With a middleweight division bereft of established contenders Chris Weidman has become the sort of de-facto number one challenger to Anderson Silva's middleweight championship. Weidman vs. Silva has been a fight with a lot of push behind it since Weidman destroyed Mark Munoz, a performance impressive enough to erase the memory of the (completely understandable given short notice) lackluster fight with Demian Maia.

Weidman made no bones about what he wanted after the Munoz win, stating simply "I want Anderson Silva."

Half a year later, Weidman still hasn't gotten a title shot, in large part due to injuries, but he also seems to think that Silva simply wants no part of him (via MMA Junkie):

"It seems like he's avoiding it at all costs at this point," Weidman told MMAjunkie.com on Saturday in Chicago. "I'm a big, strong, young, athletic wrestler with good submissions. I think it's a bad matchup for him, I think he knows that, and he's making millions of dollars outside the cage being the undefeated UFC champion – untouchable. And if Chris Weidman, who a lot of people don't know, goes in there and takes that away from him, it's not good for him."

...

"Before my Boetsch fight, I wanted to fight him straight up, right away," he said. "He said he didn't want to fight until 2013. I had elbow surgery, and then he took the fight with Stephan Bonnar in 2012, out of nowhere, and I ended up getting the Boetsch fight."

That Boetsch fight fell through when Weidman suffered a shoulder injury in his training camp.

He claims that he wants a July 4 fight with Silva, and discussed giving Silva an immediate title rematch at the end of the year on the UFC anniversary show that they'd like to hold in New York -- Weidman's home state.

Of course, Silva's camp has been making noise about not wanting to fight Weidman next because they have little to gain, stating "I don't think Anderson has anything to gain from that fight other than beating a super tough, unknown guy," while suggesting a fight with Cung Le.

The Silva camp is known for their willingness to just say things to be saying things. So it could be that the idea of Silva vs. Le falls in that same boat. At this point it's a waiting game for fans and Weidman alike.