Are the top middleweights not in the UFC so Anderson Silva has to fight Light Heavyweights for competition?

Question

WEC: Chael Sonnen and Paulo Filho

EliteXC: Robbie Lawler, Cung Le and Frank Shamrock

Affliction: Matt Lindland

How are the middleweights listed above? would any of them offer a challenge to Anderson Silva?

Answer 1

Id say the top guys other than anderson are filho who has already stated that he wouldnt fight anderson due to them being close friends, and lindland who wont be in the UFC anytime soon due to personal dislike between him and Dana White.  I think hed work Chael and Lawler pretty easily. I think Frank would loose but id like to see the fight just to see how good frank is.  Cung Le is still a mystery for me, i know he beat Frank but i think Frank fought stupid and tried to prove he could stand with Cung Le.  i think the jump up is an attempt to get him more exposure for the UFC.  He is the ideal Poster boy for the UFC... A great who dismatles opponents and is as polite and professional as they come...his only downfall is he doesnt speak english and i think US fans look down on that

Answer 2

Ander Silva pretty much destroyed everybody in Middleweight so I asumin that it was his idea to move up in weight, truefully I think it's way too risky to do!!!!!!

Answer 3

Silva said himself that he has no intentions of moving to 205.  He is just taking the fight offered to him against Irvin as a one time payday.  It's not permanent.

Answer 4

I think Lindland would give him a good fight. Lindland is a great wrestler a solid striker and he's really worked on tweaking is skills to fit the MMA game. Lindland also loves a big fight. He lost a close one to the 20 lbs larger Rampage Jackson in 2006, in which many people thought he won. He was also willing to fight the 40lbs larger Fedor and was doing quite well until Fedor took advantage of his size and won via arm bar.

Sonnen is not that good. Sure he trains with Henderson and Lindland, but he's not even close to their level. When he called out Anderson Silva after beating new-comer Brian Baker I laughed out loud. Sonnen has shown nothing that indicates he'd even stand a chance at beating Silva. Sonnen couldn't beat Filho when Filho was going through tons of rough c**p and put in the worst performance of his career.

Filho and Silva are great freinds; I dont think they'd fight unless Dana White did some serious arm-twisting  but if they did it'd be interesting to see what they picked up in all their training together. Filho has great BJJ, and an improving striking game. If he came in with his head right it might be interesting but I just dont think his stand up is good enough to survive with Silva for long.

The EliteXC guys arent on the same level. Lawler is worse at every aspect of the game, Cung Le is an interesting striker with some serious power, but Silva's movement is too good for Le to do any serious damage before being overwhelmed by Silva.

Lindland stands the best shot, but its a fight that will never happen unless Silva decides to leave to UFC (which is very unlikely).

Answer 5

Cung Le and Frank Shamrock are both legends but are also both aging, I think Silva could take them. Robbie Lawler maybe, but he needs to leave EliteXC and come play with the big boys. Matt Lindland, Chael Sonnen, and Paulo Filho are definitely beatable for Silva, Lindland has great takedowns but I think Silva would submit him, and he would probably KO both Sonnen and Filho. Rich Franklin could probably take most of these guys too. Franklin lost to Silva twice only because Silva is the best fighter in the world. He is still one of the top middleweights, although he is moving up to 205 along with Silva and fighting Matt Hamill, depending on how both those fights go (Silva Irvin as well) Franklin might consider staying up. I don't think any Middleweight in the world could beat Silva right now. I mean, even Dan Henderson, who has beaten Wanderlei Silva, got stopped by the Spider.

Answer 6

silva could beat most of them but lindland an filho would be the challenge...also him moving up is jus so he wont get out of shape he could fight the winner of leben/bisping of cote or theres sum rumors tht gsp is a possibilty if he beats fitch