As reported by MMAFighting, Dana White confirmed today that, if he defeats Jim Miller at UFC on Fox 3 Saturday night, Nate Diaz will be granted a title shot against the winner of Benson Henderson vs Frankie Edgar. The only caveat is that the fight is only a title eliminator for Diaz and not for Miller. The most obvious reason for this is that Miller just suffered a loss to current champion Henderson at UFC on Versus 5 less than a year ago, while Diaz has had two very impressive performances since his return to the lightweight division.

This announcement has been met with a bit of criticism, however. Many are questioning Diaz's credibility as a challenger when he'll only be on a three fight win streak if he manages to upset Jim Miller. The real question this brings up is who else would be a more fit challenger at this point? Right now, taking a look at the top Lightweight fighters in the UFC, there's not very many standouts:

#4 Gray Maynard vs. #6 Clay Guida

Despite Gray coming off a loss to former champion Frankie Edgar, he's still a possibility in the title picture as it's not unheard of for a former contender to get another shot after one or two wins. His likelihood as a contender most likely increases if Edgar is able to defeat Henderson in the rematch, as well. After 3 fights Maynard and Edgar are 1-1-1 and the second two matches are rightfully acclaimed as two of the best fights in recent history. That story needs an ending and those two are bound to meet again in the Octagon.

The immediate title hopes for Clay Guida, however, seem more bleak. Considering the fact that he, like Miller, is coming off a recent loss to Benson, it's far more likely that he's going to need at least one more win before the UFC tries to sell him as a contender.

#8 Anthony Pettis

After his UFC 144 Knockout win over Joe Lauzon, many people were clamoring for him to rematch Ben Henderson. Their first fight was an incredible back and forth battle where Pettis simultaneously grabbed the decision and wowed MMA fans everywhere with The Showtime Kick. On the other hand, the compelling rematch seemed to be the only strong argument for his title shot. Since winning the WEC championship at the promotion's closing event, Pettis has gone 2-1. He lost his UFC debut to the grinding wrestling of Clay Guida, but recovered with a strategic decision against Jeremy Stephens and the spectacular KO of Lauzon. While they're solid wins, that streak does not make a strong argument for a contender.

Oddly enough, that is pretty much the end of the list. Every other UFC fighter in the top 15 is coming off a loss to a higher ranked fighter. It's amazing that the division has changed so much since this time last year when there was a complete logjam of contenders waiting for Edgar and Maynard to fight.

It's still hard for me to justify Diaz's title shot here. Right now, he's on a two fight win streak that only includes Takanori Gomi and Donald Cerrone. Despite Gomi's success earlier in his career, he has only one impressive win in the UFC. That fight was pretty much tailor-made for Diaz to have a highlight return to the division. When Cerrone fought Diaz, he was coming off an incredible 4 fight win streak inside of a year of competition. His competition wasn't the greatest, but that kind of activity is still remarkable. Diaz exposed him as a limited striker in a clear decision victory.

Topping that streak off with a win over Jim Miller should without a doubt put Nate in title discussions, but he should need one more win before he gets it. The best case scenario in my mind would be a face-off against Anthony Pettis for number one contender. The UFC will be wasting the potential for a great fight by skipping this opportunity. The loss is doubled by the fact that Diaz will be put on the shelf for at least 6 months while he waits for Henderson vs. Edgar at UFC 150 in August.

I’m a lot bigger than (Junior) Dos Santos and I hit a lot harder. I’m a taller, longer athlete … quicker; I’ll constantly pepper him with shots when he comes in and make him pay when I do hit him with something.

So says the man himself, Francisco Santos Miranda, III, AKA Frank Mir. Quite frankly, I'm terribly skeptical, but that's the lovely thing about this sport, we'll get to find out soon enough.

For the record, Junior Dos Santos is listed at 6'4" and a 77" reach. Mir is at 6'3" and 79". Take all of those measurements with a grain of salt, however. I can speak from firsthand experience, every single program will add a couple of inches and pounds (in non-weight-class sports). JDS has 10 (T)KO's to his credit (Velasquez, Gonzaga, Yvel, Struve, Werdum, and various lesser names from Brazil), while Mir has just three (Sims, Nogueira and Filipovic). Of note, JDS has a "submision" win against Cro Cop, but it was a concession due to accumulated strikes, so we should call that an 11th.

