Anderson Silva to retire
 

Said he's done sometime in the next year. We'll see if it really happens but this is huge news regardless.

Good for him. He's the best pound for pound fighter in MMA, but nobody cares, and his PPV numbers are awful.

The fans want Brock Lesnar, not Anderson Silva, which really means, it is not actually a sport. It is a sideshow. And this is the pure, unadulterated evidence of it.

I don't think the knock is on Silva as much as the competition. There is nobody on is level. Nobody for him to fight. That doesn't do well for TV.

I'll admit that even I didn't like Silva much at first, I have come around to recognizing him as one of the best MMA fighters ever and enjoy watching him pick apart his opponents. I think most fans fit into the same category, though the casual fans probably do prefer Lesnar and the Bob Sapps of MMA. Who doesn't want to see giant freaks beat the crap out of each other?

Waters is right here are the numbers:

Anderson Silva has averaged 337,500 buys when heading up a PPV. The shows without him in the line up did an average of 525,238, a drop of -37.5%.

But I disagree about it being a sideshow, and the main reason for that is if you look at boxing heavyweights always have better PPV numbers.

Of course I am right. I just watched Inside MMA on HDNet.

Inside MMA is a good show. Except sometimes the guests annoy me. Last week was solid with GSP and Gina Carano but the other guy was annoying.

It's a combination of things. I don't think anyone will disagree that Silva is one of the best ever. His style though isn't flashy. He just goes to work in the ring. He also doesn't have a big personality outside the ring either that generates popularity. Still the biggest factor I think is the lack of competition. Everyone knows he's going to win. He has no rival. UFC tried to make Rich Franklin that. But Silva keeps rearranging his nose every time they fight. I think if he had legitimate threats to his throne his PPV numbers would be better. If he had Liddel or Rampage's flash he'd have huge PPV numbers. If he had Wanderlei or Tito's attitude he'd have huge PPV numbers.

I saw in one article that Silva is flirting with boxing after retirement from MMA. I think he could be a hell of a boxer.

Silva had a fight in the works with Roy Jones. But the UFC wouldnt sign off on it.

Also I agree with you it is more of a combination of his opponents than Silva himself. He is very humble, quiet, and respectful. But his fights in my opinion are very exciting. He has some devastating knockouts. The fact that he is fighting Patrick Cote next is a joke. It sounds like Dana White is trying to set up one of the following:

Anderson vs Wanderlei
Anderson vs Shogun
Anderson vs Chuck

If he pulls off any of those the PPV buys will come.

(Side note: Lesnar vs Couture is expected to draw 1 million buys, they are already over 350,000.)

Looks like he will at least fight out his contract, which is 6 more fights.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/5351/manag...ement-talk.mma

Given more time and training Brock Lesnar could end up being very legit.

Before his WWE Days he was a 2 time NCAA Heavyweight Wrestling National Champion...so it's not like he doesn't have something of a solid background to build on.