By David Petruic
@DavidPetruic
March 18, 2014With the long awaited match up between Hendricks and Lawler to decide who would hold the vacant welterweight title now in the history books with Johny Hendricks narrowly edging a decision victory over Robbie Lawler, many are arguing over who should be next contender.
The welterweight division was recently shaken up majorly with the retirement of GSP and a very deep division was now open for many fighters to make a run for the belt. MacDonald, Lawler, Condit, Woodley, Lombard and Brown being the standouts who have made no qualms about their intention to get that belt.
With Condit out of the picture now for about a year with a partial tear of his MCL and tear of his ACL as a result of his battle this past Saturday in a TKO loss to Tyron Woodley. Now with Matt Brown returning into the mix the welterweight division has not been this exciting in years.
If the UFC play their cards right they have some great match ups this upcoming year. Here are some potential fights the UFC should put together that would garner the most interest.
Firstly Hendricks needs a challenger because you ain't champ until you successfully defend your belt. Tyron Woodley makes the most sense as the first contender, being that he just dismantled the #2 contender and sidelined him for up to a year, as well as putting on very impressive technical performances in his last 2 fights there also is factor that these 2 gentlemen were competitors in NCAA division 1 wrestling which as Tyron put it "they have some unfinished business" this also bodes well in gaining many new fans with the huge love of amateur wrestling in the United States, as well as many other countries.
The next match up the UFC should put together is Rory MacDonald and Robbie Lawler, this match plays perfect into the UFC's mantra of styles make fights, MacDonlald being the technical master and game-planner, and Lawler having that brawler style mixed with a granite chin and hands of steel would have have both sides of the border (US/Canada) very excited to see that fight co-main a championship event or headline a UFN card, maybe in Canada?
Which brings us to the next fight the UFC has to do. Hector Lombard against against the winner of the upcoming winner of the Matt Brown and Erick Silva fight. Even though Lombard stated that he is ready to face Hendricks there is still a lot for Hector to prove. As a newcomer to the potential contender table he struggled with the awkward Jake Shields and has had a couple of lackluster performances in the UFC which makes him questionable as a game contender. Both Brown and Silva would be excellent matches for him as both fighters are young hungry and love to push the pace and would test his chin, his stamina, his ability to finish and not get finished himself. Hopefully in the upcoming year these are some of the considerations for matches in the welterweight division of the UFC, it could be an amazing year.