Anderson Silva could be fighting for a UFC title again very soon. UFC president Dana White announced on Wednesday’s edition of “UFC Tonight” that Silva, the former long-time middleweight champion, will fight the winner of UFC 184’s main event between Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort should he defeat Nick Diaz at UFC 183 later this month. The news came as a surprise to many, including myself, as Silva is coming off of two-straight losses to Weidman and most figured that, at age 39, he would only be used in super fights such as the Diaz bout. However, the UFC clearly wants to take advantage of whatever starpower Silva has left, and at a time where Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre and Brock Lesnar are all out of the Octagon, Silva is left as the company’s biggest draw and they plan on milking as much PPV money they can out of him. Still, a win over Diaz, who has not won a fight since October 2011 and who is coming off of two losses in a row and moving to middleweight for the first time in his UFC career, should not earn Silva a title shot when there are so many other deserving contenders in the division. Yes, Silva is a draw, but if given the promotion and the opportunity, perhaps some of the division’s other top contenders like Luke Rockhold, Jacare Souza and Yoel Romero could become draws as well. And all of those fighters have been much more impressive as of late at 185lb. The other thing is, who exactly was calling for a third fight between Silva and Weidman? The UFC is assuming a third fight between the pair will do well on PPV because the first two fights did well, but they shouldn’t assume that so quickly. After brutally KOing Silva at UFC 162 and then winning by injury TKO at UFC 168, there isn’t any doubt that Weidman is the better fighter. We’ve already seen this fight two times, and both times didn’t go well for Silva, and now at an older age and coming off of the broken leg, there is absolutely no reason to think a trilogy fight would be more competitive. Now, if Belfort should somehow upset Weidman, then yes, Silva getting a title shot makes sense because Silva of course KOed Belfort back at UFC 126 with an amazing front kick and a rematch between the two, with Belfort this time as the champ, would of course be huge. But the likelihood of Belfort getting past Weidman is very slim, and unless “The Phenom” pulls off the biggest upset of his career, “The Spider” is most likely going to be fighting Weidman for a third time later this year. It’s not a fight I’m excited fight and I was surprised the UFC decided to announce this before the fight between Silva and Diaz actually takes place, but nothing the company does surprises me anymore. Nothing.
