It's a drooling fever dream for MMA fantasy bookers: an epic tilt between Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. The Spider versus The Dragon. The Muay Thai master against the Shotokan superstar. A battle between the UFC's Middleweight and Light Heavyweight champions, likely at 205. A Silva win would make him the first UFC fighter ever to hold two titles at the same time and put him on the short list of the greatest fighters in history. Machida triumphant would convince every serious MMA fan that he is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and vault him from UFC champion to UFC superstar.

Truly, a great fight, and both fighters are under UFC contract. But as of right now? It's not going to happen. In fact, Silva has said that "there's no point in even asking."

It's not that the weight disparity is too much or that the fighters are ducking each other. Rather, it's a growing problem in the UFC that threatens to give matchmakers fits: friends and teammates refusing to fight one another.

Sportsmanship, not friendsmanship.

Silva and Machida are far from the only fighters under a nonaggression pact. In an interview with MMAJunkie Tyson Griffin stated that it was "an unwritten rule" that fights between training partners should only be for titles, and said that there were plenty of other lightweights to face that weren't fellow contender Gray Maynard. Fighters from American Kickboxing Academy, including welterweights Mike Swick, Josh Koscheck, and Jon Fitch have all expressed that they will not fight each other. When pressed on the question by MMA Fanhouse, Swick dodged, framing it as something that would happen only if absolutely necessary.

This puts the UFC and matchmaker Joe Silva in an awkward spot. While it's a great accomplishment when camps have multiple contenders, fans want to see a contender step out and prove themselves instead of bouncing a line of guys off the champion and seeing who's capable of putting on a good match. It also gives camps undue leverage when pushing for matches. Why should a similarly talented welterweight have to fight an AKA guy to get a shot at GSP when those guys won't fight each other?

Putting aside logistical problems, the refusal to fight speaks to a more philosophical problem in mixed martial arts that you don't see in other sports. In tennis, you would never see people dodging matches because they are friendly with one another; the Williams sisters seem to play at a number of Grand Slam events without trouble when the matchmakers tell them to with little regard for what it means to the other's career to get a win.

Article Author: Matt DeTura

Matt DeTura is a sports nut -- particularly, a big fan of MMA -- currently located in Washington, DC. He can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/mdetura.

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