In the moments after Anderson Silva successfully defended his UFC Middleweight Championship against Chael Sonnen at UFC 148 on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Rashad Evans took to his Twitter account (@SugaRashadEvans) to ask for a shot at "The Spider."
The tweet read, "@lorenzofertitta I want to pick a fight with the middleweight champion! Make it happen!! Please!"
The request to UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta no longer appears on Evans' Twitter page, and his manager, Glenn Robinson, has said that the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion has no plans to cut down to 185.
That's a shame, because a fight with Evans is exactly what the UFC needs for its Middleweight Champion.
In the wake of Wednesday night's UFC on Fuel TV 4 fight card in San Jose, there are three primary candidates to challenge Silva for the middleweight crown. One is Chris Weidman, who improved to 9-0 on Wednesday night with a surprisingly dominant victory over Mark Muñoz. Muñoz, by the way, would have made a great No. 1 contender if things had gone his way, but that clearly didn't happen. Another is former Bellator champion Hector Lombard, who makes his UFC debut next weekend at the UFC 149 Fight Card in Calgary, putting his 25-fight unbeaten streak on the line against Tim Boetsch. Finally, there's Boetsch's originally scheduled opponent, Michael Bisping, who withdrew from the bout with an injury, but is healing quickly and has made no shortage of noise about his desire for a title shot.
Here's the problem, though. Picture this as the title of an event:
UFC 155: Silva vs. Weidman
Uhh...Silva vs. who? Weidman is an exciting prospect who will be fighting for the title before long, but from a marketing standpoint, he probably needs one more bigtime fight with lots of exposure before he can share a fight poster with the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world (and arguably of all time).
UFC 155: Silva vs. Lombard
Again...Silva vs. who? Lombard has beaten some very good fighters, including James Te Huna and Brian Ebersole, but he's done it outside the UFC, and has even less name recognition than Weidman. That won't change much at UFC 149, when he fights on an injury-riddled card that has seen substitution after substitution. The UFC's original plan was to pit him against Brian Stann on a nationally televised Fox card in August, but that plan went awry when Stann injured his shoulder. If Lombard had a dominant performance in a main event on national TV, maybe the fight with Silva can work. On a card ravaged by injuries where he fights third from the top? Not a smart idea.
UFC 155: Silva vs. Bisping
This fight is significantly more saleable, partly because Bisping is the UK's most famous and beloved fighter, and partly because the rest of the MMA world would love to see "the Count" get his head kicked off his shoulders. Bisping has the blessing of his former Ultimate Fighter coach, Tito Ortiz, who says he feels Bisping could win against Silva, but he and Bisping might be the only ones buying that idea. Bisping has lost to every elite fighter he's faced - Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Sonnen and Evans - and has little on his résumé to suggest he could beat Silva. In a middleweight division that's short on depth, Bisping might be the best available option, but right now, the UFC could use another option, especially an option like Evans, a former UFC champion with a collegiate wrestling background, exactly the kind of fighter who can push the pace and challenge Silva.
UFC management seems open to the idea of a Silva vs. Jon Jones superfight, but neither Silva nor Jones is interested. The Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre fight makes more sense, but the UFC Welterweight Champion is quite busy in his own division with the likes of interim champion Carlos Condit, with the winner facing a challenge from either Johny Hendricks or Martin Kampmann. So, the next fight for Silva is going to be a challenge for his middleweight title, and given the paucity of options, an Evans move to middleweight would be well-timed.
The only question is just how interested Evans is.
