UFC 108 Cursed? So now what....

At last nights post fight news conference Dana White informed the press that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has been forced to withdraw from his fight with Cain Velasquez due to a staph infection. This fight was schedule to be the nights main event, a main event that seems to be plagued with injuries. It was originally going to be Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belort for the Middleweight Title but the fight was pushed back when Silva elbow didn’t heal as fast as projected. Then the Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin fight was put in the main event but Lesnar got Mono and that fight needed to be postponed also. In came Velasquez vs. Nogueira to the resue but that was short lived and the year end event is again in need of a main event.

With Lesnar on the shelf for an unknown amount of time I think it’s time for an interim title at the heavyweight division. The problem is that Cain Velasquez is the last man standing within the division. Carwin is out while he’s recovering from a grade 2 MCL Strain .Contenders Frank Mir and Cheick Kongo are fighting together at each other at UFC 107. Veteren Paul Buentello is back in the UFC but is set to fight at UFC 107 also an the up and coming Junior Dos Santos is scheduled to face Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 108. That leaves Velasquez without a top level opponent unless they were to shuffle the fighters around.

Something is going to have to happen though so I’ll put on my matchmakers hat. The key will be to mix things up without messing too much up. That right there eliminates Mir or Kongo as they are the Co-main event for UFC 107 and doing anything with it will just cause another problem. Paul Buentello is making his return to the UFC and needs a fight or two before he’s in contention. The guy that makes the best sense is Junior Dos Santos who is already scheduled to fight at UFC 108. Santos has beaten Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve and most recently Mirko Cro cop in his three UFC fights. Take him out of the Gonzaga fight and put him in there against Velasquez on the main card. Gonzaga can then face someone like a Pat Berry on the night undercard or maybe even the first fight on the nights main card.

Then have the winner of the Mir vs. Kongo fight or the Velasquez vs. Dos Santos fight take on Shane Carwin in 2010 for the interim Heavyweight title while Lesnar is getting healthy.