The middle child often has a sense of not belonging.

They fight to receive attention from parents (Zuffa) and others (the fans) because they feel many times they are being ignored or dubbed off as being the same as another sibling (GSP, Brock Lesnar, etc.).

Being in the middle, a child can feel very insecure.

On the flip side, imagine what it must be like to possess confidence levels so incredibly high and powerful, that when a fighter steps into the cage, he already knows that he can beat anyone that the UFC puts across from him.

What result would that have on his levels of performance and psyche?

Well duh…just ask Anderson Silva.

Silva, in case you have been in a NyQuil-induced coma these past few weeks, has been the catalyst to a lot of negative publicity in the sport of MMA.

Screw you Abu Dhabi!! (Just kidding…please don’t kill me).

But you get the point. As far as first impressions go, that definitely sucked.

Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Such is life.

Maybe next week I’ll write about the “MMA Metaphor.”

Society has a funny way of holding a mirror up to itself, don’t you think?

Anyway, I digress.

Is it possible that Silva is super-pissed at the UFC for their continually failed efforts to sign Fedor Emelianenko?

Not likely. It’s not as if Silva would get the first crack at Fedor anyway. That honour would obviously go to the current UFC heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar.

Is Silva angry about his consolation prize—Georges St-Pierre?

The UFC had surely promised to hand over St-Pierre, immediately after the “GSP talks” had started.

Which “talks” you ask?

Well, the “pound-for-pound, best of all time” talks of course.

Fedor was the reigning “King of MMA” (notice I said “was”) for a very long time.

Then came Silva.

Then, not very long after (what…about two months?), the consensus was already starting to shift.

Suddenly, GSP was a legitimate pound-for-pound threat. The hairs on the back of the “Spiders” neck were officially raised at attention.

“How dare MMA fans compare anyone else to my greatness?” thought the all-mighty Silva.

Now imagine a Family Guy episode where Peter somehow convinces Anderson Silva that it’s a good idea to cruise through five uneventful rounds in a personally and professionally disappointing beatdown of Demian Maia at UFC 112, just to prove that he is the “best.”

Oh that Peter…isn’t he a stitch?!

In hindsight, as distasteful as that particular fight was, it was still an incredible and impressive display of passive dominance.

Silva easily could have ended that fight, but instead, he chose not to. We all know that.

After a bit of post-fight reflection, I think that my view on the number one pound-for-pound fighter has once again, shifted back (cripes…make a decision already!).

In my mind, Silva may now be the hands down—number one.

“But James, what about your ‘Golden Boy’ and Canadian MMA Ambassador, Georges St-Pierre?” asked the incredibly good lookin’ fight fan.

Sadly, in this business, you’re only ever as good as you were in your last fight.

Sorry…I don’t make the rules.

With such odd behaviour, does anyone else think that it’s at all possible that Silva wanted to get fired from the UFC?

Think about it.

At the very least, maybe he was daring Dana White to do it?

[INSERT POWER STRUGGLE HERE]

Strikeforce isn’t going anywhere by the way, despite the post-fight brawl on CBS, and Silva getting fired by the UFC…well…let’s just say, Strikeforce and M-1 Global would have been able to come to amicable terms very quickly.

Silva vs. Fedor would surely clear things up for both of these men.

Then again, on second thought…what about Jose Aldo as the best pound-for-pound fighter?

Or how about Ben Henderson?

Special thanks to the WEC fighters for reminding us all why we truly love the sport of MMA. In the future, let’s just hope that the good will continue to outweigh the bad.

For my next article, I will discuss the reason why this sport isn’t going anywhere, any time soon.

Stay tuned.