Oh?!? It's BIG RON!!!

Let me just begin by saying despite me being a huge Anderson Silva fan, my reasoning for defending him is more because it looks like the entire MMA world has said they’re done with Silva, and I’d like to present a side that says there’s plenty of reasons to believe in the champ. Over the weekend a lot of media and MMA pundits on and off twitter have said some outlandish things and before I begin my article i want to quickly address them.

1) Anderson Silva is still arguably number 1 or 2 pound for pound in the world.
2) Vitor Belfort is a good fighter, but please be careful in thinking he’s the one to “beat” Silva, however i agree either him marquardt or sonnen will be the ones to PUSH Silva
3) Demian Maia has good BJJ but let’s not act like Silva would’ve been completely lost on the ground, this is not Chieck Kongo we’re talking about here

WoW What a crazy show. Lackluster at best yet steeped in controversy. I’m talking of course about UFC 112: Invincible.

I don’t want to bore you so I’ll start quickly by addressing three key wrongs in and around the main event on saturday.

First of all put down your pitchforks and torches and let’s speak rationally about this.

Anderson was completely wrong for showboating during the fight against Maia. However the word disrespect has been thrown around a lot about this fight and I want to be clear in who i think he was disrespectful to. Many hardcore MMA fans insert themselves into the equation a lot and want to take what Anderson Silva did on Saturday personally. Don’t do that. He wasn’t flippin’ off the crowd and telling you to bring on the boos. What Anderson did in the octagon was directed at Maia mostly. Silva for some reason felt disrespected by Maia so he returned the favor in the octagon. Contrary to popular belief and contrary to whatever fighters say, they do not fight for the fans. Fighters fight for themselves. Yes fans do watch and are entertained and promotions are glad to have them however fans need to stop thinking that by paying money they are in turn own something personally by the fighter. For example, it was kind of wrong for the Colts to not go for the undefeated season last year and bench their starters. However in the grand scheme of things the organization is about winning in the long run not making short sighted milestones at the peril of good players. So yes Anderson Silva was wrong for his behavior in the octagon, but he doesn’t owe me or you an apology, he owes Demian Maia an apology if anyone.

Now earlier I said it was directed at Maia mostly, and I’m sure many of you want to know who else this could’ve been directed at. Well I think maybe this was a message from Silva to the UFC, that he doesn’t want to face pure grapplers anymore. Sure you face whoever the boss tells you to face, but when your boss is touting you as the pound for pound best fighter on the planet then perhaps your opposition should be up to par. I think this match-up was doomed from the moment Vitor Belfort got injured. Silva has never had a boring fight against a pure striker. However injuries and a lack of talent in the middleweight division early on put Silva in favorable yet lackluster matchups. If you don’t believe me, think about the last three MW championship contenders. One has not fought in the octagon in almost two years and before that won a split decision to get the title shot. One is not even in the UFC, and arguably got his title shot due to mistakes made by Nate Marquardt. The most recent literally lucked into his title shot by being in the right place at the right time. The UFC promoted Maia as being the “dangerous submission specialist” but so was Thales Leites and we all saw what happened in that fight. As a direct result of that fight Silva was back in the light Heavyweight division dispatching of Forrest Griffin. When it comes to Anderson Silva, we have to acknowledge that he is too talented to be in the ring with just anyone, and in his case especially the MATCH UP matters. I think the UFC dropped the ball a little bit on this one.

The third wrong is the UFC president himself, Mr. Dana White. White did himself no favors by repeatedly bashing Anderson Silva. We all have come to love and accept White’s full steam ahead say what I feel in your face raw and real attitude. However this situation probably needed a little more downplaying and a lot more spin, and Mr. President and the UFC did not spin it right. Personally I would have talked to the Fertittas and Joe Silva before the press conference and used the conference as a way to promote Silva’s next fight against an opponent that would push him. Perhaps replace another fighter like he did against Forrest Griffin. I would’ve spoke of pushing Anderson Silve to be his best, and about my disappointment in his performance. Then I would’ve stopped taking questions on it, and started talking about Frank Edgar and what he just accomplished. Dana White threw gasoline on a fire on saturday and behaved a lot less like a multimillion dollar executive and more like an angry fan. Admittedly he is a fight fan, but this wasn’t the proper forum to have his heart on his sleeve. For those of you who are football fans, think about Roger Goodell. If something similiar would’ve happened in the NFL, Goodell would’ve addressed the NFL in third person and dealt with the situation swiftly and appropriately. IE: “The NFL will not tolerate this type of behavior” 24 hours later player fined and/or suspended.

I think these were the key wrongs of the main event at UFC 112, tomorrow I’ll continue by addressing the rights. Glad something got under my skin enough to get me blogging again. Stay Tuned.