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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"You want that progression and to fulfill your dream, and my dream is to be world champion one day. We all have a clock that's ticking. I've still got a lot of time left, but I don't want to waste a year fighting for the hell of it. I want to know that I'm moving toward something... I kind of feel like [Anderson's] maybe having a little bit of fun with it sometimes, but this isn't a comedy program. This is the UFC, and this is fighting. It's serious business. If you want to take a year out, take a year out. If you don't want to take a year out, fight the No. 1 contender. Anderson is the best, but you've got to defend that title... Perhaps he vacates the belt, and when he's ready to come back, he gets an immediate title shot and fights the new champion then. He's put us all in this position. It just sucks for the fans that want to see Anderson fight. It sucks for the fighters that want to fight Anderson for his belt, and it sucks for the UFC, as well."
-Michael Bisping talks to MMAJunkie.com about wanting Anderson Silva to hurry up and make a move or let the middleweight division move on without him for the time being.
Penick's Analysis: He's still going off of Silva's comments about waiting until late 2013, but more than likely he'll be fighting GSP in May. That still keeps him out of the middleweight division for a considerable time, and Bisping's criticisms aren't far off the mark. The middleweight field isn't only the Anderson Silva show, and with a number of fighters earning the right to contend for Silva's title, if he goes a number of fights without defending the title, then it wouldn't be a bad idea to have an Interim Title introduced or have him vacate the title until he returns. The latter would only be in the case of him taking the GSP fight, then having a superfight with Jon Jones immediately after, because it would be three fights out of the middleweight division, but it's still something to keep in consideration for the UFC if that's what he's going to do.
[Michael Bisping art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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