UFC's Gray Maynard Deserves Title Shot With Win Over Nate Diaz - Fighters.com January Lightweight Rankings

Fighters.com’s fifth-ranked lightweight “Bully” Gray Maynard (8-0) and Nate Diaz (10-5) will rematch an The Ultimate Fighter 5 exhbition match tonight at UFC Fight Night 20 in Fairfax, Virginia.

Diaz won the original exhibition match and eventually the TUF 5 championship.  But, Maynard has bullied ahead of Diaz since TUF 5, with big decision victories of UFC contenders sixth-ranked “The Answer” Frank Edgar (11-1) and “El Matador” Roger Huerta (20-3-1).

With vengeance tonight versus Diaz, Maynard will have proven himself as the top contender in the UFC’s 155-pound division and will deserve a title fight versus Fighters.com and UFC Lightweight Champion “Prodigy” BJ Penn (15-5-1).

In fact, Maynard deserved the title shot over Penn’s last challenger ninth-ranked “Nightmare” Diego Sanchez (21-3).  Penn stopped Sanchez in the fourth round at UFC 107 in Memphis December 12.  It was never a competitive contest, primarily because Sanchez hadn’t put in the work in the division to earn the fight.

But, Fighters.com worries recent UFC signee “Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi (28-6) might take Maynard’s shot even if Maynard wins versus Diaz for the same reason Sanchez did.  Gomi is a bigger name, despite his recent disappointing performances.

Gomi is the type of fighter UFC President Dana White would crack jokes about if Gomi wasn’t now a UFC fighter.  Since reigning as PRIDE lightweight champion, Gomi’s focus on fighting has been lax.  He’s lost consecutive fights to Sergei Goliaev (9-6) at Sengoku in November 2008 and Satoru Kitaoka (24-9-7) at Sengoku in January 2009 and has expressed desires to spend the rest of his years surfing rather than fighting.  He’s evidently changed his mine.  Even as PRIDE champion, he dodged losing his title in non-title losses to “Maximus” Marcus Aurélio (18-7) in 2006 and Nick Diaz (20-8) in 2007.  (The Diaz loss was later ruled a no contest by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after Diaz tested positive for marijuana.)  And, as PRIDE champion, his matchups followed the Japanese pattern of one legitimate contender, followed by one tomato can, and so on.  What’s disappointing about Gomi is that his losses to Aurélio and Goliaev were supposed to be his tomato can fights.

Fighters.com’s point is that, while Maynard has earned a title shot, Gomi should be required to earn a fight versus Penn.  Sanchez didn’t earn his title challenge and the result was an obviously unprepared Sanchez versus a particularly lethatl Penn.

Fighters.com January Lightweight Rankings

1. “Prodigy” BJ Penn (15-5-1)

2. “Tobikan Judan” Shinya Aoki (17-4)

3. Eddie Alvarez (16-2)

4. “Hellboy” Joachim Hansen (18-7)

5. “Bully” Gray Maynard (8-0)

6. “The Answer” Frank Edgar (11-1)

7. “KenFlo” Kenny Florian (12-4)

8. “Crusher” Tatsuya Kawajiri (25-5-2)

9.  “Nightmare” Diego Sanchez (21-3)

10. “Muscle Shark” Sean Sherk (33-4-1)