Anderson Silva not fighting till end of 2013

[tantryl]

I'd like to say that I think this sort of thing is a result of setting a precedent that who you face doesn't really matter.

As I pretty poorly expressed in this thread:

I think UFC wanted Bones and Silva to fight and didn't care who they were matched up with. As I said, they could have simply put a better fight - or to be more specific a more appropriate and competitive fight with completely different fighters - and let Bones & Silva fight in a relatively competitive fight a month or two later allowing for a full training camp.

They should have had a completely different main event with completely different fighters. Then they could have had Silva vs Serious Opponent (like Weidman) latter in the year. Yes, UFC 153 would have had a much lower buyrate (it managed 410k apparently), probably around the 200k mark. However I think they would have gone over 700k buys if it'd been a serious fight in a later event with full fight camps, making it both more profitable and showing that the belt means something not just to the fans, but to the champ.

In case you're wondering why I think someone with a chance would get ~700k PPV buys, it's based on this graph I did in another thread.

I think Dana's choices weren't great here. It seems to me like what he's gotten and what he'll get out of sticking with three gimme fights (Bones v Vitor, Silva v Bonnar, Bones v Sonnen) for two top champs is those champs worst PPV draws, missed opportunities at getting good PPV draws, the most active UFC champ out of commission for 9 months, and the longest running champ out for 1+ years.

Is it catastrophic? Hardly. I just think match making for champions should be taken seriously, and taking them seriously has greater benefits than not taking them seriously.

[BulldogWrestler]

I think people are reading too much into this.

If there is a GSP/Silva fight on the table - there's no way Silva waits a year to pull the trigger on it.

My guess is that he'll fight GSP after GSP beats Condit (probably in a 4-6 month time frame) and then fight whoever the random 185 pound contender is at that time (my money is on Weidman) later on. So it'll be a year before Weidman gets a shot after the Bonnar fight - but we'll have GSP mixed in there too.

[BBHitman]

I keep asking this question.

It's certainly a possibility that GSP beats Silva. Then what? Can you really return to WW after beating the MW champion and arguably the greatest P4P fighter of all time? If the answer is no, and the next move is one up to WW, then what? Do you instantly set up the rematch between Silva/GSP, this time for the title?

[BulldogWrestler]

IF (and it's a big if imo) GSP beats Silva - my guess is that he returns to WW and continues to dominate there.

That would be the whole point of a "catchweight" fight. Otherwise GSP would move up to MW like in the video games.

If the fight ends up being contested at MW - I could see GSP moving up. But I don't think they do that. GSP is more marketable as the "unbeatable WW who also beat the MW champion in a catchweight fight". My guess is that GSP would continue to fight at WW and take an interesting MW fight every now and then until retirement.

[Chunk]

With regards to what Bisping said and the amount of time off between middle weight title defence, (and I think this applies if Anderson either fights GSP or waits it out until late 2013 for filming etc..), i feel it makes sense to create an interim title AFTER the Bisping v Belfort and Weidman v Boestch fights. Assuming Weidman wins, I feel him against either Bisping or Vitor would be big enough to be for an interim title if its obvious Anderson wont be defending any time soon. I dont think its fair to say either fight on its own has more of a right to be for a title than the other, but the winners facing off would be the best of the rest.

I dont really like the idea of interim titles, but if anderson isnt fighting or not defending the title at his weight, I think it makes a bit of sense to hype up the contenders as much as possible. It will also determine who has earned the shot when he comes back