Rich Davie
10-02-2009, 08:32 PM
UFC – Who really deserves a shot at Anderson Silva’s belt?
Thursday October 1, 2009 BY Robert Carlin
In the UFC middleweight division, one man stands head and shoulders above the rest as the undisputed greatest 185lb fighter in the world. That man is Anderson Silva.
On a tier below Anderson there are three top contenders who have more or less cleared out the rest of their division, all with the intention to stake their claim as the rightful number one contender to the middleweight title.
Dan Henderson, Nate Marquardt and Vitor Belfort are the three fighters on the brink of a title shot.
According to Dana White, Vitor Belfort and Anderson Silva apparently have a verbal agreement in place to fight for the middleweight strap in January 2010. Does Vitor really deserve the title shot above Marquardt and Henderson?
Vitor left the UFC after a decision loss to Tito Ortiz at light-heavyweight in February 2005. He has fought 9 times during his hiatus from the UFC. From these fights he only lost three, two of the losses were to Alistair Overeem and the other loss was in a Pride FC match against Dan Henderson. Since then he won four straight fights and upon his return to the UFC he made it a five fight win streak by dismantling former Middleweight champ Rich Franklin in less than a round.
Dan Henderson beat ‘The Phenom’ by unanimous decision in 2006. A lot has changed since then however. Hendo had his shot against ‘The Spider’ in March 2008, losing by rear naked choke in the second round. Since that defeat Henderson has climbed back into title contention by putting three wins together against top fighters, Rousimar Palhares, Rich Franklin and Michael Bisping...
Continued here... (http://www.ifight365.com/2009/10/ufc-who-really-deserves-a-shot-at-anderson-silva%E2%80%99s-belt/)
Thursday October 1, 2009 BY Robert Carlin
In the UFC middleweight division, one man stands head and shoulders above the rest as the undisputed greatest 185lb fighter in the world. That man is Anderson Silva.
On a tier below Anderson there are three top contenders who have more or less cleared out the rest of their division, all with the intention to stake their claim as the rightful number one contender to the middleweight title.
Dan Henderson, Nate Marquardt and Vitor Belfort are the three fighters on the brink of a title shot.
According to Dana White, Vitor Belfort and Anderson Silva apparently have a verbal agreement in place to fight for the middleweight strap in January 2010. Does Vitor really deserve the title shot above Marquardt and Henderson?
Vitor left the UFC after a decision loss to Tito Ortiz at light-heavyweight in February 2005. He has fought 9 times during his hiatus from the UFC. From these fights he only lost three, two of the losses were to Alistair Overeem and the other loss was in a Pride FC match against Dan Henderson. Since then he won four straight fights and upon his return to the UFC he made it a five fight win streak by dismantling former Middleweight champ Rich Franklin in less than a round.
Dan Henderson beat ‘The Phenom’ by unanimous decision in 2006. A lot has changed since then however. Hendo had his shot against ‘The Spider’ in March 2008, losing by rear naked choke in the second round. Since that defeat Henderson has climbed back into title contention by putting three wins together against top fighters, Rousimar Palhares, Rich Franklin and Michael Bisping...
Continued here... (http://www.ifight365.com/2009/10/ufc-who-really-deserves-a-shot-at-anderson-silva%E2%80%99s-belt/)