Silva wins. Now what?

I’m not sure which question is harder to answer today: Who the hell can give Anderson Silva a challenge? Or, where does Rich Franklin go from here?

Silva’s destruction of Franklin in UFC 77 was so complete and so absolute that it’s hard to imagine anyone inside or outside of the UFC who might be able to beat the Brazilian.

Joe Rogan the master of hyperbole can’t even do Silva justice in his descriptions of Silva. “Anderson Silva is a scary dude,” Rogan said after the fight.

And here’s where it gets difficult for the UFC. Despite the beatdown he took, Franklin is head and shoulders above anyone else in the UFC’s middleweight division.

Mostly likely we’ll see Anderson get matched up against either Yushin Okami or Ryo Chonan, the last two fighters to beat Silva.

Okami, who beat Jason McDonald in their Saturday matchup, has a victory over Silva due to Silva’s disqualification for an illegal kick in their January 2006 meeting at Rumble on the Rock 8.

This is the same Okami who couldn’t get past Franklin in UFC 72.

Then there’s Chonan, who first must beat Karo Parisyan in UFC 78 before he can start thinking about Silva.

While Okami might be the tougher opponent for Anderson, the fight most fans would probably prefer is a rematch with Chonan, whose flying scissor heel hook submission of Anderson in a Pride match was probably one of the best come from behind victories ever.

If you haven’t seen the video, go to Youtube immediately and search it out. Anderson was dominating Chonan, when Chonan pulled off one of the sweetest submissions you’ll ever see. Would Chonan have the brass to try that move a second time? Or would he reach into his bag of tricks and dazzle us with something new like the Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart?

Other than Chonan and Okami, the other two names that get thrown around are Elite XC champ Robbie Lawler and UFC light heavyweight Dan Henderson. UFC president Dana White has been lukewarm in his comments about Lawler and Henderson has steadfastly maintained that he doesn’t want to cut the weight to get down to 185 pounds.

I would suspect that White’s opinion of Lawler might soften a bit in the coming days when he sits down and takes a realistic inventory of his options.

Then there’s Franklin. My interest in a Franklin – Silva rematch is probably right up there with my desire to catch the Spice Girls reunion tour.

Still if Franklin keeps fighting in the UFC and keeps beating back all the other middleweights what then?

Moving down in weight isn’t a realistic option and moving up in weight doesn’t make much sense.

Franklin is still in his prime and is too talented of a fighter to consider retiring, though those thoughts have got to be going through his head after taking the two beatings that he has taken from Silva.

Instead, we might get stuck in some kind of surreal groundhog day where Franklin loses to Silva, goes out and dominates his next three opponents and then finds himself back in the Octagon again against Silva.