Thoughts On Anderson Silva Moving Up To The Heavyweight Division

Josh Gross of Sports Ilustrated confirmed that talks on supposedly on going and Silva has stated he would like to fight Frank Mir:

Prior to Silva's flooring Forrest Griffinearlier this month in Philadelphia, SI.com confirmed that Silva's representatives had spoken with Zuffa about the heralded UFC middleweight champion moving up to heavyweight for the first time in his career.

Not only that, they already had an opponent in mind: Frank Mir.

Disinterested by middleweight contenders Nathan Marquardt, Demian Maia and Dan Henderson, and unwilling to fight close friend Lyoto Machidaat light heavyweight -- where Silva could conceivably knock off challengers and make a disaster out of the UFC's marquee division -- "The Spider" needs new, challenging scenarios to stay motivated. A move to heavyweight would certainly achieve that, and according to Silva's manager Ed Soares, the UFC was receptive to the idea.

Of course we all want to see Anderson Silva vs. Lyoto Machida, but that fight isn't going to happen.  Silva has already cleaned out the middleweight division, so for all you Demian Maia and Yushin Okami lovers, he has cleaned that division out.  Sorry.  He has destroyed a top 5 LHW in Forrest Griffin at UFC 101.  Dana White has billed Anderson Silva as the best pound for pound fighter in the world every since he ran through Rich Franklin for the second time.  I know a lot of people think pound for pound rankings are useless and whatnot and they are for the most part.  The guy was the 167lb Shooto champion back in the day for Christ's sake.  He's moved up in weight and destroyed all the best middleweights, one of the best light heavyweights, and why not move up to heavyweight to fight those guys as well?  This is the one fighter that could legitimately lay claim to such a title.

Anderson Silva walks around at 220lbs, which is essentially the same weight that Randy Couture walks around at for the most part.  Couture just fought Brock Lesnar at 45+ years of age and was competitive with the beast of a man.  Of course Silva and Couture have completely different styles of fighting and styles make fights.  However wouldn't it be intriguing to see if Brock Lesnar could take a couple of laser beam punches from Anderson Silva?  It's clear his performance isn't affected by fighting at a heavier weight, and he very well may pack more power this way.  I'd pay to see it.

I think it's telling that Silva's camp are interested in fighting Frank Mir. A fight with Frank Mir would accomplish a couple of things.  Mir is a former champion that has a victory over the current champion, and he's a legitimate heavweight that fights at 250 some odd pounds.  However, the biggest thing is Frank Mir is probably tailor made for Anderson Silva to destroy.  Here you have a guy that is good on the ground but probably believes in his stand up a lot more than he should, and his wrestling is not THAT great.  Mir would probably stand with Silva long enough to get his face took off, because there is no way he could match the speed and accuracy of Anderson Silva.  In fact, he probably wouldn't even touch Anderson Silva with his punches.  I mean it was a while ago, but we all saw what Brandon Vera did to Mir who is roughly the same size as Anderson Silva.  A win over Mir sets up Silva/Lesnar(provided Lesnar beats Carwin), and that fight would do astronomical numbers.  In fact, it would be a great time to do another UFC Primetime.

Anderson Silva has stated time and time again that he wants a challenge and he wants to fight the best.  If he won't fight Lyoto Machida, why not provide a bigger challenge for him and probably reap even larger benefits from it?  Would you be interested in Anderson Silva fighting at heavyweight?  If so, who would you want him to fight?