UFC
Anderson Silva offered to save UFC 151 with light heavyweight bout
Aug 24, 2012 - 9:55:22 AM Anderson Silva offered to save UFC 151 with light heavyweight bout

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

With Jon Jones turning down a fight against Chael Sonnen on eight day's notice, in part leading to the cancellation of next week's UFC 151 event, one other UFC Champion attempted to save the event after the fact.

According to a report from Ariel Helwani at MMAFighting.com, UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva called up UFC President Dana White on Thursday offering to fight an opponent in the light heavyweight division to keep the event alive, even though he wasn't in shape.

Unfortunately, the UFC had already made the decision to cancel the event, and had begun the process of moving the fights scheduled for the event to other fight cards. Still, White said he wasn't expecting that from Silva, and appreciated the call.

It wouldn't have been the first time Silva had taken a short notice fight at light heavyweight for the UFC. He stepped up on short notice for the organization for an impromptu Spike TV event in 2008, thrown together at the last minute to counter Affliction's first pay-per-view offering. He knocked out James Irvin in short order in that night's main event.

Penick's Analysis: That would have been absolutely crazy had they gotten that together, but it wasn't even on their radar at this point. And obviously, he didn't have the idea to call until after he heard the event was cancelled, so there wasn't anything more he could have done in that situation. Who they would have gotten to fight him on eight day's notice is a different story, but it would have been a very, very interesting last minute pickup had they been able to finagle something. As it stands, good on Silva for the offer. I've gotten some flack in the last day for defending Jon Jones' right to turn down a fight on eight day's notice, but I should make it clear it's great to see the rare fighters who are willing to make a move like that. There's still nothing wrong with Jones looking out for himself first in this situation, but it's great that guys like Chris Weidman and Chael Sonnen were willing to seize a rare opportunity with odds stacked against them, just like it's great that Silva was willing to make this call.