Jackson vs Silva To Fight at UFC 93 Now?

All of you Anderson "The Spider" Silva fans can breath easy out there (and I know that there are a lot of you out there). Apparently all of the Silva retirement talk was just that - talk. MMA Junkie, in an article titled "Manager: No truth to recent Anderson Silva retirement talk", dispelled the rumors that had been actively making the rounds over the past few days.

Ed Soares, manager of the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, made a public statement in which he declared that Anderson Silva was planning on honoring his current contract that included another six fights. He said that Anderson's goal was to "retire when he is 35", meaning that Silva would have at least another 18 months left of fighting in him.

So while Silva certainly appears to have a fixed retirement date in mind, we should be able to enjoy the in-ring domination from the "Spider" for at least a bit longer than first thought.

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Kevin Iole posted in his column today that a "very good source" told him that the Quinton "Rampage" Jackson / Wanderlei Silva fight was likely for UFC 93 now, and not UFC 91. Apparently the situation is very "fluid", meaning that the dates could still change. A UFC 93 date likely makes more sense than UFC 91 - it would give Jackson a bit more time to deal with his current problems, plus UFC 91 is already going to be stacked enough as it is. With a number of high-profile events in Las Vegas in the winter, the UFC needs to make sure that they have a sufficient number of marquee matchups on each card.

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Doubt the drawing power of Brock Lesnar? Don't. Apparently UFC 87 will end up doing approximately 625k in total PPV buys. Maybe those projections of a million+ buys for UFC 91 aren't so outlandish.. and if you are wondering why Lesnar gets so much money and why he is already fighting for the UFC heavyweight championship .. it's all about the $$$.

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The Calm Before the Storm. Right now is a pretty quiet time in the MMA world. Those days are almost over though, as October and November will provide fans of the sport with plenty to talk about. On October 4th, you have the Slice vs Shamrock match on the second edition of EliteXC on CBS. This could very well be their last show on CBS if things continue as they have been for the company. Then, on October 18th, you have Bisping vs Leben at UFC 89. One week later, Anderson Silva will be defending his middleweight title against Patrick Cote at UFC 90. Less than a month later, Couture and Lesnar will be squaring off in one of the biggest MMA events of all time. Business is a bit slow right now, but it's about to pick up.

Sources: MMA Junkie - Manager: No truth to recent Anderson Silva retirement talk

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