Wanderlei Silva: The Next #1 Contender at Middleweight?

The middleweight division is arguably the weakest division in UFC.  UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva has been running rampant through the entire middleweight class.  He is on a six fight win streak including impressive victories over top contenders like former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin (twice), Travis Lutter, and Nate Marquardt. 

Dan Henderson is next on the list.  Henderson is dropping to middleweight for his fight with Silva at UFC 82 on March 1, 2008.  If Silva wins who is left to fight?  The answer is only up and coming fighters and aged veterans.  There are no established UFC middleweight stars left. 

Enter Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva.  Wanderlei is apparently mulling a move from light heavyweight to middleweight and is putting a rumored light heavyweight bout with Keith Jardine at UFC 84 on hold for the moment to determine the best career path.  According to Wanderlei’s trainer Rafael Alejarra on MMAweekly.com,

“Wanderlei made the most of his holidays to rest his body and mind, but we’ve already done a bit of training this weekend and starting tomorrow things will pick up. As we only just got back now and today is a holiday here (Las Vegas) we can’t confirm anything about the next fight, if just because there is the chance Wand will drop down in weight. Every fight and adversary is different, which is why we have to wait to define our training plan. If he should drop to middleweight, we will work on his losing weight and preserving his muscle mass, losing only water and fat and not strength and size, since he normally weight 98 kilos. But nothing’s for sure yet, we’ll wait and see.”  

Wanderlei is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Chuck Liddell at UFC 79, however, he remains one of the greatest MMA fighters of all-time.  He is the former PRIDE Middleweight Champion who has compiled a career MMA record of 31-8. 

Silva has notable wins over former PRIDE Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Champion Dan Henderson, current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson twice, Kazushi Sakuraba, Hidehiko Yoshida, and Ricardo Arona.

Wanderlei is arguably the most exciting and dynamic fighter in the history of MMA.  Twenty one of Silva’s thirty one wins have come by way of knockout, which is extremely impressive. 

He is constantly on the attack, pressing forward, delivering devastating punches and constant knees in the clinch, although he did not seem like himself recently against Liddell.

I do believe Wanderlei Silva could be a force in the UFC middleweight division.  He would bring instant credibility.  Dana White should offer the winner of the Anderson Silva/Dan Henderson fight to Wanderlei. He is an extremely accomplished fighter and has earned the right to fight for the title right away. 

In order to drop down to middleweight Wanderlei would have to drop around 30 pounds from his current frame.  I do not believe this would be a problem.  He appeared unusually smaller for his fight with Liddell and it has been rumored he spent too much training time on cardio and not enough on his greatest strength, which is striking.    

I have reason to believe Dan Henderson will beat Anderson Silva, which I have already outlined in my article entitled, “One For The Ages: Silva and Henderson Collide at UFC 82.”  This would potentially set up a great rematch between Dan Henderson and Wanderlei Silva.

Henderson and Wanderlei last fought each other on February 24, 2007 at PRIDE 33.  

The fight was an epic three round battle that saw Wanderlei get the best of Henderson for the majority of the fight, however, in the third round Henderson caught Wanderlei with a clean left hook and knocked him out to become the PRIDE Middleweight Champion.   

I may be getting ahead of myself a bit, however, Wanderlei Silva still has a lot to offer the MMA world and dropping weight would do his career, the fans of MMA, and the UFC middleweight division all a favor.