UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva will be bigger and quite possibly better when he steps into the cage Saturday night against light-heavyweight James (The Sandman) Irvin,

Looking for a challenge, the 185-pound mixed martial arts king agreed to move up to 205 pounds to face Irvin in a televised card (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET) designed to take some of the spotlight away from Affliction's debut show the same night on pay-per-view from Anaheim, Calif.

Silva (22-4) is 6-0 in the UFC and has never seen the third round. He is widely seen as the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter on the planet.

The Brazilian is a long, lanky six-foot-two who normally walks around at 210 pounds, according to manager Ed Soares. In training for Irvin, Silva has been between 215 and 220.

Not counting the 20-pound weighted vest he has been wearing in training.

"So he's actually between 235 and 240 as he's sparring, because a lot of people were concerned that with the extra weight on, that he was going to be slower. ... actually I think he will be just as quick, if not quicker now," Soares said.

That's a scary prospect. The 33-year-old Silva already possesses a combine harvester-like attack of whirring fists, elbows and legs. Combine that with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and seemingly endless supply of confidence and Silva is very dangerous.

U.S. Olympic sprinters have also been wearing weighted vests from dawn to dusk in the weeks leading up to Beijing, to improve their explosiveness when they compete for real without them.

Silva has changed his training regimen for the move to light-heavyweight, altering his weight program, cardio work and even nutrition, eating more carbohydrates than he normally would.

"When he's inside the Octagon, just because of his body shape he looks still very lean, very tall and very lanky," said Soares. "But when you get up close to him, you can see he's a big guy. He's not small guy. He just has that appearance because he's so tall and lanky. But he's muscle all the way around."

Irvin (14-4-1, 4-3 in the UFC) normally walks around at a solid 230 and expects to outweigh Silva by 20 pounds fight night. He hopes that extra weight will help him control the Brazilian.

Either way he says he will be easy to find inside the cage Saturday night.

"I'm going to go in there and I'm going to try and take the rifle out of his hands and I'm going to try and hunt him down the whole time," he said. "I have nothing to prove, I have nothing to lose. It's a win-win fight for me. ... I think I'm going to shock a lot of people, I plan on it."

Still the bookmakers have Silva a 5-1 favourite.

Irvin, 29, hits hard and has a good chin. He is coming off an eight-second knockout of Houston (The Assassin) Alexander.

"I think he's definitely a valid contender, a valid opponent," Soares said. "He does have the fastest knockout in UFC history ... So he's got heavy hands. He's big, he's strong, he's quick, so I think it's a great challenge. Anderson and his whole team, all of us are really looking forward to seeing this happen.

"Anderson is taking this very seriously. He's not underestimating James Irvin whatsoever."

Irvin, also listed at 6-2, says at least three fighters turned down the chance to face Silva before he accepted. There was no hesitation from the Silva camp. Soares said the offer came by text on Father's Day, a Sunday. The deal was done by Monday evening.

"Basically when Dana White put up the opportunity he jumped at the challenge," Soares said. "It wasn't something that he (Silva) was planning on ... but he wants to challenge himself and he felt that this fight at 205 pounds - and being on short notice - it was the kind of challenge he really needed to motivate him right now."

Silva has hinted that his friendship with 205-pound contender Lyoto Machida will limit his foray into the 205-pound ranks. But Soares says there are no specific plans other than "to create the biggest fights possible for him."

"If there's big fights out there at the 205-pound weight division, that are the fights that the fans and the world want to see, that the UFC thinks they can make big fights out of and that challenge him, that's what he wants to do."

One possible super-fight could happen if 170-pound (welterweight) champion Georges. St. Pierre of Montreal moves up in weight.

"I think Georges St. Pierre is a very great fighter but I think Georges St. Pierre still has to prove himself in the 170-pound division," Soares said. "He hasn't even successfully defended his title once. So I think that anything is a possibility. ... But as of right now, I still think Georges St. Pierre needs to prove himself a little more in the welterweight division."

St. Pierre defends his title against Jon Fitch at UFC 87 on Aug. 9 in Minneapolis.

Silva has essentially seen off all contenders in the middleweight ranks, although title defences are slated for later this year against Japan's Yushin Okami and Montreal's Patrick Cote.

"I don't have anything against those guys but right now I'm focused on James Irvin," Silva said through an interpreter. "Okami and Cote aren't even in my mind."

Notes: The UFC says unbeaten light-heavyweight Lyoto Machida will meet Thiago Silva at UFC 89 on Oct, 18 in Birmingham, England. Other confirmed bouts include Shane Carwin versus Neil Wain in a matchup of unbeaten heavyweights, welterweight Akihiro Gono versus Dan Hardy, and light-heavyweight Rameau Sokoudjou versus Luiz Cane, The main event features middleweights Michael Bisping and Chris Leben.

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