Silva's camp wants to fight Rockhold, not Lombard or Weidman

Quote :

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva doesn't think a top contender is worthy of fighting him, and he wants to give his input to his bosses on who his next opponent should be.

It's the same old story, only this time, different names are being used in the conversation, in relation to who should be the next man to get the privilege to grace the Octagon with "The Spider."

FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight" broke down the situation, where they reported some comments that were recently made by Anderson Silva's management.

Though it seems as if UFC newcomer Hector Lombard may be next in line for a title shot, if he's able to defeat Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on Sat., July 21, 2012, the Silva camp is not excited about "Shango" as a possible opponent:

"One of Anderson Silva's managers said that one of the issues with Hector Lombard is he thinks he needs at least three more impressive wins in the UFC. He said that 85 percent of UFC fans don't even know who Hector Lombard is, who is of course making his Octagon debut on Saturday night."

Check out who else Silva's camp doesn't believe deserves a shot at the belt, as well as the name of an opponent who they actually would consider, after the jump:

Star-divide

Chris Weidman is another prospect that has been bandied about as a possible number one contender, after he summarily dismantled Mark Munoz in their fight at UFC on FUEL TV 4 in San Jose, Calif., on July 11, 2012.

It's a fight that a lot of fans have been calling for, but Silva's management is equally unimpressed with the "All American:"

"As for Chris Weidman, he said, 'Well, there's another great unknown fighter.' He doesn't see those match ups as being money making pay-per-view events."

Finally, Silva's management mentioned the name of a challenger that Silva actually feels would be deserving of a title shot. Unfortunately, it's the name of someone who couldn't fight Silva if he wanted to (and he does).

Convenient, isn't it?

"He did mention Luke Rockhold, who is the Strikeforce middleweight champion. Alas, Rockhold is contractually tied to Strikeforce, so that fight's not happening. We'll have to wait and see, but right now, the Anderson Silva camp not too excited about the options out there."

So who else is even left?

Michael Bisping is expected to face Brian Stann at UFC 152 in Toronto on Sept. 22, 2012. There's an outside chance that the winner of that match-up could end up being named the number one contender, but it's unlikely.

Where do you weigh in on all of this?

source

OK, well I stopped reading the article after the first couple of sentences, because it was blatantly obvious at that point that this is a "hater" article, but regardless of that, I don't agree with Silva's camp on this one.

They're correct that the options pretty much suck (which we all kind of expected to happen if he defeated Sonnen the 2nd time), and selling those fights as anything more than time-killers while waiting for a big time fight to manifest will be next to impossible, but Luke Rockhold isn't any more of a sell than either Weidman or Lombard.
Obviously some people take this as Silva ducking someone (surprise, surprise!! ), but Silva's camp is correct that none of these fighters are blockbuster-type fights. With that said, he should (and almost defintely will) fight one of those guys, simply because there aren't any better options.

This is why I have been saying that if he were to beat Sonnen in the rematch (which he did) he should either retire of take a superfight against Jones or GSP. There's just nothing left at MW for him, and he obviously wants big fights at this point in his career.... fights he won't get at MW.

Sellabilty wise I think Rockhold and Lombard are on the exact same level... except one of them is already a UFC fighter. I can see the argument for Weidman being harder to sell, being that he is so new/young in the sport.

Yeah they're all pretty close as far as level of marketing. Unfortunately, that level is nowhere near Silva vs. Sonnen or Belfort, or even Silva vs. Okami for that matter.

It looks like we have come full circle with Silva, back to the last time he cleaned out the division and was defending his title against Patrick Cote and Thales Leites.

bisping........its should be his turn. he's the biggest name in the div that that hasnt fought anderson yet! that fight needs to happen soon.

norcalmatt wrote:

bisping........its should be his turn. he's the biggest name in the div that that hasnt fought anderson yet! that fight needs to happen soon.

Agree.
That's the fight that has the most logical mix of legitimate competition and marketability at this point.
I don't see any other fight for Silva that makes more sense right now in the MW division.

A couple of things:

1) When Silva got his title shot against Franklin he had only one win in the UFC against Chris Leben and 85% of the fans at the time didn't know who he was either. So saying Lombard needs three wins, because people dont know him is a bit hypocritical. I have faith in the UFC being able to hype a guy on a 30 fight win streak.

2) Silva's management sounds ridiculous now asking to fight someone who is not allowed to fight in the UFC. Current Strikeforce fighters are not allowed to fight in the UFCV until showtime stop showing mma of any kind. Meaning even if showtime goes out and strikes a deal with bellator to show them the current Strikeforce guys would not be able to fight in the UFC so calling out Rockhold is silly.

The reality of this "calling out" situation is pretty transparent. IMO
Very similar to M-1 to Fedor but M-1 had way more control.

Surely being the undisputed middleweight champion, with record setting 15 consecutive UFC wins, 10 UFC title defenses on a 32 and 4 career record gets the guy SOME fucking input into who he wants to fight next.

