Anyone hoping for young stars to rise up in the wake of GSP vacating his title are still waiting. We're looking at the same situation as light heavyweight before Jon Jones took over with the title changing hands and every contender having as many minuses as pluses. The two top contenders (Hendricks & MacDonald) have both lost to the champion. Condit lost to Woodley. Woodley lost to MacDonald. Brown lost to Lawler. Lombard is 3-2. The only fast riser is Kelvin Gastelum but some of his wins are over the likes of Nico Musoke and Brian Melancon. Nick Diaz is fighting at middleweight. Jake Shields is gone. The obvious answer is to sign Ben Askren. He's 14-0 and in his last four fights has shown he can finish. One good win in the UFC and he's an obvious contender. Unfortunately DFW doesn't like him.
