Anderson Silva Told Us this was Coming
by Numbers on Apr 19, 2009 12:49 PM EDT
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The foremost topic on the minds of most MMA fans this morning is, What is going on with Anderson Silva?
BE member "AlwaysRelaxing" has written what I think is a solid FanPost here, which I think very well captures the curious - and unexpected - situation Dana White finds himself in.
Dana himself apparently feels similarly. He pulled no punches in his candid assessment of his star's performance as cited in a Yahoo! Sports article:
I can honestly tell you that I’ve never put on an event that I was embarrassed to be at until tonight. I want to publicly apologize to all the fans…. I apologize. I personally apologize for what happened tonight. You guys know, this isn’t what the UFC was built on and this isn’t the way the fights usually go. Listen, any night you can have an off-night. When a guy is that talented and can literally end a fight whenever he wants to, wow.
Over at MMAMania they are asking fans to weigh in on whether Silva-Leites surpasses Sylvia-Arlovski III as the worst main event in recent memory. An Anderson Silva fight being compared unfavorably with Tim Sylvia is officially the sign of the apocalypse.
How the heck did we get to this point? What is going on with Anderson Silva?
There's plenty of speculation on all corners of the MMA universe including Bloody Elbow. For my take, I think that this situation Dana is in should not be unexpected - at least in hindsight. Anderson himself foreshadowed this with a single short but telling quote, from a Sherdog interview in October 2008 when he said, "Everything has its time, and I believe my time is already over."
That may have been as close as we'll come - for a while - to knowing what has occurred. Putting all the pieces together, I believe that Silva is simply burned out and is no longer interested in fighting MMA.
Everyone has these ups and downs in their life when they are more or less passionate about things, including their career. Anderson is a human being. He's given us some incredible fights but I think he may have been disarmingly honest with us when he said his time had already passed. We have yet to see more than a shadow of the "old" Silva since that interview.
I hope - as an MMA fan I pray - I'm wrong and that Anderson will again grace us with his inimitable "ballet of violence" - but for now, this is my attempt to fill the yawning void of questions with at least a piece of an answer.
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
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Seriously, say this AFTER Anderson fights a fighter who will actively engage and try to actually win the fight.
If Anderson fights like this against a fighter that is bringing the pressure on and doing his best to actually BEAT Anderson, then Anderson deserves the criticism and having people put him under a microscope. Looking at it in hindsight, anyone will see that Cote and Leites were NOT fighting to even try to beat Anderson (especially Leites).
Perhaps
But how else to explain his decidedly un-Silva-like performances in his last two fights?
The theory of him burning out and wanting to move on is consistent with what we know – 1) he was destroying guys and now he’s just toying with them, 2) he’s stated he wants to retire and wants to box, 3) he makes a strange cryptic statement like “my time is already over” at the very moment he’s on top of the world – who says such a thing in that circumstance?
This is my attempt to understand what is going on in Anderson’s mind and what could account for such a dramatic contrast from his first few UFC fights (and basically all his previous MMA fights by the way) and his last 2.
Granted, there is some circumstantial evidence that supports your theory. And how fun it may be to speculate, that’s ultimately what it amounts to – speculation, i.e. not knowing. Personally, I lean towards your view: Anderson has blown his best stuff already. Probably felt ‘done’ right about after Hendo.
For me, the only fights that are even semi-interesting at MW involving AS are: Marquardt, Hendo, Maia and Bisping. I can’t say that I belive the same goes for him though – he probably feels that Marquardt and Hendo have been dealt with and that Maia and Bisping aren’t real. Given that this is what I think is going on, I can’t see him getting motivated to fight anytime soon.
Possibly Wandy, come to think of it. He might just be able to get deep enough under the skin of Anderson to spark some malice. But he would get utterly crushed, so the only value would be car-wreck-MMA in that one.
by ununkvadrium on Apr 19, 2009 2:36 PM EDT up reply actions
My two cents for what it's worth...
Anderson has been talking retirement from MMA for awhile now. He wants a boxing match with Roy Jones Jr. and his contract won’t allow him to do that. To me he just seems disinterested in the UFC but will honor his contractual obligations for his remaining fights strictly because he has to. The issue that he creates for himself, is that “the most feared striker in MMA” will no longer be just that when he makes his move to boxing and he may well be past his prime when it happens. To be honest, with his blantant greasing issue last night and poor performances in his last two fights, I feel that he may be trying to sabatoge his own career. I just can’t figure out why that would be.
I honestly don’t think the last two performances have really been that “un-Silva-like.” If you go back and watch the fights before those — Franklin, Henderson, even Irvin — it’s pretty easy to see that Silva’s effectiveness is that he’s practically untouchable and when people attempt to engage or strike, his timing is perfect to land a devastating shot. When he does that, he moves in for the kill and destroys people.
Cote and Leites should shoulder almost all of the blame for this ridiculous criticism being leveled at Silva for these last two fights. In both fights Cote and Leites refused to engage. It’s good strategy to a point because you avoid Silva’s strength. But if you can’t do anything, either, it amounts to simply trying to “survive.” Leites continually falling on his back and putting his hands behind his head was the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen since Kalib Starnes.