The guys win streak is longer than some guys career in this sport, he's cleaned out the division twice.....

The guy wants to fight a champion in his weight class and being as Zuffa OWNS fucking Strikeforce I'm sure if they wanted to they could find a way. But maybe just maybe Zuffa don't want this fight cause Rockhold could be developing into a money draw who currently has the perfect Anderson protection of fighting for "another organization." If Anderson beats Rockhold, Rockhold just becomes another Anderson stat and makes the Strikeforce MW title more of a joke than it is already.

Haggerty is just another pathetic Anderson hater who is looking for any slim hope to disrespect the Worlds Greatest Fighter, front of the line screaming "Chael won MOST of the fight" on their first fight, and screaming like a little girl "He kneed him in the face, he kneed him in the face!" on their second fight.

One day Anderson will lose, one day Anderson will retire, one day Anderson will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.... sorry haters but that day AIN'T here yet, in the meantime keep searching for some slim s hope of finding away to confirm your hate for a true superstar of MMA.

And before you accuse me of being a Silva Nuthugger, let me admit to it and confirm I AM AN ANDERSON SILVA NUTHUGGER! At least I have more logical, sane and rational reasons for nuthugging than the haters have for hating.

Krieger wrote:

The guy wants to fight a champion in his weight class and being as Zuffa OWNS fucking Strikeforce I'm sure if they wanted to they could find a way. But maybe just maybe Zuffa don't want this fight cause Rockhold could be developing into a money draw who currently has the perfect Anderson protection of fighting for "another organization."

Incorrect...

Rockhold is contractually not allowed to fight in the UFC under the showtime agreement.

That is why Silva is catching crap for calling him out. It's not even possible.

I wouldn't call you a nut hugger, just misinformed

Zuffa and Showtime can agree at anytime to alter the stipulation in the contract to allow a "Showtime fighter" to fight in the UFC. Zuffa would just have to cough up enough cash. So would a Rockhold / Silva fight be worth it? Probably not.

From Bloody Elbow
Why The Showtime/Zuffa Fighter Stipulation Really Isn't That Bad
Tim Burke on Jul 16, 2012 9:00 AM EDT in Strikeforce Analysis

...In the end though, this really comes down to what all business deals always come down to - money. If the UFC wants a Strikeforce fighter that bad, they'll have to pay up to wrest control of him/her away from Showtime. If anyone honestly thinks that Gilbert Melendez will be forced to re-sign with Strikeforce if his deal did expire, you're dreaming. Zuffa will pay. Showtime was just doing what they needed to do to protect their interests by asking for this stipulation, and I think it was a smart business move. If a few fighters get caught in the crossfire, well - thems the breaks. The truth of the matter is painful, but true - these fighters gambled by signing with Strikeforce, and they might have potentially lost for the time being. The key word being "might".

I agree with you there, but one has to wonder if the current SF fighters representaion was truly paying attention when they signed their current deals or not. Almost seems like they werent and if so that sucks for the fighters

Here's the whole article....
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/7/16/3161552/ufc-strikeforce-showtime-zuffa-deal-not-bad

In the beginning the fighters had a choice who to sign with. Some chose the shorter term, riskier, more up front money with Strikeforce vs longer term less money with Zuffa. Once contracted the Zuffa / Showtime contract put them under the big money thumb.

What did Zuffa get?.... mostly keeping other orgs off Showtime television for up to three years.

Gotta say...Im no lawyer, but I think Melendez effed up that decision

Fer sure

Silva vs Bisping in the UK would be epic!!!!! Silva has said in the past he would love to fight Bisping in the UK. If Bisping can finish the fight with Stann then let him have Silva i say. That way i can stop calling Bisping the future champ and start calling him the current champ.

Bisping and Silva in the UK seems to be a good match and a real money maker.

I like the Count but I'd have to give this one to Anderson.... IMO

It sounds no matter what happens, Silva likely won't be fighting again for the better part of a year.

I think you could give Bisping an immediate shot. However, coming off an injury, not sure Bisping wants his first fight to be a title fight. I could be wrong.

If I had say, I would say Wiedeman should get the shot if for nothing more than the timeing is perfect for both fighters to have a full camp and get the next title shot as quick as possible. All other scenarios involve a long timeline, unless Lombard quickly/impressively defeats Boetsch.

I understand Lombard or Weidman would not be as marketable as Bisping.

As for the article, it's clearly biased. The only thing Silva said that's stupid is calling out Rockhold. Not because of the possibility. But because I don't see Rockhold as being any more marketable (or deserving) than Weideman or Lombard.

IMO the reason this guy wrote this article was not to help incite legitimate debate over who Silva should fight next. It seems to me the point was to pile onto the Silva hate-heap by implying that Silva is somehow dodging someone somewhere. The author didn't say who he is supposedly dodging, because it's a ridiculous idea and there is no actual, realistic merit to it.
That didn't, however, stop this idiot from irresponsibly throwing his biased idea out there all the same.