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o Michael David Smith
o Michael David Smith is FanHouse's Lead Blogger
The UFC's lightweight division basically comes down to B.J. Penn and everyone else, but Gray Maynard has a plan for getting to the top of the "everyone else" pile: He wants to fight the winner of the Kenny Florian-Takanori Gomi bout that will serve as the main event of UFC Fight Night 21 on March 31.
Maynard made his statement on Twitter Monday morning, tweeting, "florian vs gomi. I want to fight the winner!!" Maynard later told a fan that he's picking Florian to win.
Maynard is a logical next opponent for the Florian-Gomi winner, and it's a fight that I would like a lot. I also agree with Maynard that Florian will win.
If Gomi wins, however, I have to think the UFC will give him a title shot next. The UFC would love to promote a Gomi-Penn rematch for the lightweight title, and if Gomi beats Florian, who's probably the second-best lightweight in the UFC, there's really no reason to wait for that fight.
All of this assumes, of course, that Penn beats Frank Edgar at UFC 112 on April 10. If Edgar wins, all bets are off.
And that gets back to the issue of the lightweight division being Penn and everyone else. The UFC is having a hard time finding credible contenders to take Penn on. I don't know anyone who thinks Edgar is going to beat Penn, I don't know anyone who would pick Maynard to beat Penn, and I don't know anyone who would pick either Florian or Gomi, both of whom have already lost to Penn, to win a rematch.
So I suppose a fight between Maynard and the Florian-Gomi winner makes sense, and I suppose putting the winner of that fight in the Octagon with Penn makes sense, too. But I'm having a hard time seeing any competitive lightweight title fights any time soon. Penn is just that much better than the rest of the division.
