***spoilers*** UFC News and Discussion Thread

[Scott McFly]

At least he finished his fights.

Silva has finished every fight bar two decision victories since coming to the UFC.

Exactly what I was just checking. He's won 11 fights in UFC, 9 by KO/TKO/Submission.

The crowd can shit on the fight all it wants. Dana can shit on Silva all he wants. The fact is you can't force him to finish the fight. If he doesn't want to take the risk of getting caught with something when he goes in and prefers to see out the five rounds and win on points, that's up to him. If he wants to showboat while he's doing it to intimidate his opponent, then apparently there's nothing in the rules to stop him. It's a sport, not entertainment - if you want exciting fights, that's what WWE is for.

"If you want exciting fights, that's what WWE is for."

...are you fucking kidding me? That is likely the worst excuse that I have heard yet - the top guys in the sport go out there to have exciting fights. Every last one of them will state that. If Silva is only interested in having a long reign, and ducking away from opponents to keep his win record going that's fine. But Dana's not going to want to showcase him when the fans don't want to see the shit that he pulled the other night.

It's a sport, you go out there to win. No it might not be pretty, it might not be entertaining but the guy won by unanimous decision, so he must've done something right. It happens in every sport, some teams might not be enjoyable to watch sometimes, but if they win then I'm sure they don't care and would be quite happy to take it. My WWE comment was basically that if you want entertainment then watch an entertainment show. Sport can be entertaining to watch too, but obviously not all the time, so you're taking a gamble there.

[EddieG]

But like any other sport, if you go to a football game and there's an open goal, you don't expect the striker to shoot the ball into the crowd for a throw in do ya?

[ZJ Penn]

Wow, this argument seems to be the extreme ends of the scale everywhere I've seen it.

Personally I kind of fall in the middle. Scott's right in the sense that this is a sport, not every fight is going to be exciting and you're taking a risk with every card you order. A good example is Jon Fitch. He's a walking polarisation discussion. You either don't mind him because he's an athlete arguably number two in his weight class and you like to see if people can beat him, or you hate him for his grinding, draining tactics. It's a sport and you're going to get fighters that go out there to win and nothing more, it's happened in the past with guys like Tim Sylvia or whoever. Case in point, back when the UFC didn't want to hire Tom Eriksson because they were worried he'd be unstoppable but at the same time alienate fans with his style.

Then on the other side of the fence, sport at a professional level pretty much needs to be entertaining to reach high levels of income. That's just how the business model for MMA, boxing and so on is. I think Silva had to realise that the people paying his wages both directly and indirectly are watching and at the very least give a fight. It's not like he was clinging on to survive, he could have turned it up any time.

I actually think the easy solution to avoiding things like this as MMA grows is the whole shift to PPV buys related pay, like Lesnar and GSP have. It's going to keep headline fights exciting.

[bolleje]

I want to add something to the discussion...

I was a Maia-fan before the fight and obviously I'm a bigger one now.

However, I think people don't give him enough credit. Everyone acts like: wow... Silva could have finished him any time he wanted. Well, facts are he didn't. Could he? Probably... but he would have to take a little more risk. It's pretty obvious that Silva is waaaay better then Maia on the feet. However, Silva didn't take any advantage of this (and even declared (falsely?) that he was a little surprised by Maia's standup game). The real threat to Silva was the jiu jitsu of Maia. He never was able to use this. For me, there are two reasons for this: 1. Silva showed excellent takedown defense. 2. Silva didn't take any risk. I'm not sure if Maia would have been able to take him down, but if Silva had engaged more the chance of a takedown would have risen quiet a lot. By doing his stupid run-away-stuff, not only did Silva ruin the chance of finishing Maia, imo he also ruined the chances on a takedown and following submission of Maia.

I also believe that he was toying with Maia for the first two round. But after that, I have serious doubts that he actually could do any better... Maia was slowly gaining the upper hand, even standing up. I think Silva was just tired, not bored. If there was a round 6... who knows what could've happened. It's very easy to run away from an opponent and then claim you could've beaten him any time you wanted. It would've been better proof if he had just done it.

