UFC Spotlight: Anderson Silva

The first time I heard of Anderson Silva, I thought that my friend had meant to say Wanderlei Silva. When he told me that no, there was another fighter with the last name of Silva, I must admit that I felt bad for poor Anderson. No matter how good he became, he'd always be stuck in the shadow of his similarly named predecessor. How wrong I was. Anderson has a title and is in the powerhouse UFC organization while Wanderlei owns no gold, is coming off two straight losses, and is stuck in the quickly-sinking PRIDE ship.

Anderson Silva made his breakout debut at Ultimate Fight Night 5, where he knocked out Chris Leben 49 seconds into the first round. A voting mechanism was put on UFC.com where fans could vote for Silva's next opponent. The fans chose Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin and the rest is history. Silva knocked out Franklin in the first round becoming just the second man to beat Franklin (and the first in over three years).

Fans should expect to hear more about Silva in the upcoming months. Rich Franklin is fighting Yushin Okami at UFC 72, with the winner all but guaranteed a shot at Silva's title. Many news sources, The Irish Whip included, are already reporting that Franklin will get his rematch at UFC 77 in Franklin's hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. With all this recent action attributed to Silva and his opponents, the current Middleweight champ is doing all he can to make UFC's forgotten division remembered once again.

In this week's UFC poll, 60% of respondents believe that Randy Couture will go down as the greatest of the UFC Hall of Famers. 20% answered Royce Gracie, 20% answered Dan Severn, and 0% answered Ken Shamrock. This week's question focuses on the rematch between Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin.