With one blow Anderson Silva shook the MMA world and possibly set up the biggest bout in UFC history
LAS VEGAS -- It all started with a throw-away quote in a Thursday media scrum, and continued with reigning middleweight champion Anderson Silva pulling out a mask and strapping it on his face at the weigh-in.
“I believe he wears the mask, trying to intimidate,” the challenger Vitor Belfort had said of the champ two days before. “But he can see in my eyes, man. I’m a fighter.”
Funny how those quotes tend to boomerang on a guy.
When the music stopped pounding in Las Vegas on a Super Bowl Saturday night, and the moment of truth arrived, it was Belfort who needed the mask. A goalie mask, perhaps.
Out of nowhere, Belfort swallowed a left foot from Silva that shook the MMA world, the rarely executed front kick that came right up Main St. and simply blew up the challenger. Nobody around here had ever seen a fight this big end on a kick of that rank.
Belfort still hasn’t seen it coming. It dropped him like a sack of Brazilian coffee, and Silva only dove in for a couple more punches because the referee did not stop it instantly.
How fast did this one end?
“I’ve only seen that in a video game,” quipped Dana White, president of the UFC.
It began as a snoozer, the likes of which got Silva into trouble last April, when he danced with Demian Maia to the great disgust of White.
Then -- boom! A one-strike fight after three tedious feel-out minutes that had the crowd beginning to boo.
“I was a little nervous there,” White said. “I went from ‘Oh, shit ...’ to ‘Oh shit!’”
“Both guys are counter-punchers,” he continued. “All the talk ... they both respect each other’s striking abilities. That was one of my concerns -- this could be the craziest thing we’ve ever seen, or the worst staring competition ever. We got a little bit of both.”
You think Adam Vinatieri’s Super Bowl kicks get replayed? This one will show up on UFC highlight packs for long after Anderson Silva walks out of the Octagon for good.
We knew Brazilians could kick, but mercy!
“This was a kick that I trained a lot,” said Silva.
We’ll be seeing it plenty across Canada over the next while, after White made this announcement post-fight: Silva’s next fight will be a title defence at against Canada’s George St-Pierre at the middleweight limit of 185 pounds.
Providing, of course, that St-Pierre takes out Jake Shields at the UFC 129 card at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on Apr. 30.
“It’s gonna happen,” said White, who was pressed for details yet had few to offer. “It’s all just a theory right now. George St-Pierre still has a fight before this fight can be made, and he’s got to come out of it healthy.”
Where would the fight be?
White threw out destinations like Toronto, Dallas, Las Vegas. Silva said he’d rather have it in Brazil, but if not there, then back here in Sin City. That is the most likely destination.
Silva is the middleweight champ. He shouldn’t have to go into St-Pierre’s backyard for a fight in Canada -- such as in Montreal -- should he?
“They’re both champions,” White clarified. “That’s the most difficult part about putting this fight together. We’ll figure it out.”
It squares up as a late 2011 fight. Likely the biggest fight in the history of Canadian UFC -- TBA.
Said Silva: “It’s going to be a fun fight.”
Yeah, sure. That’s what Belfort thought heading into this one against his fellow Brazilian.
“He faked the body and he kicked to the head. I promised I would put up a fight. I would breathe the fire. He caught me. That’s what UFC is about.”
It brought 10,893 fans off their feet at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, and $3.6 million worth of pay per view buys.
The lasting headline: Brazilian can Kick.
If anyone should have known that, it should have been a fellow Brazilian.
Mark Spector is the lead columnist for Sportsnet.ca Follow me on Twitter.com @SportsnetSpec