And his taunting of Maia was moronic. Imagine Demian Maia just laying down and taunting Silva for not entering his guard... That's about the same Silva did with his standup. It was clear he was the better man standing up, so he should be the agressor there. If the fight went to the ground, he could switch to defense. And then tap... :-)

[Draevyn]

How anyone can stick up for Silva in this case is beyond me. While watching him for the first couple rounds did get a few chuckles out of me, I honestly think Silva was scared of getting caught and actually falling into Maia's ground game. I'm not a huge fan of Maia but I think that if Silva had've pressed the issue, he would have hit the ground and he would have definitely put himself in danger. To me it was less Silva playing and more that he was scared of Maia.

[Cactus Drags]

I want to add something to the discussion...

I was a Maia-fan before the fight and obviously I'm a bigger one now.

However, I think people don't give him enough credit. Everyone acts like: wow... Silva could have finished him any time he wanted. Well, facts are he didn't. Could he? Probably... but he would have to take a little more risk. It's pretty obvious that Silva is waaaay better then Maia on the feet. However, Silva didn't take any advantage of this (and even declared (falsely?) that he was a little surprised by Maia's standup game). The real threat to Silva was the jiu jitsu of Maia. He never was able to use this. For me, there are two reasons for this: 1. Silva showed excellent takedown defense. 2. Silva didn't take any risk. I'm not sure if Maia would have been able to take him down, but if Silva had engaged more the chance of a takedown would have risen quiet a lot. By doing his stupid run-away-stuff, not only did Silva ruin the chance of finishing Maia, imo he also ruined the chances on a takedown and following submission of Maia.

I also believe that he was toying with Maia for the first two round. But after that, I have serious doubts that he actually could do any better... Maia was slowly gaining the upper hand, even standing up. I think Silva was just tired, not bored. If there was a round 6... who knows what could've happened. It's very easy to run away from an opponent and then claim you could've beaten him any time you wanted. It would've been better proof if he had just done it.

And his taunting of Maia was moronic. Imagine Demian Maia just laying down and taunting Silva for not entering his guard... That's about the same Silva did with his standup. It was clear he was the better man standing up, so he should be the agressor there. If the fight went to the ground, he could switch to defense. And then tap... :-)

I was wishing that'd happen, but he'd have been stood up for inactivity anyway.

[Guest Mr. Murray Head]

ZJ has the right idea. Give fighters a financial incentive to make their fights entertaining, something more than the FOTN bonus.

[Rich]

So a finishing bonus?

You finish the fight decisively and you get 10% of your part of the purse extra?

[EddieG]

No, a PPV bonus.. if people know there's a chance you're going to do the showboating shtick you did at 112, people won't buy the PPV, and Silva gets a small paycheck.

[Guest Mr. Murray Head]

Yeah, PPV bonus is better. It also addresses the problem with people saying fighters should be making a lot more money by saying that if they want more money, they have to do their part to promote the show and get people to buy it.

[bolleje]

Hmm... wouldn't that make things a lot more difficult for the matchmaker?

Imagine that you are someone like euhm... (just gonna choose a name) Alessio Sakara. You get the proposal to fight Rousimar Palhares. Proposed UFC card features Marquardt vs Sonnen as the main event (the champs are used on other cards or something). You know the next cards are Carwin Vs Lesnar and St-Pierre Vs Shields (who defeated Henderson, while we're busy taking a fantasy trip anyway). Why would I (being Sakara) want to fight on the Marquardt vs Sonnen-card... I'll just invent some kind of reason why I can't make it that fast, and fight on the Carwin Vs Lesnar-card... and get a much bigger bonus then the one I'd get of Marquardt Vs Sonnen... no? I think cards with a relative 'weak' main-event would be very difficult to fill. Resulting in lesser interesting fights on the card. Resulting in an even worse card...

