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Wanderlei Silva knocks out Keith Jardine in under a minute. Goran Reljic knocks out Wilson Gouveia after a round and a half of sloppily striking around the cage. Sure, there were other light heavyweight fights on the card last night, and fights from other divisions that were better, but these two fights helped to spiral a division even further out of control. How is it possible for one division to have no idea where to go next, let’s take a look at some of the fighters and figure out why,

Rampage Jackson: He is firmly entrenched as the champion. However due to his stint as a coach on the newest season of The Ultimate Fighter he hasn’t fought since September and won’t defend his title against Forrest Griffin until July. That fight is locked in so there is nothing that can be done about his long layoff.

Forrest Griffin: He is also suffering from the same long layoff as Rampage. Griffin also hasn’t fought since September. He looked great in beating up the highly touted Mauricio Rua for three rounds in his last fight, but he was also beaten down in brutal fashion by Keith Jardine in a relatively recent fight. That’s the same Jardine that has been knocked out twice in under a minute in two of his last three fights. Griffin may not be worthy of the title shot, or maybe he is, but either way he will be getting it.

Lyoto Machida: A man that is a serious point of contention among most fans by this point. Some love his style of fighting while others find him boring and incredibly hard to watch. One thing that can’t be denied are his results, he has soundly beaten every opponent put in front of him. Machida has established himself as a possible title contender, but does he get that title shot yet? I think he’s ready, but the UFC has a crowd pleaser in Rampage as champion and Machida has shown to be anything but a crowd pleaser so far. By being so good at not getting hit Machida may have become his own worst enemy as the UFC has no reason to put someone that the fans equate as the next Tim Sylvia in a title fight any time soon.

Chuck Liddell: Being the former long reigning champ with quite a few notable wins on his record allows for Liddell to stay at the top of the contenders list even while sidelined with a nasty quad tear. That tear could sideline Chuck for some time and I think most fans would like to see him get at least one more high level victory before getting another crack at the man that has beaten him twice already. Beating a Wanderlei Silva that was coming off of three straight losses doesn’t move him towards number one contendorship as much as it once would have. Before that Liddell suffered a loss to the aforementioned Keith “I get knocked out in under a minute a lot” Jardine. He is a perennial fan favorite, and a fan of the company, but when is the right time to give him his title shot? Joe Silva, UFC matchmaker, can shoot Liddell right to the top of the heap and the fans won’t care one iota. Chuck may be the UFC’s best bet as far as the next title challenger goes, but if he loses the UFC may be out of fighters to turn to.

Rashad Evans: Once rocketing towards the top of the light heavyweight ranks, Rashad has hit a little bit of a snag. He still hasn’t lost, but there has been a noticeable decline in his performances in his last two fights. Many people thought he should have lost his split decision victory over Michael Bisping. If not for a penchant for cage grabbing by Tito Ortiz, Rashad would have lost that fight. But, most importantly he didn’t look in either of those fights like a man that was ready to face the champion. Rashad may be forced to face the champion out of simple necessity well before he is actually ready to face said champion. Hopefully Rashad can get a few more fights under his belt and work out the kinks that have been present in his last few fights and be ready when that title shot comes.

Wanderlei Silva: Wandy can thank Keith Jardine’s love for getting knocked silly for his placement on this list. That and his pair of knockout victories over the current champ, Rampage Jackson, as well as his balls to the wall style that the fans love. Lyoto and Rashad are still young, while Chuck doesn’t fight a style that causes his body to go through hell almost every fight. For that reason it may be in the UFC’s best interests to give Wandy a couple of softer but respectable opponents and then put him in for a title shot. Every fight that Wandy takes now features a heightened risk of a loss in Wandy’s favor, and that’s why if the UFC wants to use him as a contender they need to place him at the top of the heap as quickly as possible.

There are other guys like Keith Jardine, Dan Henderson, Matt Hammill, Mauricio Rua, Jason Lambert, Goran Reljic, Sokoudjou, and Wilson Gouveia that may one day be in line for a title shot but that day is a long way off. In the cases of Lambert and Gouveia they have proven to be far too erratic and may not be good enough to ever warrant a title shot. Hammill and Reljic are both still too unproven and need a bit more seasoning before they can even enter title contention talk. Jardine needs to stop getting knocked out in under a minute, because it doesn’t matter how many other top guys he beats the only image the fans will have of him is the guy getting KO’d repeatedly in vicious fashion. Hendo recently lost his shot at Rampage’s title and would need to put together a string of victories to enter title contention yet again. That and he would also have to settle on a weight class. Soko didn’t get a title shot, but he did lose in his debut and while his win last night was a step in the right direction he will need more of those and against better competition before he is in title contention. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua needs to rack up a few victories and he needs to show that he can perform in a cage, still function with a severely injured knee and maybe even perform without certain substances helping him along the way.

As you cans see there are fighters in line for a title shot and then some more after them that could work their way up to being title contenders. However due to various injuries, fan hatred, and trading of victories over and over there isn’t a clear contender among the bunch. Unfortunately because of the rate at which they trade victories among themselves, and the fans indifference or hatred towards Lyoto, the UFC may be left without an actual contender at light heavyweight once Chuck gets his shot. The fact that Rampage appears poised for a very long reign as champ will certainly help the situation, but there is no denying that the light heavyweight division in the UFC is a bit of a jumbled mess right now.