"The Spider's" camp calls for Marquardt vs. Henderson; Silva willing to wait for result

PORTLAND, Ore. – While many observers felt Saurday's UFC 102 contest between Nate Marquardt (29-8-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) and Demian Maia (10-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) was an unofficial No. 1 contender contest, the next challenger for middleweight champ Anderson Silva (25-4 MMA, 10-0 UFC) remains unclear.

Marquardt impressively dispatched of Maia in just 21 seconds, picking up the Portland, Ore., event's "Knockout of the Night" in the process.

But following the event, UFC president Dana White wasn't quite ready to schedule Marquardt vs. Silva II, and Silva's camp told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that they feel the organization should go in a different direction.












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i made a thread for this asking the same question shortly after the Marquart fight i guess the Silva camp agree with me

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so anderson silva decides who fights him and when and who should fight to get to a title shot lol
Heres to hoping Marquardt wins both of these fights

well i think the Silva camp have a point Silva already beat these two decisively why should he have to fight BOTH of them again, plus we haven't seen Dan and Nate fight each other i think it would be a more competitive fight then Vs Silva anyway

I agree with the silva camp, hendo vs. marquardt is a great matchup that hasn't happened yet. I don't care what silva is trying to dictate, hopefully he fights another fight at a higher weight class and then takes on the winner, make it happen, neither guy took any damage in their last fight so they could both fight tomorrow if they wanted.

I called that after Marquardt won last ngiht

Screw this, what does Anderson think he can call the shots now? lol

Setting up that matchup directly eliminates a top contender...so after Hendo or Marquardt fight Anderson, who would be next? Not a good idea...just let Hendo have his shot. He beat Franklin and Bisping who were probably higher up on the ladder than Maia and Gouveia for Nate.

I totally agree to this. Hell even if Anderson vacates the title these two should go at it for the title as they are definitely the most deserving.

Im getting pretty tired of Anderson and this comes from a huge Spider fan. A lot of people have said hes changed a lot and you can see it in him. Obviously ive never known him but from his start in Pride and now he seems different. Personally i think Hendo deserves a shot, hes earned it imo. He didnt get completely killed by Anderson, afterall he convincingly won the first round against Spider and who else has done that?? He got complacent but i feel he has the tools to put Anderson on his back and keep him there round after round if he stuck to the gameplan.
Still though, Hendo vs Nate would be a good scrap.

Silva should just vacate at 185 if he's going to behave so childishly. Henderson/Marquardt for the vacant belt is the best fight 185 has to offer right now.

Hendo needs to get a shot immediately. He deserves it....Id like to see that go down in November. Then early 2010 Nate gets his shot.... Or Silva should just vacate that belt and move up and let Hendo and Nate go head to head at years end.

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Posted by xdanish020

Screw this, what does Anderson think he can call the shots now? lol

Setting up that matchup directly eliminates a top contender...so after Hendo or Marquardt fight Anderson, who would be next? Not a good idea...just let Hendo have his shot. He beat Franklin and Bisping who were probably higher up on the ladder than Maia and Gouveia for Nate.

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This would actually set things up perfectly for a run in the LHW division.......I agree with Anderson's camp......have them fight for the #1 contender spot and if Anderson beats the winner then make a run in the LHW division because he wont have much else to prove and MW.........

Does everyone not remeber Anderson has beat both these guys already.......I would rather see him make a run at LHW then fight both these guys again.......

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Posted by Giant_Ochai

Silva should just vacate at 185 if he's going to behave so childishly. Henderson/Marquardt for the vacant belt is the best fight 185 has to offer right now.

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acting childishly? cut it out. the guy is 10-0 and already finished both of those guys inside 10 minutes and beaten a former 205 pound champ in his last fight. He has earned the right to make such a suggestion.

personally he should do what ever he wants to he has earned it, Boxers get to choose who they fight why not mma fighters there grown adults they don't need to be told what to do. yeah and i would have said the same thing as andersons camp cause it makes sense instead of a bunch of rematches. make the 2 losers fight for the title shot

Is anyone else getting sick of Anderson Silva? Hendo gets the shot. Nate can fight the winner. Done. Everyone is happy.

From a guy who says he wants to fight every 2-3 months, why would he want to wait 6 months for a winner of Nate/Hendo, all while all but calling out Frank Mir.

