(Pictured above: Nate Diaz and a pre-beard Johny Hendricks.)
Yesterday, the UFC and FOX held an open media conference call, which featured UFC President Dana White, middleweight contender and FOX analyst Brian Stann, and Fox Sports Media Group Co-President Eric Shanks taking questions prior to this weekend’s UFC on FOX event. Among the questions to come up was one regarding the likelihood of the Nate Diaz/Jim Miller winner receiving the next title shot at 155 pounds. True to form, Dana White did not beat around the bush, declaring that to be true for at least half of the participants involved:
Should Diaz win, Diaz is definitely getting a title shot. Should Miller win, Miller’s probably going to be a fight or two away.
White when on to state that the same applied for Johny Hendricks should he get past Josh Koscheck on Saturday, whereas our boy Fraggle would have to get a couple more wins under his belt. Considering that both Koscheck and Miller recently suffered losses to the current champions of their respective weight classes (twice over if your Koscheck), this seems to make sense.
Diaz is only 2-0 since returning to lightweight, but his victory over Donald Cerrone at UFC 141 was so utterly dominant that it set a record for strikes landed in a three round fight. A win over Miller would provide all we need to know about Nate’s future at 155 *cough* can he defend a takedown? *cough*. Miller recently bounced back from a unanimous decision loss to current champ Ben Henderson by submitting Melvin Guillard in January, but we all know that he needs at least eight victories in a row to earn a title shot, so it’s gonna be a while.
Speaking of win streaks, if Hendricks is able to best Koscheck, it would be his fourth victory in a row and eighth out of the nine fights he has had while under the UFC banner, so a title shot seems justified at this point. Koscheck, on the other hand, has scored two straight against Matt Hughes and Mike Pierce, but his aforementioned pair of losses to Georges St. Pierre doesn’t really give him anywhere to go at the moment. Then again, who knows who will be the champ after GSP/Condit goes down, whenever the hell that may be.
You can listen to the conference call in its entirety here.
So what do you think, Potato Nation? Does Diaz deserve a shot? And if so, how do you think he’d fare against Henderson, or Frankie Edgar for that matter?
Make sure to swing by CagePotato this Saturday, as we’ll be liveblogging all the action starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. WT.