Anderson Silva v Frank Mir....

mooeire

I called this move immediately after UFC 101: Anderson Silva is no longer interested in the middleweight division, and he’s not going to fight Lyoto Machida. What’s the next best option for challenging himself? Move to the heavyweight division, of course.
Josh Gross has the report:

Anderson Silva wants big-money event fights. And he’s willing to work at heavyweight to make sure they happen.
Prior to Silva’s flooring Forrest Griffin earlier this month in Philadelphia, SI.com confirmed that Silva’s representatives had spoken with Zuffa about the heralded UFC middleweight champion moving up to heavyweight for the first time in his career.
Not only that, they already had an opponent in mind: Frank Mir.
Disinterested by middleweight contenders Nathan Marquardt, Demian Maia and Dan Henderson, and unwilling to fight close friend Lyoto Machida at light heavyweight — where Silva could conceivably knock off challengers and make a disaster out of the UFC’s marquee division — “The Spider” needs new, challenging scenarios to stay motivated. A move to heavyweight would certainly achieve that, and according to Silva’s manager Ed Soares, the UFC was receptive to the idea.

I firmly believe Anderson Silva would be competitive with anyone in the heavyweight division, and that includes Brock Lesnar.
UPDATE: We’ve heard back from Silva’s camp, who say that there is “some truth” to the Gross story about Silva moving to heavyweight. They also said that Silva never said he wanted to fight Frank Mir.



It seems a long shot to me but thought id post it up anyway.

cowzerp

The only reason he'll move to heavy is so he'll leave the title behind and avoid the tolling contract, then after his normal contract runs out he'll leave to fight RJJ and get punched about the place or win and get a few big money boxing matches, even for 1 match with RJJ he'd prob get 5 million, and thats against a lad in the twilight of his career..

Brock would smash him bad..

rovert

Mir is set to fight Kongo in Memphis. But as we saw with Carwin today plans and fights do change.

Fozzy

If true then poor Frank :pac:

Tones69

Wont see him at any HW fights until he gets the belt at LHW or at least knocks the heads off all the top 5 LHW

Judomad

Tones69 wrote: »

Wont see him at any HW fights until he gets the belt at LHW or at least knocks the heads off all the top 5 LHW

Thats what MMA is all about.... :rolleyes:

Fromvert

Can't see this fight happening. Silva has said that the LHWs are pretty big for him never mind the Heavyweights.

Mellor

This is just nonsense,
LHW is bigger than just Lyoto

dunkamania

I doubt we will see him at HW too.

I agree with Cowzerp in that I am expecting Silva to give up his MW belt. This would mean he gets out of the champions clause in his contract that means his contract gets exteneded by 1 fight if he keeps winning. So he could go and have some boxing matches.

Lord Muck

I hope this doesnt happen,i'd love to see Silva stay at LHW. Even if he never fights Machida ,there is some great fights at that weight for him.

OV

One wonders is this an effort to cement his 'legacy' as p4p no.1. Personally I like to see him stay at LHW for awhile longer, great fights in Shogun/Rampage/Evans for him.

Fozzy

Mellor wrote: »

This is just nonsense,
LHW is bigger than just Lyoto

That's the point that the article was making. It's bigger than just the champ, but if Anderson starts beating all the contenders then there'll be no credible challengers

Tones69

Judomad wrote: »

Thats what MMA is all about.... :rolleyes:

Sorry? Sure thats exactly what hes been doing to all his opponents,
"knock heads off" , its a figure of speech and you know that

T-K-O

Mir is way to big for Anderson. There are lots of very good LHW for Silva to beat up.

soretoe

OV wrote: »

One wonders is this an effort to cement his 'legacy' as p4p no.1. Personally I like to see him stay at LHW for awhile longer, great fights in Shogun/Rampage/Evans for him.

Couldn't agree more - 3 great great fights right there - would be delighted with any or all of them headlining.

Still think for the record that Silva V Fedor is genuinely a great match up whether it happens or not.

Brock would pull off all his limbs and dip them in Sweet Chilli as would Carwin but he could genuinely win against Valasquez, Gonzaga and Dos Santos.

He needs to relinquish the MW belt, move up and beat the head off Machida and then fight someone realistic at HW to cement his pfp status forever, then lose 2 stone and fight GSP this time next year and after that run for president of Brasil.

The crazy thing is he actually fought as low as 175 in a welterweight fight in Rumble on the rock in '06 - he's an absolute freak of nature - only reaons I would rate Fedor higher are that Fedor never relied on his reach AND height as controversial a point as that may be.

Utopia Parkway

mooeire wrote: »

[/INDENT] I firmly believe Anderson Silva would be competitive with anyone in the heavyweight division, and that includes Brock Lesnar.

That fight would end very very badly for Anderson. Brock would take him down at will and pound him into a bloody mess. Anderson is a very accurate striker but he's never been a one punch KO specialist (despite the Griffin fight). Even if he clocked Brock clean I'm not sure he would have the power to KO him. Odds are that Brock would just murderize him.

Silva v Fedor would be more interesting as Fedor at least is a small heavyweight. No way Silva could handle Lesnar's size and power.

