Longtime UFC Matchmaker Joe Silva is retiring. The news of his departure came as a shock to fans and fighters alike.
Honestly; I wasn't too bothered, I'm not going to lie to you. The only real emotion that was evoked when I heard that the little fella was hanging up his lanyard, was 'Bloody hell, I'd love that job'. I mean, I've thought for years that Joe Silva has the best job ever.
I know his role within the UFC entails more than just matchmaking, but still; I really want that job. It's like Abraham Lincoln famously said "If you want something, bitches, show the mandem that you can do it"... although he also said "If you can't be bothered to look up real quotes, just make one up and hope no one notices, innit".
Advert
I think I have what it takes to fill Joe Silva's tiny shoes, so, here is my audition for the new UFC Matchmaker job. UFC 205. Madison Square Garden. Nov. 12, 2016. Apparently Robbie Lawler vs Donald Cerrone is being targeted for this event.
That fight makes me feel a little bit fuzzy in my special place, so we will keep that... I probably would have come up with that anyway if I'm completely honest. Shut up, I definitely would have.
Rashad Evans vs Anderson Silva
Former Light-heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans is apparently dropping to middleweight after back-to-back losses to Ryan Bader and Glover Texiera.
Advert
He's only won two of his last four bouts and a move to middleweight is something I think he should have contemplated a few years ago. Evans is linked with the UFC's debut at M.S.G, but in a bout with Tim Kennedy.
While Kennedy is a ranked fighter and tough matchup for Evans; it doesn't have that "big fight" feel. That's where The Spider comes (crawls) in.
Anderson Silva, probably the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, has hit a slump of his own in recent years. He destroyed everyone in his path on sixteen consecutive occasions in the Octagon, becoming a living legend in the process, but hasn't won a fight since a 2012 TKO win over Stephan Bonnar.
Silva has fought five times since then; losing four of those bouts and having his UFC 183 decision win over Nick Diaz changed to a No Contest after he tested positive for banned substances in a post-fight drug test. At one point both Evans and Silva were champions at the same time. Now, both of them are fighting for redemption... and relevance.
Advert
The matchup has the aforementioned "big fight" feel, and would be a great headliner on any UFC Fight Night card, or co-headliner on a Pay Per View event... but this fight is only our second match of the night.
Luke Rockhold vs Chris Weidman 2
I was shocked with how decisively Luke Rockhold defeated Chris Weidman when they met for the Middlewight Championship at UFC 194 in December of last year... not as shocked as what happened in Rockhold's next fight, but that's another award winning article for another time.
Advert
Weidman was undefeated prior to the TKO loss - and the loss of his title - to Rockhold. Weidman had always looked flawless and there was even talk of him going up against Jon Jones in a superfight, something I'm not ashamed to say, I got a semi about. Yeah, I said it.
Talking about semi's, the first Rockhold vs Weidman fight might have been the most attractive fight in combat sport history. I'm not talking about the techniques used, or the way the bout played out; I mean - quite literally - they are two fucking good looking bastards.
Yes, I want to see them rematch because I still think they are both very evenly matched, despite the first fight. Yes, I want to see them rematch because I think that they are the two best middleweight fighters in the world. Yes, the fight would make sense as Weidman is from New York. Yes, I'd have the winner be next in line for a title shot. And YES, I want to see them sweaty and grappling in shorts again. Get over it.
Frankie Edgar vs Anthony Pettis
Advert
Both Edgar and Pettis are former Lightweight Champions, now fighting in the featherweight division, although they are in very different places right now. Edgar had a shot at the featherweight gold and lost to Jose Aldo. He then had a shot at the interim featherweight gold... and lost to Jose Aldo.
Edgar is in danger of becoming the new Urijah Faber; a top guy who wins every fight... unless it's for a belt. Pettis however, made a big impact in his debut bout at 145lbs, when he finished Charles Olivera.
Before that, Pettis lost his last three consecutive fights at lightweight, in what was less of a skid and more of a slip-and-fall-off-a-mountain-and-bash-your-tits-on-hundreds-of-stones-all-the-way-down.
But as soon as Olivera had tapped out to that guillotine choke, Pettis was suddenly someone to watch at featherweight. 'Showtime' is probably only a win or two away from a title shot, especially as he was actually pencilled in to fight for the 145lb strap a couple of years ago.
This fight would be interesting. Pettis is a dynamic, innovative striker, with a good BJJ game, and Edgar is a quick footed boxer with great wrestling. The more I think about it, the more this fight makes sense. I'm impressing myself.
