The Aftermath of Silva vs. Weidman

After seeing this fight, I've been thinking along with many others, that this fight was fixed. What do you all think? True or false.

Anderson immediately stated afterwards that he wanted no rematch. I think he lost that fire, Silva has had enough. It looks to me Silva didn't really even try to beat him. He just didn't give a shit during and after the fight.

Do you honestly believe that a true undefeated Champ would lose and not care about it?

What's your thoughts on this?

I personally think Anderson threw the fight. It was rigged.

I don't think the fight was rigged. I think you can only "dodge" with feet parallel, hands down, leaning back so many times before you get caught.

I'd be interested in a rematch personally, but Anderson didn't seem too concerned with it. He hinted he'd still be fighting, but probably not for a belt.

I don't think it was rigged either. His mistake was taunting Weidman too much. It was only a matter of time before he got caught. I'm interesting to see if he cuts that shit out on a rematch. I'm not saying he might win but I would like to see less of that.

If a fight were to be fixed it wouldn't make sense to do it for anything less than a superfight with GSP or Jones imo, otherwise you're missing out on a massive payday and whether or not this does harm Anderson's legacy in any way it certainly would more so than losing to Jones (a superfight and also against the larger man) or GSP (superfight with long time P4P #2 guy).

I don't really think it was rigged, just that Anderson didn't give it his best effort.

He was clearly toying with Weidman, and at times Weidman looked like he didn't even know what to do.

I doubt Anderson taunts that much in a rematch. Sure, he's taunted his opponents before, but not without at least countering when he had opportunities, he barely threw anything in this fight, and when he did it had basically nothing behind it, and he was even throwing open-handed shots.

Even against Maia, he did his taunting, but he was also clearly focused on landing his own shots and ended up battering Maia.

Anderson was just standing there, hands down, flat-footed, attempting to use only his head movement to defend himself and not even attempting to counter. This was actually working fine for him until he did this weird fake-wobble thing with his legs instead of countering Weidman's jab. When he did that, Weidman actually attacked him, which Anderson wasn't really expecting. Dumb move by Silva, but I don't see him making that mistake again in this lifetime.

People say the reason Weidman was able to catch Silva was because Weidman doubled up on one of his punches instead of just going left-right-left-right with his combos and Anderson's not used to that, but that's not true as he's slipped punches from fighters with better hands than Weidman even when they doubled up:

Belfort doesn't just come in wildly swinging and doing nothing but alternating which hand he punches with, he came in with a jab (which Anderson parried) to set up the combo, then attempts two left hooks which Anderson easily slipped (also notice that Belfort switched to the orthodox stance after the first left). This just shows that Anderson is capable of dealing with fighters who can double up on there punches, and the way Belfort set his combo up was much better than Weidman's combo. Weidman was only able to land it because of Anderson acting like a clown. If Anderson did what he did against Weidman when he fought Belfort, I'm sure he would have lost that one too.

I mean no disrespect to Weidman, he's a great fighter and deserved the win last night, but Anderson has a lot more in him than what he showed.

One thing worth considering is that Anderson typically has a pretty large reach advantage over most of his opponents which he uses to great effect, but this is one fight where that was no longer the case, with Chris having the slight advantage. Anderson usually likes to stay just out of range, or close to it, of his opponent, and use his head movement to slip their punches while countering with his own but this obviously becomes much more difficult against a guy with greater reach than Anderson, and I think it's why we didn't see him easily countering Chris like he does with a lot of opponents. Chris displayed pretty good footwork and head movement to evade a lot of Anderson's attacks throughout the fight as well, his defense looked great.

The truth is this is how Anderson usually fights and it's partly what makes him so great. Keeping his hands low really frees up his movement and allows him to do far more fluid motions than if he were using a traditional stance, it also makes it easier to defend against the takedown which would obviously have been a priority against Chris, and the showboating usually has the effect of mentally breaking his opponents, making them clumsily attack while he answers with a devastating counter. Obviously this time it didn't work but I don't think it's fair to discredit Chris's win just because he took advantage of something Anderson always does in his fights.

I see a rematch having the same result to be honest, I think if it goes to a decision Chris will probably be able to take him down enough times to win on points (assuming his cardio holds up), and I definitely think he has a good chance to win by taking him down and getting the submission or winning by TKO. Anderson is always dangerous when the fight stays standing and clearly his TDD is good enough to stuff the occasional shot but I think Chris is good enough a striker, especially defensively and with his long reach, that Anderson would find it pretty hard to hurt him especially when he also has to worry about the takedown, and Chris is clearly good enough to potentially pose a threat himself standing with his power and decent striking. One of the keys to Chris's victory in the first fight was clearly his confidence as well, he has a background in sports psychology and clearly was not particularly fazed by the spotlight (not only was it his first title fight, it was his first PPV fight in the UFC) or Anderson's psychological warfare and truly believed he could beat him, and if anything that will only increase by a second fight now that he's actually beaten him, whereas for Anderson it will likely be at an all time low, just having lost his first fight for as long as he can likely remember, and his first loss via strikes.

I think Chris has the skills and talent, as well as great people around him, and a great attitude and work ethic to be the next long reigning champ at middleweight.

