Anderson “The Spider” Silva’s (26-4) reign over the UFC middleweight division has been at times less than beautiful, though his superiority has never once been forced into question by any foe to oppose him inside the octagon. Former Pride Fighting Championships title holder and perennial contender Dan Henderson took a round from Anderson, only to succumb to a submission the following frame. Silva easily destroyed another former champ in Rich “Ace” Franklin, and he did it twice without ever facing a trace of danger. Many have challenged for the title, but no one has truly challenged for the title.

Since Rich Franklin has moved up in weight to the 205lb division it looks like it has opened the door to certain fights he's thought about in the passed:

"I always thought about [fighting Liddell]. I wondered what it would be like to fight this person or that person, but I never thought the fight would materialize because I was a 185-pounder, he was a 205-pounder. Both weight classes at the time when we were champions had enough contenders in them that you didn't have to worry about who you were going to fight next to defend your title. Neither one of us needed to ... Chuck's already a UFC Hall of Famer and UFC legend. He's got a who's who of victories. Of course recently he's had a little bit of a rougher road, but it's Chuck Liddell."