Anderson Silva – What the #$@!?

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If you saw UFC 97 this past weekend, I want to know what your thoughts are on the Anderson Silva fight, because I’m not too sure what to think of it either. I’m kind of torn.

On one hand, as a fan, I see a guy who is giving 30% of what he is truly capable of. Really, he could’ve destroyed Leites if he wanted to, I think there’s no doubt about that. His movement and the speed and power of his strikes are no match for it seems any fighter in his division. But the great thing about MMA is that anything can happen and he’s set the bar super high, so sooner or later, someone will surpass him.

On the other hand, it just seems like he’s placing more emphasis on not getting hit than knocking his opponent out. I’d like to know exactly how many strikes (kicks, knees, punches, and elbows) have landed on Anderson Silva in his UFC fights. I know there aren’t that many.

Now as a fighter, if he’s interested in having a long career and staying healthy not only for fighting and for everyday life, not getting hit is a really good plan. It doesn’t take too many heavy shots to the head with 4 oz gloves to cause lingering, sometime permanent effects.

In a post-fight interview, he was talking about fighting the ‘perfect fight’. In a perfect fight, you would land all of your strikes on your opponent, and not get any points scored against you. If this was his goal, I think he did pretty good.

The last thought that I heard about the fight was from my friend Rich, who was in Montreal with me. He made a good point and said, “Anderson is the champ, and maybe he’s just thinking that you’ve got to come and take the belt away from me, so you’ve got to be the aggressor.”

I think this is a very good point. I don’t think it’s smart for a champ to put himself at risk if he doesn’t want to. Sure, it’s not the most exciting strategy from a fan’s point of view, but it is smart to do and it seems like it works.

What do you think?

anderson silva ufc 97

Comments

27 responses to “Anderson Silva – What the #$@!?”

September 27, 2009

Carl

Some great comments here. I’ll add to what Alex R. just said…hell, even if you take something as watered down as Olympic WTF TaeKwonDo the referee will award Warnings (1/2 point deductions) and even full point deductions for violations of the rules: falling down on purpose and evading continuously without attacking (basically not fighting).

Thales Leites strength is BJJ. Anderson holds a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira…so you would think there should also have been less intimidation of facing this man on the ground, but I’ll also say that as a fighter- your goal should be not to play the opponents game, but have him play yours. This is simply good military strategy and tactics. No fighter or military commander will attack the enemy at it’s strongest points if they can avoid it…

With that said, I’m pretty sure Silva could have gone Gladiator on his ass and ended the fight quickly with strikes if he wanted to. Simple bloodlust and raw killer instinct would have dictated it.

Maybe he was sparing not only himself, but maybe a lesser opponent who appeared simply due to circumstance. Maybe the crowd should have chanted “Silva the Merciful!” instead of booing? Ha!

The “Spider” did not live up to it’s name. A bug was in his web, but he did not catch, kill and eat it. To me, the only time that a Spider would do that is when he’s not hungry or doesn’t have a taste for that particular bug.

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April 22, 2009

Alex R.

I am equally torn but I think as in pride, they should be required to fight. Take points away for throwing yourself to the floor. Like basketball, delay of game. This is fighting, mma requires that you advance toward the opponent and take control of the octagon. I do think prudence should have prevailed but that doesn’t necessarily happen with Dana White. He should have left with “I’m embarrased”. One last thing, the ref should also push the guys to fight and have control to push the pace to have them fight. Everytime Thales thru himself to the floor he should have immediately told him to get up and at least threaten him with point deduction or stopping the fight. Please, this is just my opinion, I’m not up for arguing. I’m sure there are a million other ways to resolve this issue. I still love mma.

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April 22, 2009

guerrilla_tim

This fight was disappointing but I don’t fault either combatant entirely. In part the blame lie with the UFC/Zuffa for not hiring the most aggressive fighters.

Silva clearly wanted to strike and force Leites to demonstrated his skills as fighter. This means Leites has to knock Silva off his throne. While Leites had a terrible game plan, the UFC did as well. This fight was simply a bad match up for a pay per view, but this could be out of desperation…who else is out there for Silva to fight. GSP?

This was almost an exact replay of the Paulo Filho / Chael Sonnon re-match in the WEC. Something about the BJJ first fighters has the potential to be a boring fight.

People want to see MMA not a BJJ match. So the fight organizations need to do a better job of scouting talent and aggressive fighters who will put on a better show.

