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Anderson Silva is no longer safe as a UFC PPV main eventer
By Zach Arnold | April 18, 2009
The greatest line in the history of UFC PBP (about Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites):
The crowd is absolutely furious as both fighters continue their pattern of non-violence.
Suddenly, I think the public perception of GSP beating Anderson Silva in a fight is going to skyrocket. They should book that fight for Montreal immediately.
And I think the concept of the “yakuza vacation fund” yellow cards may indeed be making a comeback here.
Vaseline redux
Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated notes this about the UFC 97 main event:
The champion enters the cage after a coat of Vaseline is slathered on his face. I’m sorry to say this, but it was pretty obvious that Silva took his hands, wiped down his face and rubbed his chest and arms.
Someone please get me a screen capture of this.
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 65 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Silva could have killed Leites. They are friends, from the same country, and clearly have respect for each other. Why would Silva try and knee this guy in the face, for money, for the content of a hundred thousand people?
I completely agree with him, and blame that fight on the matchmakers (Dana and Joe) and ONLY them.
They need to announce Anderson vs Wanderlei, as that will be the only way to make up for this PR mess 🙂
IceMuncher I said Silva is overrated when people (like Dana and his idiot followers) say that Anderson is the best p4p in the world. I didn’t say he wasn’t a great fighter. He is clearly one of the very best, but people who there is no objective criteria I am aware of that anyone could use to make the argument with a straight face that he is better than Fedor p4p.
Fedor has never lost. Anderson has 3 legit losses, including 2 stoppages to guys who suck. Fedor has beaten 5 UFC hw champions and the Pride GP champion and 2 K1 champions. Anderson has beaten Patrick Cote and James Irvin. Fedor has better takedowns, better subs, more powerful punches, better sweeps, and seemingly more of a killer instinct.
Any talk of Wanderlei Silva vs. Anderson Silva (or Wanderlei Silva vs. anyone else, for that matter) should be prefaced by these very important facts.
In his last five fights, Wanderlei Silva has:
1. Gotten brutally knocked out cold by Cro Cop
2. Gotten brutally knocked out cold by Henderson
3. Taken a horrible beating in a unanimous decision loss to Liddell
4. Beaten Jardine
5. Gotten brutally knocked out cold by Jackson
If there was a list of fighters who should retire (for their own sake) as a result of taking too much punishment over the years and suffering too many bad knockouts, Wanderlei Silva would be far higher on that list than Chuck Liddell.
I agree that he has taken some hellacious beatings, but I still would rather see him fight than almost any other mma fighter, and seeing him vs Anderson would be epic. Is he going to get knocked out brutally against Anderson? Yes. Will he also put up more of a fight than anyone Anderson has ever fought? Yes. The Wanderlei vs Franklin fight will provide us some clues as to Wanderlei’s ability to fight at a high level…I personally think that at 185, fighting guys who aren’t naturally much bigger men, Wanderlei will be a serious beast if his chin holds up (which of course is a very big if).
Leben wasn’t the favorite against Silva. The odds were very close though. It was ~+160 to +180 for Leben and ~-160 to -180 for Silva.
If he knocks out Franklin, then the fight works for me. Otherwise I don’t want to see it.
I appreciate Anderson’s skill, but stuff like the front kicks to knee caps and elbowing the foot has nothing to do with counterstriking, it’s just dicking around. Seriously he delivered a short right punch to the thigh just to amuse himself.
It’s mostly the UFC’s fault for not having better contenders. Okami would be just as bad, holds the dubious distinction of having the only boring Rich Franklin fight I’ve ever seen.
It has less to do with counterpunching than Silva knowing Leites’ only chance was to take him down, so he wasnt willing to go into the clinch for fear of being taken down. It makes sense, and he did shut Leites down from guard, which was impressive. If you look at Silva’s wins, some of them are from counterpunching, others (Franklin I, Marquardt, Lutter) aren’t.
Anderson is playing the game like Roy Jones did. He’s taking the excellent money the UFC is handing out to him to beat these second tier guys and constantly talking to them with promises of moves up in weight to fight big names. They can’t just get rid of him: He’s Anderson Silva. And there’s no one they have at 185 that can beat him right now, nor are they willing to outbid DREAM or the other independents for the rights for their top middleweights that might actually be competitive (not cost effective, low chance of success).
