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Get a good look at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva when he fights Stephan Bonnar in next week's (Oct. 13, 2012) UFC 153 main event from the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It could be the last time you see him as a light heavyweight.
That's because "The Spider" is dropping back down to 185 pounds to continue defending his belt (against anyone not named Chris Weidman). The Brazilian striker elaborates during yesterday's "Silva vs. Bonnar" media conference call (via Bloody Elbow):
"There's always been a lot of talk about me moving up to 205, I know Dana has talked about it a lot, all the fans have talked a lot about me moving up and facing Jon Jones, but it's something I've never wanted. I won't be pretentious to say that I want to move up, especially because there's other guys in that weight class on our team like Rafael Feijao (Cavalcante), (Antonio Rogerio) Minotoro Nogueira, there's other guys that could potentially face Jon Jones in the future. I'm 37-years old and I feel like I need to be honest and to continue what I've built which is keep defending my belt at 185."
Jones is having a hard time finding fresh challengers at light heavyweight after effectively clearing out his division. "Bones" was expected to fight Dan Henderson last month at UFC 151 in Las Vegas, but had to settle on middleweight import Vitor Belfort at UFC 152 instead.
Silva, meanwhile, still dreams of a Georges St. Pierre "super fight."
Thoughts?