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Anderson Silva has lost his smile and Roy Jones Jr. is loving it

By Zach Arnold | April 21, 2009

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The article of the day comes to us from The Los Angeles Times, discussing Roy Jones Jr. vs Jeff Lacy set for this Summer in Tampa. However, that’s not what has caught everyone’s attention:

Jones maintains he still intends to box Anderson Silva, the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champ who successfully defended his title Saturday with a unanimous decision over Thales Leites in Montreal.

“I can’t wait for Anderson to get done with his [UFC] contract, whenever that is — I’ve heard [September] — then let’s get it on,” Jones said.

Is this what everything has ultimately come to? Anderson Silva vs. Roy Jones Jr. in a boxing match instead of Anderson Silva making money in UFC? If I’m going to use the “losing his smile” reference, I may as well go all the way with the Montreal flashbacks — Anderson Silva is screwing Anderson Silva. Does that mean Anderson’s vaseline usage is the second Montreal Screwjob? (Montreal will live on forever in the fight game. It’s not my fault.)

Chuck Liddell is not retired… just yet

KSBY in San Luis Obispo is reporting that Chuck Liddell will likely sit down with his trainer, John Hackleman, and make a decision about what to do next in his career. According to Hackleman, Liddell has one fight left on his UFC contract. One final payday on the big stage?

Topics: Boxing, Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

21 Responses to “Anderson Silva has lost his smile and Roy Jones Jr. is loving it”

  1. robthom says:

    Weird.
    I had never considered that anderson fooling around with that grease could have been intentional and related to his recent disdainful performances.

    That must be far fetched, but people do weird things sometimes.

    As far as chuck, somebody is gonna have to save him from himself. I saw a gif yesterday where Dana pats him on the back after the fight and he went crashing into the cage like he was literally drunk.
    It didn’t look good at all.

    And that in addition to a rather interesting observation by Evens that the way chucks chin and reflexes have deteriorated so badly so rapidly could be a sign of possible or imminent damage already.

    Somebody needs to go ahead and ease him down because he wont stop himself.

  2. Kelvin says:

    Pretty sure Silva’s contract isn’t up in September…unless he’s(RJJ) talking 2010.

  3. Ultimo Santa says:

    Chuck Liddell talks like he’s an old punch-drunk boxer – he always has. Maybe he had brain damage a long time ago?

    And the last person Chuck should be talking to about his career is John Hackleman, unless he’s been recently certified as a neurosurgeon and we didn’t know about it.

    Anderson Silva has definitely lost his smile, but not in the HBK way where we know he’s going to comeback better than ever…it’s in this strange delusions of grandeur way where he thinks he’s already a MMA legend, and now wants to become a boxing legend.

    How many MMA fans want Anderson to leave the sport to box? And how many boxing fans a. know who he is, and b. care about him fighting Jones Jr.?

    I don’t really blame A.Silva for being bored at MW though…with silly match-ups vs. guys like Cote and Leites, he’s probably wondering where the real opponents are. UFC’s booking decisions with him have been retarded lately.

  4. Alan Conceicao says:

    Roy Jones/Anderson Silva is a spectacle sort of fight and spectacles work with MMA fans. Don’t believe me? Look at Brock Lesnar, Ken Shamrock/Tito I-III, Royce/Hughes, Kimbo Slice, and Gina Carano sometime. Not to say that it will garner 700,000 buys, but it will do healthy business and probably be somewhat profitable.

    I don’t take his talk of it as “boredom”, but rather a bargaining chip against the UFC he prefers to play. If the UFC was willing to pay him the kind of money he’ll get to box (and lose) to Roy Jones for, he’d shut up about boxing instantly. Its the same reason he doesn’t go fight at light heavy or heavyweight on a whim. Why should he? They can’t force him to.

  5. Ultimo Santa says:

    If Anderson wants more $$$ and more competition, a fight against the winner of Lesnar/Mir should provide both.

    Or maybe a fight against Rashad Evans (if he beats Machida).

    For me it’s a little odd to keep referring to Silva as :the best in the world” when he’s a 6’2, 220 pound fighter who can no longer finish Middleweights that aren’t even top 10.

  6. Alan Conceicao says:

    Okay, let’s say he fights Rashad Evans. Neither guy is a megadraw, so it does 550,000 PPVs and Anderson makes a few hundred thousand more for that fight than he would if he fought the next middleweight bum of the month. Difference? He’s taking massive risk with his MMA career.

    Now, look at Roy. Roy is admittedly way better as a boxer and would likely win, but he’s glassjawed and would be 41-42 or so when the fight finally happens. And Anderson would be getting paid millions. If he made, say, $4 million dollars, well, that’s more than anyone in the UFC is getting paid right now. Certainly a lot more than the UFC will offer him to fight anyone. So the UFC has the option of paying him the money he wants or just giving him these second rate guys and paying him the same. Doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see what’s happening.

  7. The Citizen says:

    I’m glad this was posted. When your boss prevents you from growing, you automatically are placed in a situation that no longer feels fun.
    Dana W prevented Anderson from getting his boxing match (Anderson is under UFC contract) and he openly dissed him after his fight, which of course created a media and sheep-fan related domino effect of a lot of people hating on Anderson Silva.

    A fighter like Anderson is creative and always learning — being held back, then being ridiculed for winning is not something he could be enjoying right now.

