Atop the middleweight mountain stands Chris Weidman. He’s young, big, strong and capable of competing with and defeating everybody who stands in front of him.
Champion-like qualities aside, his controversial victories over Anderson Silva left much to be desired. Understandably so, a fluke knockout and a broken shin created questions that we needed to be answered.
Then he stepped into the cage with Lyoto Machida and silenced most of his critics. He’s the real deal.
After Weidman lies a crop of fighters who are all vying to compete for UFC gold. Some are the real deal; some even have the skills to dethrone the ultra-confident Ray Longo-trained fighter. But many aren’t and don’t.
Scroll along as we brand each of the UFC’s top 10 middleweights as a contender or a pretender. For the purposes of this article, contenders are those who stand a chance (slim or otherwise) of defeating the champion. Pretenders, on the other hand, do not.