Friend of our site


MMA Headlines


UFC HP


Bleacher Report


MMA Fighting


MMA Torch


MMA Weekly


Sherdog (News)


Sherdog (Articles)


Liver Kick


MMA Junkie


MMA Mania


MMA Ratings


Rating Fights


Yahoo MMA Blog


MMA Betting


Search this site



Latest Articles


News Corner


MMA Rising


Audio Corner


Oddscast


Sherdog Radio


Video Corner


Fight Hub


Special thanks to...

Link Rolodex

Site Index


To access our list of posting topics and archives, click here.

Friend of our site


Buy and sell MMA photos at MMA Prints

Site feedback


Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Joe Rogan: Does Anderson Silva have a stamina problem?

By Zach Arnold | April 29, 2010

Print Friendly and PDF

Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated did an excellent interview with Joe Rogan on his weekly podcast. Because Josh & Joe touched on so many important MMA-related issues, I am going to break down what Joe said into multiple articles and address the points he raised on various topics.

Josh had asked Joe about his thoughts on the UFC 112 event in Abu Dhabi. It was an outdoor event and it was insanely hot, which created a lot of issues for the fighters on the card. Rogan noted an example of how the humidity effected the fighters on the undercard.

“Well, the event, it was really interesting. I mean doing it outside was interesting for the first part. The first fight was Mostapha Al-Turk and Jon Madsen and I’ve never seen two guys sweat more in a fight because it was outside and it was really humid. It was literally like every punch they threw they were throwing cups of water at each other. It was really pretty crazy. I think that had an effect on people’s performances as well you know, I definitely think that’s going to take something away from your ability to push the pace.”

Which leads us to the debacle in the main event with Anderson Silva, as he was facing Demian Maia and Maia, somehow, became a huge crowd favorite by the end of the fight. Joe tried to psychoanalyze what was going on in Anderson’s mind and why he behaved the way he did.

“I mean, who knows what the hell was going on in Anderson’s mind, you know. I talked to Ed Soares, who’s Anderson’s manager, and he said the one thing that really pissed Anderson off was that Demian Maia had said that I respect him as a fighter but I don’t respect him as a man. You know, I don’t know why that pissed him off so much. I don’t know what he’s insinuating by saying that or you know why that hit such a sore spot in Anderson but apparently, you know, it did, you know. I don’t know why he slowed down the last couple of rounds, either, but I suspect it’s a stamina issue. I’ve watched [the fight] a couple of times since then. He got hit with some shots by Maia, especially when Maia was on his knees and Anderson was standing over him and Maia was literally throwing punches from his knees and hitting Anderson and then chased after him and he hit him with a big left hand at one point in the fight. I think that Anderson slowed down considerably and I think that he recognized the fact that he wasn’t able to put that blinding speed on Maia that he did in the first couple of rounds, you know, he sprinted the first couple of rounds and I think he ran out of gas, I really do.”

The last three fights Silva has been involved in have been clunkers. He fought Patrick Cote in Chicago and then he had the fight against Thales Leites which was a total snoozer. It seemed less like stamina being an issue in those fights as opposed to Anderson just toying around and getting bored.

“Well, I don’t think he had the same exertion in the Patrick Cote fight or the Thales Leites fight. In the Thales Leites fight, I think it was simply a matter of him playing it safe. I think it was just an easy fight for him and I think he just you know Thales was never going to take him down, never going to submit him, and couldn’t do anything to him standing up and I just think he took it for what it is, you know. He didn’t try to make it exciting. I think the Cote fight was dangerous, you know, I watched the Cote fight over again as well and there was a few exchanges where Cote landed shots, you know, where you know he landed on Cote but Cote hit him with a right hand a couple of times and Cote’s got big power and I think Anderson was really cautious about you know getting into an exchange and getting clipped. You know, I think there’s a certain point of time when a guy is being considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and he gets all these accolades and all this attention, that puts an incredible amount of pressure on him and everybody responds to that pressure in a different way and it might very well be that Anderson is concerned about you know keeping his legacy and concerned about losing. I mean, no one knows man, it’s all speculation of course, I mean but something is up.”

With UFC announcing that Anderson Silva will fight Chael Sonnen in early August, Sonnen has gone on a PR blitz. He’s all but called Anderson a phony who speaks English but kayfabes everyone about it. Will Silva dispose of Sonnen in spectacular fashion due to being pissed off about Sonnen’s comments? Rogan thinks so, but I think it’s more of a case of him hoping so.

“I suspect that in the Chael Sonnen fight we’re going to see a much more motivated Anderson because I don’t think he likes the feeling of being criticized the way he is and Dana White saying it was embarrassing and I mean literally across the board, I don’t think I’ve seen any one person who was impressed with his performance or thought it was a good fight. I mean, everybody thought he looked good in the first couple of rounds but that the end was you know really almost embarrassing.

