The New Year’s show has become something of a tradition for the UFC. For the past three years, it’s been the biggest show of the year, a celebration of sorts to end the year and promise another year of big things to come. Only this year, the card is not exactly shaping up the way the UFC hoped.
Anderson Silva’s mysterious elbow injury is acting up again. It has a sneaky habit of flustering UFC plans when they don’t give him what he wants. Such is life when you tie fighter salary to PPV buyrates. It’s easy to understand why Silva isn’t excited about fighting Belfort. Belfort is not a PPV draw and never has been, and the show is unlikely to beat the 500,000 buy mark if the co-main event is Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva.
The answer to the UFC 108 impasse lies with Chuck Liddell, who has made a lot of noise about returning. Everyone knows he will fight again, the only questions are when and against who? The ideal answers to those questions are as follows: Mark Coleman at UFC 108.
Coleman is now free after pulling out of his fight with Ortiz, and suggested he could return for the New Year’s show. Liddell’s return against a fellow hall of famer would add a real draw to the card, and would probably convince Anderson Silva’s doctor to clear him to fight Vitor Belfort. A show with Anderson-Vitor, Chuck-Coleman, and Rashad-Silva would actually do very well on PPV, and would be a big enough card to end the year on.
Some have suggested a fight between Anderson Silva and Rashad Evans. The fight would be a much bigger draw than Vitor-Silva to the casual fan, especially with Rashad coming off TUF. However, Dana White still wants to promote Rashad Evans vs. Rampage Jackson, and a devastating loss to Silva would really hurt interest in that fight.