(Wait, so if Cormier got his ass kicked by Antonio Silva in September, would *he* be fighting Cain Velasquez in a UFC pay-per-view co-main event this weekend? Mind = blown… / Photo via MMAWeekly)

As if a broken hand wasn’t a big-enough pain in the ass, newly crowned Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier is contractually obligated to take one more match under the Strikeforce banner before making his inevitable assault on the UFC. But since Strikeforce’s current heavyweight roster only consists of guys who Cormier already beat and guys who the guys Cormier beat already beat, this is a problem. Who the hell is Daniel Cormier going to face next? And is there any way it won’t be a complete waste of his time?

The only logicial solution is if the UFC sends one of their guys over to Strikeforce to throw down against Black Fedor. And yeah, Cormier’s already been thinking about that. Here’s what he told MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour (via MMA Mania):

“I think if there is a ‘plus-one’ [fight] and Zuffa’s going to send someone over it is going to have to be someone that is very good you know? Maybe Carwin, as he’s coming back. He’s a guy with a lot of name value and I don’t necessarily know if that’s a step up [from Josh Barnett] but that is somebody with name value. Or, if one of the guys loses from the card this weekend. But then it really limits because if Frank Mir loses I’m pretty sure he is not going to want to come to Strikeforce to fight me where if he loses he has everything to lose. When Cain beats Bigfoot Silva, what are they going to do, send [Silva] back to Strikeforce to fight me again? Nothing really adds up right now, I don’t know, I don’t know how to guess what they are going to do. There just is not that many step ups out there better than Josh Barnett.”

Considering that Shane Carwin hasn’t won a fight since his mauling of Frank Mir over two years ago — which was followed by losses to Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos, and a tough recovery from back surgery — Cormier’s call-out has a “low-hanging fruit” quality to it. But it’s a logical matchup, in the sense that a fight against Carwin would be marketable and relatively competitive, and the UFC could theoretically be down with sending Carwin across the road for a fight in Strikeforce. Outside of that…perhaps Mark Hunt or Gabriel Gonzaga, when they recover from their own injuries? Or send Lavar Johnson back to Strikeforce to fight Cormier if he loses his short-notice fight to Stefan Struve on Saturday?

Got any better ideas?