My 2 cents go along with Degenero Silva isn't a draw as a good guy Soares is already concidered a Ahole by most. So make Anderson the bad guy, and make money off of him.
As a good guy what kind of numbers do you think the Sonnen fight would bring<<. Now as a bad guy plus Sonnens mouth they can hype this fight, and I'm up for the Mir fight too.
Frank Mir wasn't the same fighter back then but still lost to a smaller HW with a very similar style to Silva. Makes more sense for Silva to fight at 170 first (if he ever will) then to move up to HW and go back down.