UFC 116: What's Next for the Winners

UFC 116 was a great night for fight fans.

The card—which I ridiculed mercilessly—came through beyond my wildest dreams, and produced a bunch of fun fights and finishes.

It also raised some interesting questions as to what's next for the winners and losers.

Brock Lesnar: He looked to be out during the first round and even admitted as much after the fact in an interview. We learned that Lesnar really doesn't like to get hit, and that he is one tough mother.

He does seem to be evolving as a fighter, as was evidenced by finishing Shane Carwin with a nice choke. He still has a long way to go to become unbeatable.

Up next for Lesnar is Cain Velasquez, a much smaller man, whom like Lesnar, is a wrestler. Look for Lesnar to easily defeat Velasquez, possibly as soon as UFC 119.

Chris Leben: Leben pulled off one of the more impressive three weeks in MMA history. He beat undefeated Aaron Simpson, and then stepped up to fill the void left by Wanderlei Silva in fighting the always dangerous Yoshihiro Akiyama. As a result Leben has rocketed himself back into the discussion at middleweight. After his win over Akiyama, Leben called out Silva. I think UFC president Dana White should make that happen.

Stephan Bonnar: No one needed a win on Saturday night worse than The American Psycho . He earned one with a great TKO of Krystoff Soszsynski. I'm not quite ready to anoint him the light heavyweight gatekeeper. I'd like to see Bonnar fight one of the other gatekeeper types like Forrest Griffin or Brandon Vera.

George Sotiropoulos: The Wizard of Oz won a unanimous decision over Kurt Pellegrino. The fight was much closer than what the decision looked and for a second there, near the end of the third round, Pellegrino stunned Sotiropoulos with a knee. Sotiropoulos continues to climb up the Lightweight ladder and should be rewarded with a fight against a legitimate Lightweight contender like the loser of the upcoming Florian/Maynard fight.

Thursday, I'll have a What's Next column up on the losers of these fights, most notably Shane Carwin.