"Every time Joe Silva calls, you have an excitement but also an, 'Oh (expletive), Joe Silva is calling. He asks you what you think, but he has a way of making you do it even when at the time you don't want to do it. He's got a knack of persuasion where you'll be talking and then all of a sudden you're like, 'Wait, what did I just agree to?' At (UFC 78), he asked me what I thought about two Ultimate Fighters fighting each other for the first time. And I thought, 'Man, I'm going to fight Forrest Griffin.' Then he said (Michael) Bisping. And nothing against Bisping, but I wanted to fight one of the top guys. He told me to think about it and I was like, 'Fine, I'll take the fight. He'll persuade you where he'll say, 'Listen, you can do this and you can do that and your styles are like this,' and eventually you're like, 'Yeah Joe, that does sound good. Let's do it.'"
-- Former UFC light heavyweight champion "Sugar" Rashad Evans dishes to the Las Vegas Sun on Zuffa's mystery man Joe Silva. The high-profile but largely unknown matchmaker is one of the promotion's biggest players but remains an enigma both inside the organization and out. With UFC 100 just a few days away, one thing fans aren't complaining about is the quality of the card. So what's the verdict? Does Silva earn a free pass and get to do his bidding behind the curtain? Or should the man with the plan be an open book? Opinions below.
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