This year was a very exciting year for the heavyweight division in mix martial arts, and it started with Brock Lesnar returning from his intestine illness that almost cost him his mix martial arts career. In March we Shane Carwin knock out Mir in the first round, and becomes the next opponent for Lesnar with a 12-0 record that have all come by knockout. Carwin goes onto face Lesnar in July at UFC 116, and it becomes one of the most exciting heavyweight fights ever. Carwin comes out manhandles Lesnar in the first round, and Lesnar becomes the end of a butt whipping that he was doing in his first MMA fights. Lesnar than regroups in the second round, and takes a gassed Carwin to the ground to put him into an arm triangle choke that forced Carwin to tap out. Around this time Fedor gets upset in the first with an triangle arm bar choke from Werdum in the first round, but before that Cain Vasquez defeats Antonio Noguierra to meet the winner of Lesnar vs Carwin at UFC 116. Cain Vasquez goes into UFC 121 against Lesnar undefeated, and walks out as UFC heavyweight champion in the first round with TKO. The next person that was waiting for Vasquez was Junior Dos Santos, who defeated Roy Nelson in August at UFC 117. 2010 was a very exciting year in the heavyweight division for the UFC, but 2011 is going to start with a big question mark on the division.
Just recently Cain Vasquez just pulled out of his fight against Dos Santo, and will be out 6 to 8 months with a torn rotator cuff that he said he injured against Lesnar at UFC 116. That is not the only problem the heavyweight division has, because they have other problems like Roy Nelson's contract with Roy Jones, Jr. Lesnar is still recovering from his beating from Vasquez, and also rumors about him thinking about doing Wrestlemania for 2 million dollars. UFC president Dana White went on record to state the only way Lesnar will appear is as spectator, and also UFC has no idea who his next opponent will be. They were thinking to do Mir vs Lesnar 3, but fans did not respond to warmly to that idea. Also with Vasquez pulling out, Dos Santos is not please with him for doing that, and does not want to wait a year to fight him. So 2011 for the heavyweight division has a very big question about it, and that is what solutions does the UFC have to do to make it exciting for its fans. One of the solutions critics think will work is to showcase other divisions upfront like the UFC light heavyweight division, which I do believe is the toughest division anyways with the belt changing 5 times in the last 3 years with real last defending champion was Chuck Liddell. This is a great solution, but there are 2 other solutions to consider. One of the solutions will depend on whether, or not Roy Nelson's lawyers can resolve his contract issue.
If Roy Nelson could get his contract situation taken care of, than the UFC can have a four fighter tournament that will lead to shot at Cain Vasquez when he returns late in 2011. The four fighters would be Frank Mir, Roy Nelson, Junior Dos Santos, and Brock Lesnar. There are two ways UFC can rack these four guys that would make this tournament exciting, which will continue build interest in the UFC heavyweight division. The first rack set idea could be Roy Nelson vs Frank Mir, and Lesnar vs Junior Dos Santos. The second rack idea could be Lesnar vs Nelson and Dos Santos vs Mir. These are great start matches, and this tournament could continue give the UFC heavyweight division momentum for fan's interest. I honestly like this idea a lot, more than my second idea.
If Nelson could not get his contract issue settled, than the next best idea would be for Lesnar fight vs Santos for the number one contender or interim title. This idea would not be as exciting as the first one for mix martial art fans, but will do the next best thing for the UFC that it could help them build a big pay per view card maybe in Toronto along with GSP vs Shields to have a huge PPV buy-rate.
Those are two ideas that could provide solutions for the UFC's heavyweight division in 2011, and through those the UFC could top their excitement that was done this year.
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