Raze_them_all

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

That fight would end very very badly for Anderson. Brock would take him down at will and pound him into a bloody mess. Anderson is a very accurate striker but he's never been a one punch KO specialist (despite the Griffin fight). Even if he clocked Brock clean I'm not sure he would have the power to KO him. Odds are that Brock would just murderize him.

Silva v Fedor would be more interesting as Fedor at least is a small heavyweight. No way Silva could handle Lesnar's size and power.

Size doesn't relate to power. If it did Sylvia would of stopped Fedor cold

Utopia Parkway

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

No way Silva could handle Lesnar's size and power.

We haven't seen 1 clean KO from Lesnar yet. He just uses brute force. He held Mir on the floor and pummeled him, The ref pulls him off and Mir looks around straight away, I hope he starts getting some standing KO's soon because until then I won't stop saying he's just a brawler.
/thread

lil-evil

Deleted User wrote: »

We haven't seen 1 clean KO from Lesnar yet. He just uses brute force. He held Mir on the floor and pummeled him, The ref pulls him off and Mir looks around straight away, I hope he starts getting some standing KO's soon because until then I won't stop saying he's just a brawler.
/thread

Agree 100% with that. The 3 fights he finished inside have all been due to multiple blows, I don't actually think he has KO power

soretoe

Most people who weigh anywhere over 9 or 10 stone can knock any man out cold with the right punch. Brock hasn't knock out power?? of course he has - he's not a great boxer, yet, and may never be but this is MMA not boxig - the chances for stand-up Punch KO's are nothing like in boxing becase of the multdimensional nature of MMA... Most MMA knockouts in the last few years have come about in flurries like Wandy likes to get into as opposed to setting up a perfect combo or counter like happens in boxing or with Spider Silva when he's on form and Brock is very rarely going to find himself in a brawl coz nobody wants to get in one with him because his first punch has all the power to knock a bull out never mind a man...

dlofnep

T-K-O wrote: »

Mir is way to big for Anderson. There are lots of very good LHW for Silva to beat up.

The same way he was too big for Vera?

dlofnep

Raze_them_all wrote: »

Size doesn't relate to power.

Yes it does - that's why the hardest hitters in the history of boxing were all heavyweights.

It's not the ONLY attribute which is correlated with power, but it is one of them.

lil-evil

soretoe wrote: »

Most people who weigh anywhere over 9 or 10 stone can knock any man out cold with the right punch. Brock hasn't knock out power?? of course he has - he's not a great boxer, yet, and may never be but this is MMA not boxig - the chances for stand-up Punch KO's are nothing like in boxing becase of the multdimensional nature of MMA... Most MMA knockouts in the last few years have come about in flurries like Wandy likes to get into as opposed to setting up a perfect combo or counter like happens in boxing or with Spider Silva when he's on form and Brock is very rarely going to find himself in a brawl coz nobody wants to get in one with him because his first punch has all the power to knock a bull out never mind a man...

Not agree-ing with you there mate. There are plenty of 9-10 stone lads who couldn't knock another 9-10 bloke out. Unless Brock is fighting somebody who leaves their hands down by their side it will be a long time before Brock KO's somebody with one punch

Fozzy

lil-evil wrote: »

Not agree-ing with you there mate. There are plenty of 9-10 stone lads who couldn't knock another 9-10 bloke out. Unless Brock is fighting somebody who leaves their hands down by their side it will be a long time before Brock KO's somebody with one punch

What you're saying here is related to skill and whether Brock could land a punch on someone actively defending themselves and has nothing to do with power. Of course Brock has knockout power

soretoe

I think you're probably right that Brock wont KO someone soon but that's mostly coz anyone fighting him needs to be very startegic with his heavy hands in mind and would do better to try hard low kicks and a one or two punch combo and back off until they create an opening - not that this'll win them the fight but its the best they can do given the circumstances.

The point was purley that there's a big diff between knockout skill and knockout power - brocks got a good guard/stance it seems, good reflexes and massive explosive power to boot but no experience yet getting into big exchanges which isn't by chance like I say, so you're right he prob wont knock people out all over the shop but if people dont want to get in there and trade with him then they're just playing a dangerous game which will result in their ass on the ground in a headlock and Brocks canned ham short hooks, uppercuts and hammers making mince meat out of their face..... now I think we've gone off topic enough here - he has little finesse but plenty of KO power!

Raze_them_all

dlofnep wrote: »

Yes it does - that's why the hardest hitters in the history of boxing were all heavyweights.

It's not the ONLY attribute which is correlated with power, but it is one of them.

I meant in regard of same weight class, The post I qouted said Silva would have a better chance against Fedor as brock is so big and powerful, the point I was trying to make (badly) was that the size difference between the two wouldn equate to much in power, as in I'd say Fedor would be just as powerful as brock while not being the same size.

Look at Matt hughes, He's not the biggest fighter in his weight class afaik but he's definately one of the most powerful

T-K-O

dlofnep wrote: »

The same way he was too big for Vera?

Brandon campaigned at HW for a long time. I wouldnt put anything past Silva but expecting him to beat Mir is a little unfair.