After odd win over Cote, Anderson Silva has something to prove at UFC 97
An hour or so after Anderson Silva (23-4 MMA, 8-0 UFC) had reeled off his ninth-consecutive mixed martial arts victory at UFC 90 in Rosemont, Ill., UFC president Dana White was surrounded by reporters demanding an explanation about what had just happened in the middleweight title match.
Silva had won his record-tying eighth UFC bout in a row and had just made his fourth successful title defense by stopping Patrick Cote in the third round at the Rosemont Horizon.
The grilling that White was enduring, however, wasn't because Cote had injured his knee and would later require surgery.
It was more because Silva, the man who had been so devastating in his previous UFC fights, suddenly seemed passive and tentative and even, at times, playful.
White was as perplexed at Silva's lack of aggression as the fans, who lustily booed the ending.
"I think I'm living in an alternate universe," White said that night. "That was bizarro world."
Ever the promoter, White then grinned devilishly. He was thinking ahead, to the next time Silva was in the cage.
"I'll tell you this: I wouldn't want to be the next dude to fight him, because he's not happy," White said.
That honor falls to Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Thales Leites (14-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC), whose most notable victory to this point was a hotly disputed decision over Nate Marquardt at UFC 85. Leites is among the handful of finest jiu-jitsu fighters, but he's light years from Silva's league in the standup gams. The two will meet for Silva's middleweight belt on Saturday night in the main event of UFC 97 in front of more than 22,000 fans at the sold-out Bell Centre in Montreal.
Silva is taking Leites' ground game very seriously, so much so that he brought in renowned ground specialist Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza to train with him.
"The Spider" isn't a braggart and isn't the sort to make outlandish predictions. But it's obvious that he's aware of the criticism he received following the Cote fight and that he intends to make a statement and, in essence, set the world straight.
"I wasn't very happy with the way that the fight ended," said Silva, who said he felt a kick he delivered in the second round is what wound up injuring Cote. "I felt that my performance was good in the fight. I felt that I showed – I executed everything that we did in training. But unfortunately, when he got that kick in the second round and in the third round his knee popped, the fight didn't necessarily end the way the world and myself would have expected.
"I was definitely aiming to finish him in another way. But that's just the way the fight goes sometimes."
Silva had insisted that his cautious, tentative style in the Cote fight was nothing out of the ordinary. There have been some experts who have agreed with him and who have said he was fighting the way he normally fights. An opening for him to strike never really materialized, and so Silva laid back patiently waiting for it to materialize, the thinking goes.
The problem with that is that Silva has set such a high standard in his wins over foes such as Rich Franklin, Chris Leben and James Irvin, that anything less seems substandard. Boxing fans wouldn't have been content with Mike Tyson as a counter puncher and defensive wizard and MMA fans aren't going to be satisfied with an overly cautious Silva.
Though Silva owns a black belt in jiu-jitsu, don't think for a minute that he has much interest in fighting on the ground with someone of Leites' caliber. The minute the fight becomes a grappling match, the bout swings in Leites' favor.
Silva, whom White insists is the world's pound-for-pound best fighter, said he wants to be remembered in all-time terms. To do that, he's going to have to get back to his old devastating self. He became No. 1 in the Yahoo! Sports poll of the world's best fighters in January 2008 and held the top spot alone for 13 months. He's been tied with Fedor Emelianenko over the last three months.
"Contrary to what people think, I was very, very motivated for that Patrick Cote fight," Silva said. "You know, my motivation is to be one of the best mixed martial arts fighters of all-time. And as far as Thales, I'm very motivated for this fight because everyone is always mentioning that I'm the best pound-for-pound here or there or one of the best fighters in the world. Having that type of label on me makes me very motivated."
A motivated Silva is usually a very dangerous Silva. Try as he might to downplay, he was clearly stung by the criticism he received after his win over Cote. And, as White said, someone is going to pay.
His challenge is to keep the fight standing and not overextend himself, where Leites can take him down and put the fight where he feels most comfortable.
The very reason that so many speak of Silva as the best fighter in the world is because he is able to impose his will and essentially script the fights.
Somehow, I get the impression that the script for this one is going to seem like a horror show to Leites.
