UFC Shows Its Might: Anderson Silva To Squash Competition At Light Heavyweight!

Since being purchased by Zuffa in 2001, the UFC has steamrolled all of the competition in the Mixed Martial Arts business and now rules with an iron fist.  Other promotions have tried and failed, come and gone, and still the UFC remains the top dog of MMA.

Once again, another competitor is trying to find a place atop the MMA hierarchy.  The newly formed MMA promotion Affliction, backed by Donald Trump's wallet, has put together a stellar heavyweight roster and plans to make its mark in the MMA world by unveiling its army of heavyweights in a monster card July 19.

The UFC wants to put a quick end to Affliction and will go straight for the jugular by demonstrating its full might and use its weapon of choice as of late—counter programming.  Spike TV and the UFC will put on an Ultimate Fight Night card on the same night as the Affliction event in hopes of bleeding Affliction of potential viewers.  Putting on a live event on free TV in five weeks seems nearly impossible.  For the UFC, however, it's just another way to demonstrate just what they're capable of.

The UFC has a long list of fighters that they could call up to fill up a fight card in such short notice.  The UFC could easily call up some of it's mid-level fighters to fill up this card and still generate a fairly large audience.  But like I said, the UFC wants to show its power and wants to go straight for the jugular.  The UFC has called upon its most dominant fighter, the pound-for-pound best fighter in all of mixed martial arts.

Anderson Silva.

Anderson Silva, the UFC's middleweight champion, has dominated all of the competition that has been thrown at him since his UFC debut in 2006.  He reigns supreme at 185 lbs and there are no signs of that changing anytime soon. 

Since he has completely cleaned out the middleweight division, there's little competition left for Silva at 185 pounds.  What to do? Simple enough; move up in weight and fight in the UFC's deepest division—Light Heavyweight.  Silva will headline the fight card on Spike TV in five weeks as a light heavyweight.  To test Silva at 205 pounds, the UFC is handing him James Irvin as an opponent.  Irvin is a knockout artist who is coming off an eight second knockout victory over heavy-handed Houston Alexander.

Rumour is that this is just a test to see what Silva can do at light heavyweight and the plan is to have him move back down to middleweight after this fight and defend his title later in the year.  Although Yushin Okami is likely his next challenger for the title, it really doesn't matter who Silva defends the title against because, whoever it is, he will annihilate within two rounds.  This gap in talent at middleweight makes the permanent move to light heavyweight that much easier to justify. 

There are so many great fights for Silva at light heavyweight.  Superfight after Superfight will be the case for Anderson Silva at light heavyweight.  Superfights mean big audiences and BIG money! Everyone loves money so it would be hard for the UFC and Anderson Silva not to make this happen. 

Imagine the possibilities if Silva stays at light heavyweight: Silva vs Liddell, Silva vs Jackson, Silva vs T. Silva, Silva vs Reljic, or perhaps convince him to fight some friends in Wanderlei and Shogun.  WOW!

Needless to say, Silva's move to light heavyweight is very intriguing.  Viewers will tune into the UFC's live card on July 19th for many reasons.  First off it's free. Second, Anderson Silva's headlining. Third, we all want to see Silva at light heavyweight.  The fight with Irvine should be good, but I see Silva steamrolling him like he has everyone else.

Affliction will suffer damage in this head-to-head competition on July 19th, but with a card that is headlined by a bout between former Pride heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko and former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia, and features many big names in Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, Andrei Arlovski, and Matt Lindland, the event should do fairly well.

Add to that the deep pockets of Donald Trump and Affliction will live to see another day.