Should Silva vacate the Middleweight title?

El Guapo!

What's peoples opinions on this one? Bisping has made a reasonable case here in my opinion. He basically says Silva will probably be away from the MW division for a while and so he should either vacate the title, or an interim title should be put in place.
Now, part of me thinks Bisping is just saying this because he wants to have a belt, or at least fight for one. And I'm not a big fan of interim titles. But he has a good point. It's not really fair on the other fighters in the division to be left waiting around while the champ is off fighting in the next weight class up, or at catchweights, or taking some time off.
What do you think?

Source

Michael Bisping needs a win over Vitor Belfort to avoid becoming a dubious statistic in the UFC history books, having the most fights in UFC history without getting a title shot. But if Anderson Silva isn't going to defend the middleweight title soon, Bisping argues for the good of the division his battle with Belfort should create a champion.

When Michael Bisping steps into the Octagon on Jan. 19 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he's got something he wants to avoid: leaving a legacy in the sport of being the man with the most fights in UFC history never to get a championship match.

Bisping (23-4), who opened his training camp on Monday, faces Vitor Belfort (21-10) in a five-round main event fight.

It will be his 18th UFC fight, tying Melvin Guillard for third place on the list of those who have never fought for the title. The top two are Chris Lytle, who fought 20 times in UFC competition without ever getting a title shot before his recent retirement and Chris Leben with 19. The difference in all of them is in the records since Bisping is 13-4 in UFC competition. Lytle was 10-10. Leben is 12-7. Guillard is 11-7.

And it's not that he's been passed over, as much as every time he came close, he stumbled, none more heartbreaking than his loss on Jan. 28 to Chael Sonnen where the winner was to get the chance. In that one, Bisping fell on the short end of a close decision that could have gone either way.

With the shoulder injury suffered last week by Chris Weidman, requiring surgery and a long recuperation period, that puts Bisping in the strongest position of any contender, particularly if he beats the former light heavyweight champion in Belfort. The question, however, is when Anderson Silva is going to defend the title with all the talk of potential superfights with Georges St. Pierre and Jon Jones.

"Far be it from me to look past Vitor," said Bisping. "I'm trying to make this fight more significant. I'm concerned that I've got my hands full. It's not going to be easy. We're fighting in Brazil. He hits hard. But I think I'll weather the storm and he'll become a punching bag."

Bisping has pushed that if Silva is not going to defend the title this year, that his fight with Belfort becomes an interim title fight, or Silva should vacate the title.

"Regarding Anderson, I surely don't want an easy road to the championship," said Bisping. "His last fight was at light heavyweight. His next fight is going to be at a catch-weight. When will be fight at middleweight? What if he gets injured and has to be on the sidelines? All that time will have passed. All the fighters at the top of the middleweight division are on the sidelines. We all want to be world champion some day. We work so hard and strive for it.

"It's not there if Anderson isn't defending the title. I'm not knocking him. He's the greatest fighter we have. But a champion needs to defend the title or he needs to vacate it. And when he comes back to middleweight, he should get an automatic shot. Or they should create an interim title. With Weidman out for six months, I don't think (Tim) Boetsch would have beaten Weidman. I don't think he can be world champion. I think myself and Vitor should be fighting for the interim title. Whoever wins it should continue to defend it. We keep the division moving. The division is more stacked than it's ever been but the champion isn't defending the belt."

With Belfort, Bisping faces one of the most dangerous men he's ever fought, but one that has a history of inconsistency. Some days, with his strong grappling and knockout power in both hands, Belfort comes across like a windbreaker. Other days, you just don't know what you are getting. But a telling statistic is that over the past decade, Belfort is only 3-6 in fights that have gotten out of the first round. During that same time frame, Bisping is 12-4 in fights once they get into the second round.