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April 21, 2009

steve

silva fought smart he is the champ he didn’t want o brawl with the man he has nothing to prove anymore he’s job was to deffend his belt so he did ,he is also trying to climb up in 205 ,,so he cant get destroyed in 185 i thin he is going to b a fighter in 205 next time we see him there,,still think he is awsome no regrets for being his fan

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April 21, 2009

Drue Moore

as much as i like GSP i dont want to see him fight Anderson cause i dont think he can win. Anderson is to big just like GSP was to big for BJ Penn. If he moves up his speed will SLOW down. Right now he is a finely tuned machine at 170 and 5’10. Giving away 4 inches to Anderson is a very bad thing.

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April 21, 2009

Patrick

I think what some are forgetting here is that yes it is Ultimate FIGHTING but it’s also Zuffa ENTERTAINMENT. MMA is no longer a niche sport. It is moving ever closer to the mainstream with record setting gate and PPV revenues, MMA brands in national sports chains, and video games poised to do insane numbers. Joe Rogan spoke a lot about “casual fans” having no appreciation for what was happening. In the mainstream, these “casual fans” are going to make up more than half of the fan base. With that in mind, the focus is going to have to be more about making the highlight reel than sticking to the “gameplan”.
I agree that Silva was doing more work than the fans and critics are giving him credit for and of course he’s not going to commit suicide by jumping into Leites’ guard every time the coward pulled it. But he’s dealt with tough grappelers before and fared far better (Henderson, Lutter) and engaged way more. I side more with Matt Hughes opinion of winning the belt- the current champ should fight like he’s winning it anew as opposed to just defending it. Silva fought with the latter in mind.

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April 20, 2009

Chris Z

I FEEL ANDERSON IS A GREAT FIGHTER BUT WHEN THE UFC SETS HIM UP WITH INFERIOR FIGHTERS WITH INFERIOR SKILLS, YOU GET THE TYPE OF FIGHT WE ALL SAW AT UFC 97… SILVA NEEDS AN OPPONENT MORE AT HIS LEVEL TO GIVE HIM MORE OF A CHALLENGE DURING THE MATCH… SOMEONE WHO MAKES HIM USE HIS ENTIRE ARSENAL OF WEAPONS… I MEAN THE MAN HAD TO SPAR W 2 OF HIS BOYS AFTER THE COTE FIGHT… NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF THE INJURY STOPPAGE BUT BECAUSE HE HAD MORE ENERGY TO GO A FEW MORE ROUNDS… MAYBE THE UFC SHOULD HAVE TELEVISED THAT SPARRING SESSION ON PPV… ANYWAYS THE SPIDER IS A GREAT FIGHTER AND I CANT WAIT TO SEE HIM FIGHT A WORTHY OPPONENT SO THAT EVERYONE CAN WITNESS WHY HE IS THE UFC CHAMP!!!

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April 20, 2009

José Carlos Silva

dear everyone, i am from Brazil and i am so disappointed with Silva’s fight. as a MMA fan and as brazillian. its a shame that Silva lost that felling and become so arrogant, i mean, money is your goal __many brazillians do that__ we see that in football/soccer, they just want money. the “fight” was bloody crap. in a very personal opinion, GSP is the best fighter in the MMA. i do like many others like.. Sean Sherk, Demian Maia, Toquinho Palhares.. that it.

best wishes from Brazil

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April 20, 2009

Mark

To be honest Eric, I think that first off, I would like to say that Leites showed a pretty poor game plan. When you get a shot at the belt, you should fight to win, not fight not to get knocked out. He played way too safe, and I think it will be a long time before he sees a shot at anything in the near future. But I didn’t think Leites was a worthy opponent anyway, I thought he was just a lamb served up for the record attempt. It showed while he was scooting around on his ass in a pathetic attempt to lure Anderson into guard. As for Anderson Silva, Mr P4P, I think not. After his last poor performance in the octogan, he was given a gift from Joe Silva, I’m sure to get some new highlight footage for the man, and he disappointed terribly, again. If he wants to retire and go box with Roy Jones, he should go already, before he loses all his fans. He has been fighting like a joke his past two fights, and slowly becoming just another pretty boy that doesn’t want to get hit in the face(Just like Tito). A main event shouldn’t look like a lazy sparring session. It’s bad enough he won’t fight in his natural weight class(pretty chicken-shit), but now he’s running from MW’s. He’s looking less and less impressive, I think he may be starting to beleive his own hype.

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1. April 21, 2009
  
  Eric
  
  Agreed with Leites’ poor showing.
  