Andy is really starting to piss me off with his shenanigans. Sh*t or get off the pot, as my grandpa would say.

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Posted by wrona666


This would actually set things up perfectly for a run in the LHW division.......I agree with Anderson's camp......have them fight for the #1 contender spot and if Anderson beats the winner then make a run in the LHW division because he wont have much else to prove and MW.........

Does everyone not remeber Anderson has beat both these guys already.......I would rather see him make a run at LHW then fight both these guys again.......

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What's the point, when he has stated time after time that he does not want to fight Lyoto. I'd rather see him keep dominating the MW division....UFC's MW division has gotten a lot better in recent years. And no, I did not forget they both fought him already but at the same time they are both at the top of the list and should not be denied a shot just because they already fought.

Anderson should just vacate the MW title and let Hendo/Nate fight for it; While he works on the LHW & HW. OR cut weight down to 175 lbs for a catch weight with GSP. Anderson has made that weight before. Plus Vitor/Wand ares till out there if they do end up creating 195lbs.

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Anderson should just vacate the MW title and let Hendo/Nate fight for it; While he works on the LHW & HW. OR cut weight down to 175 lbs for a catch weight with GSP. Anderson has made that weight before. Plus Vitor/Wand ares till out there if they do end up creating 195lbs.

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Anderson hasnt made 175 in years the chances of him makin it now are very slim

Am I the only one here who thinks that Anderson possibly would rather face Nate than Hendo, seeing as that he dispatched one way easier than the other one? I'm getting the feeling he wants Nate to beat Hendo so that he doesn't have to fight Hendo again.

Of course, I'm probably wrong, but it just doesn't seem right that he can't seem to accept that Hendo's done more in his last three fights against top 185 pound fighters (With maybe the exception of Bisping if you don't consider him top quality) than Nate has. The whole thing just seems weird.

Hendo has earned his way back into title contention and deserves to have anther shot. Hendo put up a great fight against Silva, even though he was sub'd at the end the 2nd rd, but he atleast won a round against silva, who else can say that?? Not Marquardt.

heh... I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad idea, but I think it's kind of ridiculous that this guy thinks that he can tell the UFC what matchups they should be making for contendership.

uhhhh... who works for who here?

Half of you guys doesn't seem to read the article. Ed Soares said, he'd like the idea of that contender fight, not Anderson. Nobody is telling the ufc "what to do", that's only in your head. In his pre and post fight interviews Anderson treats everyone with respect. It's not his fault nobody can keep up with him in the cage.

And by the way imo, Soares is f'in right! Both in the first fight demolished losers (hendo laying on top of anderson for 3 minutes doing nothing doesn't earn any credit from me) should fight each other for that rematch. Anderson can go on at 205 with a fight and wait for them.

It's not Soares' (or anyone from any fighters' camp) place to tell the UFC what contender matches the UFC needs to set up is the point people are trying to make. Whether Anderson or his camp said it doesn't really change that point. It's half a dozen of one and six of another.

The suggestion from Silva's camp is not a ridiculous suggestion; I would be in the "Silva needs to take what is given to him" majority if he was asking to have two marketable title contenders that he had never fought (and dominated) before fight each other, thus offing one for a future defense. In this case, the fans get to avoid unnecessary rematches and, in the process, get a pretty good fight out of it. Henderson vs. Marquardt would be a great fight to see, should it come to fruition.

Anderson Silva has played ball with Zuffa since he has come around, fighting whomever they give him and even taking fights outside his own division when he does not necessarily have to. To balk at a suggestion that is not outrageous is just knee-jerk reactionary.

Why is it so wrong for Anderson to make this suggestion but everyday I come to this site someone has a new match up that the UFC needs to make? Who are we to make fights if the fighters themselevs are not alowed to in their thoughts?

no one said the suggestion itself was ridiculous. I said that it is ridiculous for them to dictate what contender matches should be happening for their own fighter.

It's not about whether it's correct or not, or whether the claim itself is ridiculous, it's about the fact that it's not their place to decide when contender matches take place and amongst whom. Whether they're right or not isn't what people are arguing here.

If Lesnar or any of his trainers said that Carwin should fight someone else for contention and that Brock would wait I'd be willing to bet people would react quite badly. It's just not their place to decide who other people should be fighting.

