At UFC 162, Chris Weidman viciously knocked out the longest-reigning UFC champion of all time, Anderson Silva. In their second matchup, the Brazilian lost once more, triggering a permanent changing of the guard in the middleweight division.
Silva will be out of action until, at least, the latter part of 2014, due to a broken leg suffered in his last bout. The injury provides a prime opportunity for other contenders to shine in a division that was previously dominated by Silva for six and a half years.
The following gives light to the UFC’s middleweight top-10 contenders, analyzes their past performances and separates the pretenders from the actual contenders in the deeply stacked 185-pound division.