Wanderlei “the Axe Murderer” Silva should retire after he lost in embarrassing fashion to Rich Franklin at UFC 147. Silva lost to Franklin by a wide margin of 49-46 on all three cards at last night’s event and looked like a shell of his former self against the quicker, stronger opponent.
Silva was once a great fighter, starting his career off at an excellent 31-5-1 and winning multiple titles. However, since 2006, the Brazilian legend hasn’t been the same. He’s gone 3-7 since ’06. While his three wins were against Keith Jardine, Michael Bisping and Cung Le, he has lost by KO in four of the seven matches and by embarrassing unanimous decisions in the other three.
The UFC 147 match with Franklin is telling of Silva’s career as a whole. He came out strong and competitive early on and had a flash of greatness toward the middle of the fight. However, as the fight wore on, Silva started to get less and less effective. By the end of the fight, Silva was looking for that one big shot and knockout blow. Unfortunately for Silva, it never came.
There is also the question of who fights Silva next? and that is where the entire problem for Dana White begins. Should Silva fight Vitor Belfort for his last hurrah? Should he take on a younger fighter like Alexander Gustafsson to help him achieve success, much like a WWE wrestler would? Personally, I think it makes sense to see Silva go out with a bang and get a title shot.
After losing seven of his last 10 fights, he isn’t worthy of a title shot and should have one last hurrah against the younger Gustafsson after he finally gets his match with Belfort. White isn’t as creative in his cards, though, and will likely have Silva fight until he just says he can’t take any more of it.
Silva has given the UFC name someone to be proud of in his career, but at this point, he is just wasting White’s time and money as a headliner. He’s 35 years old and in the prime of his life and should be spending it with family instead of getting dominated by a middleweight. His best bet is to hang up the gloves and turn himself into the best trainer the UFC has seen.
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