[Pride>UFC]

1. Brock...protected by Dana White...that's why he fights Frank Mir every other day instead of a real contender. Dana knows that the winner of Velasquez/Nog is a much bigger threat than the two most overrated fighters in MMA (Carwin and Mir), so he's gonna give Brock either Mir (someone he'd smash EASILY again) or Carwin, a can with quite possibly more hype than any UFC HW. Dana knows that by keeping Dos Santos, Nog, Cain, Gonzaga away from Brock, he can market the hell out of Brock for a long time. And don't give me that "Carwin beat Napao BS," we all know that Carwin was getting destroyed before closing his eyes and landing the luckiest punch in MMA history...

2. GSP...the lay n pray master, also known as the man who can't finish a decent fighter and is too scared to move up a weight class, is fighting a guy who got a title shot by winning a split decision against Marcus Davis. Then Ben Saunders finishes Davis in the 1st round. But Hardy's marketable because he's another British dooche bag, so they're gonna give him a shot. They might as well give Saunders a title shot, but there's still a British can that needs to be crushed and his name is Dan Hardy. What a joke of a fight this is. The odds say it all... -800 on GSP.

3. Spider- Sonnen's a real threat to Spider after what he did to Nate. It's funny that now he gets another Thales Leites in Maia, someone who got KO'd in 5 seconds and has no takedown ability to ensure that Spider keeps the belt. We all wanted to see Belfort, but now we get Spider vs grappler (no threat).

BJ doesn't need protection, he destroys all lightweights and FINISHES THEM.
And Lyoto's not really the champ after Shogun controlled him for 5 rds. Besides, the LHW division is too stacked to protect anyone...

[Educ8d Degener8]

Re #2 and #3... There's not really a viable contender for GSP at this point, no? And Silva had to fight someone with Belfort out; and Sonnen has his cut. I wouldn't really say GSP and Silva are "being protected".

Of course -- they could always fight each other

[The HOFF]

Despite an upcoming interim heavyweight title fight between top contenders Shane Carwin and Frank Mir at UFC 111 in March, White acknowledged that the winner of the featured contest between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cain Velasquez at UFC 110 might be next for returning UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar. (MMAjunkie.com)