The UFC heavyweight division while never deeper is slowly contracting to smaller nucleus. Randy Couture yielded late last year and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira bowed out in Australia at UFC 110. At UFC 111 Frank Mir was the latest heavyweight to exit stage "punched in the face" from title contention.
If there was any doubt before it is now completely gone: Shane Carwin, Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos are the four best heavyweights in the UFC.
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For fans clamoring for a Velasquez-dos Santos fight that match-up was never a realistic possibility as the fine folks at Zuffa know that their heavyweight division is now all about the big four (WKR really wants to call them the Four Horsemen--WOOOO!!!!). In that vein, Dana White confirmed that Cain Velasquez will get the winner of Lesnar-Carwin and if Roy Nelson is triumphant at Fight Night 21 then Junior dos Santos will fight "Big Country" (WKR believes that Cheick Kongo may be an alternative if Nelson loses to Stefan Struve).
Will UFC 111 go down as the page turn for the UFC's heavyweight division? Perhaps, but WKR believes that process began over a year ago. Instead, UFC 111 may be seen as the realization that the top tier of the heavyweight division is the "Four Horsemen".
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/3/30/1396338/the-ufc-116-hype-begins-building