“I didn’t think this was how the reign would end.”
That seems to be the common sentiment among many MMA fans following Chris Weidman’s stunning second round knockout victory over Anderson Silva this past weekend at UFC 162 to become the new UFC Middleweight Champion. As Silva did what could be called his “classic” taunting routine and danced around with his hands at his side, Weidman caught Silva with a left to knock him clean out and end Silva’s UFC record 16-fight win streak, as well as Silva’s record 10-fight title defense streak.
This was Silva’s first loss since being disqualified after knocking out Yushin Okami with an illegal upkick in 2006, and his first actual time being beaten since 2004. After a remarkable run of dominance that saw Silva become the greatest fighter in the history of the sport, his own arrogance cost him against Weidman.
Going into the fight, many thought it would be Weidman’s outstanding wrestling and submissions that would allow him to beat the 38-year-old champion, so it came as a shock to many when Weidman won the fight standing. As a die-hard Silva fan, I always figured that when he lost it would be pretty much in the exact fashion that it went down over the weekend. How long can you realistically keep taunting people before it comes back to haunt you? He’s had close calls before so this was bound to happen.
Weidman’s wrestling and ground-and-pound were a huge threat to be sure, as well as his submissions, but Silva has shown great takedown defense when he wants to. Look at the second round of his second bout with Chael Sonnen, or even the second round of the Weidman fight. If Silva doesn’t want to go down, he can be very tough to bring down. What has made Silva the G.O.A.T. is the fact he can pretty much always dictate where he wants a fight to go when he wants to finish it.
However against Weidman, Silva did not fight like the Anderson Silva we know and love. I am not one of these conspiracy theorists screaming Silva threw the fight or anything like that, but Silva acted like an idiot, even more than he has in pretty much any other fight ever and it was really weird. Silva has long put his hands down and baited opponents into hitting him, so really it was only a matter of time before somebody did it and made him pay. His taunting and showboating were off the charts, even by Silva standards, and that is why he got caught by that left and lost. But saying Silva acted like this because he didn’t take Weidman seriously seems like too easy of an explanation for the sudden demise of the all-time great.
This isn’t to say Weidman is not a terrific fighter and did not do a terrific job. He had good ground-and-pound in the first and even locked in a dangerous knee-bar. While Silva was pretending to be hurt and flailing around, Weidman set up the left that ended up really hurting Silva beautifully. That back-fist Weidman threw caught Silva completely off-guard and left the opening for the punch that ended it. Weidman was no fluke, and Silva says he does not want a rematch and even if he was to challenge Weidman in a rematch I’m not really sure Silva would or could win.
But this fight was bizarre to watch since in that second round Silva stuffed the takedown attempts but did not really try to press the action in the clinch and instead went ahead and acted like an arrogant fool. Sure, he threw some kicks at Weidman, but he didn’t really try to hurt him or go for the kill like we’ve seen before. People keep talking about how Silva has a history of disrespecting opponents, but since the fight against Damian Maia three years ago where he tired himself out dancing he hasn’t just taunted without trying to at least do some damage. Other than some hard leg kicks Silva’s striking didn’t really play to any of his strengths or accomplish anything.
The most confusing moment of the fight was when Silva had Weidman in the clinch and just let him go and started taunting. No punches or knees thrown, nothing. Maybe Weidman would have caught the legs and taken him back down, but we’ll never know. Conspiracy theorists and fans alike have now started to debate what Silva was doing in this fight. Did he take Weidman lightly and was trying to psych him out? Did he quit?
Going into the fight, Silva was talking about his legacy, said this wasn’t really his biggest challenge, said he’s done it all and there is nothing left for him, strangely let Weidman hold the belt with him in pictures, and was talking about super fights at other weights with Jon Jones or Georges St-Pierre or even boxer Roy Jones, Jr. The strangest pre-fight moment came in this interview, where at the 5:02 mark he says Weidman winning would be perfect and that he wouldn’t pursue a rematch because he is “tired.”
Silva has notoriously trolled the media for years, but when a dude is 38 and has been in his prime for the better part of a decade, you have to start paying attention to what he says. When a fighter starts openly talking about their legacy and saying they have done everything there is to do, it usually is a sign that the end is coming. Anybody who thought Silva was going to coast to a victory should have paid attention to Silva’s words before the fight and reassessed what might happen. It reminded me of Randy Couture talking about his legacy and how he just wanted interesting fights, only to get laid out by Lyoto Machida and then just retire.
