Dana, show him the money.

Unless Zuffa is incredibly stupid or naive, he’s not in some kind of “at-will” contract w/o some sort of exclusivity clause. He’s going to have to sit on his butt and wait it out.

My money is on the fact that he’s going to re-negotiate his deal and really put the screws to them for one last shot at some big paydays. In light of the current landscape Randy is their only sure fire, short term PPV draw that they can bank on pulling in the big bucks.

Rampage is out until sometime in ‘08, Liddell is a shell of his former invincible self coming off 2 big losses, Sherk is facing a big suspension, Franklin could very well get destroyed for a 2nd time by Silva, Tito’s in contract limbo and wearing out his welcome with fans, Fedor signed somewhere else not to mention some of their big signings or next big things (Shogun, CC and Bisping) have stumbled leaving them with no “Face of the UFC” to pull them thru tough times.

With their just ressurected Lighweight Title already in a state of limbo, do they leave their most prestigeous title vacant until the winner of Nog vs Kongo can get into the cage with the Vera – Sylvia winner ( which could mean a belt without a champion for up to six months )? Or do they make Vera vs Sylvia for the vacant title with the caviat that they’re first title defense be against the Nog-Kongo winner?

I’d opt for the latter scenario.

With all these shocking things going on, I’d tend to think that Dana & the boys would be reluctant to have the UFC appear to be in a state of disarray with a bunch of vacant titles.

Again, he doesn’t NEED to have better striking b/c its not boxing. He’s got perfectly acceptable striking as well as a great ground game. He combines all of those skills into a package that exceeds what any of those guys bring to the table.

Gonzaga’s wrestling is better than Barnett’s? The same Barnett that outwrestled Couture – that’s impressive.

You act like Barnett has zero legit wins on his resume which is about as hilarious and trying to say Sylvia (based on reach) or Mr. “Glass Jaw/Nancy Boy” Arlovski (better hands) make them better challengers when Barnett combines the whole collective of skills required for “mixed martial arts” better than any of the guys you’ve mentioned.

You might remember Barnett held the UFC HW belt at one point (steroid issue aside – he’s actually had one less positive test than Slim Tim)? And in the recent past he’s put away Hunt, Nog and Aleks, two of them quite handily…no slouch in my mind but I guess that’s nowhere near as awe-inspiring as getting manhandled by Couture or pathetically mind numbing wins against Werdum or Monson!!

“But – GERMAN SUPLEX!”
- “Oh right…clearly I was wrong.”

I was figuring you wouldn’t care about this since Werdum lost to Sergei…you know, one of those guys who was never really as good as advertised. Much like Arlovski eh? I remember a couple years back when people would argue how he was better than Fedor.

In my opinion Sergei/Aleksander/Werdum/Cro Cop/Hunt/AA are all pretty much in the same league. Any could beat the other on any given night.

I don’t see him being as big as Sylvia, having anything approaching Arlovski’s hands, and I don’t see him having Gonzaga’s kills at literally anything. I see him being a guy who has some hyped wins over guys he has advantages over and who really aren’t nearly as good as advertised (Aleksander, anyone?) and who beat Nog in controversial fashion only to lose the rematch. Wow.

AA’s biggest win was over Sylvia.

He also just beat that Fabrico Werdum guy. What, doesn’t count for anything? We only count biggest wins and never failings?

Sylvia’s biggest win was over Ricco years ago (huge win at that point though – I give him lots of credit for that.)

…and Monson, and 2x against Arlovski…

Gonzaga’s biggest win was over Cro Cop.

…and since we’re playing the “who beat who” game, Cro Cop beat Barnett. 3 times!