Conor McGregor vs Jose Aldo 2
Main Event time. Now, there's no way that Conor McGregor, the biggest draw in the company, can be left off the company's biggest card of the year.
The tricky thing is working out who he should fight. McGregor would want to fight Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez whilst still holding the Featherweight belt, for the chance to make history and be the first fighter to hold two UFC belts at the same time, he'd love that... but not on my watch, sausage.
Dana White has said that if his next fight is not a defence of his Featherweight Title - a title he hasn't even defended yet, not that it annoys me and I've mentioned it in my two previous articles, or anything - then he'd be stripped of it.
So, as the new Joe Silva, I'd be pushing for him to unify the featherweight belts in a rematch against Jose Aldo. I know he's already defeated Aldo in thirteen seconds, but Aldo has done so much at featherweight - including actually defending the actual title, seriously, it doesn't annoy me at all - that I feel it warrants him a chance at redemption.
Plus, Aldo has the interim championship, which means that McGregor's reign is no longer undisputed. Add to that the fact that Aldo candidly beat Frankie Edgar, shutting up the naysayers who said McGregor had ended his career.
Come on, give the man his rematch. It's a real feud, a genuine hatred with a backstory that fans will easily get invested in.
There are so many questions that will be thrown up before the match too: How will McGregor perform at featherweight, after two outings in a higher weight class? Will he even be able to make weight?! Has McGregor already proved that he's gotten inside Aldo's head and beaten him mentally? Was the 13 second KO a fluke? Has Nate Diaz taken away the prestige and mystique that surrounded McGregor and proven that he is definitely beatable? Who knows? But if I had Joe Silva's job, we'd all know.
Obviously this is a dream scenario and very unlikely to happen... although if someone from the UFC does read this and want to get in contact about the job vacancy, I would definitely be willing to pack-in the writing, comedy and podcasting for a while to take up the roll. Seriously, think about it. There's other fights that just have too much of an impossible feel about them at the moment.
For instance, I'd be pushing for Daniel Cormier vs Jon Jones 2 at this event, but the bout looks unlikely to happen due to Jones's legal issues. In an ideal world I'd attempt to sign former Pride Champion and the man widely regarded as the greatest heavyweight of all time Fedor Emelianenko.
The Russian going head-to-head with Brock Lesnar would probably be the single biggest MMA fight of all time, but sadly Brock's got his own on-going issues and will not likely fight in the UFC again.
If I did manage to sign The Last Emperor however, a fight between him and former Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez would be incredible, in my opinion. Or, if Fedor would be finally willing to fight at light-heavyweight - a weight class many fans and publications have noted that he should have fought at for most of his career - then a shot against the champion Daniel Cormier would be the direction I'd go.
Imagine that: Fedor standing across the Octagon from Velasquez or Cormier. Finally, you can't talk about a supercard without mentioning Georges St-Pierre. There's been a lot of talk about his return, and there's still a chance that it could be on the cards, and possibly against new Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley.
For me, this fight does make sense as Woodley holds the belt that GSP never lost. But, it doesn't quite hit the spot. Would the future Hall of Famer be returning for good, or at least to defend that title a couple of times? I doubt it. I think a potential return is only for himself; to see if he can still do it and hang in the Octagon. So, why not pair him with Nate Diaz? Diaz is a big draw since the whole McGregor saga, there's history - of sorts - as GSP had the big rivalry with Nate's big brother Nick.
There's currently a spotlight on Nathan Donald Diaz (I know, right; Donald?!) and while that spotlight is only shining through association with Conor McGregor, a lot of casual fans know who Nate is nowadays, and as a result, he'll pull in the buys. Plus, Diaz is an active fighter and if GSP did fight at the UFC 205 card at Madison Square Garden, it would be almost three years to the day that he last fought.
That's a long time and ring rust is a real thing. I think a fight between Rush and Diaz would be an absolute barnburner and have the potential to be a much closer contest than people may initially think.
All in all, this ends my audition for the job of UFC Matchmaker. I don't want to do the classic thing that you often see on shows like the X Factor and make you feel sorry for me in order to get what I want.
I don't want to get this job because of sympathy. I would very much like to get Joe Silva's former position on the quality of my matchmaking skills and not at all because my entire family have recently been kidnapped by Somali Pirates, which, in turn, made me lose a lot of my hair and started my irritable bowel-syndrome off again, resulting in me soiling myself at church and being punched by my Vicar. Don't even take that into consideration.
I'll see you in the office on Monday?
Words By: Tom Holmes
Tom also partakes in the Podcast 'The Gaffer Tapes' and you can back them to win an FBA Award for 'Best Football Podcast' here.
Featured Image Credit: