In a featherweight battle at UFC 144, Hatsu Hioki was able to dominate Bart Palaszewski for three rounds.
The win is Hioki's sixth straight, and could put him in line for a shot at Jose Aldo's featherweight title.
The win may also put him in the No. 2 spot on people's rankings.
But does Hioki deserve it?
Hioki has an impressive win/loss record.
Of his 26 wins, 12 of them have come by submission. Hioki also has four knockouts to his name.
He has also never been knocked out or submitted himself, and three of his four losses have come by close split decisions.
Hioki is also a former Shooto and Sengoku world champion.
But for all of his accomplishments, Hioki has not faced that many top featherweight fighters.
He does hold wins over Mark Hominick and Michihiro Omigawa, but Hioki has faced competition a lot lower than Aldo.
Sometimes you're only as good as the competition that you have faced.
But Hioki could be different.
Although he didn't have the strongest showing in his first UFC fight against George Roop, Hioki looked like a different fighter in his fight against Palaszewski.
You could argue that he doesn't deserve the No. 2 spot in the featherweight rankings.
But you have to look at the fact that Jose Aldo has defeated just about anybody else that you could put ahead of Hioki.
That and considering that Hioki is a former world champion and has a lengthy winning streak going for him, until he losses, it's hard to put someone not named Aldo ahead of him.
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