Anderson Silva is a fighter who can do many great things inside the Octagon. He makes the impossible seem possible and manages to make world class fighters look like chumps. He’s done all of that while competing at middleweight for much of his career but has stepped up a weight class to showcase his uniqueness.
Dana White would like to see more of Silva at 205 pounds and acknowledged that on Thursday. MMA Weekly has the details:
“I’d love to see Anderson at 205,” said White at the UFC 156 media day on Thursday. “If Anderson moved up to 205-pounds, it would be so fun. “
White even hinted that “The Spider” would likely be only a fight away from getting a crack at whomever the UFC light heavyweight champion is.
“I mean, people would go crazy over that, if he started to work his way up in the 205-pound division, take on a number one contender and if he wins he fights for the title,” White said.
Silva has competed at light heavyweight three times in his career. The first was a destruction of James “The Sandman” Irvin and the second was against former UFC champion Forrest Griffin. He last competed in the division at UFC 153, defeating Stephan Bonnar.
All of those fights were first round finishes and were extremely impressive, especially the last two.
Silva showcased his agility and looked like he was Neo in The Matrix by avoiding nearly all of Griffin’s strikes prior to causing the former UFC champion to beg for mercy. Against Bonnar, Silva toyed with his opponent by staying against the fence and allowing Bonnar to send a flurry of unanswered shots.
The end came swiftly for him as well as a knee crumpled Bonnar on the canvas.
Regardless of how spectacular Silva has looked at light heavyweight, it’s not a career move “The Spider” envisions himself doing. Prior to his UFC 153 bout, Silva made it clear he has no intentions of moving up to 205 pounds.
“There’s always been a lot of talk about me moving up to 205,” said Silva, “I know Dana (White) has talked about it, and all the fans have talked about me moving up and facing Jon Jones. But it’s something I’ve never wanted.”
Indeed Silva will already be regarded as one of the best fighters in MMA history, if not the best for his run of dominance through the UFC’s ranks. He doesn’t stand to gain anything by fighting Jones but that doesn’t mean Mr. White isn’t about to give that big pay day up just yet.
“What we’re looking at is probably a super fight with him (Silva) and Jon Jones or something, eventually,” said White.
White, and a vast majority of fans have been anticipating a superfight involving Silva for years. First it was against Georges St-Pierre, but now Jones appears to be the new candidate. Both Jones and Silva haven’t shown much interest in fighting one another, and I suspect this talk will head down the path of the Silva-GSP superfight.
Although I’m sure the UFC would love to move him out of the 185-pound division to avoid anymore “he’s not worthy of challenging for my title” lines from Silva’s camp, I don’t see Silva moving up to 205-pounds on a permanent basis.
Silva is at the tail end of his career and moving to a new weight class is generally a move used by fighters seeking a fresh start, something “The Spider” doesn’t need or appear to want.
Wouldn’t you be perfectly content to be making “Anderson Silva money” while squashing the competition with relative ease?
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