During Saturday night’s UFC 100 broadcast, as commentator Joe Rogan was pondering who will face welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre next, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva apparently informed the comedian that the winner of the upcoming Mike Swick, Martin Kampmann bout will determine the division’s #1 contender. (If memory serves, Silva made the statement as Rogan was asking who is left in the division to really challenge GSP, who at the time, was taking challenger Thiago Alves to the mat more often than the mop used at the event to clean up the blood)

Yesterday the UFC officially announced that the Swick, Kampmann fight will take place September 19^th in Dallas, Texas.

Although no other ‘official’ statements have been released as to what’s riding on the upcoming bout, according to a report today from MMAJunkie, sources have confirmed to the site that the fight will in fact determine who will fight GSP next. (Which, based off the champ’s latest performances, is like trying to fight your way to the front of the line, only to be greeted by a dozen orbital bone smashing elbows when you arrive- some people are suckers for punishment)

In all seriousness, although GSP has now knocked off many of the prominent fighters in the 170lb. division, both Swick and Kampmann could make for solid challengers. Kampmann is coming off a win over former WEC champ Carlos Condit, and Swick has gone undefeated since dropping down to welterweight, winning 4 straight. (In fact, last December, Swick dropped GSP’s long time buddy and training partner Jonathan Goulet faster than the Canadian could say ‘bonjour.’)

Due to the severe groin injury St.Pierre incurred during his Unanimous Decision victory over Alves, he is not expected to compete again in 2009.

So, in a span of a couple of days, a bout between two of the welterweight division’s more entertaining and aggressive fighters has vanished into thin air. While fighting back tears we hereby ask UFC matchmaker Joe Silva to add a Johnson, Brown bout to his ‘git-r-done’ list.

Betting Analysis: Nate Diaz vs. Josh Neer

TUF Season 5 winner Nate Diaz has torn through every cupcake UFC matchmaker Joe Silva has put in front of him.  Diaz is riding a four-fight UFC win streak and has made it look pretty easy, winning each via submission.

Diaz has publicly said that he wants some tougher competition, but for whatever reason the best he can get is a Main Event fight at Ultimate Fight Night against Josh Neer. Let’s face it, Nick Diaz is probably never going to be a champion at 155, but if he wants to step up against better competition then give him what he wants.

Nate Diaz’s all-around fighting skills seem to be pretty strong, but it is tough to determine exactly how skilled this guy really is because of his level of competition. His victories have come against the likes of Manny Gamburyan, Junior Assuncao, Alvin Robinson, and Kurt Pellagrino.  That’s on par with beating your first four opponents on Wii Boxing, including the guy with the mullet who just stands there and let’s you punch him in the face repeatedly.

No doubt that Diaz is a ground wizard with seven of his nine wins coming via submission, but we are yet to see what happens if Nate Diaz is forced to keep a fight standing. Eventually he is going to need to demonstrate he has a standup game if he wants to become an elite fighter at 155.

Josh “The Dentist” Neer has a ton of MMA experience and has definitely fought tougher dudes than Nate Diaz.  Josh has wins against Melvin Guillard, Joe “Daddy” Stevenson, and most recently Din Thomas. Moving down from Welterweight to Lightweight has proved to be the difference for Josh.  He is on a three fight win streak in the division and finally feels like he has found a home.

Josh Neer is as tough as they come, but he will want to keep this fight on his feet.  Diaz wants this fight on the ground and get another submission, so this will likely be a style fight, favoring whichever fighter will be able to execute the game plan.

In the end, we think Neer will be another stepping stone for Diaz. We think the UFC is bringing Diaz along slowly and perhaps wants him to get more wins and experience while waiting for the division to open up a little.  We don’t want to put a ton of coin on this because Diaz is still a little green, so we’ll just bet $440 to win $200

Bet on Nate Diaz vs. Josh Neer and put your money where your mouth is.

It’s official, we will never have to hear about War Machine again. War Machine may be one of the biggest douche bags of all time.  Seriously, who changes there name to War Machine?

The UFC finally pulled the plug on him after several incidents such as acting like a drunken idiot on TUF, declining fights from matchmaker Joe Silva, and then making ridiculous blog posts about Evan Tanner’s death.

After hearing about Evan Tanner’s death this is what War Machine posted on his myspace blog:

“No one is sure yet but it sounds like it was a suicide. Sad thing is that it makes sense. What else is an UNDERPAID fighter supposed to do at the end of his career? Cash in his 401K? Collect social security? Start to work some shitty job for 10 bucks an hour? Shit ain’t boxing and if you’re not Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz you don’t get paid dick. Wasn’t like he made MILLIONS and blew it all like Mike Tyson, this guy fought his entire life and didn’t have shit. No wonder why he took off to the woods. Prolly reminisced on the days when he was champ, the days when growing old didn’t matter and took his life. Severe depression plagues MANY fighters at the end of their careers. Mark my words when I say that “HE MAY BE THE FIRST, BUT HE ISN’T THE LAST.”

This post is really insensitive but what can you expect from a dude whose name is War Machine?  Kudos to the UFC for getting rid of this douche.