By Adam Martin
I’m not sure what was going on in Anderson Silva’s head at UFC 162, but winning sure wasn’t on his mind.
The long-time UFC middleweight champion took on Chris Weidman in the main event of UFC 162, and instead of pulling off one of the amazing knockouts that he’s been known to do, Silva put on one of the most bizarre performances ever seen inside the Octagon: his hands down by his waist and taunted Weidman to try and come and hit him until the plan backfired and he was shockingly knocked out.
Although Silva toyed with lesser fighters such as Demian Maia, Thales Leites, Stephan Bonnar, Forrest Griffin and Patrick Cote, never before had he clowned around as much as he did against Weidman on Saturday night, and he paid for it dearly when he was knocked out cold for the first time in his 38-fight MMA career.
It’s been almost two full days since this fight happened and I still don’t know what to make of it.
On one hand, Silva deserved to lose the fight. Quite frankly, he acted like a cocky idiot inside the cage and he was trying to show up his opponent. Only, unlike the other guys Silva’s fought in the past, Weidman had the capabilities of finishing him, and he did just that when he connected with a beautiful 1-2-2-3 combination that the greatest striker of all time never saw coming.
On the other hand, though, I don’t feel as though we truly got to see Silva fight Weidman. This wasn’t the Silva that we have been used to seeing, the one who lives inside the Matrix, the invincible one. I don’t think Silva really took the fight seriously, and I think the fans got robbed of seeing who truly is the better fighter between the two.
But regardless of how the fight went, I do know one thing about this fight, and it’s that the loss to Weidman is going to hurt Silva’s legacy as the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all time.
Now, I’m not saying the loss tarnishes Silva’s legacy. Obviously, the guy won 16 fights in a row in the UFC – a UFC record – and defended the belt a record 10 times as well as achieving a number of other accolades, including the most post-fight bonus awards in UFC history. With the strap around his waist for seven years, he held a title in the UFC longer than anyone ever has and eventually won so many fights that he leapfrogged Fedor Emelianenko as the greatest fighter of all time (the GOAT), especially when Emelianenko tumbled in the latter stages of his career.
But even though Emelianenko fell, he never lost a fight in embarrassing fashion like Silva did against Weidman.
Against Fabricio Werdum, Emelianenko got caught in a submission he couldn’t get out of. Against Antonio (Bigfoot) Silva, he was smothered by a much bigger man. And against Dan Henderson, his chin just didn’t hold up.
But, unlike Silva against Weidman, Emelianenko actually tried to win all of those fights. He was looking for the knockout in all of them, and he never, ever dropped his hands or taunted his opponents, even though, like Silva, his innate talent and skill was higher than any of theirs.
I only bring up Emelianenko here because he really is the only fighter in contention with Silva for the title of the GOAT. Sure, Jon Jones might eventually get there, but MMA is no sure thing and for all we know Jones could sustain a career-ending injury and never reach his full potential as a fighter. Other than Jones, there’s no one in the running, not even guys like Georges St-Pierre, Chuck Liddell, BJ Penn or Randy Couture, although I suppose Weidman does have a chance to eventually get to the top as well, especially if he beats Silva in rematch.
So, basically, we in the mixed martial arts world see Silva as the greatest of all time, and yet, the most lasting memory of him, regardless of what he does in the twilight years of his career, is flailing around the ring like a buffoon and getting knocked out by a 9-0 prospect from New York.
It’s sad in a way that the MMA community thinks this way, but it really is true that you’re only as good as your last fight and even though Silva was actually in control of Weidman up until the knockout, no one will remember that. Instead, everyone is just going to remember the image of Silva’s eyes rolled back and him falling to the canvass after eating a short left hook from Weidman.
The losses to Daiju Takase and Ryo Chonan in the PRIDE days were pretty embarrassing, but after the amazing he run he had in the UFC Silva basically wrote those out of everyone’s minds as flukes. But this loss to Weidman? It’s a fight that no mixed martial arts fan will ever forget. And I don’t know if Silva can ever be forgiven for it, either, and I think it’s a loss that’s going to haunt his legacy for eternity, and frankly, rightfully so.