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Posted by postman

Why is it so wrong for Anderson to make this suggestion but everyday I come to this site someone has a new match up that the UFC needs to make? Who are we to make fights if the fighters themselevs are not alowed to in their thoughts?

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It's pretty different for fans to talk about what fights they would like to see on an internet forum and for a manager or a fighter to publicly tell the UFC what contenders matches they should be setting up.

Here, look at it this way. You're Dan Henderson, you have been told you get the next shot at Silva, you have no interest in fighting anyone else at 185, and his manager comes out and says, "nah, you should fight someone else first, we'll wait."

If I were Dan Henderson I would be wondering just when the hell Ed Soares thought he took over Joe Silva's job or what place he has telling me who I should be fighting.

Look at it from the point of view of the guys who are being told who to fight by somebody's manager.

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Posted by Aether

no one said the suggestion itself was ridiculous. I said that it is ridiculous for them to dictate what contender matches should be happening for their own fighter.

It's not about whether it's correct or not, or whether the claim itself is ridiculous, it's about the fact that it's not their place to decide when contender matches take place and amongst whom. Whether they're right or not isn't what people are arguing here.

If Lesnar or any of his trainers said that Carwin should fight someone else for contention and that Brock would wait I'd be willing to bet people would react quite badly. It's just not their place to decide who other people should be fighting.

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While analagous in some ways, your comparison does not really account for the peripherals in both particular situations. Lesnar turning down a challenge from an "unready Carwin" holds three key differences from the Silva suggestion: 1) Lesnar is a relatively new champion with a division that holds many different contenders, 2) Lesnar has never fought Carwin, and 3) the stature of Anderson Silva, the world destroyer, trumps the status of Lesnar, a novice in a division of novices and legends.

I look at it slightly differently: Anderson Silva is the champion. Assuming he wants the best fighters to fight him, why wouldn't he have a say in what he thinks of the division he leads?

Anderson Silva constantly refers to how close he is to the end of his time as a fighter, and considering that, I think it fits within his privileges to find the best fights, be it at middleweight, light heavyweight, or heavyweight within an organization that will profit off whatever he does until he finally does retire. Long-term champions (or even long-term main event-caliber fighters) are generally afforded some extraneous negotiation rights; I remember last summer Forrest Griffin signalling that he would not want a fight with Lyoto Machida, who at the time was a threat that casual fans lacked information about.

The suggestion itself, which you seem to think is irrelevant to the motion he is making, if of key importance: Marquardt and Henderson are the two fighters that fans, journalists, and Dana White himself are currently floating around as the top contenders to the middleweight belt, and in most situations where there are two contenders to a belt with equitable stake to the first challenge, they are pitted against each other (Swick vs. Kampmann and Evans vs. Liddell) come to mind; this particular situation is odd in that both fighters already have losses to Anderson Silva on their record. Taking all that into account, Silva's camp's suggestion is a suggestion that takes into account the way the UFC generally conducts itself. (I doubt Silva's camp would make this suggestion if Maia had won at 102.)

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Posted by Aether

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Posted by postman

Why is it so wrong for Anderson to make this suggestion but everyday I come to this site someone has a new match up that the UFC needs to make? Who are we to make fights if the fighters themselevs are not alowed to in their thoughts?

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It's pretty different for fans to talk about what fights they would like to see on an internet forum and for a manager or a fighter to publicly tell the UFC what contenders matches they should be setting up.

Here, look at it this way. You're Dan Henderson, you have been told you get the next shot at Silva, you have no interest in fighting anyone else at 185, and his manager comes out and says, "nah, you should fight someone else first, we'll wait."

If I were Dan Henderson I would be wondering just when the hell Ed Soares thought he took over Joe Silva's job or what place he has telling me who I should be fighting.

Look at it from the point of view of the guys who are being told who to fight by somebody's manager.

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I should have said I don't agree with the fight first. I doubt Dan Henderson gives a crap what they say and I don't think Joe or Dana do either. They are going to make the fights that make sense to them they proved that with the Carwin Lesnar fight. Agian I don't think the UFC see should make the fight but I do think a fighter is allowed to voice his oponion on who he feels is worthy of a shot. If the UFC agrees then make it ha.ppen if not then don't