Following Randy Couture's triumph over Mark Coleman at UFC 109, Dana White proclaimed that "The Natural" is "in the mix with the top five and can fight any of those guys at any time." I even took it a step further in my regular recap feature 10 Things by saying that Couture's next fight will be for the light heavyweight title.

That statement was met by everything from laughter, acceptance, confusion and questions of my sanity. Admittedly, those are all pretty solid reactions and serve as the basis for breaking out the crystal ball today. There is method to my madness and a path to my prediction of "Captain America" being "the challenger" in his next trip to the cage.

Two fights will help determine what happens next at 205: the early May rematch for the Light Heavyweight title between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio Rua, and the late May (and long overdue) battle between TUF 10 coaches and arch enemies Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson.

Couture's future can be broken down independently of those two fights, at least in part. There are three options: (1) fight for the title, (2) fight another middle level guy or (3) fight a top contender. Here is how I see each scenario, in reverse order.

For the sake of this piece, let's use Thiago Silva as Couture's opponent in Option 3. The Brazilian is the only contender at 205 who current is without a scheduled fight, and is coming out of the main event at UFC 108, so his marketability has never been higher.

While winning this fight would silence a lot of the "Couture doesn't deserve a title shot" talk, a loss ends what could be the last possible run towards a title for the long-term poster boy (poster man?) of the UFC.

Spinning Couture into a title shot after a loss to the guy who lost to the guy who lost the title to Lyoto Machida would extremely difficult. The UFC might try, but even the staunchest supporters and blind faithful would have to call shenanigans on such a move.

With Option 2, a win over a guy like Rich Franklin might not quite all the complaints, but it would give Couture three wins in a row in the division, and all three would have been main events that received good coverage and reasonable ratings.

Of course, a loss to Franklin would be worse than a loss to Silva, as few consider "Ace" a challenger for the title. The Spin Police would be all over the UFC if they then tried to market Couture as a contender after losing to a guy who has been fighting catchweight bouts with middleweights.

Which brings us to Option 1: Couture fights for the title.

The UFC is never going to be able to market Couture better than right now. Controversial win over Brandon Vera and the age of Mark Coleman aside, "The Natural" has back-to-back wins at 205, has "only lost twice [in this division]" as Dana White said, and is Randy friggin' Couture. Sure there are going to be more deserving fighters (and we'll get to them shortly), but are any of them Randy Couture?

For anyone who is readying a "Being Randy Couture shouldn't get you special treatment" type argument, let me stop you. I agree, it shouldn't... but it does. If everyone else has to fight their way up the ladder, Couture should too... but he...