[Gene Kiniski]

WHAT!? So the rumors were actually true, huh? Can't say I won't be looking forward to this show but Rich Franklin isn't that big of a challenge, his last few fights he's been destroyed, but excited he coaches TUF alongside Chuck. Looking forward to Dunham-Griffin as I was amazed by Dunham's victory over Efrain Escudero back at UFN 20.

What's gonna happen now to Randy Couture? And Tito, I'm guessing this is a fight with Dana White again, could he be heading to Strikeforce or just holding out?

First: Franklin is 3-2 in his last five overall, however 1-2 in last three overall. He went to decision with Hendo in one of those fights in what was an extremely close fight. Two judges scored the fight 29-28 for Henderson while the third scored it 30-27 in favor of Franklin. In no way is that getting destroyed. The very next fight following that he defeated W. Silva via close decision and then he was TKO'd by Belfort, the guy that may be next in line for the Middleweight champion and one of the best strikers in the sport when he is on his game. Franklin has only been finished once his 2007 loss to Anderson Silva (and like I pointed out, that was against Belfort).

That is hardly him getting destroyed in his past few fights. The guy has lost a total of 5 fights his entire career and two of those came to one of the best fighters the sport has ever seen.

Try again?

Second: Tito was released from the hospital recently after going in for a neck injury, but it has been stated that personal problems caused him to pull out of the fight. If you took the time to follow up your assumption you would know that a major part of it was his spouse being hospitalized due to pregnancy issues. I'm not a Tito fan by any, I mean ANY, stretch of the imagination, but I will gladly accept spouse and child health issues as being a cause for him to pull out of the show and upcoming fight. The guy is a walking laundry list of excuses, to paraphrase Dana, but I really doubt he is just trying to hold out when his significant other is in the hospital having issues regarding their future of their unborn child.

By the way, in case you were interested in the full story instead of the conclusions: she lost the baby.

I am really not getting this reaction. It was disrespectful, it got incredibly tedious in the last two rounds, he's a bit of a cock for doing it, blah blah blah ... this is a sport, he is a sportsman, his job requirement is to fight in a cage and obey the rules ("nearly" breaking them doesn't count) and if he wants to do it the way he did, fine, that is his prerogative. I didn't particularly like his fight either, but I'm dealing with it like: "Okay, that was shit. I probably won't watch another Anderson Silva fight."

I also don't really take issue with Dana White either. His job requirement is to book fights that people want to see and draw money from them. If Anderson Silva isn't drawing money because no one likes the stuff he does, fine, either book him down the card or simply don't renew his contract when the time comes.

The part that is causing the biggest backlash is that he went in there and didn't even try to fight. The entire time he circled Maia and taunted him in a foreign language while his corner also followed suit with the taunting and slang. Silva never tried to actually compete, he just taunted the entire time.

Edited April 13, 2010 by Gene Kiniski

[Hajjhowe]

Scared of not, Silva obeyed the rules and won the fight. Why should he take a risk of getting taken down when he could (And did) win the fight by staying on his feet? If you want people to take MMA seriously as a sport, accept the fact that some people will be boring/assholes and do whatever they feel will win them a fight. What benefit other than money does Silva get for risking a submission loss?

[Draevyn]

Scared of not, Silva obeyed the rules and won the fight. Why should he take a risk of getting taken down when he could (And did) win the fight by staying on his feet? If you want people to take MMA seriously as a sport, accept the fact that some people will be boring/assholes and do whatever they feel will win them a fight. What benefit other than money does Silva get for risking a submission loss?

Pissing off Dana and potentially getting himself shit on for the rest of his UFC career? This is the same kind of shit that Dana gave Big Country shit for in TUF, doing just enough to win...

