Let It Begin

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The UFC Welterweight division is a mess.  Paul Daley has thrown the ultimate wrench into the title picture and with GSP ready for a return in early 2010 we have no idea who the hell is going to face him.  Whomever the UFC chooses will have some legitimate criticisms against a title shot.  There is not one "contender" who clearly deserves the title shot.  Recently the idea (which will never happen) of a welterweight contender tournament has been discussed and discussed.  While the idea makes sense and I cannot find a fan that would not love to follow a tournament, it is most likely not going to happen. 

However, that does not need to prevent us from having some fun, creating a bracket, and voting on who we think would win.  For pure entertainment purposes WKR has ranked the top 16 UFC Welterweights and placed them in a single elimination bracket.  I am sure there will be much dispute over the seeds, but that is why we play the games (you know what I mean) and the true winner (in our minds) will come out on top.  Below I have listed the seeds and a copy of the tournament breakdown.  We will sporadically post different match-ups and make our way through the tournament.  You will vote to decide who would move on.  *Seeding note: the seeds are based off of who WKR (myself this time, I do not want to throw other writers under the bus) believes to be the top welterweights and not who is next in line.  While Swick might be closer to a title shot than Thiago Alves (because he just lost), Alves is the better fighter. 

Seeds and tournament after the jump.

1. Thiago Alves                   9. Paul Daley

2. Jon Fitch                        10. Carlos Condit

3. Josh Koscheck              11. Karo Parisyan

4. Mike Swick                    12. Dong Hyun Kim

5. Martin Kampmann        13. Dustin Hazlett

6. Dan Hardy                    14. Anthony Johnson

7. Paulo Thiago                15. Marcus Davis

8. Matt Hughes                 16. Brock Larson

Bracket