What's Next for Mike Swick?

I'm man enough to admit I backed the wrong horse on Saturday in Germany, thinking the now officially overrated Ben Saunders could score an upset over Mike Swick.

Looking back on things, I don't think Saunders is actually that overrated.

I just think we have all criminally underrated Mike Swick for far too long.

Truth be told, I'm probably one of the biggest culprits when it comes to downplaying the talents of the man who turns 30 later this week. I mean, I did pick Ben Saunders over the weekend, right? But now I've seen the light and feel it is my duty to spread the message that Mike Swick is a legitimate contender at 170 to the rest of the masses.

First of all, the guy is 14-2. While there are certainly fighters out there who have amassed nice records competing in minor league organizations against sub-par competition, Swick is now 10-1 in the UFC with his lone loss being to Yushin Okami... at middleweight.

The fact that Swick is now fighting at welterweight and has maintained his insane hand speed should not be overlooked. Before making the drop, Swick scored wins over quality opponents like Joe Riggs and David Loiseau and has since gone 3-0 as a welterweight, outpointing Josh Burkman and Marcus Davis before stopping Jonathan Goulet and now Saunders. Ask the latter two if Swick still has the lightning in his hands that led him to spending just 42 seconds in the Octagon during his first two UFC fights.

It should also be said, looking back at Swick's track record in the cage, that he's got a couple quality submission wins too, including his victory over Riggs at UFC 60. Essentially, Mike Swick has shown that he possesses the total package inside the cage. Now all that is left to determine is what comes next?

Unfortunately, that is a lot easier said than done.

In his post-fight interview, Swick mentioned a fight with Matt Hughes, citing Hughes' legendary status as something that interests him in the fight. This is simply not a good way to go if you're looking to continue the momentum. Nothing against Matt Hughes, who is certainly a legend and deserving of a place in the UFC Hall of Fame whenever he hangs them up, but this isn't the Matt Hughes of old you'd be beating and everyone knows that.

Scoring a win over the shell of a formerly great fighter doesn't help a guy like Swick and if by some freakish chance Hughes were to lay and pray ground and pound his way to a win, sayonara Swick.

One of the problems with the future of the UFC Welterweight division - outside of the fact that Georges St-Pierre has all but cleaned house already - is the numerous American Kickboxing Academy members residing in the top half of the rankings.

The trio of Swick, Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck all train out of AKA and as we've learned in recent years, guys who train together are seldom interested in fighting one another. This is too bad too, because a fight with either of these guys is the type of entertaining and meaningful tilt that Swick needs to win in order for me to consider him a true title contender.

So with Hughes and the rest of the AKA Crew out of the way, who is there left to fight?

Theoretically, there is Paulo Thiago, but I'm fairly certain Jon Fitch is going to dispatch the Brazilian at UFC 100 next month, so we'll skip him.

Dan Hardy is in a similar position of needing another quality fight or two before earning a title shot, but the Brit has far more options available besides Swick to make this fight happen.

Which leaves us with one seemingly forgotten man: Martin "The Hitman" Kampmann.

It baffles me how few people bring up Martin Kampmann when discussing the UFC Welterweight title picture or supremely talented young fighters in the game today.

Lest we forget that before a knee injury led to surgery and some serious time on the shelf, Kampmann was on a roll and slated to fight Rich Franklin for the UFC Middleweight title. While he may have picked up the second loss of his career since returning, it came to Nate Marquardt while he was still fighting at 185 and we can all agree that Marquardt is no slouch.

Now that he's fighting at 170, Kampmann has shown all the talents that made him a Middleweight contender, earning a TKO victory over Alexandre Barros in his debut and scoring a split decision win over former WEC Welterweight champion Carlos Condit back in April.

With nothing else lined up as of yet and no one else in the division really in a dominant position for a title shot, why not put the two former middleweights head-to-head in a #1 Contender match sometime this fall?

Swick needs a legitimate test to earn his shot and Kampmann needs a win over a household name for the fans to support one of his own.

This thing makes perfect sense... which means it probably won't happen.

OUT / ONE

* * * * * * * * * *

E. Spencer Kyte is a freelance writer. He operates a daily blog entitled I Blog Because I Can and the Mixed Martial Arts blog Keyboard Kimura. Additionally, he writes for MMA Ratings and is currently working on his first book, The Rules of Engagement: A Guys Guide to Getting Married.