It was June 28, 2006, when Anderson Silva entered the UFC Octagon for the first time to take on a highly dangerous striker, Chris Leben.
It was Silva, however, who demonstrated the dangerous striking as he knocked out Leben just 49 seconds into Round 1.
In his very next fight, Silva went on to be declared the UFC middleweight champion by dethroning Rich Franklin via knockout by knees.
Silva continued his dominance as he would go on to defend his middleweight title five consecutive fights before arriving to UFC 101.
This time Silva wouldn’t have to defend his title as he would take on light heavyweight, Forrest Griffin. While many UFC fans across the globe thought it would be Silva’s first true test, he proved them wrong by embarrassing Griffin and eventually knocking him out at 3:23 of the first round.
Silva went on to win his next four fights, including a come-from-behind victory over Chael Sonnen at UFC 117. To date, Silva has won 14 consecutive fights as fans begin to wonder what’s next for the living legend.
Prior to this month, the chances of seeing Silva square off in a light heavyweight fight were fairly slim. However, Silva recently announced he would remain in the UFC and fight for another seven years.
Over the course of the next seven years, Silva is more than likely to make the transition to the 205-pound weight class as he’ll have little competition remaining in the middleweight division.
However, fans can’t look past the Silva vs. Sonnen rematch as he was manhandled the first 4.5 rounds in their first go-around.
But, the question is, what happens if Silva dominates the light heavyweight division? Could he move even higher and fight with the heavyweights?
What many UFC fans fail to realize is that Silva is an oversized middleweight as his “walking around” weight is said to be close to 230 pounds. Therefore, a heavyweight fight isn’t as complex as some fans may think, as the weight difference isn’t an overwhelming amount.
This leads us to two final questions:
Could Anderson Silva hang with the heavyweight fighters?
And, more importantly:
Could Anderson Silva win the UFC heavyweight title?
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