Sorry for the inconsistency in getting the new tournament postings out.  I have been swamped at work and have been a little under the weather.

We all know that Anderson Silva is the most dominate MW in the world.  Has set the UFC record for longest winning  streak (10), tied for the most consecutive title defenses (5), and has remained unbeaten for over 4 years.  Due to his overwhelming dominance, Silva currently resides at or near the top of every MMA Pound 4 Pound ranking.  But what if A.S. were to suddenly vanish?  The UFC MW landscape would change dramatically.  With that in mind, who would rule the UFC's MW division in a world without the Spider?  Time find out, Tournament style...

We will poll each fight individually, for 1 day, beginning with opening round Match #1.  MMA Mania has the most knowledgeable MMA online community, so please feel free to post your pick in the comments along with your analysis of how you see the fights breaking down.  Hopefully this will give us something to do on slow news days.

Quarter Final #1 was the end of the road for Canadian bruiser Patrick Cote.  Chael Sonnen took a convincing 66% of the vote to move on to the Semi-finals.  In a classic wrestler vs striker match-up, the wrestler once again came out on top.    Sonnen now awaits the winner of Maia vs Wandy...

                                                            QF1     1 C. Sonnen

Match #1:    8 Yoshihiro Akiyama                     9 P. Cote

                   9 Patrick Cote                                                                   SF1  1  C. Sonnen

                                                                                                                     Winner of 4 / 5
                                                            QF2      4 D. Maia                                                                           

Match #2:   5 Wanderlei Silva                           5 W. Silva

                12 Chris Leben

                                                            QF3      3 V. Belfort

Match #3:    6 Yushin Okami                             6 Yushin Okami

                 11 Dan Miller                                                                      SF2  Winner of 3 / 6

                                                            QF4      2  N. Marquardt                   Winner of 2 / 10

Match #4:    7 Michael Bisping                          10 A. Belcher

                 10 Alan Belcher

Quarter Final #2 is an age old movie style match-up of Master versus Student.  Wandy comes into the fight fresh off a hard fought and successful debut at 185.  Wandy looked much more fluid over the weekend and showed a better mix of strikes, kicks and takedowns, while still retaining his KO power.  Despite his BJJ blackbelt, The Murderer will need to do his best to avoid the ground game of his student and training partner Damian Maia.  In his last outing, Maia  displayed improved striking, as well as improved TD defense.  Regardless, I don't expect him to look to exchange with Silva.  

So lets hear it Maniacs.  Who would rule the day, in a world without Anderson Silva?  Will the favorites move on, or will we see an underdog rise to the top?  You decide.