How crazy have things been in the lightweight division been in the last 8 months? We thought we had a handle on who was gonna be the champ, who the next #1 contender was, and who the contenders were gonna be after that but here we are 8 months later and we still dont have any answers.

A look back at the past 8 months in terms of the lightweight titles and contenders:

December 16th, 2010 - Anthony Pettis defeats Ben Henderson by unanimous decision and wins the final WEC lightweight title. 2 months earlier Dana White had announced that they were folding the WEC into the UFC and that the winner of this match would receive an immediate title shot against the Frankie Edgar/Gray Maynard winner.

January 01, 2011 - Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard battle to a split draw. After the match Dana White decides there needs to be a 3rd match to determine the true champion. Also on the card Clay Guida submits Takanori Gomi and people begin to talk about Guida as a contender.

January 21, 2011 - Anthony Pettis decides to not wait for his title shot and agrees to fight Clay Guida at The Ultimate Fighter Finale on June 4, 2011.

Januard 22, 2011 - The first contender is knocked off as Melvin Guillard tko's Evan Dunham.

February 27, 2011 - Denis Siver defeats George Sotiropoulos by unanimous decision.

March 19, 2011 - Jim Miller tko's Kamal Shalarous bringing his win streak to 7. Should Jim Miller be ahead of Anthony Pettis as #1 contender people question.

April 29,2011 - Ben Henderson makes his UFC debut and defeats Mark Bocek by unanimous decision.

May 09, 2011 - Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard announce injuries and that their 3rd fight scheduled for May 30 is off. Interesting to note that Gray Maynard was intending to fight with his injuries and that a Maynard/Pettis fight was at least offered to Pettis, who accepted but once Edgar pulled out Maynard decided it was best to heal up as well.

May 10, 2011 - The day after it's announced that Edgar/Maynard 3 is being pushed back the UFC announces Jim Miller vs. Ben Henderson for UFC on Versus 5 on August 14, 2011.

June 04, 2011 - Clay Guida defeats former #1 contender Anthony Pettis by unanimous decision.

July 02, 2011 - Melvin Guillard defeats Shane Roller by ko. Also on the card Denis Siver defeats Matt Wiman.

August 14, 2011 - Ben Henderson defeats Jim Miller by unanimous decision.

There you have it folks. The last 8 months in the lw title picture. We've seen 4 possible contenders go down(Dunham, Sotiropoulos, Pettis, and Miller) and guys we didnt think were even close get themselves "in the mix" (Siver and Henderson)

I'll leave you with a poll question.

After reading 2 fan posts Why Am I watching TUF 10? (http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/11/15/1159062/why-am-i-watching-tuf-10) and  Is it time for UFC Challengers? (http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/11/13/1156287/is-this-the-time-for-ufc) and also reading the reaction for GSP and Hardy considered for TUF coaching gig (http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/11/15/1158574/rumor-georges-st-pierre-and-dan)  I think  the question is it time to end The Ultimate Fighter is a valid one.

The Ultimate Fighter started out as a good thought. A way to get not well known mma fighters exposure and also the sport of mma exposure. It worked and it debuted to high ratings and opened the door for many new mma fans. But just like every other reality TV show for every good moment you had 2 moments of stupidity. From the first seasons hazing of Chris Leben to the Junie Browning show to the constant jokes involving semen and piss.

Even with this season hitting record highs in viewers, most fans have considered this season a failure. From boring fights and the same immaturity to the fact that most people don't see this season producing good talent for the heavyweight division.

Now I'm going to steal this idea from blueberry muffin( http://www.bloodyelbow.com/users/BlueberryMuffin) who wrote the Is it time for UFC challengers piece(http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/11/13/1156287/is-this-the-time-for-ufc)  and say it is time to cancel The Ultimate Fighter but to also do a similar show to Strikeforce: Challengers  where up and coming mma stars can still get attention but where we don't have to sit through 40 minutes of reality TV to see a fight.

So I guess this brings me to the poll question and what other mma fans would like to see.

Brian Knapp of Sherdog has the details:

Dream welterweight champion Marius Zaromskishas come to terms on a multi-fight contract with Strikeforce, according to officials within the promotion. An emerging superstar at 170 pounds, the 29-year-old Lithuanian could make his promotional debut on Dec. 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. Zaromskis will still compete inside the Japan-based Dream organization, which has formed an alliance with Strikeforce. Having supplanted Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovicas the man with the sport’s most-feared feet, Zaromskis last competed at Dream 12 on Oct. 25, when he leveled Korean Myeon Ho Bae with a first-round head kick in a non-title affair. He captured the Dream welterweight crown in July, as he stopped Affliction veteran Jason High and respected Japanese standout Hayato "Mach" Sakuraion the same night. Both were victimized by Zaromskis head kicks. Spawned by the London Shootfighters camp, Zaromskis joins a stable of Strikeforce welterweights that includes former EliteXC champion Jake Shields, UFC veteran Nick Diaz and one-time International Fight League titleholder Jay Hieron.

