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An angry Dana White declined to reveal his plans for the 185-pound division Saturday night, instead teasing a future announcement of multiple fights to eventually decide Anderson Silva's next challenger.
White was thoroughly disappointed with two fights on the main card of UFC 149. Heavyweights Cheick Kongo and Shawn Jordan bored a sold out audience in Calgary en route to Kongo taking a unanimous decision; White blasted referee Yves Lavigne for failing to break up the frequent clinching between the two burly fighters.
In addition, Hector Lombard's greatly-anticipated UFC debut resulted in a complete dud that saw his 25-fight winning streak came to an end when he dropped a brutal split decision to Tim Boetsch. Lombard, a former Bellator middleweight champion, was in prime position to position himself for a shot at the Spider. He instead stood flat-footed and did virtually nothing, drawing a massive amount of boos during the final round.
Rampant speculation quickly spread over social media that Long Island's Chris Weidman, off an impressive victory over Mark Munoz at UFC on FUEL 4, would be named No. 1 contender at middleweight. White, however, was too flustered to reveal anything.
"The next couple of days we'll get it figured out who's going to fight next and what's going to happen," White said. "This isn't the Ultimate Clinching Championship. This is the Ultimate Fighting Championship. We can count on one hand how many of these shows sucked."
Following the formal press conference, White told Ariel Helwani that if Silva wanted to fight right now he would do the Weidman fight, but needs to talk to him to figure out the schedule. White may be considering a tournament to determine Silva's next opponent. My guess is Weidman, Boetsch, Alan Belcher, Vitor Belfort and perhaps Wanderlei Silva will be a part of it. Two other contenders, Michael Bisping and Brian Stann, are already paired for the main card of UFC 152 on September 22.
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