At UFC 138, Mark Munoz may have picked up his second straight victory over an elite middleweight opponent, but his performance was not enough to propel him past Chael Sonnen as the middleweight most deserving of a fight with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

After Chris Leben's corner stopped the bout due to a cut over their fighter's left eye, Munoz campaigned for a title shot in his post-fight interview with UFC commentator Joe Rogan. While Munoz may be very near the top of the 185-pound division, the are a plethora of reasons why Sonnen should be given another shot at Silva before Munoz.

Aside from the fact that he recently dominated and submitted Brian Stann, a fighter who knocked Leben out in even more impressive fashion than Munoz, Sonnen is simply the contender that fans would rather see in a matchup with Silva. Sonnen has been promoting his rematch with Silva for more than a year, and his impressive win over Stann was probably all the proving he had to do to convince the UFC to put that fight together.

Conversely, having lost to Yushin Okami in 2010, Munoz has only recently separated himself as one of the top contenders in the division. While he may pose some of the same threats to Silva that Sonnen does, a fight between Munoz and Silva wouldn't provide fans with the same exciting rivalry that a second meeting between Sonnen and Silva would.

For a new contender, the 33-year-old Munoz doesn't have a ton of time left in his career, but he still has some proving to do in order to earn a fight with the best fighter in MMA history. Sonnen, on the other hand, has already proven he can hold his own against the middleweight king inside the cage.