  His natural weight class? He looks pretty natural at 185. To get to 205 he’d have to bulk up, I don’t think there’s anything unnatural about not being super bulky.
  
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April 20, 2009

Eric

Wow, some really great insights from you guys. What I can see from the comments that pretty much everyone can agree on is that Leites was not deserving to be in there with Silva, which is clear from the outcome. Sure, if it went to the ground Leites might’ve had a shot, but I think he would’ve lost either way.

As a fan, the fight sucked to watch, especially because you know Silva can KO anybody with a variety of different strikes, so you can’t wait to see what he’s gonna do.

But from a fighter’s point of view, why take damage if you know you can win without taking damage?

One thing I’m thinking now is that Silva may have lost some fans and rightfully so – he showed by his fight that he wasn’t fighting for the fans since he knows the fans love to see him knock his opponents out – and I’m sure he knew that he could’ve knocked him out, but that would’ve put him in a position to get knocked out himself, or get taken down, so instead, he chose the safer route.

As for his next opponent, I think I’d like to see Marquardt in there, because I think Marquardt will be aggressive to the point of getting KO’d.

Althought Maia is awesome, I don’t think he’ll be able to take it to the ground, as we know that once Maia comes in close enough to attempt a takedown, he’ll eat some heavy shots, and his striking is not very good. So if Maia is the next opponent, it’ll probably be more of the same.

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April 20, 2009

Andrew

I think that your friend Rich and I are quite alike. I see it as Anderson is the champion, he doesn’t need to put on an entertaining fight to keep the belt, he just needs to go out there and perform the minimal amount that he has to to retain his title, it is up to people like Leites to come out after him and take his belt away. It’s why he demolished Leben, and why people like Marquardt and Henderson lost. We saw in the Cote fight that Cote was not being overly aggressive and Anderson was doing what he felt was necessary to win. Why it might not be appealing to some, I feel Anderson doesn’t deserve to be taking all sorts of flak from people when if we were in his position we too would want to go in, take the least amount of damage and win rounds.

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April 20, 2009

Joe Gull

I thought the fight was actually a little painful to have to watch. It was clear that Anderson didn’t want a ground fight and I personally would scream every time Leites would fall on his back. My thoughts are this: Anderson has about 4 fights left on his contract and when that is done he has already stated that he is going to hang his gloves up. From what I’ve read, he wants to leave a legacy behind that is parallel to no one. The unfortunate part is the UFC simply can’t give him anyone that will give him the fights he is looking for. So I think what’s really happening is Anderson is pissed off he is being handed what he probably considers to be inferior opponents and he doesn’t want to risk the possibility of sustaining any kind of major injury so he’s simply playing it safe. I’ve heard Dana is trying to arrange an Anderson vs GSP in Toronto for December but even at that, I don’t think GSP could beat him either and I love GSP. I just think Anderson is in a whole different world of fighting skill. I know Dana also mentioned moving him into LHW and letting him fight the guys there. That might be the smartest thing to do. All I know is I don’t ever want to see 25 minutes of that crap again.

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April 20, 2009

Doug

To be a true champion I think you need to go out with the intent to win the fight. I lost a lot of respect for Anderson in this fight. I would truely label this fight as a draw due to the fact that neither fighter fought for a victory. As far as I am concerned there was too much focus on Anderson recording a win then fighting.

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1. April 21, 2009
  
  Eric
  
  Hmmmm, I’d have to disagree, as I think it was clear he won. Not all fights end in subs or KOs. But I am on the fence about it, because I do think he could’ve ended it but chose not to be put in danger instead.
  
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April 20, 2009

Nate M

I think that this is a good point. The person that is challenging needs to be the agressor if they want to take the belt from him, and Leites didn’t do that. Silva is a true champion, and even though it’s all about the entertainment for the crowd, most of these people have no idea what it’s like to get in a cage or even train for MMA. I wasn’t much for the disrespect the crowd gave him for not putting on the show they expected. He wanted to put on a better performance for the people, but things don’t always work out that way. (as he was quoted as saying) Sometimes playing it smart is better than sticking your neck out and getting into a ground war that could put you in trouble to the point of losing your belt; all because you felt you had to put on a better show for a growingly hostile crowd. Silva kept the game where he wanted it to go, and knew that this sport isn’t just about slugging it out in the ring or satisfying the mob. You’re there to win.

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1. April 21, 2009
  
  Eric
  
  I wasn’t pleased with the crowd all night. They would boo after 30 seconds of circling! Jesus, what do you expect, the fighters to run at each other with flying kicks and elbows?
  