There is absolutely NO reason somebody of the caliber of Anderson Silva should suddenly abandon his strengths and his gameplan and wildly charge forward to attack somebody like Leites or Cote. If he does that and gets caught everyone is bitching about what a dumb move it was and how foolish he was to do it. He doesn’t do it and everyone bitches that those guys lasted more than a minute.
If Leites’s strength is his jits game and he wants the fight on the ground, does everyone really think that what Anderson Silva should have done is just dropped down into Leites’s guard and let Leites try a submission? Really? That would have been the dumbest move by a champion ever.
I was thoroughly impressed with Silva in this fight. Crazy inventive striking. Every bit as accurate as ever. Totally negated Leites’s strength the one or two times the fight actually went to the ground. He made Leites look every bit as undeserving of the title shot as everyone thought he was. Silva dominated this fight from bell to bell and never got touched, and it wasn’t because he was refusing to fight that he didn’t get touched. It was because Leites spent most of the night in a ball on his back. And the best part, for me, was that even after the fight Silva was his usual classy self and refused Rogan’s attempt to get him to actually blame Leites for the way that fight went. He absolutely would have been justified to do so, but he didn’t.
Silva is still at the top of my p4p list. I saw absolutely nothing last night to make me think anyone else can beat him. Being disappointed at the way that fight went still doesn’t equate to some strategy for somebody to actually beat this guy.
gameplan
i noticed that whenever silva hit leites hed pretend to be hurt and fall hopeing silva would go for it and try for submission. but as we all seen silva didnt go for it! he just danced and punched his legs
by keithsardine on Apr 19, 2009 2:23 PM EDT up reply actions
I agree with you somewhat
I definitely see Silva as heads and shoulders above his most recent challengers. But the point was that there were quite a few times where Silva could have finished Leites off standing. It didn’t require unnecessary risk taking.
And I just disagree with that. I don’t think there were quite a few opportunities for him to finish Leites standing, because everytime he put together any kind of combination of strikes or flurry, Leites flopped on his back and tried to pull guard. It’s easy to say there were several times where he did not put together the combination or flurry, but if everytime he did Leites flopped, what could possibly make anyone think Leites would not have flopped even more had Silva moved forward more? That’s my take, anyway.
by Kierkegaard on Apr 20, 2009 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions
Silva looked like a guy who didn’t wanna fight. This was apparent in his unwillingness to fight.
Sometimes you just don’t dig your job, and that’s what I saw from Anderson Silva last night.
Silva looked like a guy who didn’t want to be reckless and put himself in a position where he could get caught. If there’s anyone that was unwilling to fight, it was Leites, not Silva.
by thepenismightier on Apr 19, 2009 2:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Its Simple
It’s Anderson’s revenge for Dana not letting him fight Roy Jones Jr.
At that point, it is obvious that Silva needs greater challenges than what the UFC can offer him. At 205, he wouldn’t want to be the champion since Machida is his camps destined champion at that weight.
If by ‘the UFC’ you mean ‘MMA’, then your point makes sense – it’s not like Silva’s just pissed he can’t fight Robbie Lawler.
by Derek Suboticki on Apr 19, 2009 3:16 PM EDT up reply actions
At least
Robbie Lawler would charge in and get knocked out.
At this point I say – put Marquadt against Silva. Nate is a dynamic fighter and he pushes the pace. Also Nate would never ever be content with flopping to his back. We’d see an exciting fight and if Nate gets destroyed again Silva would be king of the castle again. Let Maia fight Leites. If he can’t beat Leites he doesn’t deserve to fight Silva.
Where the hell...
does Yushin Okami end up in this picture? Huh!?
Everyone shits all over Okami, even though he’s the most deserving one of a title shot. Seriously, if he beats Miller, then he needs an IMMEDIATE title shot.
As for the rest of the MW title picture, here’s how I think it should go down: Maia squares off against Marquardt, around the same time Hendo and Bisping fight. Okami Gets his title shot (provided he beats Miller)in the meantime. The winner of Demian/ Nate gets a title shot. (If Wand beats Franklin) he fights the winner of Henderson/ Bisping for a shot at the title.
By then, Anderson’s contract is up. He can either A) Pursue the dream fight with RJJ, B) Continue fighting in the UFC, possibly at 205, or C) Retire.
Supporting all Las Vegas MMA.
'09 is the year of the FW's.
by ElliotMatheny on Apr 19, 2009 11:17 PM EDT up reply actions
I was under the impression...
that a standard clause in any fighter’s contract is he automatically is re-signed for another fight as long as he is champion until he loses. Anderson’s contract will not be up as long as he is the UFC MW Champion.
Make him fight the toughest competition though. Marquardt, Hendo, Okami, and Maia all have somewhat legit chances of winning.
Also, as boring as Okami/Silva might end up being, at least there’s no doubt that Okami wants to be a fucking fighter.
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