    Perhaps the boxing match would draw a nice payday for Mr. Silva — but will we ever find out?

  8. Ivan Trembow says:

    Anderson Silva’s contract, like all UFC contracts when you’re a champion, is essentially a lifetime contract that renews itself indefinitely at the same pay rate until he loses. Not that such a clause would ever hold up in court if challenged, but it would take a very long time to get through the court system and it doesn’t help that the Fertittas’ campaign contributions helped get at least one judge in Nevada elected (as evidenced by one of the judges in Xyience case publicly thanking the Fertittas on his web site).

  9. A. Taveras says:

    Let him have his boxing match. The upside is great, the downside almost nil especially after these last couple performances.

  10. Ultimo Santa says:

    Anderson Silva is worth $4 million dollars to the boxing community, but only a few hundred thousand in MMA? Really?

    I don’t know how that works exactly, but if that’s even close to true I can’t blame him for wanting this boxing match.

  11. Alan Conceicao says:

    Another spectacle already: Sapp/Lashley verbally agreed to for a new promotion in Mississippi. Can we finally give up the whole “no one will want to promote MMA after ______ goes out of business now” thing? People have been saying that since Battlecade.

  12. Ivan Trembow says:

    “Anderson Silva is worth $4 million dollars to the boxing community, but only a few hundred thousand in MMA? Really?”

    That would be the case if not for the fact that UFC contracts include a no-compete clauses for life (as long as he’s the champion). However, there is no way that would hold up in court. It would be extremely unlikely to find a court that would uphold a voluntarily-signed six-year no-compete clause (like the one Brock Lesnar signed with WWE in 2004), and there’s no court that would uphold a voluntarily-signed no-compete clause for life.

  13. Ivan Trembow says:

    Wow, I can’t believe that I didn’t notice this sooner. The best line of the night from any MMA media outlet about UFC 97 was this from Jake Rossen’s play-by-play blog of the event:

    “Channing Tatum Def. High-Quality Cinema (TKO, 2:01 of “Fighting”)”

    Also, I am surprised to hear that E:60 may have actually asked some of the tough questions that need to be asked when they interviewed Dana White. E:60 is more often than not a softball outlet. Oh, and what a great job by the credentialed MMA media by failing to ask Dana White about that subject during any of the press conferences before and after UFC 97. Don’t want to risk losing those credentials, right?

  14. Zack says:

    Give Extreme Fighting its due…they were the first to have weight classes right? I wish EF3 would come out on DVD. Mo Smith vs Silvera was the shit.

  15. EJ says:

    Anderson is really playing with fire here he should know that you don’t screw around with Dana. The guy has already taken a huge hit on his reputation as a fighter the last thing he needs is to be made another example of by Zuffa.

  16. robthom says:

    “That would be the case if not for the fact that UFC contracts include a no-compete clauses for life (as long as he’s the champion).”

    Wouldn’t that be for MMA?
    If anderson wants to box so bad, and he’s gonna get a million dollars, and he plans on retiring from MMA anyway.
    He could just retire and go start boxing I would think.

    Maybe he’s just milking this for as long as he can and then go get his million dollars.

    I dont think its a matter of lack of a challenge because if that was the case he could head up to 205 where he would be challenged. Hard!

    He’s cleared out 185. He knows it as well as everybody, and he has chosen to stay put and coast where the money is easier.

    Not exactly irrational, but it is what it is.

    Hopefully Bisping is an unrecognized wonder and knocks his block off.
    Or Hendo came back on vanderlei.
    Now he’ll know what he’s dealing with with anderson the second time.

    Jitz isn’t gonna do it. And his hands are too fast and accurate to get out boxed by most MMA guys.
    Maybe its a powerful and skilled wrestler that will finally put him where he’s not so smug anymore.

  17. Alan Conceicao says:

    Give Extreme Fighting its due…they were the first to have weight classes right? I wish EF3 would come out on DVD. Mo Smith vs Silvera was the shit.

    A lot of defunct promotions were awesome. Back during the dark days of the sport the WEF was running better shows than the UFC with the UFCs own fighters. Affliction will be like the EF of its time: Short run, really big names, some really good fights.

    That’s not so much my point though. All we’ve heard for years now is that the UFC will run everyone out of town and no one will want to start new promotions or sink money into MMA because it will be just like pro wrestling, but with the chubby irish-american dude playing the part of the heavily roided up irish-american dude. But it keeps happening anyways.

  18. Kenny says:

    That would be interesting to see the match between Jones and Silva, definitely would be a huge event. Bring the best of both worlds together.

  19. Ivan Trembow says:

    In response to Post #17— No, from Zuffa’s perspective, they would view Anderson Silva essentially as their property and he would not be able to do boxing, either. That was the final breaking point in the Fedor negotiations: In addition to not wanting to sign a contract that contained a no-compete clause for life if he became champion, the UFC was also unwilling to let Fedor represent his country in Sambo events. Again, the no-compete clause for life would never hold up in court, probably not even with judges that got elected with the help of Fertitta campaign contributions.

  20. Mark says:

    @Ultimo Santa:

    I’ve noticed Liddell slurring before too, but it isn’t consistent as it would be if he was brain damaged. So I think he’s just drunk in some interviews. And then there’s whatever he was on during “Good Morning Dallas”. Black tar heroin perhaps?

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