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Mr. Silva, the ball's in your court.
With Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre likely getting paired off with Nick Diaz for early 2013, Anderson Silva will be forced to sit this one out, or return to the 185-pound division to defend his middleweight title.
Unless, of course, he wants to go back to light heavyweight, where he sports a 3-0 record with three knockouts.
If he does, there may not be too many fighters at 205 pounds willing to indulge him in another squash match, after seeing what "The Spider" did against James Irvin, Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. So how about a crack at the division crown?
That's entirely up to him, according to reigning light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones (via MMA Fighting):
"I think superfights are important for the sport. They're important for legacies. A desire to compete in one, I really don't have this big desire to compete against anyone in particular. Right now I have a good recipe of success, and they say if it's not broke, don't fix it. So unless someone comes and challenges me, or what not, I'm fine going on about my merry way and competing against these light heavyweights. Everything is a possibility. I really can't count too much out. I do believe that we're put on this earth to think big and dream big, and not limit ourselves. And fighting Anderson would be a definite testament of my faith and my warrior experience, and things like that. So who knows what will happen in the future. Sounds like we're breaking, huh? Me and Anderson, sounds like the story is twisting? I'm up for whatever, man."
Jones will do battle against Chael Sonnen at the UFC 158 pay-per-view (PPV) event on April 27, 2013 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Following that, "Bones" will try to break the winner of Lyoto Machida vs. Dan Henderson, depending on whether or not they're able to leapfrog Alexander Gustafsson.
The jury is still out on that one.
Sounds like everyone has something to do except Silva, but don't be surprised to see him swoop down on the 185-pound division if Michael Bisping is able to overcome the hands of Vitor Belfort at the UFC on FX 7 event next month in Brazil.
After all, it could be a "good opportunity" for him.