Champ: Anderson Silva

Top Contenders:
Rich Franklin
Dan Henderson
Yushin Okami
Nate Marquardt
Mike Swick

The middleweight division is by far the thinnest weight class in the UFC as far as top competitors go. There is no clear-cut top contender for a title shot after Silva vs. Franklin at UFC 77. If you look at the top middleweights in the UFC, Okami and Marquardt are both coming off losses to Franklin and Silva, respectively. Swick is coming off a loss to Okami and has been talking about dropping to welterweight. And Henderson has been fighting at LHW, and there’s nothing other than speculation saying that he might drop down to 185.

Looking past the top five, the division continues to look thin. This is especially so after promising up-and-comer Terry Martin was knocked out by Chris Leben at Fight Night 11. Along with Martin and Leben, Jason MacDonald, Kalib Starnes and Kendall Grove have potential to move their way up the division ranks. But aside from MacDonald, all of these fighters are a year or two away from serious title contention.

Despite the dearth of talent in the middleweight division, there doesn’t seem to be many signs of this changing any time soon. Signing Paulo Filho to the WEC instead of the UFC was a questionable move on Zuffa’s part. Despite his friendship with Anderson Silva, Filho would have been a big boost to the floundering UFC MW division. There hasn’t been much other activity, to the best of our knowledge, in attempting to court other top middleweight contenders. Denis Kang, Matt Lindland and Frank Trigg would all be great free-agent acquisitions for the UFC.

Another decision that has been heavily debated is the choice to have a welterweight-only season of The Ultimate Fighter this season. The welterweight division is stacked right now, and Serra’s first title defense has to wait until the end of the year. If the UFC had gone with a middleweight season of TUF, then they could have bought themselves more time before the Silva vs. Franklin rematch while bringing in new talent. Of course, the language barrier would have been a challenge if Silva was a coach, but I think a US versus Brazil theme would work great for the show.

If Silva beats Franklin at UFC 77, then the middleweight division is stuck rebuilding with no clear-cut contenders. Short of Henderson coming down to MW, the UFC is in serious need of some talented competition for the middleweight division.