UFC 99: Wanderlei Silva Can't Earn a Middleweight Title Shot Just Yet

The UFC definitely hopes to promote a middleweight title fight between Wanderlei Silva and Anderson Silva. But UFC President Dana White said in Germany on Friday that even if Wanderlei beats Rich Franklin at UFC 99, he wouldn't move ahead of Michael Bisping in the middleweight pecking order.

Asked about several of the top middleweights, White said that he thinks Michael Bisping would earn the next title shot if he beats Dan Henderson at UFC 100. White added that Wanderlei would then likely fight Nate Marquardt -- if Marquardt beats Demian Maia at UFC 102.

"They're all in the mix," White said. "Should Wanderlei win tomorrow, I actually think that Bisping would be next in line, should he beat Dan Henderson. Then maybe you have Wanderlei fight Marquardt. Who knows? But we have all those different scenarios that could happen. It's exciting. It's good for the 185-pound division."

I'd love to see Wanderlei vs. Anderson, but I feel strongly that Wanderlei can't earn a middleweight title fight until he actually wins a fight as a middleweight. The fight with Franklin is at 195 pounds, so Wanderlei still needs to drop 10 more pounds and beat one more impressive opponent (probably the Maia-Marquardt winner) before he'd earn that title shot.

However, that all assumes that Bisping beats Henderson, which is not a safe assumption at all. In fact, Henderson is the favorite to beat Bisping. And if Henderson does beat Bisping, the UFC probably doesn't feel the need to give Henderson another shot at Anderson Silva's belt, since Henderson has already been beaten by Anderson Silva once before.

That means Wanderlei could still get the next middleweight title shot, if he looks great in beating Franklin and if Bisping loses. I personally wouldn't like that matchmaking, but I would love that fight.

We'll have full UFC 99 results and a UFC 99 live blog Saturday afternoon here at FanHouse.