why are people so eager to see the current crop of contenders eliminate each other from title contention, particularly the ones silva hasn't fought yet? people keep saying guys like belcher, lombard, weidman, boetsch, and bisping should all fight each other in order to determine a "true" #1 contender. that's a pile of horse-sh't. since silva already "cleaned out the division" in the past, wouldn't it make more sense to have him fight this new batch of challengers than sitting out for most of the year? these guys should be fighting gatekeepers, staying active, waiting for their chance to get a title shot instead of knocking each other off and giving silva's camp the chance to say that they're not on an impressive enough streak to face him (like that ever mattered before).
MMA fans have a hard on for the tournament format. I'd rather see them line up to be merked by the spider one at a time.
I think people are concerned that nobody seems to have really presented himself as a clear number one contender, except maybe Weidman. Middleweight is a relatively weak division; there's a reason so few fighters from there are considered for top P4P.
Boestch I honestly don't care for, he offers absolutely nothing to Anderson. But the other guys, I'd really hate for them to knock each other off. If Anderson and Weidman can be ready at around the same time, just make that the fight. Anderson says he will fight anybody the UFC asks him to, and I don't doubt that. The UFC never offered Anderson Weidman because they had a hardon for a fight with Jones and then GSP, neither of those fights are happening in the next 9 months so just tell Anderson he's fighting Weidman and then can worry about superfights.
Anderson planned it this way. He's pulling the match making strings at MW. It's his way of insuring that he'll never have to fight a legitimate #1 contender again.
and letting the WW contenders eliminate each other while gsp gets to hold onto his precious belt is any different??
Considering Anderson is crazy and you don't know how long his career might actually last, you want his last fights to be the best. So I want the proven best #1 MW contender and the biggest super fights.
Yeah, this too. I honestly don't want to see any more of his last fights wasted, like the Bonnar fight.
i actually like all the best fighters having a go at each other makes for some great fights and Anderson allready proved hes one of the greatest fighters by going on the streak hes been in for the last couple of years plus hes getting old so only the best of the best should fight him
he just fought condit, and he's fighting diaz next. he was also out for a long time with a serious knee injury. i know you don't like the guy, but there aren't really a ton new contenders at ww. right now i'd say there's hendricks, and the other guys are too green. why would it make a difference? silva has already proven he's the best mw of all time. it'd be best to make as many matches as possible rather than have someone build up a more impressive resume, fight silva year from now, then lose. after that we'd have to wait for someone new to come along and establish themselves as the second best mw...way too long of a time frame there.
anyhow, Silva should stay at MW for now, he's got a bunch of great contendors and the MW division, traditionally one of the weakest, is finally heating up guys like Boetch, Costa, Lombard, Belcher, Bisping, Weidman etc. are actually making it a pretty interesting division and Silva's going to have his hands full (plus, didn't he just sign like a 10 fight extension or something?)
I have no interest in silva fighting weidman, boetch or belcher... Maybe lombard. But i only want to see silva fight gsp or jones now. Who the fuck wants to see him fight another run of the mill MWs that he's destroyed in the last 6 years. I think its insulting that after all silva has accomplished he still gets called out by guys like weidman and fans act like the next guy is going to be the flavor of the week savior. Silvas proven everything at MW. Time for the big money superfights so he can retire.
superfights are a slippery business where should Silva fight GSP/Jones? catchweight? WW? LHW? MW? If Silva lost to Jones, he'd jsut be the smaller guy losing to the bigger guy and if he beat him, then I think I would finally accept that Silva is the #1 p4p fighter of all time If Silva beats GSP it would be just him beating up the smaller guy (unless they fought at WW, and even there, he's still probably be bigger and if he lost to GSP, Silva would lose a lot of respect
Silva is already the best MW of all time. If his career was over in his next fight would you rather see Boetsch up there or Weidman/Lombard. God forbid them putting Bisping in the ring. The purpose of waiting and having the contenders knock each other off the radar makes it harder for people to call the #1 contender a joke fight. When Silva wins and generally does so with easy, people spout off at the mouth of how the contender never deserved the shot. That argument is harder to sustain when the #1 contender beat the other options. I can see why you'd rather have Silva just fight them all. Ideally I love to him fight each contender at MW and have time for a few super fights. Silva is old and very unpredictable his career could go several more years. Or he could retire after his last 2 or 3 fights on his contract. Since I can't claim to know what he plans on doing, I'd rather see the biggest fights available to end on a big high note.