Another great pickup under this new Strikeforce/Dream alliance and I cant wait to see him compete here in the states.

With the recent announcement of Strikeforce's Fedor vs. Rogers event I could help think to myself how the UFC has no one really to blame but themselves for having to take on other mma promotions. Now before you going telling me how wrong I am or how this is one of the worst fanposts you've ever read think about it.

Almost every non-Zuffa promotion gets their fighters in 4 ways.

1) Released UFC fighters- Yes you can argue that many of these fighters deserved to be released but I don't see how you can expect to release a fighter and not expect another mma promotion to try and use him for their gain. Tim Sylvia is a great example of this. When he was released he had 1 fight left on his deal and they choose to release him which in turn gave Affliction the second half of their main event at Banned. Had they choose to keep him I'm sure Affliction would have come up with something and yes Affliction mma did die eventually but there is the what if factor there.

2) Pride fighters- Again you can argue that outside of Fedor the UFC picked up the good Pride talent, however the UFC chose to let guys like Josh Barnett and Takanori Gomi stay on the market. Given both men's recent trouble, Barnett's failed banned substance test and Gomi's recent losses the move looks to be a smart one but leaving these 2 men on the market gave way to new mma promotions in Affliction and Sengoku.

3) IFL fighters- After being burned in a way by the Pride buyout, the UFC decided against buying mma organizations and not being guaranteed the fighters. Now after the collapse of the IFL the UFC decided to only go after certain fighters and well Jim and Dan Miller were great additions to the roster choosing guys like Reese Andy and Rory Markham over guys like Jay Heiron, Ben Rothwell, and Chris Horodecki was a mistake and allowed Affliction and now  Strikeforce access to better fighters. Yes I'm aware that Big Ben is now a UFC employee.

4)Elite XC fighters- Now this one you cant really argue it was reported that the UFC did put in a bid to buy Elite XC and CBS/Showtime was looking for someone that was going to "work with them". That being said if the UFC had been able to buyout Elite XC, Strikeforce would probably not be on Showtime/CBS and guys like Rogers and Shields would be in your organization instead of Strikeforce. A guy like Rogers would be a huge addition, how many black heavyweight fighters are there in mma? Now chances are unless the UFC overpaid by a lot CBS/Showtime was not going to sell them Elite XC but you wonder if the UFC had pulled off the Elite XC purchase would Strikeforce be anywhere near as successful today.

This brings me back to my original point had the UFC kept a few guys and purchased the IFL and Elite XC could they have avoided dealing with companies like Affliction and Strikeforce or do you think no matter what you are going to have companies challenging the UFC? Now I'm sure Strikeforce would still be around but they would probably still be more of a regional show and a feeder to the UFC without the Elite XC buyout.

Interested to hear any and all feedback.

Now before anyone goes blasting me hear me out. Over the past couple of days we all have seen how the events of Fedor, M-1, and the UFC have unfolded. We have heard the reports of Dana offering "everything" and M-1 saying that is not true.

The biggest sticking point has been co-promotion and recently M-1 USA Vice President Jerry Millen told this to mma fanhouse

"Going back to co-promotion, so you're saying co-promotion for M-1 means a 50/50 investment between the two parties?

 Yeah, yeah. You sit down with the hard numbers. What's the fight purses? What's the venue? What's the advertising budget? Travel, food, throw it all in a pot, split it down the middle, and at the end of the event if the ink is black and there's a profit, split the profit, and if the ink is red, then just split the loss."

So this brings me to my point, is this communism?I understand that M-1 has Fedor under contract and that they want their piece of the pie but 50/50?

It's no secret that Fedor Emelianenko, love him or hate him, is not the biggest PPV draw.

Pride 32 was reported by Dave Meltzer as doing 40-50k buys although Nobuyuki Sakakibara reported it as doing 150k although most trust Meltzer's numbers over Sakakibara.

Bodog fight reported even lower numbers with most websites reporting a 13-14k buyrate.

Now with Affliction most numbers were around 100k with nothing more than 200k.

So this brings me to my point if the UFC were to agree to a deal with Fedor and M-1 to co-promote any show with Fedor and split it 50/50 isn't the UFC getting a raw deal? Let's say the UFC and M-1 set up Brock/Fedor and it did 2 million buys, well we know for a fact that M-1 and Fedor are not bringing in more than 200k buys so that means the UFC and Brock account for 1.8 million buys so how is that fair to them.

What that is, is communism plain and simple. It's taking what everyone has earned and dividing it up equally. Now this whole post probably seems like I'm out to get Fedor and M-1 and that is simply not true. If Fedor and M-1 were doing 1 million buys on PPV then it would be fair to ask to split revenue but the fact is it's not happening so why should the UFC agree to do this.

I'll end my first fan post with this. I am a Fedor fan he is the #1 heavyweight in the world without a doubt and a hell of a fighter. He has the right to request Sambo be a part of his contract and most other things but to ask for a 50/50 co-promotion when you don't account for half the revenue is, in my opinion, very stupid.