Photo Credit: Tracy Smith/Inside Fights
When Usain Bolt crossed the finish line during the 100M finals at 2008 Olympics, slowing down to gaze and gesticulate wildly to celebrate the distance between himself and his nearest competitors, many critics saw his youthful display of exuberance as unnecessary and disrespectful. There is something to be said about class and humility in sports, especially at its highest levels and on the grandest stage. At UFC 112, UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva might have finally alienated many core members of the sport’s growing fan base with his actions throughout his five round title defense victory over Demian Maia. After two rounds of solid action from the champion, those in attendance and many who purchased the company’s first foray into the United Arab Emirates, we were all subjected to conduct completely inappropriate for a child, let alone a martial arts black belt.
The main event of UFC 112 went over one minute and fifteen seconds before a strike was attempted. That’s a reasonable feeling out process and by the time it was over, Anderson Silva decided to go on on the attack. The accuracy, speed and precision of his strikes was awe-inspiring for three minutes of those first 10. From that point forward, however, regardless of how the commentary is spun, Silva’s approach centered around blatant disrespect for one’s opponent and a rough approximation of awkward dancing.
The champion toyed with Maia like he was a child before launching into antics that could only be characterized as juvenile. Wiggling his backside? Childish. Dancing around the octagon while swinging his hands like a broken marionette? Embarrassing. Running around in a circle several times in the fight before finally receiving a warning in the fifth and final round from referee Dan Miragliotta? Just plain stupid.
Remember Paulo Filho? He was another talented Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner with high level striking that just stopped caring about the sport and suffered a legendary nervous breakdown in a Zuffa cage (albeit for WEC), but at least we could see that something was “wrong” when he finally snapped. That was an unfortunate circumstance that no one could have foreseen. Anderson Silva is, for all intents and purposes, one of the faces of the UFC and right now, Dana White shouldn’t be mad at Silva for making them look stupid tonight. He should be mad at himself for not recognizing this pattern sooner. Previous bizarre displays against Patrick Cote and Thales Leites should have indicated that not only did Silva not care about the gifts he has as a fighter, he could care less about the fans and image of the company he represents.
You know what happens when average 9-to-5ers disrespect our employers? Depending on the severity of the infraction, one could expect immediate termination. Knowing that Silva hasn’t received more than a delicate slap on the wrist and an immense measure of coddling makes this even less palatable. They’ve pushed him to the moon even when he continues to show us all that, well, he doesn’t care what we think. This man continues to headline pay per views, eating up valuable air time that would be better served on the younger talent that gets into the octagon and actually, you know, WANTS to be there.
At UFC 112, Anderson knew he was so overmatched in one area of the fight that instead of even attempting to engage on the mat, he preferred to keep the fight on his feet and make a mockery of the fortunate position he was in. Maia might have been utterly outclassed as a striker tonight, but if this fight had occurred in an organization where points could be taken more readily or warnings were issues for lack of sportsmanship, viewers might not have left tonight’s card with such a revolting taste in their mouth. If Maia couldn’t punish Silva and White refuses to, at least Dan Miragliotta could have.
Anderson Silva doesn’t think he needs to put 100% in. Unlike the sheer glee displayed by Usain Bolt that irked so many, Silva feigns embarrassment and remains unapologetic for a lackluster finish with an attitude that says “So what that I finished on a jog, I knew I was winning and felt like celebrating”. During the PPV itself, it was noted that Dana White had enough during the “championship rounds” and, in his own words gathered from an interview posted here earlier tonight “I left in the fourth round and I gave the belt to [Ed Soares, Silva’s manager] and said ‘You put it on him, I’m not doing it'”.
With a capacity crowd of 11,008 in attendance and a $3.5 million gate, we all deserved a lot more from a man considered among the top all around fighters in the world. UFC fans went into the fight jubilant after the announce team teased a Georges St. Pierre – Silva Superfight at 170 lbs. and we can’t be sure that is something that will ever happen. That fight was a shaky proposition at best: St. Pierre might be a great fighter, but it is little secret that he hired a sports psychologist to cope with his loss to Matt Serra. One could argue that Silva was displaying his nastier, meaner side to get into the head of the jovial GSP who was sitting cageside for the match, however, there was little mention of that that matchup again, other than in a post-PPV press conference during which Dana White suggested that Anderson “doesn’t deserve to fight GSP”. Even after Georges’ inability to finish Dan Hardy in Newark (at UFC 111), one can’t help but agree.
After UFC 112, the comparisons that Silva draws to Roy Jones Jr. finally make sense: he rarely finishes fights despite showing the skill to do so and cares little about those who brand him with the very title of “best pound-for-pound fighter in the world”, the fans and media, all while claiming to be concerned about some kind of “legacy”. He’s not a fighter of his word and for someone who comes across so likeable in interviews, he sure comes off like a disrespectful jerk in the cage.
If Dana White can be held to his word and either puts Silva on the pending UFC show in Afghanistan for our armed forces or pushes him to the undercard of his very next appearance, it wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem, but at least many people could all feel vindicated. At least Usain Bolt had a defense and claimed he was celebrating his country’s first gold medal of the 2008 Olympics, the pinnacle of any athlete’s career. For a man already at the top of his sport’s food chain, Anderson Silva needs to know that we all expected more from him as a person and deserved more from him as a fighter and, hopefully, the UFC and Dana White finally hold him accountable.
