UFC 128: How Many More Fights Will It Take for Brendan Schaub to Be Title-Ready?

Coming off of an impressive unanimous decision win over Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 121 and heading into a UFC 128 encounter with one Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, you'd think that Brendan Schaub is getting close to a crack at the UFC heavyweight title, regardless of whether Cain Velasquez keeps his hold on the belt.

After all, Gonzaga did beat Cro Cop by head kick to earn a crack at Randy Couture and the heavyweight belt, and aside from that, Schaub has beaten up-and-comers like Chase Gormley and Chris Tuchscherer as well.

Sooner or later, though, Schaub's place in the heavyweight division is going to be obvious to even the fan that could care less about the fact that Schaub fights.

In other words, there will come a time in which it makes sense to give him a shot at the championship, and that time isn't too far off.

The question, however, is Schaub's time close enough to where all he needs to do is beat Cro Cop in order to be the champ?

Of course not, and that guess is especially false since the consensus states that as legendary as Cro Cop is, he also isn't the same guy he was back during the days of the Openweight Grand Prix.

If the bout is going to be Schaub vs. a heavyweight that is the UFC heavyweight champion, he has to be pitted up against either Frank Mir or a top heavyweight that's on a level close to Mir's as far as placements go.

Anticipate a showdown with Mir being the next encounter for Schaub if Cro Cop falls on Saturday and if Roy Nelson falls to Mir in May.

If Mir loses to Nelson, we could very well see Nelson vs. Schaub II, given Cro Cop loses.

We could spend all day and all night talking about who makes sense for Schaub and who doesn't, but if Cro Cop is defeated by The Hybrid, it'll be tough to think that Schaub has a very long road ahead of him.

Wait and see what happens against Cro Cop before we jump to conclusions, but if he does win, I'd say he's got at least a fight or two before he's at least in the mix.