UFC 109: Swick vs Thiago Thoughts

The Mike Swick vs Paulo Thiago fight provided a bit of clarity at welterweight and seems to have answered definitively questions that many held about the two fighters.

Thiago's victory erases any doubts that may have lingered from the Brazilian's out of the blue KO against Swick's AKA acolyte Josh Koschek. Thiago followed up his KO of Kos with a serviceable UD loss to Jon Fitch and win over Jacob Volkmann, but there was still doubt in my mind as to his bonafides. His impressive win and finish on Swick solidifies his status as an elite WW and puts him ahead of Dan Hardy in my own personal Top 10 of WW's. With the UFC WW picture having a paucity of fresh faces to feed GSP, Thiago's strong performances will at least alleviate that problem to some degree. If he avoids an Okami-like fate and gets a title shot, it will come with a better pedigree than Hardy, whose title shot owed more to timing than performance against quality opponents. Such a title shot may still be another fight away, with a fight against Kos, Daley or Alves being the plausible roadblocks on the road to GSP.


Swick's wins at WW were against a mid-tier level of competition, not providing a clear picture of his true claim to legitimacy at 170. His loss to Hardy called into question his status and Thiago's win over him closes the book at this point on his contenders status for GSP's belt. Swick's loss relegates him back down the WW picture and leaves one with the impression that his rise into Top 10 status was little more than a mirage of smoke and mirrors, a feat engineered more by matchmaking sleight of hand than performance against quality competition. Swick abdicated his middleweight status after a loss to Yushin Okami, and his back to back losses to Thaigo and Hardy leave him as a non factor at WW. Two losses to contenders and the inability to fight another two, his AKA teammates Fitch and Kos, will ice him out of the WW picture. Normally someone losing 2 in a row in the UFC would be worried about being cut, but Swick's 30 pieces of silver turn (Judas AKA-scariot?) during the AKA-Dana Videogame affair means he will have little fear of such an outcome. More likely he will be given a soft touch to build him back up. From there, where? I'm guessing a Chris Lytle, Marcus Davis type journeyman existence... stand and bang, headhunting for those KO or FOTN bonuses while neatly tucked away from title shot consideration.