Opinions about Silva
With Anderson Silva’s victory over an elite opponent like Dan Henderson, is he the new Chuck Liddell of the UFC as its most dominant fighter?
Dan Wetzel’s outstanding column on Anderson last week hit the nail on the head. He’s dominating MMA now the way Tyson did boxing in the late 1980s and then again in the mid-1990s. He’s not only beating elite fighters, he’s destroying them, which may be even better than what Tyson was doing. Tyson lost to the best fighters he faced (Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis), but Silva isn’t letting them get out of the second round.
Presently, there seems to be no challenger who poses a threat of getting Anderson Silva’s middleweight championship belt after his victory over Dan Henderson. Do you think he would consider moving up to the light heavyweight division? If so, what are the chances of him being the light heavyweight champion? The 205-pound division is stacked, but he could easily get a crack at that belt since he is the middleweight champion and considered the best fighter pound-for-pound. Henderson was very competitive and was a champion at both middleweight and light heavyweight. There would absolutely be no doubt that Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world if he gets the light heavyweight belt.
Silva doesn’t have to move up to prove he’s the best, because he’s already proven it. What more does he need to do? If Silva were to move up, it would either be because he could no longer make the 185-pound middleweight limit or to take a monster fight the public is demanding to see. But right now, light heavyweight champion Rampage Jackson has plenty of big challenges in his own division. I also don’t believe Silva has trouble making 185, so there is no compelling reason for him to go. Wanderlei Silva plans to drop to 185 after his May 24 fight with Keith Jardine and UFC president Dana White said Tuesday he wouldn’t mind a Silva vs. Silva bout sometime later this year. White said he wouldn’t stand in the way if Anderson Silva wanted to move to light heavyweight. “What else is there for him to prove at middleweight?” White said. “If he comes to me and says he wants to fight at light heavyweight, I can’t argue with him.” But White said Silva has given him no indications he’s planning to do that.
