Anderson Silva's manager, Ed Soares, recently spoke to SporTV in Brazil and made it clear that Silva is reaching the end of his career. He also stated that Chael Sonnen shouldn't get the next shot.

Here's a clip from the article, translated by Tom Mendes:

Let's see what the big boss is going to do. My opinion is that he had his chance and tapped, he should go back to the end of the line. The same thing is true with Vitor Belfort. They're great fighters, but they had their chance. Sonnen would make a big fight, as would Dan Henderson and Georges St-Pierre, but we should recognize that Anderson only has around 4 fights left in his career.

It's sad to know that Silva is in the twilight of his career, but it does remain a positive to know that (at least for now) the plan is to get out at an appropriate time and before his skills have gone.

Still, other than St. Pierre or Jon Jones there simply is not a bigger fight out there for Silva than Sonnen. Moving Vitor to the theoretical "back of the line" makes sense given Belfort didn't have a second of success. Chael, however, had roughly 1,380.

I'll continue hoping that "the big boss" sees fit to put Chael and Anderson in the cage together one more time.