
(‘Nate, whaddaya say we call it a draw and go get some cheeseburgers?’ Photo courtesy of Fight Magazine)
The great mystery as to who will step up and challenge for Anderson Silva‘s middleweight title at UFC 112 on April 10 is looking like it will be solved by process of elimination. Chael Sonnen, who became the number one contender with his upset of Nate Marquardt, now says he won’t be making the quick turnaround to face Silva in Abu Dhabi. But with Sonnen and Vitor Belfort both ruled out, who’s left?
Marquardt is coming off a loss at UFC 109. Demian Maia won a fairly plodding and unimpressive decision over Dan Miller. Wanderlei Silva and Michael Bisping are set to go at it next weekend at UFC 110. Face it, there just aren’t many acceptable substitutes available. If the UFC grabs the first warm 185-pound body they can find and shoves him into a title fight with Silva, we’re looking at a potential farce of epic proportions. And haven’t we learned our lesson about matching Silva against guys he’s not really interested in beating up?
The best solution at this point would be to either pull Silva from the event entirely and wait until a credible contender is available, or else forget about the title for a little while and get to work finding an interesting 205-pounder who’s willing to accept the challenge. Easier said than done, I suppose.


so the ufc announced its anderson vs maia huh? GREAT FIGHT…………………