By Chris Howie
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer

An important fight in the middleweight division takes place this weekend at UFC 136 when Brian Stann and Chael Sonnen square off in what most believed was a number one contenders match up for the next shot at Anderson Silva. That was the wrong line of thinking according to UFC President Dana White who broke down the top of the division this week:

"How could you feel that if Sonnen wins, he deserves a shot at the title, but if not Stann doesn't?" White asked. "Stann's been on a tear. He beat some good guys and looked good doing it – Leben, Santiago and now Chael? That would be tough to deny him."

Theres also former Pride Middleweight Champ Dan Henderson who says he won't fight at Middleweight again unless it's against Silva.

"It would be tough to say that if Henderson beats 'Shogun' that Henderson doesn't deserve the shot," White said. "Should Dan win, he's definitely one of the guys that could go take that fight."

"I'm not even thinking about [Silva's next opponent] yet," White said. "We'll figure it out after."

Silva also isn't getting younger and a shoulder injury that has been an issue over the last few fights does not seem to be going away either. White doesn't seem concerned thought:

"It's not that [Silva] has some serious injury," White said. "He has bursitis in his shoulder. The doctor told him he needs to rest it for eight weeks or whatever it was. He's doing physical therapy, so it's not like he has some injury that needs surgery or anything like that.

"As amazing as this guy is, we forget that he's 37 years old – 37. He's been involved in martial arts his whole life. Bursitis makes sense."

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