The timeline for the middleweight title was supposed to be predetermined. Anderson Silva would decimate Sonnen, fight Vitor near the end of the year and then likely let it go to fight at Light Heavyweight. Before the real shit hit the fan, Silva declared that he no longer wished to fight at Light Heavyweight and instead intended to finish his career right where he was. Then came Chael Sonnen, the man who, love him or hate him, backed up everything he said he was going to do, except win the title that is. Anderson Silva was taken down and beaten up for over 22 minutes, fortunately for him a title fight lasts 25 and it was in this gap that the champion caught the challenger in a submission he had no choice but to submit to. There in lays the problem, what do we do with Anderson Silva now? Sonnan’s followers believe an instant rematch is in order while many still eye a Belfort title fight first.
The answer is not obvious in either direction and I am not completely sure I buy into a “right” answer. However, I do support Vitor’s shot at the title, assuming that both fighters are physically prepared and motivated. In the interest of full disclosure, I want to see Silva exposed to a completely different challenge before I have to seriously worry about him getting worked for another 25 minutes, hoping he can solve the smother puzzle. It isn’t that I dislike Sonnen. I have, in fact, grown to like him a great deal, but if you have visited this blog before and read my comments on Fedor or you have talked to me about MMA personally you know that I value the myth of certain fighters. It is important for a sport culture to have myths and legends that they can root themselves in. Anderson Silva is one of those myths and I root for him because I enjoy seeing larger than life figures in a sport full of parody.
So you see it isn’t that Sonnen doesn’t deserve a title shot. He is the most tangible threat to the title and in turn he is a top contender. My personal fascination with the growing culture of MMA is only part of why we need to see Vitor vs Silva. A fight is 25 minutes long. Sonnen lost the fight. Not only that, he was finished, tapped. There was no controversy, no argument, no two ways around it. Anderson Silva won the fight and Chael Sonnen, as dominant as he was is not a losing champion or cheated challenger. In addition, it should be hard to justify a rematch when a game, marketable, and novel challenger waits in the wings. No matter what the critiques say, Belfort has had success and put together enough wins for consideration.
No matter who gets the title shot MMA fans will likely not be disappointed on the whole. Anderson Silva will defend his title again and with Sonnen’s kick in the as to the Middleweight division we should se worthwhile match-ups for a long time to come.
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