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Demian Maia on UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva: “I don’t like fake people… he’s a fake humble guy… or he’s bi-polar.”
By Zach Arnold | June 9, 2010
If you haven’t seen this video from the Inside MMA show yet, watch it. I have a transcript of all the quotes in this post.
It really is amazing to see how much talk there is about Anderson Silva after this fight. Remember the initial reaction from everyone after his UFC 112 fight? People were swearing up and down that they would never pay to see him fight again, Dana White went on Jim Rome’s ESPN show and said he would cut him if he had another clown act performance, so on and so forth. But look what’s happened — the UFC 112 fight has only added to Anderson’s mystique with the fans and talking heads. He’s transformed from this incredible pound-for-pound best champion to a guy who 90% of the population wants to see him get his ass kicked by somebody, anybody, any time he fights in the future. The question to complete that equation now is whether or not people will pay to see an ass-kicking attempt or if fans will sit on the sidelines and wait to hear about it before perhaps ordering a replay or not ordering a show on PPV.
Over/under 500,000 PPV buys for Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen?
Transcript of the video clip:
KENNY RICE: “We like to do this because we never said anything on this show that we would not say to the fighter or anybody else involved if we actually saw them in person. We have second-guessed the fight, panelists have second-guessed the fight, some other fighters have. Demian Maia is here with us, today. Finally, let’s talk about probably the most controversial fight that didn’t involve a judges’ decision and of course was his fight for the belt with Anderson Silva. Ron Kruck has the reaction from some other Monday Morning Quarterbacks who also happen to be fighters.”
FRANK MIR: “I felt it was disrespectful towards Maia. I know Maia personally. I can’t imagine him upsetting anybody or saying anything bad about anybody. I think that the reason why we’re all upset is because I think if [Anderson Silva] wanted to be a showman, just knock people out.”
MAYHEM MILLER: “Yeah, you know, he showed off and shuck and jived and whatever, but you know I think he was just partially [frustrated], I mean he figured he was going to take Maia out. I don’t really fault him for that. He thought he was going to take him out but he gassed himself out do the cha-cha slide, you know what I’m saying?”
FRANKIE EDGAR: “I mean I’ve heard all the hoopla and all of that but you know a lot of people give him flack for this and that but as soon as he goes knocks someone out, everybody forgets about it.”
HERSCHEL WALKER: “I don’t blame Anderson at all. What I got to do is blame the opponent. Your opponent has got to take it to him and when Anderson was getting down, bowing down, getting down, the guy should have attacked him.”
MATT SERRA: “I don’t know what the hell’s going on. He might have tried to… he was doing good in the beginning and then it just got weird. I don’t know, man. You tell me what the hell was that!”
CUNG LE: “It’s the not first time, I believe he’s done that once or twice before so you know I don’t think it’s good for the sport.”
ROBBIE LAWLER: “Well I didn’t really like the way he acted in the ring but Demian’s going to push the issue. If he doesn’t like it, do something about it.”
DAN HENDERSON: “It is unfortunate because he has a lot of talent and he just you know didn’t use it for whatever reason and you know I think it’s almost disrespectful to his opponent and you know the fans.”
BOBBY LASHLEY: “I think that Anderson Silva, I think he’s a great champion and I don’t see anything wrong with what he did. He went out there and had some great shots and if you look at the fight afterwards, Maia’s face was tore up. So he did piece him apart all the way through the fight and like I said, if you’re fighting for the title you have to go take the title from the champion.”
TREVOR PRANGLEY: “I think it was disgusting. I think it was disrespectful to Maia and to the sport and to the fans. I don’t think anybody paid to see that, you know what I mean? It’s… if you’re that much better than the guy you should finish him fast and don’t go out there and try to make a fool out of him, I just think it’s very disrespectful.”
RON KRUCK: “Guys, even though the Silva/Maia fight was almost two months ago, it’s still a very hot topic in the MMA world. I’m sure your guest has an opinion on the fight as well. Back to you in L.A.”
KENNY RICE: “All right, and first off, compliments to Demian who sat here like a true gentleman and professional that he is and listened to everybody else talk about your fight for the belt with Anderson Silva and what you could have done differently or his antics, were they over the top. How do you feel about this, now a couple of months to let it all absorb?”
DEMIAN MAIA: “OK, the first few rounds I think the fight was like you know I’m analyzing the fight. If I’m analyzing the fight, it’s like the first rounds I think I was respecting him too much, I think it was like OK if the guy catches me with a punch he’s going to be knock me out, so I respected him too much. He didn’t commit too much also but he landed some good jabs and one kick or two. So, in the end of third round I turned and I started to you know go more to fight and you know try to get the belt, but I think I could turn a little bit before my way of fight. I think he was disrespectful for not just because, you know people in the United States they don’t understand what he was talking, you know why he was talking during the fight is just… it’s OK if you do his clowning and his stuff you know because it’s his way of game but the problem is like why he’s talking you know [expletive] you know and bad things…”
KENNY RICE: “What did he say?”
