Amadi's Take
AMADI: Anderson Silva Only Wants Big Money Fights, And That's Alright
Jul 31, 2012 - 5:15:32 PM AMADI: Anderson Silva Only Wants Big Money Fights, And That's Alright

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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

There's no questioning the fact that Anderson Silva is the most accomplished fighter in UFC history. Silva holds the record for most consecutive wins, most consecutive title defenses, most knockdowns in UFC history, and sports a very impressive finishing percentage to boot.
However, the question now seems to be whether or not six years of unrelenting dominance at the highest level has earned the UFC Middleweight Champion the right to be a bit selective when it comes to his opposition.

Jorge Guimaraes and Ed Soares, Anderson Silva's managers, have recently come under fire for disparaging the current field of middleweight challengers. Guimaraes actually went as far as to say that "you can't promote an event with these amateur kids that are coming up now."
While that's perhaps a bit harsh, I somewhat agree with that sentiment. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Silva has earned the right to turn his nose up at any and everyone he chooses from now until he retires. However, there are aspects of this situation that people seem to be overlooking.

First of all, Anderson Silva is the second oldest fighter currently ranked in the top ten of any weight class in MMA; regardless of what he says, he's not fighting for another ten years. "The Spider" has maybe a handful of fights left in him at best, and he needs to maximize those fights both for his legacy and his pocketbook.

Speaking of his pocketbook, it should also be noted that despite his usual flashy and exciting fighting style, Anderson Silva isn't a terribly strong draw. With the right opponent, Silva can draw with the best of them, but it's been proven that for whatever reason, fans aren't willing to part with their $44.95 unless they really believe his opponents have a legitimate shot at defeating him.

Keeping these things in mind, half of the current crop of contenders at 185 are undesirable opponents for Anderson Silva and his team. It's hard to call Chris Weidman-Anderson Silva the fight people want to see, if the box office would likely tell a completely different tale.
That isn't to say that Weidman is forever beneath the middleweight champion, but as it stands now Anderson Silva has more title defenses than Chris Weidman has fights. Weidman completely flew under the radar until UFC on Fox 2 where he defeated Demian Maia in the worst UFC fight to be aired on Fox yet. At that point, he had flown even further below people's radar.

To his credit, he turned around and obliterated Mark Munoz six months later, but one signature win on a relatively small platform like Fuel isn't really enough to make Chris Weidman the ideal challenger for Anderson Silva. At this point in time, Weidman is all risk, minimal reward for Silva.

With all the talk of mixed martial artists being "warriors" and "modern day gladiators," sometimes it's easy to forget that they're first and foremost prizefighters; their primary objective is and always will be making as much money as possible. Anderson Silva, just like every other fighter, has a responsibility to his family and his team to earn as much money as he can for as long as he can.

Hardcore fans may have decided that Chris Weidman is the current possessor of "the style to beat Anderson Silva," but that doesn't change the fact that the average pay-per-view consumer probably isn't convinced of that. If this were two years ago, there would be no question that Silva should take the Weidman bout and just try to add another win to his ledger. However, it looks like the greatest champion in UFC history is finally looking to cash out and end his career with big money fights. It's just one man's opinion, but I don't really see a problem with that.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @JasonAmadi and direct your "Ask the Torch" questions to mmatorch@gmail.com