Only in terms of Marketing, seriously in that division who is who has not already had a shot cos the only other fighter I can think of that fits that description is Bisping.
Sick really that a tallent like Palhares can be stuck on the back shelf for so long maybe even spend past his prime years there when he should be fight the best and be considered a contender, just shows you how the hype game can rob the fighters with the talent for there chances.
Even his 2 losses in the UFC are fortuitous, the Nate one is fairly famous when he stopped fighting to try to talk to the ref and Nate jumped in and finished the fight, and no it did not look like he was going to loose it not for that incident, and the Hendo fight was a very early fight for him in the UFC, Hendo beat him fair but had his problmes with him, never came close to finishing him, looking back on that fight I think he learned from his loss.
Since then he uses striking to set up his takedowns much better and even look very dangerous on the feet, in the Hendo fight he did not even try and trow any strikes not even to set up a TD, he was just set up in position trying to move around a little and try to find an chance to shoot the double, was obvious and predictable for Hendo just to stay out of his shot zone and catch counter strikes after stuffing the TD's, so thats exactly what he did and took a fair and well worked decision, but looking back down I think that was probably the first time someoen was able to stuff his TD's so he underestamated the level os TD defence fighters like Hendo have in the UFC.
Now when you watch him fight he does not set up like that any more he uses strikes and set up his shots from there, and he look pretty dam good at it as well, I would seriously have my money on him to win in a rematch with ether of those 2 Hendo or Nate, I would think he would be a real threat at 170lb as well, in fact if he was to cut weight tomorrow make 170lb and fight GSP for the title I would bet on him to win but thats another story and hard to call since we have never seen him at 170lb but still it would not stop me placing my money on him.
Truth is I think stylistically Silva is very bad opponent for his, so is Bisping, not to say that he could not pull something off in those matches, but considering he is the smallest MW in the UFC and is actually smaller in height than a lot of LW's and even some FW's, I think he should move to WW and I tell you guys now if he does that and his skills and strengths carry across nicely at that weight, fighters like GSP and Kos, Fitch the WW out bound wrestler, those guys are fcuked, the GSP gay lovers out there may cry "he woudl keep it standing" if you thin a few quick jabs are going to stop the Tree Stuck stalking you down till you are down think again.