At UFC 145, Eddie Yagin and Mark Hominick engaged in a bloody back and forth battle that saw Yagin hurt Hominick badly with power punches in the first and second rounds, only to tire and have the Canadian featherweight bounce back and put a beating on him in the third round.

Yagin went on MMAWeekly radio last week and made some negative remarks about Joe Rogan, stemming from Joe's commentary during the fight. In a case of poor timing, his interview was on the very same day that the UFC's primary sponsor, Anheuser-Busch, released a statement reprimanding the company (courtesy of adage.com) for questionable remarks made by it's fighters.

Yagin thought that Rogan was biased in favor of Hominick and just like in his fight with Hominick, Yagin pulled no punches:

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via p.twimg.com

@RondaRousey stopped by! First she kicked our ass in Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Then she kicked our ass in real life: twitter.com/MaximMag/statu…

— Maxim Magazine(@MaximMag) May 1, 2012

Before the sweat had a chance to dry on Jon Jones' brow following his dominant performance against Rashad Evans, Dana White had already announced that the next challenger to his 205 pound throne would be Dan Henderson. By early next week, rumors were starting to spread that the fight would take place later this summer, at UFC 149 in Calgary. The UFC has shot those rumors down, instead stating that they would likely hold the fight in the early fall.

By this time, everyone is well aware that there are precious few challengers remaining for Jones at the light heavyweight weight limit. In fact, after Henderson, there is really no one else who fits the bill. Some will argue that Alexander Gustafsson will be ready by that time but he has yet to be booked into a fight following his victory over Thiago Silva at UFC on FUEL TV 2 earlier this month and he has exactly zero victories over top ten opponents in his current five fight win streak, leading me to believe that such talk is a little premature.

With this decided lack of challengers, most of the talk about Jones' future involves a move up to the heavyweight division, and soon. The move seems a foregone conclusion to such an extent that Dana White is already cautioning Jones against doing it too soon.

I have to admit that I'm a little surprised to hear such strong declarations about Jones' future. After all, there has been a grand total of zero UFC champions who have vacated the title in one division to pursue a second title in the weight class above.

Middleweight champion Anderson Silva has twice dipped his toes into the water at light heavyweight, both times destroying his opponents.

Yet Silva has refused to make the jump a permanent one despite going through a considerable stretch of less than stellar challengers, something very similar to what Jones could be facing should he defeat Henderson.

Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre has been long rumored to be on the verge of moving up to the middleweight division to challenge Silva in a highly anticipated superfight but he too has stayed at his natural home.

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I caught this post over at fellow SBNation site MMAmania via our old pals at Liverkick, and quite honestly, there's no need to re-write anything. Tip o' the hat, fellows. Check it out:

No UFC ... no Strikeforce ... no problem!

Hard-hitting heavyweight striker Sergei Kharitonov is back in the mixed martial arts (MMA) spotlight, coming to terms with United Glory for an upcoming bout against the dangerous Tony Lopez at the "2012 Glory World Series" on May 26 in Stockholm, Sweden.

News of the pending match-up comes via the fine men and women at LiverKick.com.

Kharitonov (18-5) was last seen kicking the crap out of Mark Miller under the United Glory banner just last month in Russia. It was a nice rebound win (under kickboxing rules) for the former paratrooper, who was bounced from the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix with a submission loss to Josh Barnett back in 2011.

But things aren't getting any easier.

Lopez (31-8) has been on an absolute tear under the King of the Cage (KOTC) umbrella, winning seven straight fights and securing seven violent finishes in the process. Just over half of all wins for "Kryptonite" have come by way of tap, nap or snap.

Check out a video teaser for United Glory's "2012 Glory World Series" after the jump.

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Video has come to SB Nation!

We launched SB Nation's official Youtube channel on March 1st with some pretty large ambitions: let's try something new. Across the entire network, we approach the world of sports from a different angle. The passion, expertise, and first-rate analysis and discussion that takes place every day on our sites is something to be proud of and we didn't want to ruin that with a bunch of talking heads in suits and ties with no game-footage rights.


We've got humor, expert analysis, weirdness, video gifs, and incredible storytelling all in one place and we're really proud of what this thing has become. Right now, we're producing over 30 new original videos every single week. Be sure to subscribe to not miss anything. Here's a rundown of the offerings:

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