[NickdaNutz]

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Hughes has "earned" it by being one of the most dominating fighters in the short history of MMA. He has 2 losses since March 2001. One to B.J. Penn, one to Georges St. Pierre. He's 20-2 in that time. That's just sick. Again, I'm not even a big fan of Hughes, but I definitely don't have a problem with him having a title shot.

It's really hard for me to subjectively try and rank the welterweight division because I think a lot of guys are real close. I think right now St. Pierre, Hughes, Parisyan, and Fitch are Tier 1, and guys like Serra, Koscheck, Sanchez, etc. are Tier 2.

Going back to Karo, I just don't feel like a guy's style should dictate title fights. We've had this discussion before, and I understand the UFC is also in the entertainment business and wants to make money. But, IMO, MMA is a sport first, and you can't deny title shots because a guy has a poor style. Outside of Parisyan's inability to finish lately, I think he has a pretty fun style. He has an extraordinary ability to hit big slams, and was in a FOTY last year with Diego.

If I were setting up fights...it's hard to say because we don't know how long Serra is out for. If we go back and erase the TUF [censored], Hughes and Serra would have fought over the summer. This is what I would do right now:

Hughes vs. St. Pierre at UFC 79
Fitch vs. Parisyan at UFC 81 for a title shot
Kos vs. Marcus Davis at 80/81

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Fitch-Parisyan would be nice.

I have alot of respect for Hughes abilities and what he has accomplished; however I think Georges wins in a similar fashion to the second fight.

I think Fitch is a better matchup for Hughes because of physical size.

Ill default to you on Parisyan because Im sure you know much more about him but I wouldnt put him in the top tier.

No love for Koscheck? maybe they can set up a Koscheck-Alves fight in the near future. I think he got unlucky to catch GSP (after the Serra loss)