State of the Middleweights

Anderson Silva’s recent move to the light heavyweight division has opened a can of worms into the state of the UFC’s middleweight division. Arguably the second weakest division within the UFC, yet the possessor of the fighter many people consider the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Silva’s move upward has not been defined as permanent. Indeed moving up a weight class may be a result of the speed associated with putting on a show so quickly in order to rival the Affliction: Banned event. Several question about this move are still unanswered though. Is Silva planning on making the move permanent? Will the middleweight title be vacant if he does?

Silva is clearly technically gifted enough to compete at the higher weight class but is he as athletically gifted? Especially with the depth of talent at light heavyweight. Perhaps the UFC wants this to occur so they can bring Paul Fihlo from the WEC into the UFC. Fihlo and Silva are friends and have said many times they won’t fight each other. Also there is the recent talk of George St. Pierre moving to 185lbs. Roger Huerta in an interview stated with certainty that St. Pierre’s decision has already been made. Who knows the validity of Huerta’s statement, but perhaps George St. Pierre is looking to exploit a weaker division compared to the talent laden welterweights.

If Silva does leave permanently who is immediately left behind to fill the gap? Dan Henderson, Yushin Okami, Rich Franklin are the obvious answers. But behind them there is Thales Leites, Michael Bisping, Patrick Cote, Nate Marquardt and Martin Kampmann. Compared to Silva these fighters simply don’t stack up and those that Silva has fought he has beaten soundly.

For instance, Franklin’s nose was broken twice, Henderson was beaten once, Marquardt also once. Those who haven’t met Silva in the Octagon don’t appear ready yet. Leites just beat Marquardt by Herb Dean deducting points left and right. Kampmann while promising young talent is still coming off major knee surgery. Bisping will continue to be the UFC’s UK poster boy (nothing wrong with that) and won’t fight top talent for awhile. The only fight possible in the immediate future is the Yushin Okami-Anderson Silva rematch. Silva deserves a chance to avenge his loss by disqualification to Okami.

Besides these fighters there are a host of others who seem unable to move upwards (not unseen in other weight classes). Such as Chris Leben, Alan Belcher, Jason MacDonald, Ed Herman, Kendall Grove, Dean Lister, Travis Lutter, Drew McFedries, Charles McCarthy, Dean Lister and many more.

It speaks volume to the level of available talent at 185lbs. that the top prospects lost to a newcomer without a single professional MMA fight. Amir Sadollah just proved how thin the talent pool is.