Gabe Ruediger surely must be counting his lucky stars following UFC 118. Firstly he’s got to be thankful that, following on from his annihilation by Joe Lauzon, he still has functioning limbs and coherent speech.

He’s also got to be glad that Joe Silva has confirmed that he’ll have another chance to redeem himself back in the UFC.

Ruediger spoke on his website earlier and confirmed:

I spoke with Joe Silva from the UFC and he told me I would have at least one more chance and next time I would have the proper time to prepare. For that I am happy, but I still cant believe how bad that fight was for me.

It was surprising to many that Ruediger was asked back into the UFC following Terry Etim’s injury. It’s hard to forget the image, try as you might, of the naked Ruediger struggling to make weight on fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter. It’ll forever be his albatross, and it’s up to him how he tackles it.

His idea of giving Joe Lauzon a cake at the weigh ins that read, “Sorry about your loss”, spectacularly backfired on him as his foe proceeded to ragdoll him around the octagon before locking on a tight looking armbar.

It was one of the most one sided bouts that the UFC has seen in a long time as Lauzon proceeded to dominate Gabe in every possible area.

Ruediger really did look shell shocked walking around the Octagon after his loss, it was truly bizarre to see him wandering round like a lost tourist.

The loss has clearly affected Ruediger physically as well as mentally as he went on to comment:

I have 4 staples in my head and some bruising, but the real pain deeper. I’ll be back to the gym as soon as I can to work out what went wrong and to prepare to come back stronger.

It’s hard to see where Gabe will fit in the UFC’s already burgeoning lightweight ranks. He had managed to put together an impressive 6-0 streak coming into this fight, taking the Tachi Palace Fights title in his most recent endeavour.

He’s yet to show us anything ground breaking in terms of stand up and, although he has shown some good development of his BJJ skillset, his inability to stop takedowns will surely be his undoing in a division with a growing number of relentless grapplers.

Gabe’s value, logically, is in making fights interesting simply because of his past exploits. Everybody remembers him for his time on TUF and the reaction that he got during the weigh ins at UFC 118, although negative, was still a big reaction nonetheless.

He may not have that much time left in the biggest show in the world, but it’s clear that Ruediger is determined to make the most of any opportunity given. How many wins he gets is up to the UFC, if they match him up well stylistically then he has every chance of getting his hand raised but in reality; it’s only a matter of time before the wheels fall off the Gabe Ruediger gravy train.