With Anderson Silva passing the torch to Chris Weidman with his recent fight-stopping injury, there are new possible fights in the UFC's Middleweight Division. Though the injury to Silva is tragic if not sad for any MMA fan, it is not a complete loss to followers of the UFC. If Silva were to have won his fight, we would've been seeing a rematch of a fight that we had already seen in the last few years with Vitor Belfort guarenteed a title shot against the winner. Vitor Belfort has improved since his last fight with Silva, but the fight against Silva was a quick knockout not a closely contended fight. Though both Silva and Belfort are knockout artists, one could not convince me that Belfort would even stand a chance against Silva in a rematch.
With Silva away and probably never getting a title shot or even fighting again at the current age of 38, Weidman and the UFC can finally move on. One of the beautiful things manifesting from such an ugly ending, is a fresh match up between Vitor Belfort and Chris Weidman. Had Weidman not won against Silva this past weekend we may have never seen or considered a match between the two of these amazing competitors. It will be a mtach that will showcase the champion's raw athleticism and great wrestling against Vitor Belfort's experience, striking and amazing power-striking. I predict that Weidman will get the better of Belfort in their match, but with Belfort anything is possible.
There are other options lurking about at 185 lbs like former Strikeforce Middleweight Jacare Souza who is 2-0 in his UFC career after his TKO victory over Yushin Okami. Silva had said before that he would never face his teamates Jacare Souza and Lyoto Machida if the UFC wished to have him face either man for any reason. He even went as far as to say that he would surrender the title so that Souza or Machida could fight for the belt had that time come. Souza has great killer instincts and finishing abilities. His two wins in the UFC were both stoppages, one a submission and the second a TKO. Souza 100% has a chance to potentially stop Weidman or any other man to wear the UFC Middleweight Championship. He faces Francis Carmont who is on a six-fightwin streak since joining the UFC.
Who remembers the words 'the Machida era?' I do. I would love to see the Machida Era truly start considering the original era at 205 was derailed by Shogun Rua by way of KO. Lyoto Machida was guanteed to be the man to face Jon Jones for the UFC on many occassians and then it wouldnt fall through. I believe that Lyoto Machida was definitely the second best 205 lb fighter in the UFC, after Jones, before he fled to the UFC's Middleweight Division following a poor judge's decision loss to Phil Davis at UFC 163. In his middleweight debut, Machida ran through Mark Munoz with a head kick knock out. He is now set to face Gegard Mussasi in early 2014 and with a victory over Gegard we could possibly see Machida fighting for the title in late 2014 or early 2015.
Other fighters who could potentially get title shots soon would be Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Mark Munoz.
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