Who do people see posing the greatest threat in the future? I actually think more so than an Anderson rematch, that Machida poses the greatest threat if he drops down. I think he'll be a lot harder to take down than Anderson and would completely pick him apart with his striking, though that said I think Chris would find it a lot easier to damage him if it does go to the ground.

he got too cocky, I think.. its okay to taunt an opponent, but silva straight up disrespected Weidman.. giving him free shots and sh!t.. he got careless, he got clipped, he got knocked the f*ck out..

Originally posted by Insomniatric

Anderson was just standing there, hands down, flat-footed, attempting to use only his head movement to defend himself and not even attempting to counter. This was actually working fine for him until he did this weird fake-wobble thing with his legs instead of countering Weidman's jab. When he did that, Weidman actually attacked him, which Anderson wasn't really expecting. Dumb move by Silva, but I don't see him making that mistake again in this lifetime.

People say the reason Weidman was able to catch Silva was because Weidman doubled up on one of his punches instead of just going left-right-left-right with his combos and Anderson's not used to that, but that's not true as he's slipped punches from fighters with better hands than Weidman even when they doubled up:

Belfort doesn't just come in wildly swinging and doing nothing but alternating which hand he punches with, he came in with a jab (which Anderson parried) to set up the combo, then attempts two left hooks which Anderson easily slipped (also notice that Belfort switched to the orthodox stance after the first left). This just shows that Anderson is capable of dealing with fighters who can double up on there punches, and the way Belfort set his combo up was much better than Weidman's combo. Weidman was only able to land it because of Anderson acting like a clown. If Anderson did what he did against Weidman when he fought Belfort, I'm sure he would have lost that one too.

I mean no disrespect to Weidman, he's a great fighter and deserved the win last night, but Anderson has a lot more in him than what he showed.

I'd have to watch the fight again, but it seemed like Anderson thought he could stand in place against Weidman. He was actually backpedalling against Belfort.

Originally posted by noitseuq
I see a rematch having the same result to be honest, I think if it goes to a decision Chris will probably be able to take him down enough times to win on points (assuming his cardio holds up), and I definitely think he has a good chance to win by taking him down and getting the submission or

Originally posted by noitseuq
One thing worth considering is that Anderson typically has a pretty large reach advantage over most of his opponents which he uses to great effect, but this is one fight where that was no longer the case, with Chris having the slight advantage. Anderson usually likes to stay just out of range, or close to it, of his opponent, and use his head movement to slip their punches while countering with his own but this obviously becomes much more difficult against a guy with greater reach than Anderson, and I think it's why we didn't see him easily countering Chris like he does with a lot of opponents. Chris displayed pretty good footwork and head movement to evade a lot of Anderson's attacks throughout the fight as well, his defense looked great.

The truth is this is how Anderson usually fights and it's partly what makes him so great. Keeping his hands low really frees up his movement and allows him to do far more fluid motions than if he were using a traditional stance, it also makes it easier to defend against the takedown which would obviously have been a priority against Chris, and the showboating usually has the effect of mentally breaking his opponents, making them clumsily attack while he answers with a devastating counter. Obviously this time it didn't work but I don't think it's fair to discredit Chris's win just because he took advantage of something Anderson always does in his fights.

I see a rematch having the same result to be honest, I think if it goes to a decision Chris will probably be able to take him down enough times to win on points (assuming his cardio holds up), and I definitely think he has a good chance to win by taking him down and getting the submission or winning by TKO. Anderson is always dangerous when the fight stays standing and clearly his TDD is good enough to stuff the occasional shot but I think Chris is good enough a striker, especially defensively and with his long reach, that Anderson would find it pretty hard to hurt him especially when he also has to worry about the takedown, and Chris is clearly good enough to potentially pose a threat himself standing with his power and decent striking. One of the keys to Chris's victory in the first fight was clearly his confidence as well, he has a background in sports psychology and clearly was not particularly fazed by the spotlight (not only was it his first title fight, it was his first PPV fight in the UFC) or Anderson's psychological warfare and truly believed he could beat him, and if anything that will only increase by a second fight now that he's actually beaten him, whereas for Anderson it will likely be at an all time low, just having lost his first fight for as long as he can likely remember, and his first loss via strikes.

I think Chris has the skills and talent, as well as great people around him, and a great attitude and work ethic to be the next long reigning champ at middleweight.

Who do people see posing the greatest threat in the future? I actually think more so than an Anderson rematch, that Machida poses the greatest threat if he drops down. I think he'll be a lot harder to take down than Anderson and would completely pick him apart with his striking, though that said I think Chris would find it a lot easier to damage him if it does go to the ground.

Anderson doesn't always have the reach advantage, Bonnar had an 80 inch reach and Forrest's reach is only half an inch shorter than Anderson, and also factor in that Forrest and Bonnar are both slightly taller than Anderson.

Anderson was just too careless in this fight with Weidman imo. He wasn't using his lateral movement for the majority of the fight, just standing there trying to use his head movement, not countering, and when he did attempt to counter it was rarely a good attempt.

If they fight again and Weidman wins again, more power to him. Personally, I just can't see that happening though.