"It's well documented, rightly or wrongly, that Vitor gasses quickly," said Bisping. "He does slow down after the first round. Obviously, early for me is going to be the most dangerous. The longer the fight goes, he'll start turning into a walking punching bag. At least that's the plan. It's easier said than done. He's going to come out hard and fast, and he will be dangerous. He's a big middleweight. He's been a heavyweight (tournament) champion, and was a light heavyweight champion back in the day. But these are the kind of fights I'm going to take if I want to back up my talking.

"I feel like I'm in my prime," said Bisping, who turns 34 in three months. "I relocated to Southern California. I've really enjoyed my training here. I've got new training partners and the more time I spend here, the more good people I find to train with. I'm training smarter instead of harder. I've got a long time left in my career."

But he wants to make it clear that is Silva will defend his title soon, he would prefer that.

"If that's the case, great," he said. "If he comes to fight, I'll shut the f*** up. That's what I want. I don't want to have an easy run for the title. If he wants to fight the winner of me and Vitor, that's great. But if he fights GSP and Jon Jones, something needs to be done with the middleweight division."

Zero-Cool

Have gained a lot of respect for bisping over the last year. Used to hate him but find myself more and more impressed with him. He has a good point about silva defending the title but I think the interim belt should only be introduced when the champ is injured. Not good enough when the champ is doing a once off super fight.

Looking forward to bisping belfort, should be a good scrap.

El Guapo!

Yeah, I go through phases of hating Bisping and really liking him!

If Silva is only away for a little while then there would be no need for him to vacate the title or for an interim title to be introduced. But as was said in the interview, Silvas last fight was at LHW. What if the GSP fight is set up? And then possibly the Jones fight? Siva even said if the GSP fight doesn't come true, he'll be interested in fighting Diaz.
It could be a long time before he fights at MW again. He seems to have no interest in MW anymore. In that situation, Dana White can hardly expect the entire MW division to sit around waiting to see what Silva wants to do next.
There has to come a point when they make up their mind.....is Silva a MW, a WW, a LHW, or a multi-weight freak of nature?!

MrStuffins

Nah, no Interm belt. That's sh*te!

Sure I didn't see the point in Condit being Interim Champion either if he wasn't going to defend it before a GSP fight. That makes no sense in my opinion. Surely the only reason an Interim title should be in place is to keep the division moving and have a guy at the top to defend a belt while the Champion recovers (or quits stalling on a new contract or whatever).

Bisping should want to be Champion and not just hold a paper belt, which any sort of Interim title would be while Anderson Silva is still around.

El Guapo!

Yeah I agree. I'm not a fan of interim belts at all, unless a champ is gonna be injured for an extraordinary length of time.
But if Silva decides to go off and have a few "super-fights" at different weights, and this puts him out of the MW division for over a year, then maybe he should have to vacate the title, unless he's willing to defend the title on a regular basis.

riffmongous

Imo an interim title wont work. Far better for Silva to leave the divsion permanently and they rebuild with a new undisputed champion. There are some real credible guys at the top of the division right now, if you give them an interim belt and let them play around with it only for Silva to return and beat the interim holder and then just make a defense or two before retiring or getting bored again will just make the division seem weak once he's left again.

With a full belt and no Silva lurking in the background people the middleweight division could become the most competitive divsion in the UFC.

El Guapo!

Yeah so we're all in agreement that an interim title is a muck idea. Changed the thread title. :pac:

MrStuffins

riffmongous wrote: »

With a full belt and no Silva lurking in the background people the middleweight division could become the most competitive divsion in the UFC.

Yup. I said over in the GSP v Silva thread that if GSP was to move up to MW and beat Silva for the belt, the MW division would all of a sudden be wide open!

El Guapo!

MrStuffins wrote: »

Yup. I said over in the GSP v Silva thread that if GSP was to move up to MW and beat Silva for the belt, the MW division would all of a sudden be wide open!

