Nick Diaz: What Top Contenders Can He Face When He Returns?

Nick Diaz is as controversial as they come. He skips press conferences, gets into gang-style brawls the moment he feels slightly disrespected and has no issues in speaking his mind at any point in time.

The only attribute that matches the brashness of Diaz is his well-rounded talent inside the cage. Leaving Strikeforce with their welterweight championship and a 10-fight winning streak, the Cesar Gracie student then outclassed UFC legend BJ Penn in his organizational return.

When an injury to Georges St-Pierre delayed Diaz's title shot for a second time, a bout with Carlos Condit for the interim championship was booked for UFC 142. Although Diaz lost the decision, fan debate over scoring criteria led to a second meeting for the two.After a post-fight urinalysis came back positive for marijuana metabolites, the rematch was scrapped and Diaz was slapped with a one-year suspension, as well as a fine of nearly$80,000. 

With the Stockton bad boy eligible to return in February, the UFC should already be looking into an opponent for as early as Superbowl weekend.

Here are six options for Nick Diaz to face immediately upon his return.

Nick Diaz: What Top Contenders Can He Face When He Returns?

Demian Maia

 Diaz deserves to be facing title contenders or former champions. Former middleweight challenger Demian Maia called out Diaz and appears to be only a fight or two away from competing for gold in his second division after making big waves in his new weight class.

Prior to stepping into the cage with Maia, welterweight notables Rick Story and Dong Hyun Kim had only been stopped one time in their previous 37 fights. That quickly changed when the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist dropped down to 170 pounds.

Maia brutally choked out Story in only 2:30 of the first round, while Kim was too injured to continue after 47 seconds of combat.Despite the well-documented jiu-jitsu of Diaz, there is no welterweight on the same grappling level as Maia. The Abu Dhabi standout has not had any trouble dragging any welterweights to the ground, regardless of their judo or wrestling backgrounds. 

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Diaz would maintain a considerable advantage in the standup department, although I'm not certain that he can stay off of his back for the entire contest.

Nick Diaz: What Top Contenders Can He Face When He Returns

Diaz wants to fight Anderson Silva

Although he has defeated notable middleweights Robbie Lawler, Frank Shamrock and Scott Smith, Diaz has no history of competing at 185 pounds.If Nick wants Silva, he has got to earn that right. There are several fighters in the UFC middleweight division who already feel that they should be next in line for The Spider. One of those men is Ultimate Fighter winner Michael Bisping.

Bisping has an excellent UFC record of 13-4, and he feels that his UFC 152 victory over Brian Stann warrants his long-desired crack at the middleweight championship. 

The long-standing issue with Bisping getting a fight for the belt has been his track record against elite competition. Holding a record of 1-2 against opponents ranked in the Top 10, a win over Diaz would get "The Count" over that hump that he has struggled with for so long.Who holds the advantages in this fight? Both men throw a high volume of strikes, which leads to an accumulation of damage that cannot be ignored. Each man has more wins by TKO than any other method, and neither has been submitted in their careers.

Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen To Coach Ultimate Fighter 17, Title Fight in April

   

Heading into UFC 153, the news on everyone's lips was that Jon Jones had finally seemed to come around to the idea of fighting Chael Sonnen. Now, it appears that fight will become a certainty.

The light heavyweight champion and his loud-mouthed nemesis will spend several weeks together coaching opposing teams on the long-running reality program, The Ultimate Fighter, according to a report from Lance Pugmire of LATimes.com.

After the show's filming has concluded, the duo will square off at an unnamed event on April 27, 2013.

This is great news for The Ultimate Fighter, as ratings hit a new low with last week's episode. Can you imagine the trash talk that Chael Sonnen will deliver over the course of a 12-week television program?

The 17th season of the show will begin filming later this month and will air beginning in January. It is notable that TUF has not started airing a season of the show in January since the inaugural season back in 2005.

To those living under a rock, the beef between Jones and Sonnen began in late August, when Sonnen's Team Quest teammate Dan Henderson was forced out of a scheduled fight with the champion. Sonnen attempted to step in on short notice, but Jones refused to fight the former middleweight with only one week to prepare a game plan.

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The move drew the ire of UFC President Dana White, who was forced to cancel UFC 151 due to the absence of a PPV-worthy main event.

In declining the replacement bout, Jones explained that he wasn't fully comfortable risking the belt against the 35-year-old skilled wrestler with a relentless, attacking style that nearly allowed him to upset middleweight champion Anderson Silva in 2010.

How deep will Sonnen get under the skin of Jonny Bones while filming the show? Will this be the jolt that brings The Ultimate Fighter's ratings back to life? 

October 2012 MMA Rankings: One of The 10 Best in Each Division

It's a brand-new day, which means a brand-new set of mixed martial arts rankings for your personal enjoyment/hatred. 

Since USA Today is no longer doing their consensus MMA rankings, I decided it was time to start fresh with these rankings, and instead of going off September's rankings, as I normally would, I created them from scratch. 

Now, I realize that's not going to stop a large percentage of you from hating the rankings in the following slides, because that's just what rankings are: an inspiration for online commenters everywhere to bash the author. 

After all, if you disagree with my rankings, then my rankings must be wrong. Or something.

One thing I'm maintaining from the USA Today rankings system: the caveat that fighters who spend more than a year on the shelf are not eligible to be ranked. Yes, that means Georges St-Pierre is not included in my welterweight rankings, but he'll be right back in there next month after he faces Carlos Condit at UFC 154. 

With that out of the way, let's get started.