UFC's Anderson Silva Versus Chael Sonnen: Silva's Career on the Line?

UFC President Dana White appeared on Jim Rome's show today and announced that Anderson Silva will be fighting Chael Sonnen next, and that he'll be cut if he fights like he did against Demian Maia.

There are two big questions that come out of this announcement:

1. Why is the UFC going with the Sonnen fight instead of the Georges St. Pierre versus Silva superfight?

2. Is Dana White seriously considering cutting Silva?

The answers obviously depend on who you're talking to.

So, why isn't the St. Pierre versus Silva fight happening?

The St. Pierre versus Silva fight is the fight that everybody wants to see. It's MMA's equivalent of Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather, and when Silva stated that he could cut to 170 pounds, it seemed as if the last real hurdle was removed.

Fans will argue that if White doesn't put this fight together he'll be doing the exact same thing that he criticized boxing for doing. It probably makes better business sense for White to keep Silva and St. Pierre apart, but doing so might be ignoring the public demand.

On the other hand, White says that Silva doesn't deserve a fight with St. Pierre. A lot of fans are angry with Silva after his last performance, and so whether Silva deserves the title shot or not, it'll be interesting to see if the fans agree with White.

Is Dana White seriously considering cutting Silva?

No, he's not.

Silva might be dead weight for the UFC, but he'd be extremely valuable for a promotion like Strikeforce.

Strikeforce needs to jump to pay-per-view soon in order to stay profitable, and they're already running out of marketable main events. Pay-per-views featuring Silva opposite some of Strikeforce's stars like Fedor Emelianenko and Gegard Mousasi would generate some serious cash to keep Strikeforce's big-league ambitions alive.

Also, it seems likely that the UFC would need to pay out a lot of money to Silva in order to cut him from the organization.

Silva will probably handle Sonnen anyway, but I would be shocked if White cut him no matter what his performance looks like.