick loss to Cole Miller at UFC Fight Night 18, Browning still fails to impress.

Despite his losses to Phillipe Nover, Junie Browning, and Cristiano Marcello before going on the TV show, Kaplan gets yet another shot at UFC 98 against George Roop, also from TUF 8.

Again, he's fighting a guy who will either make him look good or will look good against him.  

Kaplan has lost three of his last four fights. I thought the UFC was for the best fighters in the world. The best fighters don't lose this much to easy competition.

While there may be no shame in losing to Nover, he accomplished the impossible, making Browning look great.

Browning is signing a new contract with the UFC, despite his own unimpressive record, in part because Kaplan convinced us Browning was a renewed, dedicated, and talented fighter.

Miller exposed and blew-up that myth.

When will someone expose UFC match-making for what it is? How many times must Kaplan lose? How many times must a "Browning" fight a "Kaplan"?

What do we really expect from George Roop anyways? I suppose if he wins, he'll fight Browning next.