UFC 147: Wanderlei Silva Must Retire If He Loses to Rich Franklin

Wanderlei Silva has been dealing with retirement talk at various points during the last three years. He has managed to quiet that talk by winning a couple fights here and there, but everyone knows the end is near. 

In fact, if Rich Franklin can take care of business at UFC 147, Silva should find the decision to walk away that much easier. 

There was a time when Silva was one of the most feared fighters on the planet. From 2000-2004, his peak years in PRIDE, Silva established himself as one of the greatest knockouts artists in the history of mixed martial arts. In 17 fights during that four-year span, he won 13 fights via knockout or TKO. 

Silva also held the PRIDE middleweight championship for over five years, before losing it to Dan Henderson in his final fight with the promotion before it was absorbed into UFC. 

In a lot of ways that was the end of Silva as we knew him. He has put together a 3-4 career record in UFC, with no marquee wins since his spectacular knockout of Keith Jardine at UFC 84. 

Following Silva's loss to Chris Leben at UFC 132, UFC president Dana White said that he would prefer Silva to retire, though he did say that he would not force Silva to walk away. 

Silva was given another fight against Cung Le at UFC 139. That probably would have been the end of the road had Silva lost, but he was able to show off the power in his punches and knees that he still has left en route to his first knockout victory since 2008. 

Now, at almost 36 years old, 34 career wins under his resume and a legacy that will last forever, Silva needs to start thinking about what his future is going to be. A victory will buy him more time, but another loss has to be the final nail in his fighting coffin. 

There is nothing more that Silva can gain from fighting when it is so obvious he is nowhere near what he used to be. Even in his last win, he beat a 40-year-old Cung Le who is a shell of his former self. 

The writing has to be on the wall for Silva if he is unable to figure out Franklin in this fight. It would be a sad end to a great career, but it would be the right decision for one of the greatest knockout artists of all time. 

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