Dana White Taking Tournament Approach with UFC Light Heavyweight Division

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March Madness is still a couple of months away, but UFC president Dana White has already formulated an unofficial four-man tournament for the light heavyweight division.

On one end of the brackets, Dan Henderson (Pictured) controls his own destiny. According to White, all Hendo needs to do is beat former champ Lyoto Machida at UFC 157 and he punches his ticket to the big dance.

“If Henderson wins, Henderson will get the next [title] shot,” White stated following Thursday’s press conference in Chicago.

While Hendo was assigned the tourney’s top seed, most likely because he was slated to challenge for the belt at UFC 151 until tearing his knee, he’ll have to serve up an upset special to earn a championship affair because Machida is more than a 2-to-1 odds-on favorite to reign supreme on February 23rd.

If “The Dragon” beats the former Strikeforce champ, he won’t necessarily receive the Hendo treatment, which is peculiar because White dubbed him the division’s top contender in August after putting Ryan Bader to sleep.

Instead, White decided to take his infamous “we’ll see what happens” approach with a victorious Machida. That brings us to the other end of the brackets where up-and-coming superstar Alexander Gustafsson battles Octagon rookie Gegard Mousasi in Sweden.

If the victor of that April 6th shootout posts a more devastating win than Machida, he will leapfrog the Brazilian and get next dibs at the throne.

Unfortunately for the tourney’s winner, he’ll most likely be fed to reigning champion Jon Jones...

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I do not agree with this bracket set up at all. Gustafsson should have first crack at jones if he wins his next fight. That would put him on a 7 fight win streak and he has never had a chance at UFC gold. Henderson is 0-2 for UFC title fights. Machida is is 0-2 in his last 2 title attempts. let some new blood have a chance first then let Henderson/Machida get the next crack after that.

Agreed. I think this and all the "tournament" talk when referencing TUF is all because of Bellator's success with that format. The UFC realizes this and has jumped on board. But the reason why it works for Bellator IMO is it built up their fighters, who prior to the tourneys, were relatively unknown.

But, that's not the case in the UFC. All the fighters have already been hard at it and have been positioned due to past performances... I don't know, I like tournaments...but absolutely not in this instance. It would make perfect sense for the Females though.

Gecko wrote:

I do not agree with this bracket set up at all. Gustafsson should have first crack at jones if he wins his next fight. That would put him on a 7 fight win streak and he has never had a chance at UFC gold. Henderson is 0-2 for UFC title fights. Machida is is 0-2 in his last 2 title attempts. let some new blood have a chance first then let Henderson/Machida get the next crack after that.

Agree.
I would be fine if Dana would say..."Whatever fighter wins his fight most convincingly gets the next shot".
I will be pissed if Henderson wins by controlling the fight with "control" against the fence in boring assed fassion.
However, I feel the same about Gustafsson if he doesn't absolutely destroy Mousassi.
I also don't think Mousassi is deserving of a title shot with one UFC win.

I dont have too much of a problem with it.

Hendo was set to fight Jones before he hurt his knee so beating Machida should be enough to get his shot back.

I also would love to see Gustaffson fight Jones and would have no porblem with it if he were given the shot either. I don't have a big problem with it either way...