Anderson Silva At Heavyweight?

With a new report suggesting that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (25-4 MMA, 10-0 UFC, #1/#4 IWMMAR) will look to make a jump up an additional weightclass from lightheavyweight to heavyweight, there has been, and should be, some cocked heads. Anderson was smaller at lightheavyweight than the top tier fighters, and would be undoubtedly handling a thirty to forty pound disadvantage (at least) in many heavyweight matchups.

But, still, as he remains unwilling to fight for the lightheavyweight title held by personal friend Lyoto Machida (15-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC, #1 IWMMAR) and seems thoroughly disinterested in the barely shifting middleweight division that he sits at the top of, Silva must see the heavyweight division as a colossal challenge and a chance to establish his ability as a technical dynamo. With only three fights left in the UFC, and two of those bouts almost assuredly defenses of his middleweight title, Silva may only get one stab at the heavyweight division and, from the sounds of the report posted by Josh Gross, he’s looking to take on the big guns immediately.

A date has not yet been announced for his upcoming championship bout with Dan Henderson (25-7 MMA, 5-2 UFC, #3/#10 IWMMAR) , but having already beaten Henderson once, it seems that Anderson is not particularly interested in the bout. While he will certainly train hard, and respects Henderson, it’s hard to get excited about an opponent he submitted in the second round.

The only problem with Gross’ report is the notion that there may be multiple heavyweight blockbusters, that Anderson could fight someone like the heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar (4-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC, #2 IWMMAR) . It must be acknowledged, in any discussion of this venture, that the heavyweight stint will only be one fight, unless Silva somehow expresses a desire to renegotiate his contract when it expires at the end of the three remaining fights.

The opponent that Silva seems to want was a surprise to me. Two time UFC champion Frank Mir (12-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC, #3 IWMMAR) seems a little high ranked for Silva, but given that the Brazilian wants to go out with a bang, that would certainly be an interesting way to do it. It is a very risky fight for Anderson, given the size and technical ability of Mir, but would definitely make for an easy argument that Anderson is one of the top pound-for-pound fighters (if not the top pound-for-pound fighter) in the history of the sport.

There aren’t very many fights left where Anderson would be an underdog, and a bout with Mir, it seems to me, would make Silva an underdog again (which he really hasn’t been since he took the UFC title). If he’s looking for a chance to take a fight where he can surprise people by winning, than the fight with Mir seems like a good choice. Of course, for the UFC, there’s no risk involved at all. Win or lose, Anderson is still the greatest middleweight in the word, still one of the pound-for-pound greats, he just couldn’t overcome the size advantage, and if Anderson wins, then the UFC can begin to seriously claim that he is the greatest fighter of all time. But, as previously mentioned, without renegotiating the contract, the chances are that he will only be around a little while to lend that status to the organization.

The Independent World MMA Rankings panel, who’s rankings are indicated by the “IWMMAR” listing, ranked both Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson in the top ten in the middleweight and lightheavyweight division, and their rankings are listed as middleweight and lightheavyweight respectively.