He’s the perfect opponent for him. I mean, no one talks [trash] better than Chael Sonnen. No one on the planet. I mean, he’s hilarious. He’s a very, very bright guy and you know and he loves the attention, I mean the guy wants to be a politician. He’s really good at public speaking and I think he’s going to tie Anderson’s mind up in knots. He’s going to have Anderson furious.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

13 Responses to “Joe Rogan: Does Anderson Silva have a stamina problem?”

  1. Jemaleddin says:

    “The last three fights Silva has been involved in have been clunkers.”

    You mean: “The last three fights Silva has been involved in at middleweight have been clunkers.”

    • robthom says:

      Agreed.
      There has been an undeniable and obvious difference between pushing his limits and not.

      (even though Dana and others apparently insist on denying it 🙂 )

  2. Rob Maysey says:

    LMAO at closing the comments.

    You are a wise man!

    Otherwise, just speechless.

    LOL.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    I’ve enjoyed Chael Sonnen’s [R] interviews. I will not be buying his fight with Silva unless it has more then 1 undercard fight I am overly excited for. I’ve been tricked 3 times into getting my hopes up for a Silva fight. If the fight ends up being awesome I will buy the replay or wait for the DVD.

    • robthom says:

      Chael absolutely ruled on Inside MMA last week!

      I never cared for him before because he wasn’t backing up all the gap he was talking.

      But recently since he’s started backing it up, it suddenly made that formerly irritating attitude immensely entertaining.

      Especially when its being directed at anderson!

      I’m actually getting excited about his prospects now where I was only disgusted by this match up not so long ago.

      • Mark says:

        I cannot believe people are suddenly fooled this has the promise of being anything but a stinker just because the Sonnen cut a few good promos.

        It’s going to be one of two things: Silva doing what he has done the past three Middleweight fights. Or Sonnen putting on a Matt Lindland tribute night. Neither one is worth $45 unless you hate Anderson Silva so bad you’d even be excited that he lost because someone laid on him for 25 minutes. Count me out.

        • robthom says:

          Did you see what Sonnen did to Marquardt?

          When was the last time anderson fought a fighter who wasn’t afraid of him #1, and a talented wrestler #2?

  4. edub says:

    Chael actually beats the guys up he’s on top of, rather then turn it into a Lindland smother fest. If you weren’t entertained by the Sonnen vs. Marquardt fight I dunno what to tell ya. But to each his own.

  5. Ivan Trembow says:

    Sonnen’s performance against Marquardt was masterful. As for his promos, of course he doesn’t mean 99% of the things he says. He’s just cutting pro wrestling promos. This is nothing new for Sonnen. I remember way back on those atrocious BodogFight shows on Ion Television (right after reruns of “Mama’s Family”), Sonnen once said something like, “I want to go out there and stand up with my opponent. I’m not going to go out there and lay on top of my opponent… I’m a Republican, and Republicans don’t do that!” He was, of course, being sarcastic, since ground and pound has always been his primary fighting style.

    PS: I’m still waiting to find out how the UFC is going to live up to its promise to “pay back the fans” for the Silva debacle in Dubai.

    So far, the answer appears to be “putting Anderson Silva in the main event of another PPV” even though they could have easily put his next fight on free TV or at least made it the semi-main event of a PPV instead of the main event.

    • robthom says:

      “…I’m a Republican, and Republicans don’t do that!””

      He really said that?!
      🙂

      The guys a hoot as long as he’s backing it up.

    • edub says:

      Heard a crazy rumor on Sherdog the other day that this was supposed to be a numbered UFC, but it is gonna be on Spike. The source isn’t usually valid so take it how you want, but I’ll keep it in the back of my head.

  6. David says:

    Let us be completely logical. Now, Joe may as well be in that Ultimate Gay Fighting video in a scene with Dana White as dominator, because that is their relationship. Joe is GREAT at what he does.

    Regarding any such speculation about Anderson Silva and his performance (or lack of) in fighting Demian Maia, of course Rogan is going to make an excuse such as a lack of cardio.

    Silva dispelled Forrest Griffin with ease, and I believe he really is that talented. Silva could have dominated Maia on the feet, and I believe that the shots that he landed that hurt Maia could have been more devastating.

    I respect Silva for not completely destroying his countryman and I am sure they are friends and have many mutual friends in Brazil. How could Silva, who is a gentleman, really hurt and possibly injure a friend, or an acquaintance, at the very least, whom they share many mutual friends and training partners.

    I am completely shocked that nobody has called this one out and shined light on it, especially in the MMA circle, let alone right HERE where the truth about the fight business really comes out!

    Sincerely

  7. […] with Josh Gross. In the first article on the interview, Joe talked a bit about some of the issues that are plaguing Anderson Silva and wondered if Silva is suffering from stamina problems in longer […]

Comments to Mark

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-spam image