Posts tagged Anderson Silva at FanHouse

In this video, Georges St. Pierre discusses his plans for fighting B.J. Penn at UFC 94, and for a couple of potential fights after that:

The UFC has already announced that the St. Pierre-Penn winner will defend the welterweight title against Thiago Alves, and St. Pierre knows that if he beats Penn, Alves will be a tough test. But he also doesn't hesitate to talk about a potential future fight with Anderson Silva at 185 pounds.

When I talked to Frank Mir a couple of weeks ago, we discussed the concept of top pound-for-pound fighters, what the whole "pound for pound" idea really means, and who Mir chooses as his No. 1.

In Mir's opinion, World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion Miguel Torres is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and since I've heard from a couple of readers who think I have Torres too high in my own MMA pound-for-pound Top 10, I figured now would be a good time to pass along what Mir told me.

For starters, although Mir said he believes Fedor Emelianenko is the best heavyweight in the world, Mir doesn't think any heavyweight in MMA has a complete enough set of skills to justify being considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

So if it's not Fedor, why is it Torres?

The new Yahoo Top 10 pound-for-pound MMA poll was released today, and since I'm now one of the voters, I figured I'd let you know how I voted. Here's the ballot I submitted on Sunday:

1. Anderson Silva
2. Fedor Emelianenko
3. Miguel Torres
4. Georges St.-Pierre
5. B.J. Penn
6. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
7. Lyoto Machida
8. Rashad Evans
9. Eddie Alvarez
10. Mike Brown

A few notes below.

Anderson Silva, the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world, is expected to step back into the Octagon at UFC 97 in April to defend his middleweight title against Thales Leites in Montreal.

Although UFC has made no official announcement, Intheguard.tv reports that the bout has been agreed upon by both fighters. The UFC has not officially confirmed that UFC 97 will take place in Montreal in April, but that has been widely expected.

For Silva, it's a second straight middleweight title defense against an opponent who will be a huge underdog. Silva looked bored in winning a ho-hum third-round TKO victory over Patrick Cote at UFC 90, and we can only hope we'll see a more intense version of Silva at UFC 97.

But while he is an underdog, if Leites can take the fight to the ground, he's got a shot. Leites has tremendous Brazilian jiu jitsu skills and can at least give Silva something he hasn't gotten in his last two fights: a challenge.

UFC middleweight champion and No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter Anderson Silva will not fight at UFC 95 in London, according to a report from f4wonline.com.

That means we won't be stuck with the obvious mismatch of Silva vs. Thales Leites, but it leaves some pretty big questions hanging out there regarding who will fight on the UFC 95 card and when we'll see Silva in the Octagon again.

For starters, thousands of fans in London bought tickets because they thought they were going to see Silva. The UFC needs to give those fans a good main event if it doesn't want to turn off the British fans it has worked so hard to attract. But what will that main event be? It won't be a title fight, because the champions in the other weight classes are committed to either UFC 92 on December 27 or UFC 94 on January 31. Several of the organization's other big draws, including Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, have said they won't be fighting again that soon. It's going to be tough to find a top-notch main event for UFC 95 without Silva in the fold.

There are also questions about whether the UFC really has a middleweight under contract who can provide a serious challenge to Silva. The Spider is a great fighter who wants great fights, and opponents like his last two -- James Irvin and Patrick Cote -- just aren't challenging enough for him.

All indications are that the main event at UFC 95 will be a middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites, in London on February 21.

UFC President Dana White said this when asked about Silva's next fight:

"We're working on that right now," White said about Silva's next fight. "We're trying to set up a fight with him in February, hopefully, and we're thinking about Thales Leites."

With all due respect to Leites, who has great submission skills, this looks like a mismatch. Silva is by far the best middleweight in the world and, in my opinion, the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA. Leites, on the other hand, isn't even considered a Top 10 middleweight by most observers. (His average spot in the various MMA rankings is 14th.) Silva is a great fighter, but the UFC needs to find tougher challenges for him.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Chuck Liddell says he will not fight Anderson Silva in February, and he will not fight Randy Couture in June:

"Nobody's talked to me at all about Randy or Anderson Silva in any recent talks," Liddell said. "I know there was something about me fighting (Silva) in February, that's definitely not true, I'm not fighting until March or April. The rumor about me and Randy in June, no one's said a word to me, and I don't want to wait until June to fight. ... I haven't heard anything about it. I don't know where it came from or who was talking about it, but to me at this point it doesn't make sense."

There's no word on when, where or against whom Liddell will fight next. But he made it as clear as can be that it won't be against Silva at UFC 95 or against Couture at UFC 99.

We all know that UFC President Dana White proclaims his organization's middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, as the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA. But the 33-year-old Silva is already talking about retiring in 2010. So who would be the best pound-for-pound fighter after that?

White says it may be Lyoto Machida.

In a post at Tatame (which apparently comes from an interview conducted in English, translated to Portuguese by Tatame and then translated back to English by Free Fight Videos), White is quoted as saying he thinks Machida could be the next pound-for-pound top fighter in MMA.

Machida, who is 13-0 in his pro MMA career, will take on Thiago Silva at UFC 94, and the obvious question is, if White thinks Machida could be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, why hasn't he gotten a light heavyweight title shot yet?

If he beats Silva, Machida would certainly deserve that shot, but Machida, for all his skill, is not a fan favorite. So he probably needs at least one more win, as the UFC is likely to match up the winner of the UFC 92 main event of Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans with the winner of the UFC 92 undercard fight of Rampage Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva. Once a light heavyweight champion emerges from that group of four, Machida -- if he's still undefeated -- would finally get his chance.

The full translation of the Tatame post is below.

The final fights of this season of The Ultimate Fighter are set, with lightweights Phillipe Nover and Efrain Escudero and light heavyweights Ryan Bader and Vinny Magalhaes fighting on December 13 to earn a contract with the UFC.

And on Wednesday night, it was confirmed that Nover is the so-called "next Anderson Silva," with none other than Silva's friend and training partner, UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, making the comparison on last night's show.

"Phillipe, he becomes a mean guy," Nogueira said. "He's a bad guy when he's going to fight. Anderson Silva, he's the same way as him."

The UFC has already sold more than 4,000 tickets to its February 21 UFC 95 show in London, which is an impressive number, considering that fans don't know what they're paying to see: So far, the UFC hasn't said who's fighting on that card.

However, most people believe that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva will fight in the main event, and it's apparently the strength of Silva's name that is moving those tickets. But who's he going to fight?