Anderson Silva would rather fight Luke Rockhold than Chris Weidman
After his destruction of tough number one contender Chael Sonnen on July 7th, much speculation has been made as to the identity of Anderson Silva‘s next opponent. When Chris Weidman took out Mark Munoz with authority on July 11th, many began clamoring for the young Weidman to have the next shot at the belt. Former Bellator Middleweight champion Hector Lombard will also make his UFC debut this weekend at UFC 149 after amassing an impressive 31 wins in 34 fights. With the announcement of Brian Stann versus Michael Bisping at UFC 152, the Middleweight division is starting to stack up talent. However, Fuel TV’s “UFC Tonight” recently reported that Anderson Silva is looking somewhere else entirely:
“”He (Silva) did mention Luke Rockhold who is the Strikeforce Middleweight champion. Alas, Rockhold is contractually tied to Strikeforce, so that fight’s not happening.”
While the division appears more skilled and unpredictable than ever, Anderson Silva is still undefeated in the UFC and is seemingly looking to handpick his fights further. Silva dislikes the prospect of fighting Lombard, as his team stated:
“One of Anderson Silva‘s managers said that one of the issues with Hector Lombard is he thinks he needs at least three more impressive wins in the UFC. He said that 85 percent of UFC fans don’t even know who Hector Lombard is, who is of course making his Octagon debut on Saturday night.””
They continued on about the surging Weidman with a similar attitude:
“As for Chris Weidman, he said, ‘Well, there’s another great unknown fighter.’ He doesn’t see those match ups as being money making pay-per-view events. We’ll have to wait and see, but right now, the Anderson Silva camp not too excited about the options out there.”
With many directions to head in, Anderson Silva‘s camp appears to not approve of any of them. Perhaps the story will change if Lombard destroys Tim Boetsch on Saturday, making a bout with Silva a big-money bout. Meanwhile, the champion wants to look for only apparently huge matchups as he gets older. Who should Silva fight? Does anyone have a chance? And, should the UFC Middleweight champion look to perform for his many fans regardless of who the UFC puts in front of him?
