With his win over Dean Lister, Yushin Okami has climbed back up to the top of the 185 pound heap. UFC 90 was supposed to be Silva vs. Okami not Silva vs. Cote, but an injury sidelined him. It is rumored that Thales Leites is slated to fight Anderson Silva next. This could be a true injustice. Leites is a great fighter but he really needs to fight someone like Franklin or Henderson before he proves ready for Silva. Although Okami lost to Franklin at UFC 72 he has won 7 out of 8 fights against top names in the UFC where as Thales Leites hasn’t beaten the same calibur that Okami has.
The problem with this situation is that Okami could end up like Martin Kampman and Andrei Arlovski. Kampman, as we remember, was supposed to fight for the Welterweight title but had a serious knee injury and was out for a year and lost his title shot. Now after a loss Kampman has fallen below a large stack of very tough 170 pounders. And Arlovski looked like he was driven out of the UFC with how he was treated. He was promised a title shot with one more win, but that win was lackluster so someone else got the title shot, Arlovski fought out his contract and didn’t resign. Okami is a great talent and I would hate to see him fall to the wayside in a similar way to Kampman and Arlovski.
What should happen is this, Okami gets the next shot, Leites gets to fight the loser of Okami vs Silva. If Leites can get passed that challenge then he should get the title shot. We’l just have to wait and see.
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- The Ultimate Fighter Finale Results: Thales Leites vs. Floyd Sword
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I would love to see Okami get a shot, I have been disappointed with his last two opponents and I was very much looking forward to his last scheduled fight vs. Silva. I am surprised he didn’t beat the shit out of Dean Lister and only one by decision. On the other hand… it’s hard to say if anyone right now has a chance vs Anderson
Okami has only been fighting undercard fights lately, not really interested in him, I want to see Franklin vs. Silva 3
Franklin vs. Silva 3 would be a joke. You must be crunked? Franklin should only fight him again if he can win another fight against a notable fighter if/after he beats Henderson. I would personally like to see him beat Cote