I'd love that to happen. The WW division would be really competitive again too.

riffmongous

Also I dont really like the idea of a champ saying he wont fight the consensus number one challenger because he's not a big enough draw. If Silva is only interested in money then he can just go and fight Thiago Silva or Brandon Vera instead of holding back a divsion.

p to the e

I actually don't see much of a problem with this as I still think you have some fights that need to be made to decide on the best matchup for a title fight in MW.

There's several fighters that could be potential contenders so I think that needs to be sorted first, which could mean that a No.1 contender might not be decided until late next year. This leaves Silva an ample amount of time to go off and do his super fights then come back and defend his belt.

Why should Bisping/Belfort get ahead of other deserving fighters like Belcher, Boetsch, Weidman, Henderson and to a lesser extent a unification bout with Marquardt. In fact all of these fighters have a decent winning streak going. Bisping has one with Brian Stann and Belfort has two at MW with Anthony Johnson and Akiyama. Neither streak is very impressive.

Richy06

I don't think we're going to see the GSP/Silva superfight anytime soon. Maybe in a year. Certainly not with the noises coming out of St. Pierrie's camp at present. I'd rather see GSP fight the likes of Diaz or Hendricks myself and I'd like to see Silva either decide to leave the division to pursue a raft of super fights for his retirement fund or stay. I don't think guys should **** about with titles like that. It devalues them and reduces them to nothing but a promotional tool. Which is kinda the point of them, in a sense...but if there's challengers, the champion should be defending, unless he's injured. I mean, Silva's in the twilight of his career now. There's no guarantee he'll return to the division once he's finished with some superfights, so I see no sense in holding the rest of the division up a year until there's another title fight.

yeah and?

This is a tough one really. Nobody will take a MW champion not called Anderson Silva seriously unless they either beat him or he is retired. If he fights GSP with the intention of coming straight back to MW, there is no point in an interim belt imo, it would be worthless really. Something i would love (but wont happen) would be an 8 man tournament over the next year. Winner faces Silva after GSP fight. No belt or anything, just something relevant and interesting for the division while Silva goes off. Also establishes a number one contender.

p to the e

yeah and? wrote: »

This is a tough one really. Nobody will take a MW champion not called Anderson Silva seriously unless they either beat him or he is retired. If he fights GSP with the intention of coming straight back to MW, there is no point in an interim belt imo, it would be worthless really. Something i would love (but wont happen) would be an 8 man tournament over the next year. Winner faces Silva after GSP fight. No belt or anything, just something relevant and interesting for the division while Silva goes off. Also establishes a number one contender.

As I was saying above there are several potential candidates for a shot at the title so something like a tournament would be a great idea. I don't think Bisping deserves it just because he has been in the UFC so long.

RainMaker

Well if Anderson takes another fight at LHW or a catchweight fight against GSP or something - presumably it will be the second of half of next year before he returns to MW.
The problem with this is that he will have only fought for approx 7 minutes at MW in nearly 2 years! (round 1 + round 2 in Silva V Sonnen 2).
I've complained about this before, but in my opinion, that's just not good enough for the champion of any weight division, especially when not injured!

Just for comparison if Jones V Sonnen goes ahead in April, bones will have defended his title 5 times in 2 years...

Be like Nutella

yeah Silva could and should fight more often deffo... he could fight and beat a different MW every week if he wanted lets be honest. Bisping for one has absolutely no chance in heaven or earth of beating Silva... none at all as much as I now love the guy. less capable in every department.

That 8 man tourney for challenger for Silva after GSP/Jones is a brilliant idea... somebody should shop that to Dana! Let him vacate the title and give the winner of that tournament the interim title just for something to win for their record and then make them fight Silva... whoever won that WOULD have a credible chance against Silva. IF... GSP WON the Silva fight at 185lbs for the title... well then throw all plans out the window coz the whole thing gets mental... and unbelievably deadly.

GSP vs Weidman
GSP vs Bisping
GSP vs Belfort
GSP vs Munoz

Actually GSP would be fighting the winner of that tourney sorry yeah... still awesome... so good