Next step for Silva should be taking a step down ... in class
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- After choking out Dan Henderson on Saturday night, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has now cleaned out an entire division. There isn't a middleweight who can beat him. There isn't a middleweight who deserves to try.
So what's next for Silva?
The UFC has its idea. I have mine. I even ran my idea past the UFC's matchmaker -- and he didn't shoot it down.
Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre.
"It's a possibility," UFC matchmaker Joe Silva told me.
But not a good possibility. That's also what Joe Silva told me. He said he has briefly, but only briefly, talked with Anderson Silva about moving to a new weight class. And in those conversations, Anderson Silva has spoken about moving to a heavier class, the 205-pound light heavyweight division, instead of down a class to fight St. Pierre at 170 pounds.
"Also, St. Pierre still has to get past Matt Serra," Joe Silva told me.
True. Fine. But St. Pierre is going to destroy Matt Serra when they meet April 19 in a rematch of their stunning first fight, when Serra knocked out St. Pierre in the first round. Don't ask me how that happened, but don't tell me it will happen again next month. It won't. St. Pierre is too big, too strong, too quick and too versatile. St. Pierre is the second-best fighter, pound for pound, in the world.
Behind Anderson Silva.
St. Pierre and Silva are only 15 pounds apart. St. Pierre is considered a huge 170-pounder, while Silva is unremarkable in size for 185 pounds. They could easily fight, whether at some middle-ground catch weight of 177.5 pounds or at either 170 or 185. It can happen, and it should happen.
Not that Silva couldn't handle himself at 205 pounds. His destruction of Henderson on Saturday night proved that. Henderson's last fight was a five-round war with light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson. Jackson won the decision, but it was close. They were evenly matched.
And then Henderson fought Silva and it wasn't close. They weren't evenly matched. Henderson took Silva to the ground in the first round and pounded on him but couldn't put him away. In the second round, Silva beat up Henderson on their feet, sent him to the ground, outmaneuvered the former Olympic wrestler and then slid to his back and choked him until Henderson quit.
Afterward, Silva was asked if he would like to fight Jackson and he theatrically shook his head no. But then he very seriously said he would fight anybody that UFC president Dana White put in front of him, including heavier fighters. And if Anderson Silva goes up in weight, he won't go up to fight a 205-pound contender. He'll go up to fight the champion, whether that be Jackson or someone else. Silva trains every day with light heavyweights and heavyweights, including UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He can be competitive, at the least, with whatever 205-pounder the UFC throws his way.
