Our pal Ben Fowlkes is reporting that Demian Maia has been tabbed as the UFC’s #1 middleweight contender. According to his report on CagePotato.com, the Jiu-Jitsu wiz is slated to face the winner of next month’s Thales Leites-Anderson Silva fight in late August.

Obviously a ton can happen in the span of five months, but the first thing that came to mind when I heard this news was: what does Yushin Okami have to do to get a title shot?

Truth be told, I’ve been on the Okami bandwagon for a while. Since losing to Rich Franklin at UFC 72 (a fight he agreed to on short notice) the Japanese fighter is 3-0, picking up wins over Jason MacDonald, the late Evan Tanner and Dean Lister.

Prior to the Franklin loss, Okami (23-4) defeated the likes of Mike Swick, Alan Belcher, Nick Thompson…oh, and some guy named Anderson Silva. You’ve heard of Anderson Silva, right? He’s the dude currently holding the UFC middleweight title. Sure, Okami won via DQ at Rumble on the Rock 8 in January 2006 (evidence above), but that just makes things all the more interesting should Silva defeat Leites next month. Silva’s last loss was against Okami, he’s looking for revenge, he was wronged, etc. It makes perfect sense.

Now while Maia gets to hang out for five months, Okami has been booked against Dan Miller at UFC 98. Not exactly a walk in the park.

Don’t get me wrong: Maia (10-0) certainly deserves his shot, perhaps even more so than Silva’s next opponent, Leites, but not before Okami. Simple as that.

You know what really pisses me off? All this boxing vs. MMA talk. So, you can imagine how I feel about the prospects of UFC Middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, fighting former pound-for-pound boxing king, Roy Jones Jr. Why are we so obsessed with answering this “debate” anyways? I don’t see hockey and figure skating fans arguing over which one of their athletes is more talented than the other and that’s the best comparison I can make as to how idiotic these discussions are. Just because MMA fighters and boxers punch doesn’t mean they should be compared to one another. End of story. Now can we please talk about Silva-Okami II instead?

That said I can understand why everyone is so anxious to pit a boxer against a mixed martial artist. It’s the same reason why Kobayashi once ate hot dogs against a bear on national television and Michael Jordan was (briefly) accepted as a baseball player. We applaud athletes who compete out of their comfort zone and, even more so, encourage it.

But if you REALLY want to see Silva and Jones get it on let me save you the 50 bucks and explain what will happen:

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