
(Why must you torture us, fan-made poster?? Image via MMehFighter)
Man, this week is just full of disappointments. First, we learn that Ronda Rousey‘s historic migration to the UFC isn’t quite official yet. And now we learn that this Saturday’s UFC 154 event in Montreal won’t include a WWE-style post-fight run-in from middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
As the story went, Silva would be in attendance at the Bell Centre to challenge Georges St. Pierre to a superfight, if GSP was victorious in his welterweight title defense against Carlos Condit. Though Silva does plan on attending the fight, he has no interest in getting up in St. Pierre’s grill afterwards:
“I’m going to Los Angeles and then going to Canada for the fight of St. Pierre,” Silva told Tatame. “I’m already going to be there to shoot a movie, a feature film that I’ll participate in with Lyoto (Machida). It’s not my character to up and challenge anyone. I think it will not happen. I think not, I’m sure (laughs).”
Furthermore, Silva doesn’t plan on fighting anybody until the end of next year:
“I’m on vacation from fighting. I think I will return only in the end of the next year. I have personal projects ongoing. Tomorrow I’m embarking to Los Angeles to attend the arrangements of the academy we’re setting up there…If the UFC wants to make an interim bout while I’m gone, it’s up to them. I don’t know if it will have any meaning but they can do whatever they want. I’m in a comfort zone, so I’m not worried about it.”
I’m sure Chris Weidman is just thrilled to hear about Anderson Silva and his “comfort zone.” But at least one fighter sees this “interim bout” business as a great opportunity…
Reacting to Silva’s recent statements, Michael Bisping tweeted out a fun little promotional suggestion yesterday: “@danawhite if Anderson wants to take time off to be a movie star make me and vitor for the interim title????”
He forgot to include #prettyplease, so we’re not sure if this will actually happen, but you can see why Bisping would want it to happen. The Count and The Phenom are slated to face off on January 19th in Brazil, and while the winner of that fight would certainly put himself “in the mix” for a middleweight title shot, an interim belt would award the winner an iron-clad #1 contender status. Bisping has spent his entire UFC career getting close to title shots but falling just short; becoming the interim champ would finally secure him a guaranteed shot at Anderson Silva, his personal white whale.
Look, you already know how we feel about this “interim champ” noise. But if Silva is really pursuing other interests until late 2013 (!), shouldn’t the UFC middleweight division be allowed to move on without him?








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commentsre-read what i wrote. i said if Silva fought in Dec 2013 there was a good chance it would be against GSP or Jon Jones. if he fights in Dec, his next likely fight wouldn't be until June/July 2014 ... THAT would mean 2 years without defending the middleweight title.
While your logic doesn't seem all that bad, the end result is still problematic. Let's say Weidman defeats Boetsch, and Bisping defeats Vitor. If Weidman defeats Bisping, Silva is going to come back off the year lay off and still not want to fight Weidman ... And that doesn't even take into account the lingering super fight possibilities of Jon Jones and GSP. If Silva wants the time off, give up the belt. At his age, and his seeming desire to be a part time fighter who only wants big fights, he doesn't need the title anymore.
The difference between Silva and GSP is that GSP is fighting within his division,and he still wants to be Welterweight champ. He's not talking about side projects or jumps in weight classes, he had to sit out through an injury (a valid reason), and now he's back and ready to be active.
The 18mos. figure is a possibility. Lets say Silva returns in Dec. 2013 and fights either Jones or GSP in a year end super fight. Best case scenario is that he'd fight again in June or July 2014 ... And assuming that's when he finally decides to defend the middleweight title, that would be 2 years since he last defended the Middleweight belt.
I dont particularly like Silva, but I wont knock his skills. He is entitled to take a year off if he so chooses. Personally, at his age, a year off though is not a good idea for a number of reasons.
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