From the moment Dana said that if Anderson lost he would get an immediate rematch I knew it was a bad idea. The whole idea of an immediate rematch or even a rematch after only one or two fights just doesn't make sense unless your okay with stalling the entire division and having all of your contenders on hold. The rematch is rumored to be Superbowl weekend which is about 7 months away and if Weidman wins again then you can assume his next title fight won't be for at least another 4 months after that. That means for almost a year the title was fought for between the same two guys. If that isn't bad enough, think about what happens if Silva wins the rematch. Surely Weidman would deserve an immediate rematch since he just KO'd Silva the fight before and now they would be tied 1-1 with one last fight needed for all of the marbles. This would mean that after their fight on Superbowl weekend the two would most likely wait at least another 5 months to have their third fight and the winner of that won't defend for at least another 4 months after that. That would mean that between July 2013 - October 2014 we would have no Middleweights in a title fight except Silva and Weidman.
You can argue that there aren't many contenders at Middleweight anyway, but you do have Bisping, Belfort, and Munoz all desperately waiting for a shot. If you wait too long the contenders are just going to beat each other and instead of a few interesting title matches with "deserving" opponents you would probably end up with only one.
Of course if Silva keeps to his original word and chooses not to have a rematch we won't have this problem. But if he does accept a rematch and wins, then the other contenders are pretty much screwed.
What do you guys think? Should Dana be pushing for an immediate rematch? I think that despite the fact that Silva had his incredible run as champion he should be forced to fight at least one contender before he gets his rematch. This way we don't have the same two people fighting for the belt over the course of a year and a half.
You can argue that there aren't many contenders at Middleweight anyway, but you do have Bisping, Belfort, and Munoz all desperately waiting for a shot. If you wait too long the contenders are just going to beat each other and instead of a few interesting title matches with "deserving" opponents you would probably end up with only one.
Of course if Silva keeps to his original word and chooses not to have a rematch we won't have this problem. But if he does accept a rematch and wins, then the other contenders are pretty much screwed.
What do you guys think? Should Dana be pushing for an immediate rematch? I think that despite the fact that Silva had his incredible run as champion he should be forced to fight at least one contender before he gets his rematch. This way we don't have the same two people fighting for the belt over the course of a year and a half.