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[dan the man 67]

So much talk and speculation about a GSP/Silva fight...............why is there very little talk of Silva fighting for the LHW belt? He's already fought at LHW before successfully, why not give him a shot if he's cleaned out his division? Why didn't he get a shot at the LHW belt in his 1st fight at LHW? Why would it be expected of GSP to take a fight against the best MW fighter without any tune-up fights at that weight?

[KevoOnTheRadio]

Because Rua hasn't cleaned out his division to the degree that Silva and GSP have. Hell, Rua hasn't even defended his belt once, let alone multiple times like Silva and GSP.

[dan the man 67]

Originally Posted by KevoOnTheRadio

Because Rua hasn't cleaned out his division to the degree that Silva and GSP have. Hell, Rua hasn't even defended his belt once, let alone multiple times like Silva and GSP.

True, but Rua seems to regularly appear in the top 5 on pound-for-pound lists nowadays. Also, Silva has fought and won at LHW twice.........why no title shot there? It seems like much more of a natural move for Silva to fight for the title at LHW versus GSP fighting for the MW belt, especially with no warm-up fights for GSP at that weight.

As far as fan interest goes, I'd be just as amped up to see Silva fight for the LHW title as I would be to see GSP/Silva.

[TBEAR]

Originally Posted by KevoOnTheRadio

Because Rua hasn't cleaned out his division to the degree that Silva and GSP have. Hell, Rua hasn't even defended his belt once, let alone multiple times like Silva and GSP.

^^^THIS

Shogun needs to worry about Rashad.

Shogun after layoffs never comes in and looks great. If his TDD is not spot on, Rashad will take the belt away. I know there will be a lot of Shogun Nuthuggin in this thread but I will be the one that says IMO Rashad will win the belt. Off of history is why I made this pick, look what Forrest did to Shogun.

If shogun can defend his strap agianest Rashad and then the winner or Bader v Jones/ winner of Rich v Forrest type of fighters then we can talk about Rua v The Spider

Plus it wont matter Anderson will never fight GSP or Shogun. Anderson is already 35ish....IMO he will just retire when he gets tired of it at MW or the cut gets to hard.

[the_dark_angel_4ever]

There is always a legit contender for the LHW belt, so why would Silva jump the line simply because he's beaten all the MW fighters? Don't get me wrong, I've love to see Rua/Silva, but it's not as necessary. They talk about GSP moving up to fight Anderson for the belt because frankly there's aren't too many guys left who are in line for a title shot. They need this to keep the MW division relevent.

[v3xi]

Not only has Rua not cleaned out his division but he is not as popular as GSP. The disparity in seats sold at an arena would probably be 25000 less with Shogun and a Brazil vs Brazil match up is so polarized with one country.

[Xanatos]

Silva has already said he has no interest in the LHW belt, because he has friends in that division.

GSP and Silva have no one left to fight, so the idea is they fight each other to see who the best in the world is.

If Silva wants a shot at the belt he can ditch the MW belt and go up, have one more fight then a title shot.

[Bones McGee]

There are more intriguing matchups for Shogun in his division than Sliva and GSP have combined in theirs. Also both of them have also consistently shown the ability to defeat top flight competition, along with the talent and skill to have them unequivocally ranked in the top 3 P4P. Shogun needs a few more consecutive excellent performances to be revered as much as the other two. There is no doubt that Shogun has the ability, the doubt is in if he will bring it into the octagon on the given night.

Silva has looked less than impressive lately, but the longevity is there.

[singhc]

Exactly....Rua needs to at least defend his title a couple times before this Rua/Siva talks heat up

[SWIFTboy]

Rua wouldn't have to clean out his division for Silva to get a shot at HIM though. Silva would just have to 'earn' the shot on his own.

Stylistically I actually like Shogun vs Anderson better than GSP vs Silva.

I guess the novelty of Silva vs GSP is that it's top p4p fighters going head to head, both of whom are on incredible win-steaks. They are close enough in weight where it's possible. This chance doesn't happen all that often.