If Anderson Silva wants a Super Fight with Georges St-Pierre next year and the mega pay-day that goes along with it, there should be one condition attached: he hands over the UFC Middleweight Championship.
For the first time in years, there is a queue of contenders forming in the 185lbs division.
The days of Patrick Cote and Thales Leites ‘earning’ title shots are seemingly over with the likes of Chris Weidman, Tim Boetsch and Alan Belcher clawing themselves into contention and Michael Bisping and Brian Stann still in the mix.
At 37 years old, ‘The Spider’ has made it clear that his days of fighting 3-4 times a year are over. Silva has already said that he won’t fight again in 2012 and by February 2013 he will have fought just twice in two years.
So with Anderson Silva fights becoming as rare as Aussies winning in the Octagon, it is not fair to the growing list of contenders that he should be allowed to hold up the division, possibly until 2014.
Regardless of how much or little hope you give of these contenders challenging the champ, a title holder should have to defend his belt at least annually if he is fit to do so.
Let’s take Weidman as an example. He is 28 years old, undefeated and has recently beaten top contenders Mark Munoz and Demian Maia.
He’s young, fit and has the momentum of a runaway freight train right now. Should he be expected to stumble through meaningless fights for another fifteen months? Of course not, one more win over a top contender and it’s his time.
Silva has made it quite clear lately that facing the best Middleweight contenders is no longer the his priority, with money and exposure now at the forefront of his thinking.
Just this week he said he wants to fight St-Pierre even if he loses to Carlos Condit at UFC 154 in December.
That is irrational.
If Silva was seriously concerned by the lack of contenders to his title, he should want to fight the best at Welterweight (which could be Condit), not the guy who will make him the most money.
By the way, we won’t even get into the queue at Welterweight or the fact there is a number one contender fight also coming up between Johny Hendricks and Martin Kampmann. I guess they’re just supposed to wait too.
Silva should only agree to this Super Fight if has no interest in holding and defending the Middleweight championship again. Until that occurs, GSP vs Silva should remain in MMA fans’ dreams.
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