Anderson Silva gunning for two belts
MMAPlayground.com »
Community »
MMA News Share Forum »
Anderson Silva gunning for two belts
SmileR
7/3/08 8:17:10PM
Since emerging in the Ultimate Fighting Championship two years ago, Anderson Silva has clearly proven his position as the No. 1 middleweight fighter in the world. Many have also bandied about the label of best pound-for-pound fighter in the same breath as the UFC middleweight champion.
Now he’s out to prove it. And for the first time in the promotion’s history, UFC president Dana White is giving his blessing to allow one of his champions to move among divisions in an attempt to hold two belts in two classes.
“(Ricarod Almeida) and Patrick Cote are going to fight on Saturday night and see who's next in line for Anderson Silva's 185-pound title,” said White at Thursday’s pre-fight press conference in anticipation of Saturday’s UFC 86 card in Las Vegas.
“Anderson Silva, being the monster that he is, you all know is going to move up to 205 on July 19. He's going to fight at 205. If everything goes well, he wants to move back to 185 and fight Sept. 6 in Atlanta, probably against Yushin Okami, then he wants to fight again two months later,” he continued.
Link
Now he’s out to prove it. And for the first time in the promotion’s history, UFC president Dana White is giving his blessing to allow one of his champions to move among divisions in an attempt to hold two belts in two classes.
“(Ricarod Almeida) and Patrick Cote are going to fight on Saturday night and see who's next in line for Anderson Silva's 185-pound title,” said White at Thursday’s pre-fight press conference in anticipation of Saturday’s UFC 86 card in Las Vegas.
“Anderson Silva, being the monster that he is, you all know is going to move up to 205 on July 19. He's going to fight at 205. If everything goes well, he wants to move back to 185 and fight Sept. 6 in Atlanta, probably against Yushin Okami, then he wants to fight again two months later,” he continued.
Link
prozacnation1978
7/3/08 8:23:09PM
what a true champion he is, i hope he does it!!!!!!!!
jae_1833
7/3/08 8:31:16PM
I for one would like to see James Irvin get back to winning on a regular basis....even if it would cost Anderson his LHW debut!
Aether
7/3/08 8:38:34PM
I like this for the same reason I like BJ fighting GSP. There doesn't seem to really be any interesting fights for him at middleweight anymore. I think he could've started with a higher quality opponent (not that Irvin is a can or anything) but that may be a result of the fact that this card was slapped together quickly to screw affliction over. I'm interested to see how he deals with the strength of bigger guys... I'm a little doubtful about him being able to take the belt at 205 but he can definitely be a contender.
McBee
7/3/08 8:40:46PM
how is Ricardo fighting for the chance to fight Silva? Chris Leben or Bisping makes more since than Ricardo, he has fought one time in the last few years and beats a no name guy?
Figsak
7/3/08 9:15:20PM
Posted by Aether
There doesn't seem to really be any interesting fights for him at middleweight anymore. I think he could've started with a higher quality opponent
He looked right past Ryo Chonan and Daiju Takase too. Don't look past Irvin.
DevonFoxy
7/3/08 9:16:53PM
Posted by McBee
how is Ricardo fighting for the chance to fight Silva? Chris Leben or Bisping makes more since than Ricardo, he has fought one time in the last few years and beats a no name guy?
Yushin makes more sense then all of them.....
imanidiot777
7/3/08 9:31:25PM
Posted by Aether
I like this for the same reason I like BJ fighting GSP. There doesn't seem to really be any interesting fights for him at middleweight anymore. I think he could've started with a higher quality opponent (not that Irvin is a can or anything) but that may be a result of the fact that this card was slapped together quickly to screw affliction over. I'm interested to see how he deals with the strength of bigger guys... I'm a little doubtful about him being able to take the belt at 205 but he can definitely be a contender.
First off there is plenty for him to do at middleweight and he's going to fight more times at middleweight right after this fight, if guys are allowed to go after 2 belts they should be required to fight more often barring injury. BJ still has plenty of interesting match-ups at lightweight also, Huerta and Florian and later a rematch with Sherk would all be good. At middleweight you have Almeida, who I think has the best chance of beating Silva, possibly Cote, maybe even Bisping sooner or later because has has looked amazing, then if they move over WEC middleweights like he said they might you'll have Filho too. I don't see how there are no fights for him, just because he's defended his title a lot does not mean there aren't more to be fought. There are always more.