Yes Silva totally trolls people all the time, but maybe it is because I am the type of sports fan who always thinks the absolute worst is about to happen but I didn’t take this stuff as trolling. Holding the belt with Weidman probably was just a troll move, but a lot of the other stuff didn’t seem like Silva doing what he always does; it was all very, very weird.
And I am not trying to say Silva didn’t care or wanted to lose, it seemed more like he just lost the fire. It happens to all of the greats sometime. It is worth checking where his head was at to see why he acted the way he did in the cage. I am sure he did take Weidman lightly on some level. But at the same time, he seemed pretty relieved to not be champion anymore. In a speech that wasn’t quite a retirement speech but certainly made it seem like his drive to fight wasn’t there anymore, he said he wants to spend time with his family and has no interest in fighting for the belt again. At the post-fight presser he said that fighting for the belt comes with a lot of pressure and he is too tired to keep doing it, but maybe he will change his mind on the rematch.
People are calling bullshit on Silva’s talk of being tired and not being interested in fighting for the belt anymore, but keep in mind after the first Sonnen fight Silva was complaining about training and being away from his family after his grandmother died, so this feeling building over two years isn’t totally weird.
He’s also had to deal with seeing his good friend Minotauro Nogueira fade out of the limelight. When Silva was going to retire in the mid-2000s, Minotauro Nogueira convinced Silva to come train with him and his brother and rejuvenated Silva’s passion for the fight game. We’ve seen Silva sobbing out of joy from Big Nog winning, so to see a good friend go from never being finished to getting knocked out or submitted in four of his last seven fights and essentially be done fighting has to have some effect. As Nogueira’s legendary career seems to be pretty much over, is it totally unbelievable that maybe Silva’s passion is waning as well?
People point to Silva having a 10-fight contract with the UFC still as a sign that his passion is very much there, but at 38 and in the tail-end of his career does anybody expect him to fight that many more times? People say that somebody doesn’t just lose their drive when they are winning for so long. Did Michael Jordan not retire in 1993 after the Chicago Bulls won their historic third straight NBA Championship? We don’t know what was going through Silva’s head so we’ll never really know if he’s serious about being “tired” until we see where he goes in a few months.
Anderson Silva has been at the top of his game for a long, long time. To be 38 and riding high for so long has to take a toll on you mentally and physically, especially when you’re preparing for championship bout after championship bout. And he had contemplated retirement before so he has kind of always had his mind on life after fighting. Ultimately I am sure his taunting came from partly taking Weidman lightly and thinking he could easily whoop ass, but maybe slightly more from just putting on the show and going through the motions since there comes a time when you don’t have the eye of the tiger to back it all up anymore.
Before, during, and after the fight Silva seemed pretty weird about everything. He has reached that point in his career where this is nothing to prove, and he even said as much going into the fight. That is usually the sign that the end is nigh. Of course Weidman brought the fight to the King and beat the greatest fighter in history and nobody can ever take that away from him, and even more historic than just ending Silva’s win streaks is the potential fact that he may have snatched Silva’s passion for fighting.
If Silva was trolling going into the fight, he certainly doesn’t seem to be trolling now. After weathering the early storm from Weidman in the first, Silva’s antics felt more like him just doing a Silva routine and seeing what happened than him really trying to just win. It was like he came to terms with his own mortality as a fighter and thought, “If I can bait him into doing something stupid and beat him, cool. If not, I guess I am cool with that too.” He probably still very much wanted to win, but it seemed like there was a sense of understanding that he isn’t going to stay on top forever buried in there.
He wasn’t actively trying to lose, but by the time the fight was over he had already come to terms with the fact he’s pushing 40 in a young man’s game and has already cemented his place as the UFC’s greatest fighter. Silva is almost like The Boy Who Cried Wolf since he has trolled the media for so long, people doubt he is serious when he says things that make it seem like he doesn’t really want to fight anymore. Maybe going into the fight Silva really was serious about not caring if he won or lost by this point, hence him being so cool with losing afterwards?
And this is most certainly not to say Chris Weidman would not have beaten an Anderson Silva that 100% absolutely wanted to be there. His strengths played into Silva’s weaknesses perfectly regardless. But for Silva to not really try and take advantage on the feet for several minutes and just taunt and play around more than he ever has in a fight, then to be so cool with losing shows that maybe years of dominance and getting old really have taken a lot of the passion he once had.
For a legendary figure like Anderson Silva to lose like this there has to be a better explanation than, “Oh he was just playing around like an asshole and got hit,” right?
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