UFC 82 Review: All Hail the King

One fact was inescapable in the the hype leading up to UFC 82: in Dana White's mind, Anderson Silva is the best pound for pound fighter in the world. White's campaign for Silva has been relentless since UFC 77, and deservedly so given Silva's reign of terror in the UFC (6-0 by way of 4 KOs and 2 submissions, all without leaving the second round). The Countdown show for UFC 82 was filled with enough references to Silva's status as "the best pound for pound fighter in the world" to leave even the skeptic subliminally convinced.

Saturday night Silva proved White right, turning in another stunningly brilliant performance that cemented his place on the throne of MMA. Simply put, there is no one in the sport today with the air of invincibility that surrounds Silva. Georges St. Pierre is undoubtedly the superior athlete, but make no mistake about it, until GSP decimates a division the way the Silva has, there can be no debate: Anderson Silva is the undisputed King of MMA.

What Silva means to business remains to be seen, he has yet to prove himself as a pay-per-view draw, but has arguably been hampered by a lack of marque challengers in the middleweight division. For all his accolades, Rich Franklin, Silva's most prominent opponent, has never shown to be much of a pay-per-view draw himself. Given Dan Henderson's limited exposure in the United States, its hard to imagine this event being Silva's pay-per-view breakout, but its possible given the undisputed champion angle, plus Silva's dominance and Henderson's high profile loss to Quinton Jackson last September.

Where Silva goes from here is a question mark. The next obvious fight is Yushin Okami who holds the last victory over Silva, albeit by disqualification. Regardless of Silva's stature, that fight will mean very little for business. The biggest money matches on the table for Silva at 185 would come in the form of welterweights Matt Hughes and the aforementioned St. Pierre.

The most predictable direction would be Silva-Okami in the late summer leading to a big match for Silva in December against either Hughes or St. Pierre stepping up in weight. There has been some talk of Silva stepping up to Light Heavyweight, but that seems premature with that division already stacked, not to mention whether or not Silva truly has the body to compete at 205.

In the post event press conference, White said that he was working on some major things for Silva, but declined to tip his hand. Leading up to the fight Silva talked about challenging the top boxers in his weight class following a win over Henderson. Most inside the industry believe that a major boxer v. mixed martial-artist fight is bound to happen eventually, once the money is right. Could White have something up his sleeve? Only time will tell.

The rest of the live card was exciting at times, but sorely lacking in star power. The entire card was promoted solely on the strength of the main event, which combined with a relatively bland under card, created, for better or worse, a big time boxing feel. Whether that was the shadow casted by a highly anticipated main event or the first effects of dilution, both in product and perceived importance, remains to be seen.

The biggest news coming out of the show was the announcement of Brock Lesnar v. Mark Coleman for in August from Minneapolis. Hind sight being 20/20, that looks like the fight that should have been Lesnar's first. The questions raised before concerning the longevity of Lesnar's drawing power remain, but with Coleman as an opponent, as opposed to the rumored match up with Justin McCully, the odds of another big pay-per-view number are greatly enhanced.