Could Anderson Silva Win the UFC Light Heavyweight, Heavyweight Titles?

Anderson Silva’s deal with Burger King is a strange coupling.

After all, the Triple Whopper with its 1,230 calories and 82 grams of fat is hardly training food, unless, of course, you are Roy Nelson.

I am a conspiracy theorist at heart, so my first instinct was to suspect an elaborate plan by Dana White and the UFC to fatten Silva up so he’d be forced to change weight classes. The middleweight division is a wasteland and some potential uber-fights wait for Silva if he moves up.

I imagine some slimy promoter handing Silva bag after bag of Whoppers, saying “Don’t worry, Andy, it’s good for you; and besides, they’re free!”

Let's assume the Spider puts on a BK gut and moves up to light heavyweight, or really goes hard on the BK Mega Stackers and moves all the way up to heavyweight. Could he win the titles? 

Here's a look at how the quarter-pound-for-pound champ would do against the UFC’s top big men.

Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones

If Jon Jones beats Rampage Jackson there is going to be a lot of talk about a potential fight between Jones and Silva.

The big question with guys moving up is whether they will be able to absorb the punches of larger opponents and deliver blows strong enough to knock the bigger guy out. Silva definitely has the striking ability to knock out any light heavyweight and his chin is irrelevant because he rarely gets hit. 

So could Silva beat Jones?

I am not sure anyone can beat Jones right now, but Silva might have the best chance.  Jones' one weakness is that he often leaves those crazy long arms exposed and Silva can lock in an arm triangle as fast as anyone—ask Chael Sonnen.

Getting inside of Jones’ freakish reach is not easy, so Silva’s best bet might be on the ground, which is also not a great place to be against Jones.

I think Jones would overwhelm Silva, get on top of him and start dropping terrifying elbows. It would take a mistake by Jones for him to lose, in my opinion, but Silva has shown he only needs a small error to make a guy pay, so it could happen.

Anderson Silva vs. The Heavyweights

I am going to group Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez together for two reasons: I have no idea who will have the belt after they fight, and there is absolutely no way Anderson Silva could beat either of them.

Silva is a natural middleweight, which means he’d be fighting guys who were naturally 50 to 60 pounds heavier, and keep in mind Velasquez and dos Santos aren’t even among the biggest heavyweights; some of these guys actually have to cut weight to get to 265 pounds.

Silva struggled against the ground game of Chael Sonnen, who looked like the much stronger fighter. Can you imagine the difference in strength between Silva and Velasquez?

This would be like Rocky taking on Thunderlips in Rocky III. In other words, the only way he could win is if he happened to leap onto Velasquez’s back while he was distracted by the ref and finished him with a rear naked choke, just like Stallone did to Hulk Hogan. 

Silva's Legacy

Silva may very well move up to 205 pounds and dominate like he has at 185, but there aren’t enough Whoppers in Vegas for Silva to become a heavyweight, and even if he did he’d likely have man-boobs and smell of onion rings.

Silva is 36 years old, so this move is going to have to come soon.

He may not want to risk damaging his legacy by exposing himself to guys like Rashad Evans and Jon Jones, but if he doesn’t, his legacy might be that of Roy Jones, Jr., a once-in-a-generation talent who didn’t have many opponents to challenge him.

Hopefully we won’t just remember him for that god-awful Burger King commercial.