DEMIAN MAIA: “He said a lot of you know bad things. I don’t want to even want to say but he was saying like bad things, I don’t know why because I never had any issue with him you know. It’s small things but never, actually we have many friends that they are big fans of him and big fans of mine, we train together, but I never you know I don’t have nothing against him but I just think you know before the fight he came to me, ‘hey, how are you doing?’ and then after you know looks like fake for me you know and Anthony (Johnson) was saying one thing, not about Anderson, but he said that you know about one guy. OK, this guy, he talks bad [expletive] on another guy but he’s himself you know, so as soon as you are yourself it’s OK but I don’t like fake people and for me he was just fake. He’s a fake humble guy, you know. He’s like, ‘ohohohohoh’. And then after he’s like… he starts talking [expletive]. He doesn’t know or he’s bi-polar, I don’t know, he doesn’t know why he does, you know.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Under 500K.
#1 the card is weak and will also come off of Lesnar-Carwin which will do over a million buys more than likely.
#2 more importantly, Anderson Silva has the wrong kind of heat with fans right now. The kind where they’re pissed off they’ve wasted $135 on his lousy Middleweight showings. So you really expect them to be ready to piss away another $45 to a fight that is guaranteed to suck no matter who wins? Just because some guy goes on the Countdown shows and makes some lame jokes about Brazilians where he screws up the punchline on and calls him a coward 82 times? I don’t see that happening. Maybe if Silva had a good fight in between the Maia one and this, but not now.
And I hope Sonnen realizes when he buries Silva for not wanting to fight and being afraid of him, he’s also telling people Silva is going to stink up the joint as well.
Please Explain how on earth you think UFC 117 is weak. Dos Santos/Roy Nelson, Almeida/Hughes, Jon Fitch/Thiago Alves does not make a PPV weak add Rick Story vs Dustin Hazlett on the undercard is brilliant matchmaking. All very even fights that dosen’t have a big underdog.
It just feel’s like people love to hate on thing’s for no apparent reason.
I say 500k is very much what I would expect UFC 117 to do maybe even 650k.
Weak from a casual fan interest point of view, which is where they get their over-500K buys from.
1) Neither Dos Santos nor Nelson are proven draws. And neither would deserve a title shot with the win. Honestly it’s time for UFC to stop dragging their feet and have their new HWs start fighting each other after this. And before the rankings nerds start up about “TWO TOP TEN GUYZ~!”, realize again I am speaking of the casual fans who do not care about rankings, only starpower.
2) Nobody cares about Almeida-Hughes but the hardcores.
3) Nobody wants to watch Jon Fitch fights. It’s two guys fighting for the chance to be outclassed by GSP again. Whoopty-do.
The internet is going a good job promoting UFC 117, I’ll say that. Not because the matchup is super good or because Sonnen is a dangerous match on paper (he isn’t), but because Sonnen is “cutting good promos”. Oh, MMA Media. You hilariously sad thing, you.
You’re right, people are acting ridiculous gushing over Sonnen interviews.
But in their defense, “promos” blinded a ton of people into not realizing Jackson-Evans was going to suck. It turned into “OMG THEY’RE SO PISSED AT EACH OTHER THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE AN EPIC SLUGFEST~!” instead of being what it really was on paper and in reality: Rampage covered in ringrust getting tooled by a guy who had been fighting regularly and having to look to headhunt as his only prayer of winning.
But this time it won’t work. Because people are legitimately angry with Silva in the non-money-making way, and because people had an emotional investment in both Evans and Rampage but most casuals vaguely know who Sonnen is. And even if you’ve seen all of his fights you still don’t really give a crap about him because he’s not worth getting excited over.
“#1 the card is weak and will also come off of Lesnar-Carwin which will do over a million buys more than likely.”
Actually, if you take a look at past performance, the UFC tends to get a carryover from big selling events and (Brock cards in particular) rather than a dropoff. There is definitely a halo effect for cards that are immediately after mega-events.
When you have a strong card, yes. This is hardly a UFC 100 loaded show going to a Penn/Florian and Griffin/Silva double main event. Hell, the Lesnar show isn’t even close to “loaded” either.
It’s a very strong PPV. The big problem is that mist of the fights have a chance of being horribly boring.
I think Silva might be getting heat with hardcore fans, but casual fans just aren’t going to buy his events anymore.
I like the card, myself. Most of the fights have a purpose, and the ones that don’t really lead to anything should be more than just bad kickboxing (Dos Anjos/Guida). I know there are people who probably don’t like Hughes/Almedia as a fight, but I don’t watch MMA for other people. I can’t wait to see that.
I think anderson silva is not the type of guy who has a killer instinct and wants to knock people out. Most of his knock outs have been from a combination that take out his opponent. But I never see him trying to go for a knockout punch, but combinations that lead to knockouts cuz he is very good. I dont blame a guy for not going for a knockout. But when you dodge a fighter and clown like that you lose some respect.
But Maia should have gone after him
I think it has a good chance to do 500k buys and if it does it will be because of Sonnen hyping up the fight. Anderson has turned off alot of people, they are tired of his act and if it wasn’t for Sonnen pushing the issue this card would have a chance to underperform because of the Silva backlash from fans.
“I think anderson silva is not the type of guy who has a killer instinct and wants to knock people out.” Tell that to Chris Leban and Rich Franklin not to mention Forest. I really want to see this fight because Sonnen is a disrespectful ass and a boring as hell fighter with a big mouth. Second there is a chance that dude from the the fights i just listed shows up and beats Sonnen’s ass.