My guess is that Anderson doesn’t rush to 205, and if he does, he picks his shots: He might fight Rashad should he beat Lyoto, since Rashad is a smaller light heavyweight. Or someone like Chuck Liddell who poses no threat and provides lots of money. Otherwise? Pfff. Forget it.
As multiple people have already said in the last 24 hours, if Yushin Okami (with his 7-1 UFC record) had fought Anderson Silva and if it had been a boring fight, at least it would have been a boring fight against the fighter most deserving of actually fighting Silva.
When is Okami’s next fight and against whom? I have no idea why he hasn’t been given a title shot yet…That fight would be better than this fight because at least Okami would have a shot at taking Anderson to the ground and Anderson might actually want to hurt him because Okami has a W over him..
Okami’s next fight is on May 23 against Dan Miller, and if you’ve ever seen Dan Miller fight, you know that’s not going to be an easy fight for either of them. One month is close enough to Silva’s last fight that it would be easy to make Okami the next opponent for Silva (if Okami beats Miller, that is), but I’m guessing that Okami literally like 4th or 5th in line as far as Zuffa is concerned. Not counting Anderson Silva’s light heavyweight fights and a potential middleweight fight against GSP, I’d imagine that the Bisping/Henderson winner, Maia, and Marquardt are all ahead of Okami as far as Zuffa is concerned. This is, after all, pro wrestling without pre-determined winners and losers.
What the fans seem to forget is Anderson Silva is the champion and only needs to defend his title.
He doesn’t need to knock the head off his opponent or submit the other fighter, it also shows how casual fans do not appreciate the technical side of MMA, especially in the more popular companies like UFC.
Anderson Silva is officially the best fighter in the UFC (and probably pound for pound) and in my mind he would beat the majority in light heavyweight divison and beat GSP. The fact of the matter is it isnt an entertainment show and the best champions in fighting and sports are often defensive and have the best game plan. Leites will submit you on the ground so jumping on him and trying to ground and pound would not work.
Fans need to fix up and look at the bigger picture,if you excitement check out fake wrestling events.
Joe Rogan and Chuck have it spot on, leave him alone and if you do not like the best fighter in the UFC don’t pay the money to watch it live. A champion and the most successful champion should always be on the main card and the main event period – best fights of the nights are never the title fights so get used to it and stop moaning.
Whether Zuffa actually agrees with your or not Ivan, there have certainly been reports that they’ve tried to make that match before, and it has fallen through.
Danny, I disagree, GSP is the best fighter in the UFC. Anderson Silva isn’t even close.
If they fought, Silva might win, but that’s a weight class thing.
Jeremy— Silva-Okami was never announced, booked, or had bout agreements signed. It was only after Okami broke his hand that the UFC said via their surrogates that Okami would have gotten the title shot instead of Patrick Cote if not for Okami breaking his hand. As for Okami’s standing with UFC management, they gave Thales Leites a title shot ahead of him, deciding instead to book Okami on the December card… in a prelim match… against Dean Lister… while C.B. Dollaway vs. Mike Massenzio was on the main card.
This Anderson Silva bashing is getting out of hand. I strongly disagree that he’s showing a “lack of interest” in his opponents and that he’s “making fun of them”. Anderson respects fighters more than others and he shows this every fight, even Cote and Leites.
I believe Anderson’s shown he’s risen above the rest. A modern-day Bruce Lee essentially. His attacks are always fluid like water and very accurate. His “dancing” is not “dancing”. Think about this, what’s going to keep you guessing about your opponents next move: an opponent who’s stays still (or even bobbing their upper torso left and right) or an opponent who is doing random, quick, jerky movements? Obviously the latter. If Anderson were doing those odd jerky movements, I’d be expecting an attack of some kind even if he doesn’t plan on throwing someone because I know I may accidentally expose myself if I react to his jerky movement. I wouldn’t call it flinching, it’s more anticipation.
I will agree these last two fights weren’t as entertaining but neither Cote or Thales pushed Anderson. I don’t blame them either. Anyone who has pushed Anderson gets KTFO. For UFC it may be all about the money. But some fighters are in it for the respect and challenge. I believe Anderson is one of those fighters and if your doing it for the respect and challenge, no fighter will be stupid. Cote and Thales fought “smart” fights, not pushing Anderson in order to have a chance to win and not let him capitalize on an early mistake.