Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

[nyj721]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

I have think this fight will go 1 of 2 ways

1. Sonnen lays and prays for round 1, then either gets knocked out (via muay thai knees) or choked out in round 2.

2. Sonnen tries to stand up and Silva gives him a knock out of the year candidate.

Hope I get to see Shogun vs Silva sometime in 2010.

[dachamp33]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Maaaaaaan I thought GSP was next at 170... Sonnen? Really? Come On... both GSP and Silva need a challenge at least give em a fighter like Jon Jones he may not be as technically sound (yet) but has the athletic ability and the killer instinct to make it a interesting fight

[aholbert32]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Maaaaaaan I thought GSP was next at 170... Sonnen? Really? Come On... both GSP and Silva need a challenge at least give em a fighter like Jon Jones he may not be as technically sound (yet) but has the athletic ability and the killer instinct to make it a interesting fight

Do people really want to see Silva at 170 for the WW belt? If he wins, its not like he would actually defend the belt. He would just vacate it.

Its too early to throw the best fighter in the world at Jon Jones. People are expecting Jones to go from beating Brandon Vera to a top 3 P4P fighter?

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Who cares if he would vacate the belt? I wouldn't want him to stay in that division either. Don't even make it a title fight. I want to see some of these guys test themselves against the best.

I want to see GSP/Silva, then I want to see Silva move on to LHW

[TheShizNo1]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

I wanna see him against Rampage. At least I know I'd see some kind of action

[aholbert32]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Who cares if he would vacate the belt? I wouldn't want him to stay in that division either. Don't even make it a title fight. I want to see some of these guys test themselves against the best.

I want to see GSP/Silva, then I want to see Silva move on to LHW

I didnt say I dont want Silva to fight GSP. I said I didnt want it at 170 for the belt. Leaves too many chances for excuses. If Silva loses, many would say its because of the huge weight cut (which is a legitimate excuse). That devalues GSP's win over him. If GSP loses and its for the belt, it devalues it because Silva isnt ever going to defend it. So the WW belt would pretty much go right back to GSP since no other WW is on his level right now.

I would prefer that the fight be a catchweight fight at 180. 10 pounds is nothing for GSP to gain and 5 isnt much more of a cut than Silva normally makes.

As for a Silva run at LHW, as long as Machida is champ and as long as Silva refuses to fight him...I'm against it. Why have Silva potentially wipe out every major contender (Rampage, Evans, Rua, Ortiz, Jones) if he is never going to fight for the title?

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Oh well I never said that you didn't want to see it.

I was pointing out that I don't care if he would stay in WW if it was a title fight, because I wouldn't want him to. But we agree that it's better if the bout isn't a title fight.

As far as LHW, come on. Who's to say Machida will be champ when it's all said and done. Pit Silva against a top 5 LHW and see what happens from there.

Let's say Machida retains the title, well hell have Silva beat everyone leading up to Machida.. that'd be an entertaining run even without a Silva/Machida fight.

[aholbert32]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

As far as LHW, come on. Who's to say Machida will be champ when it's all said and done. Pit Silva against a top 5 LHW and see what happens from there.

Let's say Machida retains the title, well hell have Silva beat everyone leading up to Machida.. that'd be an entertaining run even without a Silva/Machida fight.

Its short term thinking though. Its possible that at the end of 2010, you could have no legitimate contenders for the LHW belt. Look at this: Machida beats Rua, Rampage beats Evans, Silva vacates the MW belt and beats Jones or Ortiz. Ramp gets the next shot and loses to Machida and Silva beats Couture.

Who's left to face Machida? Cant sell Jones or Evans because they are all coming off recent losses. Same goes for Rampage or Couture. All you've done is build up a fight (Machida/Silva) that will never happen.

Its Silva's great skills that makes this a very possible scenario. I would favor Silva against every opponent in the LHW division right now. Its hard to build up contenders when you have a great fighter potentially beating all of them.

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

I hear you, but I'm not going to think that far ahead. If it plays out like what you mapped out, yeah there might not be too many appealing opponents for Silva.

There can just as easily be different outcomes that would turn it 180 degrees.

Also I would love to see Silva try his hand at the HW division.

I want to see him move around.

[aholbert32]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Here is the path I want:

Have Silva clean out MW: Sonnen and Belfort are still there

Fight GSP in a catchweight superfight

Move up to LHW: Hopefully by then Machida has lost the belt. Plus it gives the UFC time to build up fighters like Jones and Phil Davis.

[Beantown]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Here is the path I want:

Have Silva clean out MW: Sonnen and Belfort are still there

Fight GSP in a catchweight superfight

Move up to LHW: Hopefully by then Machida has lost the belt. Plus it gives the UFC time to build up fighters like Jones and Phil Davis.

I definitely like this if Machida has lost the belt. If not...I don't really know what you do with him. Move him up to HW to fight a Frank Mir or someone?

[MizzouBravesFan]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

I'm not gonna totally dimiss Sonnen's chances...he does have the wrestling and top game to give Anderson trouble if he can get his hands on him and get him down. Now whether he can do that or not is an entirely different question.

Having said that, I would've rather have just seen Dana force him to vacate the MW Title and have him move up to 205...a fresh challenge for him where we could see some awesome fights.

Of course I'd like to see Anderson/GSP but the longer we wait, the more I belive it'll never happen...it's starting to become this generation's Chuck/Wanderlei.

[aholbert32]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

I definitely like this if Machida has lost the belt. If not...I don't really know what you do with him. Move him up to HW to fight a Frank Mir or someone?

Right. If Machida is still champ, move him to HW. Have him fight Mir, Dos Santos, Velasquez, Couture (moving back to HW). Build up to a Brock or Carwin fight.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Sonnen has no chance to beat Silva.......Hell if Hendo had a hard time taking him down and keeping him and Hendo is 10 times the wrestler then Sonnen, then no sonnen has no chance.

He going to rush in and get dropped in the 1st round and Silvia going to say F U Dana, I am still the champ, now what ? LOL

[allBthere]

Re: Report: Silva vs. Sonnen is the next Middleweight Title Fight

Here is the path I want:

Have Silva clean out MW: Sonnen and Belfort are still there

Fight GSP in a catchweight superfight

Move up to LHW: Hopefully by then Machida has lost the belt. Plus it gives the UFC time to build up fighters like Jones and Phil Davis.

I'm down with all of that, BUT...Silva has been talking about retiring for a while now. His contract doesn't allow for what you pointed out unless he renews. At least this is what is in my brain, if anything has changed I'm wrong.

I'm worried he retires before fighting anyone interesting. His last contract was for 6 fights? So it is at least possible that Sonnen is his last fight of the 6?...or would it be Belfort?