[Gene Kiniski]

Scared of not, Silva obeyed the rules and won the fight. Why should he take a risk of getting taken down when he could (And did) win the fight by staying on his feet? If you want people to take MMA seriously as a sport, accept the fact that some people will be boring/assholes and do whatever they feel will win them a fight. What benefit other than money does Silva get for risking a submission loss?

Oh, I'm not at all against decision wins in the sport. I think that Fitch is one of the best out there and enjoy watching his fights due to his grinding style. He, like GSP and even like Silva to a lesser extent, force fighters to fight their fights. The issues I have is the unsportsmanlike conduct displayed by A. Silva during the fight. There is a high level of respect that comes along with not only the competition, but the martial arts themselves and Silva disregarding that.

Maia allowed Silva to pick his spots and take only the shots he needed to win. The actual pace of the fight falls on both fighters to a certain degree. Like I said, it is the unsportsmanlike conduct that was displayed by a champion fighter that is where the issue comes into play.

[Guest Mr. Murray Head]

Silva/Maia is a good case of Japan having it right in two ways. As Rogan mentioned, PRIDE's yellow cards (take away points and a % of Silva's purse) would cause a lot of fighters to second-guess a strategy like that. Second, the Japanese use effort to finish the fight as a strong judging criteria...Silva wouldn't be able to do just enough to win and then backpedal, because the judges would mark him down for not engaging.

[Cactus Drags]

Scared of not, Silva obeyed the rules and won the fight. Why should he take a risk of getting taken down when he could (And did) win the fight by staying on his feet? If you want people to take MMA seriously as a sport, accept the fact that some people will be boring/assholes and do whatever they feel will win them a fight. What benefit other than money does Silva get for risking a submission loss?

That's just laughable. First-time fan tunes in to that fight, having heard Silva was possibly the best pound for pound fighter around, and he sees that schtick for two thirds of the fight, is he going to be taking MMA seriously?

[ZJ Penn]

Hmm... wouldn't that make things a lot more difficult for the matchmaker?

Imagine that you are someone like euhm... (just gonna choose a name) Alessio Sakara. You get the proposal to fight Rousimar Palhares. Proposed UFC card features Marquardt vs Sonnen as the main event (the champs are used on other cards or something). You know the next cards are Carwin Vs Lesnar and St-Pierre Vs Shields (who defeated Henderson, while we're busy taking a fantasy trip anyway). Why would I (being Sakara) want to fight on the Marquardt vs Sonnen-card... I'll just invent some kind of reason why I can't make it that fast, and fight on the Carwin Vs Lesnar-card... and get a much bigger bonus then the one I'd get of Marquardt Vs Sonnen... no? I think cards with a relative 'weak' main-event would be very difficult to fill. Resulting in lesser interesting fights on the card. Resulting in an even worse card...

You wouldn't give everyone the bonus, just those that are regular headliners and will be the people who are discussed when the UFC's marketing team have to sell the card. Lesnar, GSP, Silva and so on, not guys who rarely get anywhere near even the co-main. It's a formula that boxing has been using for a long time and is only becoming relevant to MMA, still a young sport with relatively few superstars.

[Powerhart]

MMAJunkie interview with Frankie Edgar. Most relevant stuff from the interview.

Not more than two days after Edgar (12-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) bested B.J. Penn (15-6 MMA, 11-5 UFC) on points this past Saturday at UFC 112, Penn said an immediate rematch is in the works and could take place within three to four months.

Gray Maynard (9-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) also wants the first shot at the new champion.

Edgar is not one to make a scene about who's next. But if he has to pick one, it's Maynard.

"You'd have to say so," the 28-year-old Edgar told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today. "He has a win over me."

So Penn says a rematch is in the works, but Edgar wants Maynard first.

Edited April 13, 2010 by Powerhart

[Jayzon]

The entire time he circled Maia and taunted him in a foreign language while his corner also followed suit with the taunting and slang. Silva never tried to actually compete, he just taunted the entire time.

Umm... You know, they're both Brazilian, and most probably speak Brazilian Portuguese? That is, unless you have other information.