From MMAJunkie.com:

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, currently the most popular pick for the world's top pound-for-pound fighter, may not retire when he turns 35 after all.

...

And while Silva would like to conclude his stellar career while on top of his game, his manager, Ed Soares, told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the retirement at 35 is far from a guarantee.

"Here's the situation," Soares said. "His goal when we signed with the UFC was for him to retire at 35 years old. That was the goal, and I think we need to keep that goal in check. We work to follow through with that goal. Now, he's 35 in only 18 months, so ideally, my goal as his manager is to put him in a situational financially so that when he's 35, if he feels like retiring, he'll be able to retire.

"But that doesn't mean he will necessarily retire at 35. ... At the end of the day, man, when gets to 35, he could feel like he has a few more fights in him."

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I don't think this comes as a big surprise to most people. Not that I think Silva isn't serious about retiring young, but not as young as 35, and not before fulfilling his contractual duties to the UFC, because we all saw where that got Couture.

Silva is an exciting fighter, his last performance notwithstanding. He's already a great striker, and with Freddie Roach as his new striking coach, he's only going to get better.

I'm looking forward to his next fight, whether or not it's against Liddell.

-PreView

From UK tabloid The Sun:

THE UFC will return to London's O2 Arena for a third time on February 21, we can exclusively confirm.
...
SunSport understands Middleweight champion Anderson Silva, 33, has been asked to appear on the card, with a potential bout with light heavyweight star Chuck Liddell already being mooted.

That potentially mouthwatering clash would see The Spider step up to the 205lbs division to face 38-year-old Liddell - who is desperate to get back on the victory trail following his devastating loss to Rashad Evans at UFC 88.
...
However, Michael Bisping will NOT be part of the line up as he will be filming season nine of The Ultimate Fighter.

It is The Sun but this news item is too tempting to pass up. But, what oh what, will UK fans do without their beloved Bisping on the card?

From MMARated.com's account of the UFC 94 press conference:

Dana White said that if GSP defeats B.J. Penn he "will get Anderson Silva"

Bring on the super-fights. First GSP-Penn and (cross your fingers) then GSP-Silva. Will 2009 be known as the year of the marquee match-ups in the UFC?

I'm curious what weight class a GSP-Silva fight would be fought at. Would it be a catch-weight affair or fought at 185? And, if it's at 185, would the middleweight title be on the line?

Alright, we've now posted the episode of the podcast immediately following the last UFC

From MMANews.com:

“… I think UFC is the dream of every fighter. I fought in Pride and now I wanna be at UFC so that I could say one day that I fought at the best MMA events of the world…. I think Anderson is doing the right thing. He always praises me, wants the best for me, and said we wouldn’t fight me, he’s the best, and I don’t wanna fight him too. I think he’ll go up (to light-heavyweight) and until then I’ll go there and when I get closer to the title, he’d be already retired. He already done a lot for the sport, and we they have a lot of great athletes there and I can’t let this opportunity go away, it’ll be a better motivation, show the Paulão from the Pride GP. The problem in this depression moment was motivation, it was a very complicated moment, but now things are better and I can show my best game.”

There is something about this guy that I don't like. I can understand not wanting to fight your friend and training partner but this is a business so get over it. I think he knows he can't beat Silva and he would rather spare himself the beating and hide behind the friendship excuse. What happens if Silva moves up to LHW or retires and Filho wins the belt only to see Silva return? Does Filho dodge him or does he relinquish the belt rather than fight his best friend? Friends fight everyday -- get over yourself and do your job.

From CompuStrike.com

Anderson Silva W 3 (TKO) Patrick Cote

Inside the Numbers: The tentative Silva got off just 52 total strikes through two rounds, landing 27, nine of which were leg strikes. Cote was busier in rounds one and two with 65 strikes attempted, but he landed just 13 before an injured knee forced the fight to be halted :39 into round three.

As you can see not only was Silva less active than usual he was less accurate than usual as well. He landed a tad over 50% when he usually lands at a much higher percentage than that. Cote landed one out of every 5 strikes so there goes his claim that he was taking it to Silva.

From Sherdog.com:

“There are many people saying I was disrespecting Cote, but this is absolutely not true,” Silva told Sherdog.com. “My game plan since the beginning was fight five rounds, inducing him to commit mistakes and capitalize on that during the first three rounds and look for the knockout during the fourth and fifth rounds. It was working, and the biggest proof of that is that I almost didn’t waste any blows. I connected with a couple of good punches and knees, but unfortunately he got hurt and the fight was over. This is not my fault.”

Anderson also goes on to say that he doesn't know about the rumors of him possibly facing Chuck Liddell at UFC 93.

From MMABay:

Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell is being lined up to the biggest risk in his long illustrious UFC career in February when he could meet UFC middleweight champion Anderson "The Spider" Silva.

As MMABAY Exclusively revealed over a week ago the UFC is set to return to the UK in February and a date seems to have been set February 21st. The most suited arena for such a showcase fight has been chosen as the O2 in London where both UFC 75 & 85 have taken place.

I don't know how true this is since I have not seen it anywhere else. I get daily emails from this Web site on my Facebook page and I usually delete them without reading them. If this story is true then I see this fight as Liddell's last hurrah. I don't see him being able to hang with Silva. Maybe a couple of years ago yes but he has certainly slowed down over the last year and he is nowhere near the dynamic striker that Silva is and his chin has not held up against fighters with far less striking ability than "The Spider."

Nevertheless this fight will still draw great numbers because many fans will still pay to watch Liddell fight and I see Silva fighting a much better fight than he did against Cote. If Liddell somehow did pull this off it would give him renewed confidence and put him back on the path to a title shot but as I said before that is a huge if.

Not according to two of mainstream media's top writers (and thus major influencers when it comes to mainstream MMA fans) -- SI.com's Josh Gross and Yahoo.com's Kevin Iole.

Here's what Gross said in his postfight recap titled "Silva's latest title defense more showboating than substance":

When Anderson Silva puts on a show with his hands and feet, it generally makes for a short night. Saturday evening at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., however, the "show" featured more dancing and showboating than punching and kicking.

For the first time in his UFC career, Silva, 33, was pushed past the second round -- and that had little to do with his opponent. Defending the UFC middleweight belt against Patrick Cote, expectations demanded a resounding performance. Instead, the dangerous champion strutted his way through two-plus rounds before Cote fell to the canvas when his right knee gave way 39 seconds into the third.

And, here's what Iole said in his recap, titled "Silva’s actions unbefitting his stature":

On Saturday, he delivered another act that was not so becoming of an athlete of his stature.

In a lame attempt at humor, Silva made a mockery of himself, his title and his sport in one of the most bizarre matches in UFC history.

In fact, Iole reports that Silva apologized afterwards for his performance:

“I apologize,” Silva said. “I worked hard in training to go four or five rounds. I dropped from 230 pounds to 205 and then to 185. I worked my butt off. I had a long camp preparing for the fight. I owe you guys in the media, the fans and everyone an apology. I was prepared, but it’s unfortunate what happened.”

We've heard reports that Silva is planning to and wants to retire soon. Was his UFC 90 fight performance confirmation of this fact? If his heart is no longer in it, I would rather see him retire now than put on more performances like the one at UFC 90. While there is still no one in his league, nonchalance inside the Octagon could have devastating consequences both for Silva's health and his legacy.