While much is being made about the main event at UFC 97: Redemption and how poorly the fight ended up being, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva was happy with his performance.
While Silva’s manager Ed Soares “translated” an apology by the champion during the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Anderson issued no such apology himself.
“The Spider” damaged his reputation as a beloved, humble champion and became the recipient of ear-splitting boos.
Contrary to his manager Ed Soares’ translation after the fight, Silva did not apologize for his performance.
“I did well in the fight,” said Silva in Portuguese. “I can’t always make you happy.”
Silva continued his condemnation of Montreal’s vocal MMA fans.
“Not everyone understands what they are watching,” Silva said. “But hey, you guys can boo if you want. You are paying my salary.”
[Source: TheFightNetwork.com]
Personally, I don’t have any problem with Anderson Silva’s performance. It became obviously very early on that Thales Leites had no intentions of standing and striking with Silva, a very smart, reasonable game plan for the challenger.
What also became apparent was Anderson Silva’s reluctance to fight Leites on the ground; also, a smart and reasonable gameplan.
For the first three rounds, Silva was the clear aggressor and tried to engage Leites on the feet. Halfway through the third round, Leites entered his “duck and drop” phase of the fight, and from there on out there wasn’t much the champion could do.
Yes, no doubt about it, the fight was boring.
Should Anderson Silva be the one shouldering all the blame for an unexciting fight? Absolutely not.
Loading ...
Caesar Gracie
John
Yael Grauer
Dale
Tyler Johnson
felo
Mike
Tony
Shawn
Ben Cartlidge
I agree with you 100% Doc, ya it was a boring fight but when your winning 3 rounds to none, guess what? its up to the other guy to engage you. Why risk a sure victory in an attempt to go for the finish on the ground (because Leites wouldnt stand).
I dont blame Anderson either and really, i cant blame Leites either, the guy knew he was outclassed on the feet, you cant expect him to stand there and get KO.
Dana really blew this out of proportion, between this and telling everyone Chuck has to retire, hes been a real **** about it.
Dana needs to pick better opponents for Anderson, period. The guy has proven himself many times over—-7 great stoppages in a row in his first 7 fights in the UFC.
The last 2 fights were against cautious fighters who only wanted to survive. Not Anderson’s fault at all. Any fan who doesn’t understand that doesn’t understand the sport very well. It’s notable that fighters and people within the sport (excluding Dana) have mostly defended Silva, while the 15-year-old douche-nozzles on the Internet are the ones who think Silva is suddenly not fighting well.
I’d rather see an Anderson or a Lyoto fighting smart than someone like Koscheck who walks into punches and knees because he’s trying too hard to please the fans. Intelligent fighting is the reason Silva and Lyoto are where they are, and why Koscheck is one fight away from being cut. Not too hard to figure out.
iam with u guys on this people that dont train dont know how hard it is 2 fight sum 1 that runs away it sucks.people dont know
Anderson was fine… this is what happens with these two extreme styles.. styles make fights right? They can also break them.
These guys basically worked to neutralize each others strong areas, and attempt to work from their own comfort zones – If Thales would have fully engaged, he would have gotten knocked out in round 1 – I wouldn’t risk my chin on that.
NEXT FIGHT AND TOPIC PLEASE, THIS ONES OLD NOW! ;)
DOC I like the new set up, it’s great, BUT I hate that you don’t have other links to the right side like you used to. I checked this site 50% of the time because your the guy who has ALL the headlines from ALL the MMA sites. Not having that really makes this sites headlines nominal, in that it only reports big news, instead of the little interviews with Wand, or Chuck, or mma payouts stupid for fun things to read, or junkie or whatever.. I mean please add that back on pleassssssse?…
yeah, BV said the same thing.
I’m working on adding them back into the new design. Just need to figure out the best way and place to do it.
dont worry, they are coming back though
@BVRasp and @MMAKansas,
I’ve added the news feeds links back in. sorry they were missing for a few days.
enjoy.
THANK YOU SIR!!
Something I noticed and all my friends did too was that Anderson Silva completely wiped the Vaseline from his face to his chest, shoulders, arms ect … right in front of everyone.. SEVERAL TIMES… Is he trying to cause a problem, is he going to turn out to be a Couture and try to up heave the organization in some way? … lolz, he just seems a little …. disinterested lately….
100% the fight was NOT Boring. Tehres no way in a million eyars was this fight boring!! thos who think it was need to watch it again! Or certainly you are one of those kinda people who AS talks about, you are one of those ho dont understand what you are watching, that’s the truth.
Trust me i’ve sen alot worst in the UFC. certain fights , u could go to sleep. THis was a tactical, techincal fight. not all fights will be an agressive or brawling sugfest. that is why AS said “Not everyone understands what they are watching,” meaning his skill set was was on display and everythign he trainied to do he did in teh Octogen but most of you cant’t comprehend this or appreciate this and that is why you boo.
If you understand what you are watching then it’s you give credit and appreicaite alot of the fighting techinques invloved.
Gaz
Doc thanks for bringing back the links, one other thing, the recent comments should have that one sentence preview so we can see if someone is directing a message to you. Thats the only other thing missing other than that, the setup is perfect.
thanks for pointing that out. Didn’t realize I had removed that. Should be back now.