Just kind of makes me think. If you are a guy like Overeem, you'll get plenty of easy fights like Tony Sylvester, Gary Goodridge, Mark Hunt, and Lee Tae-Hyun. None of those guys are even considered top 30 HWs at the time of those fights. An organization like Dream knows how to give easy wins, and bring in a guy that would never be there for any other reason, like giving Japan's biggest star, Sakuraba, some boxer who has never fought MMA. Wanderlei who doesn't catch a break, fighting Crocop, Henderson, Liddell, Jardine, Rampage, Franklin. Who are all considered elite caliber fighters, except Jardine but he was still considered top 10 at LHW. If Wanderlei was in Dream I'd bet he'd get some hand-picked opponents, and get at least a couple guaranteed wins. Instead he'll be fighting Akiyama in Austrailia, which is a solid fight, but you don't want to see a Legend have a such a rough stretch (albeit a stretch of very tough competition).
I never appreciated when PRIDE would feed great fighters bums all the time, it just seemed like a waste. I'd rather see Wandy fight ten top guys and lose five times than fight five good guys and five bums and lose twice, you know? Mirko fought a bunch of cans when PRIDE was building him up: Dos Caras Jr., Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Shungo Oyama--people don't remember him for those fights, they remember him fighting Nogueria, the Emelianenko's, Barnett, Randleman, etc.. If you mean why isn't Wandy getting a tune up fight after a loss, I can understand that--but at this stage in his career he'd just be wasting what limited time he has left.
Basically I just think Wanderlei deserves a break. Sure, he'd get way too much break time in Pride, but he's not getting any break time in the UFC. Akiyama isn't too bad a matchup though.
Let Wandy have Belfort. It is enough of a "name" fight to attract casual fans. If Wandy wins, Belfort is exposed. If Belfort wins, even Wandy will have to admit it is time to retire.
Wand doesn't want to retire though, and if he got some easy wins he wouldn't have to think about it lol.
