Let's Pick Our First “People's Champ”: The Middleweight Division

Caption: Who is No. 1 contender to this man's title?

A little clarity is always good. But sometimes a little chaos can be more fun. Recently, we have gotten some clarity in several of the UFC’s divisions, while others remain anything but. I for one am frustrated with not knowing who the No.1 contender to Anderson Silva’s MW belt is!  

Hell, we don’t even know if Anderson Silva is going to retire after five fights or not—let alone will he stay in the division much longer. While we have no control over that we can determine our very own People’s Champ of the MW division.

In this scenario, the People’s champ will not just be our ceremonial favorite—He will also be our No. 1 contender. While the UFC may not go along with the Brass on B/R’s MMA section we won’t let that deter us.

The People’s champ will be decided by the article’s poll—So like they say in politics: get out and vote.

Now: A brief recap of the fighters considered potential No. 1 contenders (in no particular order).

Thales Leites: Leites most impressive win is his most controversial—a split decision win over Nate Marquardt. A win is a win though and his submissions look dangerous. His most only loss—getting out struck by Martin Kampmann, that man that Marquardt recently destroyed.

The loss to Kampmann was his first fight in the UFC. Since then, Leites has put together a five fight win streak with his recent victory over Drew McFedries. His record in the octagon is 5-1.

Demian Maia: No one looks better then Maia right now. He has run his record to 4-0 in the octagon and has done so in style He’s garnered “submission of the night” honors three times (in a row), and almost won a fourth at UFC 91.

After his last win he called out another potential No.1 contender in Michael Bisping. Another impressive win could have Maia looking at a title shot.

Yushin Okami: A lot of people are intrigued by the idea of Okami fighting Anderson Silva. Yushin was the last man to be Anderson—although it was a DQ win due to an illegal kick by Silva. Anderson was easily winning the fight.

Since joining the UFC, Okami has gone 6-1. While he holds wins over Mike Swick, Jason McDonald, and Evan Tanner his one decision loss to Rich Franklin may be the most significant.

Nate Marquardt: Marquardt looked vicious in his last win over Martiin Kampmann. He forced Kampmann to drop down to welterweight (like Okami did to Swick). His record in the octagon stands at 6-2. His last loss was a controversial split decision loss to Thales Leites.

While a rematch between those two might make sense, Leites said he has no interest in fighting Marquardt again. His other loss was to the champ, Anderson Silva. So does Marquardt deserve the rematch?

Michael Bisping: While you may dispute how good Bisping actually his you cant dispute his record. Bisping held his own at LHW and since moving to MW, Michael looks better and better. In his win over Chris Leben he looked like a complete MMA fighter.

He will be the coach on TUF 9 and, depending on the rumors, could be fighting Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, or Demian Maia next. A win over any of them would put him in a title fight.

Patrick Cote: I know Cote will be sidelined for the next six to nine months. But he was the last man to fight Silva and, despite all the bizarreness, looked to be holding his own. Will Cote be able to fully heal and get back into the MW mix: only time will tell?

Jason McDonald: I am not putting Jason on here for his record, or because he is a legitimate No. 1 contender. But Jason has a great attitude and is willing to fight anyone at anytime. He is my “Rudy” of the MW division and he might be your People’s Champ.

Dan Henderson: Henderson looked good in his fight against Silva; that is until Anderson sunk in the rear naked choke on him. He took care of business against Rousimar Palhares and a win over Rich Franklin could seal his rematch with Silva. A loss would likely send him back to the MW division, and back to the drawing board.  

Rich Franklin: Why am I putting Franklin on this list? Because until he loses to someone not named Anderson Silva he deserves the recognition. A win over Dan Henderson may solidify his move to the light heavyweight division.

However, if Silva decides to make the LHW division his home (and vacate the MW belt), look for Rich Franklin to go back to the MW and finish out his career there. Can anyone beside Silva beat Franklin at 185?

So there are my nine potential No.1 contenders. Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone. Please make sure to cast your vote and leave your comments on how you picked your MW People’s Champ.

This article is an extension of my “middleweight musings” article which I wrote over at Inside Fights. For anyone that has checked out the site, I appreciate the support. 

Brian Oswald is a new staff writer for Inside Fights. For all the latest in MMA news please check out the site.