Jean Silva should be the next man across the cage from Alexander Volkanovski, and the loudest voice working against that happens to share a gym with the champion.
Four days after Volkanovski stopped Movsar Evloev at UFC 333, his head coach Joe Lopez went public to say Silva hasn't done enough. "Jean Silva makes a lot of noise, and he's a great fighter, but I don't think he's earned the spot," Lopez said. "There's a lot of guys in front of him that have done a lot better, like Aljo himself is up on the rankings and is a more formidable contender than Jean Silva."
Look at who's talking. Lopez is Volkanovski's coach. He's friends with Aljamain Sterling, and he's admitted a Volkanovski-Sterling fight has already been discussed. He even laid out the route: Sterling fights Kevin Vallejos at UFC Qatar next month, and if Sterling wins, Lopez wants the belt waiting for him. That's a corner man ordering his guy's opponent off the menu and calling it analysis.
The merit pitch doesn't hold up. Painting Silva as a big puncher with nothing else ignores that he out-landed Arnold Allen 74-56 in significant strikes at UFC 324 in January, then choked out Jose Miguel Delgado in the third round at Noche UFC in September. A fighter who wins a striking battle on the cards and then hunts down a rear-naked choke has more than one gear.
There's one real crack in Silva's case: the Diego Lopes fight. Lopes took his back and mauled him before the finish, and nobody disputes that it happened. If you genuinely fear what a grappler does to Silva, fine, Volkanovski can put him on the mat and keep him there. That's the honest reason to look elsewhere.
Now weigh what Sterling offers. His featherweight run sits at 3-1, built on wins over Brian Ortega and Calvin Kattar. Both men have since collapsed: Ortega has dropped most of his recent fights, and Kattar is deep into a losing skid. They weren't in freefall on the nights Sterling beat them, but you can't point to two veterans who've fallen apart since as proof Sterling is "more formidable" than a man who just finished a UFC opponent.
The rankings Lopez leans on put Sterling at No. 4 and Silva at No. 5 this week. One spot. That gap is a coin flip, and he's treating it like a canyon because the coin came up his friend.
Plenty in the sport see it the other way. Demetrious Johnson called Silva the more dangerous fight, "young, athletic, not scared," and said if he had to choose, he's taking Silva. Sterling, for his part, said "hell no" to Silva jumping the line and wants him to beat someone else first.
Sterling hasn't even fought Vallejos yet. Silva has two wins banked and the far better fight to sell. If the UFC lets the champion's own camp talk it into the quieter, friendlier booking and stamps "rankings" on the paperwork, that's on the matchmakers, and Silva gets robbed for the crime of being too dangerous to invite.
Give Silva the shot. If Volkanovski's people would rather not see him, they should say so plainly instead of hiding it behind a rankings chart.