McBee
7/3/08 10:55:10PM
Posted by DevonFoxy
Posted by McBee
how is Ricardo fighting for the chance to fight Silva? Chris Leben or Bisping makes more since than Ricardo, he has fought one time in the last few years and beats a no name guy?
Yushin makes more sense then all of them.....
whoops I forgot about him, all of these guys should have to fight Franklin or Lutter also
Twenty20Dollars
7/3/08 11:23:48PM
i wonder how bouncing back in weight classes will do.
dana dont forget your letting bj penn do the same thing so i wouldnt go and call it stupid when two of your top fighters are doing that.
dana dont forget your letting bj penn do the same thing so i wouldnt go and call it stupid when two of your top fighters are doing that.
McBee
7/4/08 1:01:26AM
Posted by Twenty20Dollars
i wonder how bouncing back in weight classes will do.
dana dont forget your letting bj penn do the same thing so i wouldnt go and call it stupid when two of your top fighters are doing that.
I think it is stupid, i do not know what it is but I do not want to tanish one champion with another or have a lower weight champion lose to a higher weight champion, There are enough match ups for these guys to stay in their weight classes look at Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes, their run were amazing and I liked that better than seeing Anderson fight Liddell or Rampage.
Anderson losing in a higher weight class would be like someone telling me that Santa got killed by the Easter Bunny
Aether
7/4/08 2:59:51AM
lol a rematch with sherk would be interesting? Huerta and Florian? Do you really think any of those people have a reasonable chance at beating BJ? I guess if it's interesting to watch a middle tier fighter get dominated by a top tier fighter these could be considered challenges. What _legitimate_ challenges does anderson have at middleweight at this point? He's already beaten almost the entire top10. It's not interesting to me to watch a fight where the outcome is assumed beforehand. Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian are never going to beat BJ as long as they live. It's boring. Who wants to see the top rated p4p fighters in the world carve up the lower end of the top10 instead of seeing them fight people who can actually pose a threat to them? I don't see the point in it at all.
These guys are of the mind that they want to fight the best. They're fighters. I agree with them. You don't start fighting because you want to beat people who you know you can beat, you fight to see if you can beat the guy who you know is dangerous to you. I don't understand fight fans NOT wanting to see the best possible matchups so that they can watch fighters they know are going to win beat fighters they've already beaten.
Before anyone answers please tell me one person at lightweight that would make for a more exciting and challenging fight than GSP, or one person at middleweight that will make for a more exciting matchup than half of the LHW division. If you can't answer that question then forget about responding to the rest.
What happened to people wanting to see the best fights possible? BJ vs GSP and Anderson fighting at LHW are some of the best possible fights available in the sport. You're completely insane if you'd rather see them beat up people who aren't as good as them or who they've already badly beaten. How is that entertaining?
These guys are of the mind that they want to fight the best. They're fighters. I agree with them. You don't start fighting because you want to beat people who you know you can beat, you fight to see if you can beat the guy who you know is dangerous to you. I don't understand fight fans NOT wanting to see the best possible matchups so that they can watch fighters they know are going to win beat fighters they've already beaten.
Before anyone answers please tell me one person at lightweight that would make for a more exciting and challenging fight than GSP, or one person at middleweight that will make for a more exciting matchup than half of the LHW division. If you can't answer that question then forget about responding to the rest.
What happened to people wanting to see the best fights possible? BJ vs GSP and Anderson fighting at LHW are some of the best possible fights available in the sport. You're completely insane if you'd rather see them beat up people who aren't as good as them or who they've already badly beaten. How is that entertaining?
Aether
7/4/08 3:19:56AM
This is a real fighter and champion's mentality. They want to be the best and they're going out to prove it. Winning fights they're expected to win for a long time isn't going to prove anything to anyone.
I don't understand how a bunch of fighters and fight fans can not have the same mentality.... How do you guys not want to see the best fights going on???
I'm really blown away. Penn sherk is more exciting to you than Penn GSP?? LOL??????
I don't understand how a bunch of fighters and fight fans can not have the same mentality.... How do you guys not want to see the best fights going on???
I'm really blown away. Penn sherk is more exciting to you than Penn GSP?? LOL??????
McBee
7/4/08 3:29:38AM
Posted by Aether
This is a real fighter and champion's mentality. They want to be the best and they're going out to prove it. Winning fights they're expected to win for a long time isn't going to prove anything to anyone.
I don't understand how a bunch of fighters and fight fans can not have the same mentality.... How do you guys not want to see the best fights going on???
I'm really blown away. Penn sherk is more exciting to you than Penn GSP?? LOL??????
