Anderson Silva’s next opponent has been a pretty hot topic since he TKO’d Chael Sonnen at UFC 148 a couple of weeks ago. Many people have been pushing for a Chris Weidman match-up, others expect that Hector Lombard will be next after he gets rid of Tim Boetsch this Saturday in Calgary. But Surprisingly none of these guys are being talked about by Anderson Silva’s management as worthy opponents, Silva's management believes the only person worthy of such a fight, is the Strikeforce Middleweight Champion.

On last Night’s episode of FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight", they discussed the situation: (transcribed by mmamania.com)

"One of Anderson Silva's managers said that one of the issues with Hector Lombard is he thinks he needs at least three more impressive wins in the UFC. He said that 85 percent of UFC fans don't even know who Hector Lombard is, who is of course making his Octagon debut on Saturday night."

When Silva’s management was asked about the possibility of fighting Chris Weidman, they responded:

"As for Chris Weidman, he said, 'Well, there's another great unknown fighter.' He doesn't see those match ups as being money making pay-per-view events."

Silva’s management did say that they think one person right now is worthy of such a fight, and that’s interestingly enough, Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold.

“He did mention Luke Rockhold, who is the Strikeforce middleweight champion. Alas, Rockhold is contractually tied to Strikeforce, so that fight's not happening. We'll have to wait and see, but right now, the Anderson Silva camp not too excited about the options out there."

Eliminating Lombard and Weidman leaves pretty much no one in the middleweight division that has earned a shot at Silva, Bisping was close until he lost to Sonnen, and Stann was close until he lost to, well umm Sonnen... Bisping and Stann are both booked to fight in Toronto in September, so really we come full circle and the only people that are worthy are Lombard, and then Weidman.

Personally I don’t see why the Silva Camp would not want to fight Lombard, if he absolutely crushes Boetsch, then he deserves the shot, After all Silva had his first title fight in the UFC in only his second fight, so it’s only fair to give the same opportunities that Franklin gave to him before he took the belt from him. Why his camp would choose someone who cannot fight him even if he wanted to, is an very odd choice on their behalf.

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