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April 20, 2009

DT

Silva’s Mama didn’t raise no fool. Winners win…Losers lose. That’s the long and short of it. Might be ugly or not very entertaining from a fan perspective, but then again, we don’t pay his bills nor or when he retires and we completely forget about him. The more he wins, the more he makes…nuff said. Having said…odds say he will get caught because he’s not going to be fighting chumps at this level. He’s merely playing to his strength (vicious counterpuncher/great ground game)…something that most MMA fighters fail to do!

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April 20, 2009

Jose

Dear Eric,

I will agree, the Anderson fight was not the most exciting fight of the night. But people need to realize that the number one reason that the past two fights have turned out the way they did have had to do with his opponents and not Anderson. Lets face it, Anderson Silva is the MMA version of the U.S. military, just like no one will go tank to tank, plane to plane, with the U.S. after Desert Storm, there are a sprinkle of fighters at 185 who will ever go toe to toe with him ever again. After the shellacking he gave other strikers at 185, who would??? Patrick Cote had a strategy of waiting for Silva to come to him so he could land the big right, and Leites just kept trying to get the fight to the ground. MMA versions of guerilla warfare, which history shows us, ends up long and drawn out. Of course those fights are not going to be asthetically pleasing. But it is what it is. Its hard for anyone to fire long combiations with a fighter hell bent on taking the fight to the ground. Chuck Liddell said it himself in the post fight press conference. All that would have been let for Anderson to do would be to attempt ground and pound, but against a dnagerous grappler like Leies, would you??? I just want to finish by saying, people need to look at the next opponent to see if the next Silva fight will be exciting. Cung Le would be a great stand up war, and even if he fights GSP, I guarantee you GSP will take this to the ground and try to pound it out. Anderson is just trying to adapt to opponents trying to adapt to him.

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1. April 21, 2009
  
  Eric
  
  Really cool analogy here Jose. I’d love to see Silva vs. Cung Le!
  
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April 20, 2009

Joe B

Anybody surprised by Anderson Silva’s performance hasn’t been paying attention. He fought the exact same fight against Cote. He’s been talking about retirement, boxing, fighting at light heavy, everything BUT defending his 185 lb. title. He just can’t get excited anymore about anybody in his own division (and I’m not sure I blame him). He’s either phoning it in because he isn’t motivated or he’s making a game out of his middleweight fights – imagine him saying, “I’m going to win this fight without getting hit even ONCE,” or “I’m going to make this last all 5 rounds just to prove I have the cardio to go the distance.” The last time he really tried to win a fight was at 205, and that lasted less than a minute before he scored a pretty spectacular (in my opinion) knockout. If we want to see him finish somebody in the future it has to be somebody at 205 or someone he gets excited about at middleweight – maybe Wanderlei (though maybe not even him). I’m not saying that Maia or Marquardt couldn’t beat Silva, just that they’re not enough to get him excited anymore.

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April 20, 2009

Mark

A lot of fingers are being pointed at Silva, and while yes, he should have “flicked the switch” at some point and tried to finish the fight, Leites had ZERO business being in there. It’s up to the UFC to find The Spider some real competition, if not, vacate the belt, move him up to 205 and let the “dream match-ups” commence!

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April 20, 2009

E-ROC

Anderson Silva is a slick MMA fighter, and compares favorably to a slick boxer. Fans want exciting action packed fights. They want knockouts and brutal ground pound. Silva fought a very technical fight against quality opponent who is dangerous on the ground. Dana White should ashamed of himself calling out his fighter like that. That’s ridiculous and feeds into the what fans think, which could make for bad business for one of his best fighters.

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1. April 21, 2009
  
  Eric
  
  Yeah I don’t think it was a good idea to call out Silva… It seems Dana is really catering to the mainstream crowd who simply wants to see hockey fights (which are cool too). There’s no doubt it takes skill to be able to scare your opponents into submission.
  
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April 20, 2009

Marc Cormier

Was that UFC 97 or Dancing with the Stars?? Hey I understand fighters taking their time to feel out their opponent…but come on! 5 rounds of dancing around?? Very disappointed. Kudos to Sam Stout…congrats on the “W”!!

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1. April 21, 2009
  
  admin
  
  Haha, dancing with the stars… I know I wouldn’t wanna dance with Silva…
  
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April 20, 2009

Drue Moore

That is my thought exactly, hey Anderson is the champ if you want his title you have to step up and take it by force. Why should he go after them to make a fight happen? They have come to take whats his so if they want it come get it. Thats my thoughts anway.

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