What Should Anderson Silva Do With His Three Remaining Fights?

After UFC 100, Dan Henderson was promised a rematch against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and until Saturday night, everything seemed to point in that direction.

After UFC 101, nothing is sure anymore. Anderson Silva destroyed one of the best fighters in the light-heavyweight division in Forrest Griffin and made it look way too easy. After the fight, Ed Soares hinted that Silva could. perhaps, give up the middleweight title and fight at light-heavyweight for the next three fights.

With only three fights left on the contract of "The Spider", fans are left speculating what will happen next.

Will Anderson Silva give up the middleweight championship? Maybe, but Dan Henderson was already promised a rematch for the title against Silva and at this point it seems the fight will take place next. UFC 105 will be on November 14, and will be held in England. Dana White has promised that the England fans would get a title fight next time and what better way then Silva vs Hendo 2?

The problem with this fight is, at this point, Anderson Silva would love to stay in the light-heavyweight division to challenge himself for his remaining fights. I also doubt Silva is interested in a rematch against a man he has already beat.

On the other hand, Anderson Silva said he would never fight Lyoto Machida and going up in weight and fighting the likes of Tito Ortiz, Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson could possibly end up in Silva cleaning out the division and leaving Machida without a worthy challenger.

At UFC 104, Lyoto Machida defends his light-heavyweight championship against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Although the odds are against Rua, he still has chances of beating Machida and becoming the new champion. At this point, Anderson could move back up to the 205 division and immediately challenge Rua for the title and letting go of the middleweight championship in the process.

Even if "Shogun" Rua loses to Machida, he could still end up fighting Anderson Silva at UFC 110 or 111, I think it could be an interesting fight considering Rua would be coming off a title fight and it would be another worthy opponent for Silva.

So with only three fights remaining, his first fight could be a middleweight title defense against Dan Henderson in England at UFC 105.

His second fight could be against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua whether Rua is light-heavyweight champion or not.

For his third fight, it gets a little more complicated. If Silva fights "Shogun" in a non-title fight, I think we could see Anderson fighting his last fight at 185 against either Nate Marquardt or Demian Maia. If Silva fights "Shogun" for the light-heavyweight title and wins, we could see Anderson defending the title against the winner of the Quinton Jackson/Rashad Evans fight at UFC 107.

Another interesting thing here is that the UFC rules state that a champion cannot leave the organization until he loses his championship. This is probably one of the good reasons why Anderson Silva would forfeit the middleweight championship to go fight his last three fights at light-heavyweight and never challenge for the title so he can retire once his contract expires. The thing is...love him or hate him, Dana White isn't stupid and he'll probably see the move coming.

I know this is a lot to digest but think about it, what are Anderson Silva's options with only three fights left on his contract?