evan tanner coming back...

Ok...Evan Tanner is announcing he's coming back to the UFC. I like Evan Tanner, I love his style, I hope he does well. But can he compete in the current UFC middleweight division? I think he'll beat the crap out of most of the MW's out there right now, but I also think he'll get utterly destroyed by Anderson Silva. There's a couple fights that sound interesting...Tanner-Marquardt for one...but really, the champ is the one who defines the division, and with The Spider in there, that is the guy Tanner has to measure up to. The real problem comes up when you consider the number two fighter in the division. Rich Franklin beat Evan pretty convincingly. Tanner's going to have to beat Franklin before he can be considered #2...and Franklin is not on the same strata as Silva. So we end up, again, with a man-among-boys situation, where the champ is so much beyond everyone else that it renders every other fight an also-ran situation. So someone runs off 5 wins in middleweight...someone's gotta fight Silva. Do I think Tanner can beat Silva? If he comes in perfect and Silva has an off-day, yes. But outside of that specific situation, no way in hell. Silva's too accurate and hits too hard.
Tanner could make for a few interesting fights in the UFC, but I just don't see him as a legit contender for the belt unless he's changed drastically since his last fights against the cream of the division at the time. I mean, David Louiseau beat the hell out of him.
To turn back on myself one more time, I'd say that with a good solid camp, and a clear head, Tanner could take almost anyone. When he's on, he's dangerous, fast, and knows himself. So who knows? Talk about an X-factor, he's got me runnin' around in circles. I'm looking forward to finding out.