My main thing is GSP has not even solidfied his championship status even and it seems like BJ should have to fight Hughes again before fighting GSP.
UFC could pull out the pocketbook and get "the punk" or Aoki or even Alvarez over and I think that you should assume that BJ woud run through, Huerta or Guida or Griffin or Edgar, these guys deserve title shots and GSP lost to Serra and there are a lot of people he has not yet foughtthat are WW contenders. The only people that has decimated there weightclass is Anderson
StriderXero
7/4/08 6:57:14AM
It's going to take a while for Anderson to get a LHW title shot. Especially with that division staked the way it is, and him having to defend his MW belt. It's going to take him a long while, I'd say a year or more. Depending on him being able to take on all that.
Not for nothing though...........Anderson is going from probably the weakest division in the UFC to possibly the strongest division. This guy has to get by Irvin, Wanderlei, Chuck, Thiago, Shogun, Jardine, Forrest, Rampage if he's still champ, and possibly even Machida. None of the guys Anderson faced in MW are even close to being like these guys, except for Hendo. and excluding jardine and forrest. So Best of luck to him, is all I got to say.
Not for nothing though...........Anderson is going from probably the weakest division in the UFC to possibly the strongest division. This guy has to get by Irvin, Wanderlei, Chuck, Thiago, Shogun, Jardine, Forrest, Rampage if he's still champ, and possibly even Machida. None of the guys Anderson faced in MW are even close to being like these guys, except for Hendo. and excluding jardine and forrest. So Best of luck to him, is all I got to say.
mutosufan
7/4/08 8:23:49AM
Posted by McBee
My main thing is GSP has not even solidfied his championship status even and it seems like BJ should have to fight Hughes again before fighting GSP.
UFC could pull out the pocketbook and get "the punk" or Aoki or even Alvarez over and I think that you should assume that BJ woud run through, Huerta or Guida or Griffin or Edgar, these guys deserve title shots and GSP lost to Serra and there are a lot of people he has not yet foughtthat are WW contenders. The only people that has decimated there weightclass is Anderson
Alot of fans confuse deserving title shots and getting railroaded in the title match.
Just because one might think that Huerta/Florian would get run over by Penn doesn't mean that Huerta/Florian does not deserve the match. If that was the case then pretty much all the champs would be on the bench.
It is a little ridiculous to say that fighter A would get killed by Penn or by GSP or by Silva because those guys are arguably some of the best of all-time. They run over alot of fighters, most. It still doenst mean that others do not deseve a shot at them.
Darnok
7/4/08 11:13:30AM
I would love to see Silva hold both belts
Gipper
7/4/08 11:18:12AM
anderson has his hands full. irvin is the real deal and should be mentioned with all the big boys in the division. if silva gets by him ...... watch out!!
McBee
7/4/08 11:32:46AM
Posted by mutosufan
Posted by McBee
My main thing is GSP has not even solidfied his championship status even and it seems like BJ should have to fight Hughes again before fighting GSP.
UFC could pull out the pocketbook and get "the punk" or Aoki or even Alvarez over and I think that you should assume that BJ woud run through, Huerta or Guida or Griffin or Edgar, these guys deserve title shots and GSP lost to Serra and there are a lot of people he has not yet foughtthat are WW contenders. The only people that has decimated there weightclass is Anderson
Alot of fans confuse deserving title shots and getting railroaded in the title match.
Just because one might think that Huerta/Florian would get run over by Penn doesn't mean that Huerta/Florian does not deserve the match. If that was the case then pretty much all the champs would be on the bench.
It is a little ridiculous to say that fighter A would get killed by Penn or by GSP or by Silva because those guys are arguably some of the best of all-time. They run over alot of fighters, most. It still doenst mean that others do not deseve a shot at them.
whoops I was responding to the guy before me and meant to say " that you should not assume that BJ would run through them" so you are preaching to the choir.
McBee
7/4/08 11:36:29AM
Posted by Gipper
anderson has his hands full. irvin is the real deal and should be mentioned with all the big boys in the division. if silva gets by him ...... watch out!!
maybe in a different division but he is too one dimensional to be spoken of in the same voice of the greats in the LHW division, he looked stupid in both the Terry Martin fight and Hector Ramirez fight before knocking them out, a good submission guy would beat him quickly. I think even Stephan Bonner would beat him handily.
RMFG_187
7/4/08 12:08:33PM
Forrest will run him outta the LHW division. Silva would demo Rampage. Rampage was never good with the thai fighters. Machida and Forrest would finally give him a real challenge he cant overcome.
