UFC 139 Results: Is Anderson Silva Just Keeping the Belt Warm for Chris Weidman?

Chris Weidman will be middleweight champion in the future; Anderson Silva is just keeping the belt warm.

The Long Island native has dispatched three UFC veterans, each with more ease than the next, and that's not the scary part. 

The scary part (or parts) is that he's a two-time NCAA Division-I all-American wrestler, an ADCC veteran, trains with the prestigious Serra-Longo fight team and is only 27 years old.

What's to stop Weidman from taking his place amongst the middleweight elite and eventually earning the UFC middleweight championship?

Nothing.

Weidman has shown marked improvement in each one of his fights.

He out-grappled Alessio Sakara for 15 minutes to earn a decision. His next victory over Jessie Bongfeldt took less than a third of the time at 4:54. His UFC 139 victory over Tom Lawlor was less than half of the time of his victory over Bongfeldt at 2:07.

The fight against Lawlor was the most telling fight about Weidman since it's his only UFC fight so far where he had a "true, full camp."

Let that sink in for a moment: he overmatched two tough opponents and he didn't even have a proper training camp for them. Think about how quickly he beat Tom Lawlor and how easy he made it look, that's what Weidman capable of on a regular basis.

So should we expect to see Weidman vs. Silva anytime soon? Perhaps on FOX sometime in 2012?

Let's not go that far.

Chris Weidman is one of the most talented middleweights in the world right now but Silva would still beat him at his current stage of development. 

However, once Silva begins to show signs of aging or retires from the sport outright, Weidman's path to title gold will be set; there will be no one who can deny him the belt.

It's not a matter of if Weidman will get the title, but when. Thus, Anderson Silva is just holding onto the belt for him.