MVN - Most Valuable Network

All apologies to The Axe Murderer

Before his bout with Keith Jardine in May, I wrote that regardless of the outcome of the fight that Wanderlei Silva should drop down in weight from light-heavyweight to middleweight to best utilize his talents and capitalize on possibly becoming a champion in the UFC. Not only do I need to take back that statement, I need to send my deepest apologies to Wanderlei in hopes that he doesn’t beat me down like he did to Jardine.

Silva looked completely different against Jardine then he did when he fought Chuck Liddell back in December. Silva looked tentative and overwhelmed by the moment when he battled Liddell. He looked like the beast that beat Rampage Jackson twice in Pride.

For Silva to be successful in the Octagon he needs to keep his aggression and let his hands fly. His style is such that his fights will almost always produce a knockout, whether he’s knocking out his opponent or getting knocked out. This style will keep him among the most popular fighters in the world as well.

So what’s next for The Axe Murderer? Well, he turns 32 next week, so he’s still got several years left despite the high amount of world-class battles he’s been in. His loss to Liddell hurt his chances of getting an immediate title shot, but if he can get another impressive win in his next fight he could be in line for a title shot in 2009.

The latest rumors have Silva fighting Silva in October. No, not Wanderlei versus Anderson but Thiago Silva. Other possible opponents are Lyoto Machida and Sokoudjou. Silva has also said he wants rematches with Liddell, Jackson and Dan Henderson. UFC President Dana White was ecstatic when Silva signed with the company and it now looks like the investment is starting to pay off. That’s bad news for the fighters in the light-heavyweight division.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Keith Jardine, Chuck Liddell, Dan Henderson, Thiago Silva, In the Cage, Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson, Pay-Per-View, Dana White, Lyoto Machida, Sokoudjou, UFC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.