This is a guest post from Damon

I originally thought that I was being contacted to write for Atlantic MMA because I was in the running for Ring Girl of the Month. When it was pointed out that I’m a guy, and not particularly that gorgeous, I realized the err in my ways and cancelled the Brazilian I had scheduled.

So allow myself to introduce…myself.

I am Damon. Sports betting analyst, handicapper and overall loudmouth.

You can check me out every week on the BetUS.com hit sportsbetting online show BetCenter. Drink me in here: Damon D’s Betcenter.

I wanted to talk about the heavyweight division today, and how Carwin being out, Brock losing and Dos Santos next up to fight for the title effects the heavyweight picture in the UFC right now.

I spoke with former heavyweight champ Frank Mir last week on BetCenter (see it below) and he raised an interesting scenario for his position in the UFC heavyweight picture.

Frank suggested that his win over Cro Cop and Shane Carwin’s match-up with Roy Nelson put Mir in the running to fight the loser of Lesnar – Velasquez.

I thought this made sense; a rematch with Carwin was the most logical, but the timing was off and Carwin was taking on Nelson. Mir beating Cro Cop put him back in the top 10, but AT LEAST one fight out of a title shot. If you lose a title fight, you don’t drop out of the top 10, but should be given a solid contender in your next fight.

This has set up a potential Mir – Lesnar rubber match. I know what you’re thinking; who wants to see this AGAIN? This is why it works:both guys are big names, there’s history and you want to take advantage of a public draw juuust in case a fighter goes on a losing streak and plummets out of relevance in a hurry. And even if Velasquez lost, you’d be setting him up with a proven name in the UFC, once again milking the notoriety as much as possible. I know if the UFC betting odds came out tomorrow onthis fight, Lesnar would be at least a -300 favorite over Mir, but the fiscal side of the matchup makes up for the mismatch in the ring.

But then Carwin went and got himself hurt. Which chokes out this neatly packaged heavyweight mma betting scenario and screws up mine (and Frank’s) entire theory.

So now Nelson sits without and opponent for UFC 125 on New Years day, and if Mir were to step in and fight Nelson, where does that leave Brock Lesnar?

Brock’s a guy that needs to keep on fighting to stay relevant in the division as well as to continue to put butts in the seats and sell pay per views. He could wait until Cain defends his title a few times, but this division is getting back loaded and you need to stay busy to stay in the hunt. If Lesnar is one or two fights out of another title shot, that could very easily translate into more than a year from now.

So how does this sound; Cro Cop steps up to fight Nelson on January 1st, and Mir vs. Lesnar part III goes down a few months after. This will all happen within a few months of Dos Santos vs Velasquez leaving plenty of time to match up any of these winners against whoever the champ is at the time.

Wow I need a nap. I think I just hurt my brain.

Hey, what do you think?

Tweet me your thoughts at twitter.com/DamonD and visit me every week at BetCenter at BetUS.com