UFC 126: Was Jon Jones vs. Ryan Bader the Right Fight to Make?

Title contenders don't grow on trees.

It's a lesson that Strikeforce just happens to be learning the hard way as they trot out guys like Evangelista Santos and Robbie Lawler to take on their champions.

Currently the UFC doesn't seem to have a problem with title contenders at 205. They have Quinton Jackson, Thiago Silva, Lyoto Machida, Forrest Griffin, Rich Franklin, Jon Jones and Ryan Bader waiting in the wings once Mauricio Rua and Rashad Evans square off at UFC 128.

But what if something happens?

Remember the seemingly indestructible heavyweight division that the UFC had assembled a mere year ago? Brock Lesnar was the champion. Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, Shane Carwin, Frank Mir and Roy Nelson were patiently waiting their turns. Todd Duffee, Stefan Struve, Travis Browne and others were just waiting to develop.

Look at it now.

Velasquez is out until the end of 2011. Lesnar can't take a punch. Carwin can't fight for longer than four minutes. Mir and Nelson got their lights punched out. Duffee is busy getting pummeled in Japan, while Struve and Browne look nowhere near title contention.

Things went south pretty quickly.

By matching up two very promising prospects, they are inevitably killing off a title contender.

Realistically, of the four light heavyweights fighting on the main card, everyone outside of Forrest Griffin is pretty close to a title shot. Given Griffin's embarrassment against Anderson Silva, his past loss to Evans and how ridiculously close his fight with Tito Ortiz was, he seems pretty far away.

Let's say, for argument's sake, that Griffin and Jones come out victorious on Saturday night. Jones would have propelled himself into title contention, while Griffin just gets a nice victory.

Now instead, if the UFC were to match up Jones-Griffin and Franklin-Bader, you would get a whole different dynamic.

Griffin brings nothing to the table to beat Jones. He doesn't have the wrestling to stop the takedowns or the one-punch knockout power to put Jones out. A win puts Jones into talks of a title shot.

Then the winner of Franklin-Bader is also close to title contention. Bader needs no real explanation, but Franklin proves an interesting dynamic. He has only lost to champions (Machida, Silva, Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson), and he has never lost at 205 in the UFC. Given how much of a fan favorite he is, it is very plausible that he be one fight away from a shot at the belt.

Maybe you didn't buy any of that. Maybe you still think they made the right fights. But if Jones or Bader wins tomorrow night, what does that prove?

Both Jones and Bader have huge question marks surrounding their abilities. We have yet to see either one truly tested inside the octagon. If Jones walks through Bader or vice versa, it tells us nothing about them.

By matching them up with proven commodities in either Griffin or Franklin, we learn something about their abilities. We learn how they react when they face tough, hard-nosed fighters.

Let them fight each other down the road—like when one is the champion and the other the challenger. Can you imagine UFC 140: Jones vs. Bader? That would be downright insane.

However, the bout on Saturday night should prove ridiculously entertaining, regardless of how it turns out. We will get a title contender out of it, and I am looking forward to the fight.

It just could have been even bigger.