Gipper
7/4/08 4:56:16PM
Posted by McBee
Posted by Gipper
anderson has his hands full. irvin is the real deal and should be mentioned with all the big boys in the division. if silva gets by him ...... watch out!!
maybe in a different division but he is too one dimensional to be spoken of in the same voice of the greats in the LHW division, he looked stupid in both the Terry Martin fight and Hector Ramirez fight before knocking them out, a good submission guy would beat him quickly. I think even Stephan Bonner would beat him handily.
who cares what he looked like he ended up knocking both of those guys out. one of them was top 2 or 3 i've ever seen. even stephan bonner?? this guy has some slick submissions dude. do i think he could beat guys like shogun, liddell, wand, forrest, rampage.....no. i agree he has to work on his sub-d but when a guy can ko people like this guy who no's what he's able of.
McBee
7/4/08 6:04:10PM
Posted by Gipper
Posted by McBee
Posted by Gipper
anderson has his hands full. irvin is the real deal and should be mentioned with all the big boys in the division. if silva gets by him ...... watch out!!
maybe in a different division but he is too one dimensional to be spoken of in the same voice of the greats in the LHW division, he looked stupid in both the Terry Martin fight and Hector Ramirez fight before knocking them out, a good submission guy would beat him quickly. I think even Stephan Bonner would beat him handily.
who cares what he looked like he ended up knocking both of those guys out. one of them was top 2 or 3 i've ever seen. even stephan bonner?? this guy has some slick submissions dude. do i think he could beat guys like shogun, liddell, wand, forrest, rampage.....no. i agree he has to work on his sub-d but when a guy can ko people like this guy who no's what he's able of.
that is why I said you may mention him at the top in a different division or promotion but in the UFC's LHW you cannot mention him or you will have to list off 6 or seven fighters, he is mediocre in the UFC's LHW divison, I want to see him fight Jardine, Gouveia or Lambert to really measure where he fits
Gipper
7/5/08 2:18:44PM
Posted by McBee
Posted by Gipper
Posted by McBee
Posted by Gipper
anderson has his hands full. irvin is the real deal and should be mentioned with all the big boys in the division. if silva gets by him ...... watch out!!
maybe in a different division but he is too one dimensional to be spoken of in the same voice of the greats in the LHW division, he looked stupid in both the Terry Martin fight and Hector Ramirez fight before knocking them out, a good submission guy would beat him quickly. I think even Stephan Bonner would beat him handily.
who cares what he looked like he ended up knocking both of those guys out. one of them was top 2 or 3 i've ever seen. even stephan bonner?? this guy has some slick submissions dude. do i think he could beat guys like shogun, liddell, wand, forrest, rampage.....no. i agree he has to work on his sub-d but when a guy can ko people like this guy who no's what he's able of.
that is why I said you may mention him at the top in a different division or promotion but in the UFC's LHW you cannot mention him or you will have to list off 6 or seven fighters, he is mediocre in the UFC's LHW divison, I want to see him fight Jardine, Gouveia or Lambert to really measure where he fits
ok maybe i got a little ahead of myself. this guy is knocking on the door though. ya one of those fights would be good. he's only really been in there with one of the division elite t.silva but he got injured so it's hard to say. you no if he beats anderson the ufc will give him one of the top guys in the lhw div. if he loses hopefully they still give him one of those guys you mentioned.
tdietel01
7/5/08 4:09:25PM
I would love to see bj vs GSP or silva vs rampage or chuck. and i hope it happens, but some of these other guys work really hard for title shots and they cant be deprived because they are heavy underdogs. not too long ago chuck, rich and hughs were unbeatable. but they lost the belts just like all the current champs will. did anyone honestly think GG would beat CC? no, but he still got his shot and proved everyone wrong. what im trying to say is no fight is an absolute lock and the people that deserve the title shots should get them before another champ should
Jason-plata
7/12/08 3:01:24AM
Personally. I think that Anderson would look way better at 205. He is so skinny.. Immagine 20 lbs of muscle on him..
Pookie
7/12/08 3:04:36AM
Posted by Jason-plata
Personally. I think that Anderson would look way better at 205. He is so skinny.. Immagine 20 lbs of muscle on him..
i doubt hes going to get much bigger at all. Maybe 5 pounds of muscle, maybe.
Figsak
7/12/08 2:03:49PM
Posted by Jason-plata
Personally. I think that Anderson would look way better at 205. He is so skinny.. Immagine 20 lbs of muscle on him..
I have exclusive photos from inside his training camp. Just leaked!
