When the Ultimate Fighting Championship was set to absorb sister company World Extreme Cagefighting last December, the competitive lightweight division experienced an influx of new talent, including WEC champion Anthony Pettis and former champion Ben Henderson.
The integration created several high-profile fights, including UFC veteran Clay Guida against Pettis in May. The pecking order of the division has been held up, however, by a January draw between UFC champion Frankie Edgar and top challenger Gray Maynard and subsequent injuries to both that pushed their rematch from May until October.
The question of who awaits the October winner may be settled this weekend when Jim Miller, who has won his last seven fights, battles Henderson during the undercard of Sunday's UFC Live 5 card in Milwaukee. The event will air live on Versus at 9 p.m. EST.
"In my opinion you've got to look at every fight as the most important fight of your career," said Miller, who is 20-2 with the losses coming to Maynard and Edgar. "I have 20 wins but if I had lost one of those wins I wouldn't be in the situation I am right now. So my main focus is just on the 14th and Ben. It's a tough fight, and that's where my eyes are locked. I'm just preparing for that fight and nothing else."
Despite Guida's win over Pettis, who eschewed his promised title shot against the Edgar-Maynard winner for that bout, UFC president Dana White indicated Miller would be in line for first title shot if he defeats Henderson (13-2). The UFC's acquisition of Strikeforce earlier this year could complicate matters, however, if Gilbert Melendez were to join the UFC.
"I've been in the business, and you never know what is going to happen," said Miller, a New Jersey native who turns 28 this month. "If Guida had finished Anthony, he might have been getting the shot. Depending on how our fight goes, if I win, how the win goes (I may get the shot). It all depends if they bring Melendez over from Strikeforce. So much could happen.
"It's such a fluid division and there are quite a few guys that have set themselves up. So I try not to just focus on any of that and just focus on the fight at hand."
Welterweights Dan Hardy and Chris Lytle will headline the event and are expected to turn in an exciting brawl despite losses in their last four combined fights.
Hardy, who won his first four UFC fights, lost to welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, Carlos Condit and Anthony Johnson. Lytle saw his string of four consecutive victories ended by Brian Ebersole in February.
"They didn't pick me and Dan to be there to put on a boring fight," said Lytle, whose recent history includes two Submissions of the Night, a Knockout of the Night and five Fights of the Night. ". . . You're going to get what you pay (for). You're going to get a good fight out of it. That's all I can guarantee. It's going to be fun to watch."
The televised card will also feature lightweights Charles Oliveira vs. Donald Cerrone, welterweights Amir Sadollah vs. Duane Ludwig and middleweights C.B. Dollaway vs. Jared Hamman.
The preliminaries include: light heavyweights Karlos Vemola vs. Ronny Markes; middleweights Ed Herman vs. Kyle Noke; lightweights Cole Miller vs. T.J. O'Brien and Jacob Volkmann vs. Danny Castillo; featherweights Alex Caceres vs. Jim Hettes; and bantamweights Joseph Benavidez vs. Eddie Wineland and Edwin Figueroa vs. Jason Reinhardt.
-- Strikeforce is in the midst of uncertainty.
Alistair Overeem, the promotion's heavyweight champion and favorite to win the heavyweight grand prix, pulled out of the tournament and was subsequently released from his contract.
"There's two people ranked currently above me, and they're both in the UFC," Overeem said on Inside MMA on HDNet. "Of course I want to go to the UFC. I want to fight the top competition. These guys are there. It's not up to me. It's up to does the UFC want me. I'm willing to go wherever the top guys are."
Nick Diaz vacated his welterweight championship to move to the UFC and fight champion Georges St-Pierre in October.
Light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson defeated Fedor Emelianekno in a heavyweight bout last month -- the final fight on Henderson's contract.
Emelianenko, who lost three consecutive fights with Strikeforce, was released.
via source standard.net
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