Anderson Silva should cement his legacy at 205

What should Dana White do with Anderson Silva?

Anderson Silva is causing some serious issues for Dana White. His presence has stagnated the middle-weight division and put Rich Franklin into fighter's purgatory. The lack of competitive fights that are available at middle-weight mean that staying at 185 shouldn't be the option that White chooses for Silva. Given all the retirement talk, Dana should try to create a superstar of Silva in his last five fights in the hope that someone will beat him and the star power will be transferred to them. Dana should create a plan for Silva that involves him taking on a host of 205 superstars beginning with Chuck Liddell.

Liddell is still one of the UFC's biggest stars but his invulnerability factor is completely gone following his knock out loss to Rashad Evans. Dana must know that Chuck will never be able to get into title contention again and it’s not even in the UFC's interest in having Chuck win the title. However a fight between Anderson Silva and Chuck Liddell could still sell a huge amount of PPVs. Chuck would come in as the clear underdog (it’s be interesting to see how this effect his training and game plan). As mentioned in an earlier post, I think Silva would defeat Chuck handily and continue building his legacy.

Next Anderson Silva should fight Keith Jardine. Jardine has a pretty high profile but he is unlikely to become a title contender. The storyline could involve the fact that Jardine beat Chuck.

Following this fight Anderson Silva should be pitted against Wanderlei Silva. If Anderson can become the only person in history to beat both Liddell and Wand he will definitely cement his position as one of the greatest fighters ever. Following a win, Dana could start billing Anderson’s mission as taking on the ‘elite of the LHW division’. Dana should sell Anderson Silva’ fights as a mission to prove once and for all he’s the greatest. I feel that the public buys storylines such as when ‘Chuck Liddell is trying to avenge all his losses.’ He could then lay out the final two fights that Anderson Silva could have.

The next fight should be against Quinton Jackson. This would definitely be an exciting fight and a win for either man would make them into a superstar.

Finally Anderson Silva could fight against Forrest Griffin (if he’s still champ at this point). If Silva got this far I’m sure huge amounts of media would follow this fight. Given the right marketing (and the right marketing of aforementioned fights) Anderson Silva would be a bona fide superstar (despite not knowing how to speak English!) and he could challenge for the LHW belt.

Anderson Silva SHOULD NOT fight Shogun Rua or Thiago Silva. I think these two men would have a better chance against Silva than any of the above 5 fighters (except perhaps Forrest Griffin). Also neither of them have a high profile in the US so beating them would not give any noticeable sparkle to Silva’s record. It’s time for White and Joe Silva to start matching the Spider up with the best the 205lb division has to offer. The world needs to see these superfights and marketed well they could create a global superstar. They great thing is that every single one of these fights has the potential to be extremely exciting. Forgot Silva versus Yushin Okami. It is a fight that intrigues me but to the casual fan it would mean nothing. Go for the superfights. Hell if Silva gets through all these guys (and Randy Couture is still champ) let him fight Randy. (Don’t let him fight Lesnar though because he’ll get destroyed. Lesnar is too big and too strong).

I'm not a Silva nuthugger nor do I think he's undefeatable. I would favour him against all 5 men I mentioned above. However more importantly I think the UFC should do this because it makes sense for business and for mixed martial arts fans.