It may not be Tim Sylvia's ticket back into Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), but a marquee match-up against Daniel Cormier in Strikeforce is probably the next best thing.
And hey, it's one step above a "comeback" season on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF).
Believe it or not, "The Maine-iac" is one of the names being tossed around for Cormier's final fight on Showtime, prior to what is widely-believed to be the Strikeforce Grand Prix Champion's inevitable transition to the 265-pound ranks in the UFC.
From his conversation with Sherdog's "Beatdown" radio:
"I think anytime you get to fight a guy that held the UFC title, it's a big deal. If Tim Sylvia's the guy that they put across the cage from me, then that's the guy I will fight on that day, but it doesn't really matter to me. I said that I would like to actually continue my progression, but there aren't many guys that are a step up from Josh Barnett. I don't know. I just would like to keep progressing in my career and fighting guys that are better than the last guy. I don't know who that's going to be. It doesn't really matter. I'll give Showtime their fight and see where I stand in the UFC division when I'm done."
Sylvia, a two-time heavyweight champion under the ZUFFA banner, has been pining for a return to the world's largest fight promotion, pestering promotion president Dana White and the rest of the UFC brass for a second shot at superstardom.
Those pleas, to date, have fallen on deaf ears.
But a monster upset win over "DC" later this year might just be the thing to have them reconsider, assuming Big Tim can get past Randy Smith in the main event of New England Fights' (NEF) "Fight Night III" at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on June 16, 2012.
Stranger things have happened.
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