They're not dead or anything, this is just the image the UFC had for some reason.

Last Saturday’s UFC on Fuel TV card wasn’t seen by many (as of this writing Fuel’s available in about sixty-three households in the whole world), but as I alluded to last Friday, the overlooked card provided plenty of entertainment due to strong matchmaking.

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook)

• Jason Young defeated Eric Wisely via unanimous decision (30–28, 29–28, 29–28)
• Simeon Thoresen defeated Besam Yousef via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:36 of round 2
• Reza Madadi defeated Yoislandy Izquierdo via submission (guillotine choke) at 1:28 of round 2
• Francis Carmont defeated Magnus Cedenblad via submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:42 of round 2
• Cyrille Diabate defeated Tom DeBlass via majority decision (29–28, 29–28, 28–28)
• James Head defeated Papy Abedi via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:33 of round 1.

Confession: I didn’t see a single one of these. The last fight ended up making the broadcast after the main event, but I’d already left the house.

MAIN CARD

• Brad Pickett defeated Damacio Page via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:05 of round 2. I missed this one, too, and I’m bummed that I did. Been reading it was a great damn fight. I might have to bit-torrent that shit somehow acquire it through legal means, my friends at the UFC! WINK.
• John Maguire defeated DaMarques Johnson via submission (armbar) at 4:40 of round 2. Poor DaMarques. He went too hard and too aggressive for a submission and got caught himself. I feel for you, bro. That shit’s infuriating.
• Dennis Siver defeated Diego Nunes via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28). I take back what I said. I might be biased because I’ve been a backer since he came in to the UFC, but he looked great here. I think he’ll adjust okay despite his difficulty making weight (it was his first time fighting at 145). The only concern here is addressing the grappling deficiency he’ll run into when he gets to the upper echelon of the division, but I honestly think he’s going to adjust and be a real threat. Keep your eye on this one.
• Siyar Bahadurzada defeated Paulo Thiago via KO (punch) at 0:42 of round 1. God damn, son. Paulo put his head wayyyyy down for an overhand right and got met with the business end of an uppercut from Bahadurzada that almost took his head off. Well played.
• Brian Stann defeated Alessio Sakara via KO (punches) at 2:26 of round 1. I like Stann so I was happy to see him get the win here, but I was bummed to see Sakara go down again. There’s a lot of potential there. C’est la vie.
• Alexander Gustafsson defeated Thiago Silva via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 29–28). Let me get this out of the way first: Gustafsson looked really good here. He battered Silva about the cage and wasn’t intimidated at all by the man who just last year was playing bongos on Brandon Vera’s back shortly after providing a sample to the Nevada State Athletic Commission that, it turns out, was “not human urine” (hence the one year suspension). Still, all this talk of Jon Jones – both the comparisons to and talk of an eventual bout – are wicked premature. Gustafsson looked good enough to easily dispatch a guy who’s just outside the top ten at Light Heavyweight. Does that mean he’s ready for Jones? Not even close. It does show, though, that the guy’s got a lot of upside and is only getting better.

Is it worth going out of your way to see a replay? Eh. Pickett/Page maybe, but I think you’re safe missing everything else.

Not so fast. From Mike Chiapetta at MMAFighting.com:

“I don’t know. I have no idea,” he said. “We’re going to have to see what happens. I haven’t even thought about it. You have to understand, the only thing I’m thinking about now is FOX. I’ve just got to get past this event. Everything else is taking a back seat. All the other s— will work itself out.”

Even without the Fox event, there can’t be a clear-cut distinction of the next title contender stemming from this one fight. Don’t get me wrong; it’s very possible that the winner will be a future opponent for Frankie Edgar. But a few things have to fall into place first.

Gilbert Melendez, the current Strikeforce Lightweight Champion, will have to successfully defend his belt against Jorge Masdival at the December 17th event on Showtime. Based on his performances and his shattering of the myths of fighters like Shinya Aoki and Tatsuya Kawajiri, the general consensus is that Melendez is the best Lightweight outside of the UFC and, perhaps, the #2 Lightweight in the world. He’s definitely Top 5. The problem is that challengers in Strikeforce were few and far between due to their paltry Lightweight division (hardly the only weight where there the promotion had little to no depth). With the UFC’s absorption of Strikeforce, it’d be foolish to keep Melendez out of the UFC and walking all over lesser fighters. A champion versus champion fight seems like a foregone conclusion, but Masdival also has more punching power than Melendez is used to seeing. Him as #2 in the world is a very strong theory, but one that’s been ultimately untested in the last calendar year.

Then there’s Dennis Siver. Admittedly, I’m a bit biased; I’m a fan of Siver’s and my first pitch to UFC.com was a profile of the fighter (conducted via a translation from the kind and knowledgeable Oliver Copp, to whom I’ll always be grateful). Siver has been on a tear his last four fights and looked impressive in every outing, including a dominating performance against George Sotiropoulos, who myself and many others thought was on a trajectory towards title contention himself. His next opponent is another potential contender, former WEC Lightweight champion Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who since dropping his title to Ben Henderson a year and a half ago has gone on a five-fight tear. Depending on how that fight and other circumstances play out, that fight as well could realistically determine a #1 contender.

Talk about a logjam.

Regardless of how the division plays out, the fight between Ben Henderson and Clay Guida is sure to be a barn-burner. You can watch it for free prior to the network broadcast on the UFC’s Facebook page or by visiting FOX.com.