WINNER OF SHOGUN-HENDO TO FIGHT RASHAD ON FEB. 4?

That seems to be the hot rumor now anyway - and with an 11-week turnaround from November 19th to February 4th, it seems more than doable to me.

If Shogun wins, he would be a serious favorite over Rashad: Before Rashad had to pull out of their scheduled fight at UFC 128, the price on Shogun at the sports books was in the range of -200 to -250 - and the price would no doubt be higher than that now because Shogun has since vastly outperformed Rashad against a common opponent (Forrest Griffin); furthermore, a loss by Tito Ortiz (who lost to Rashad at UFC 133) to Lil Nog at UFC 140 - and Lil Nog is favored in that fight - has the potential to send the price higher still.

By contrast, Rashad looms the favorite if he were to fight Dan Henderson, based on his having beaten Rampage (at UFC 114), who Hendo lost to (at UFC 75).

And if Rashad does lose to either, he will not fight Jon Jones for the foreseeable future, if ever.  Would Rashad then move down to middleweight - especially if Anderson Silva does lose to Chael Sonnen in their rematch?

* Edited at 11.13.2011, 5:34 AM ET *

id like to see this but I still think winner of shogun hendo gets Jones/Machida winner unless Jones/Machida is injured. gets injured

The consensus by just about everybody seems to be that the Shogun-Hendo winner will fight Rashad in Las Vegas on February 4th.

But if Rashad does get screwed again, he might throw up his hands and move down to middleweight right then and there - and not for nothing, but in an interview he did in England in the run-up to UFC 138, Rashad made innuendoes about being open to going back with Greg Jackson; and the only realistic scenario under which that could possibly happen is if he did go down to middleweight, presumably because his fight vs. Jones were to be off for some reason, either by Dana White double-crossing him again and giving the title shot to the Shogun-Hendo winner, or if Rashad ends up fighting, and losing to, same.