Oranje

Murray is clearly the better player and has looked impressive thus far in not even dropping a set. Like you said though, his hot head gets the best of him late in tournaments. Murray beat Cilic in the French last year, but Cilic went and won at the US so you could argue this can be a toss up.

Cilic is really that similar to Murray. When Murray gets down on himself in a match there's no coming back, but Cilic proved yesterday how mature of a player he is. At age 21 to go up 2 sets to 0 against one of the best in the world, only to have that player come back so convincingly but still win in the 5th set is a show of mental strentgh. Cilic isn't hot headed either if you were comparing him to Murray in that way as well. He's very composed throughout his matches. Cilic has the weight of Croatia and 1/2 of Australia on his shoulders at this point, it will be interesting to see how he deals with it.

Slim, but possible I suppose. Possible only if Liddell/Ortiz doesn't happen at 115. I can't imagine Lesnar v. Carwin/Mir and Liddell v. Ortiz on the same card unless it was a milestone PPV (ex. 100 OR an event in NYC). I've read 114 as a possible return for Lesnar, but to me that doesn't seem like enough preperation time for Lesnar after what he has just gone through. This wasn't an injury where he could do light training and keep some of this strength in tact.

Doubt it. By the time Rampage is ready to fight most of the injured headliners will be back, minus Lesnar. Looks like Gilbert Yvel will step in to fight Dos Santos at 108. Source with interesting headline

I'd love to see him fight Shogun and Machida.

A little humourous? That's fantastic stuff. The other week I spent a good few hours watching Dana White interviews on Youtube. Some of his rants I saw him go on regarding fighters and other promotions were epic. It's easy to disagree with the guy, but I find it so hard to hate him, he's great entertainment. Gold!

I wouldn't call Frank Mir an up and comer. I think there is opportunity for some great fights for Fedor in the UFC. Lesnar who already has been mentioned, Mir, Carwin, Velasquez, even Dos Santos and another shot for Big Nog. Rogers was a decent opponent for Fedor, but who is left outside the UFC that is worth fighting. Barnett and maybe Overeem, that's about it. Face it, the HW division on a global scale is pretty weak. Since Pride's demise, UFC is THE organization for MMA whether you like the way they run business or not. The UFC doesn't have to cross promote anything. Cross promotion may work for an up start company, but not for a company with the size and global reach and appeal that the UFC has. Fedor could have easily signed a 4 fight contract with the UFC, won all 4 fights and left, but when he decided to go to strikeforce it felt like he was trying to protect his legacy more than anything else. He knows if he loses a fight his stock plumits. My question is, if(when)Strikeforce goes under, where is Fedor going to go then, back to Japan? The next Strikeforce card is on December 5, and so far Fedor is not on it. It'll be interesting to see the numbers after that one.

I don't blame Dana for not wanting it cross promotion nor should he or any MMA outfit. You've got to protect your assets as best you can, and allowing them to fight in other organizations doesn't accomplish that. Fedor signing with the UFC doesn't make him a the UFC's female dog. It shows he wants to continue to prove he is the best by facing great fighters, and the UFC has the higher ratio of better HW fighters. You want Fedor to have access to a larger field of opponents, but why not a better field of opponents?

And this doesn't make sense to you how? Fedor is the greatest MMA HW of all time, but he can't continue to be labelled as the current best HW unless he continues to defeat top fighters. Dana wants Brock to fight Fedor, more than Brock wants to fight Fedor.

I don't know that anyone has said Fedor can't hack if in the UFC, but that is where he should be because that's where he can continue to prove he's still the best in the world. I think it's important to point out that Fedor had trouble with Andrei Arlovski, who isn't the same fighter he was a few years ago, until Arlovski went for a stupid flying knee. To add to that, Fedor also struggled early against Rogers. Just a little Fedor flashback, the second fight I ever saw of his is one of my favourite fights of all time. That was the 2005 fight with Cro Cop. Both fighters were just at the pinnacle of their careers at the time.

Dana offered Fedor that contract because of the possibilities. Fedor v. Mir, Fedor v. Lesnar, Fedor v. Couture, Fedor v. Velasquez and so on. Those would be huge PPV buys.

Okay, maybe my hockey analogy wasn't the best, but I'm just not sold on Fedor being the undisputed best HW at the moment. Throughout MMA histroy I'd agree that he is, but he's got to keep beating the best to retain that crown. It's too bad the fight with Barnett never materialized began that would've really tested Fedor. I think Overeem would be a good opponent for him as well. I disagree about the UFC not being the home of the elite in MMA. UFC fighters dominate the top ten ranking in every division. That's not to say other organizations aren't home to great fighters, but UFC can boast the highest ratio of the top fighters.

Fixed If the Detroit Red Wings or Pittsburgh Penguins dropped down to the AHL with their current team and dominated for the next 4 years, could still call them the best after those 4 years? I'm not suggesting Brock is better, I don't think he'd even beat Fedor, but you can't say for absolute fact that Fedor is the best in the world.

Carwin has undergone knee surgery after Lesnar had to withdraw from the fight, and Minotauro is out for a while with a bad staph infection. The HW division is pretty thin at the moment.