Issue 107
November 2017
It’s already being billed as the biggest UFC event of 2013, but will Weidman be able to shock Silva again in their highly anticipated middleweight rematch?
We live in an age of constant information, easy access to celebrities and every seemingly inconsequential thing said by anyone in the public eye being filmed and uploaded to YouTube.
Given that, it’s a real shame no-one shoved a camera in the faces of Patrick Cote, Thales Leites, Demian Maia and Stephan Bonnar at the very moment they saw, or heard, about challenger Weidman (10-0) flattening Silva (33-5) in one of the most famous knockouts in MMA history. All previous high-profile victims of Silva’s mid-fight mockery, they may have been amused to see poetic justice finally served on the former champ, or perhaps vexed to see Weidman do what they couldn’t and catch the showboating Brazilian on the chin.
Snapping the UFC’s longest ever winning streak of 16 fights, Weidman’s left hook dropped the shimmying, clowning Silva and switched off his lights, bringing his near-2,500-day, 10-fight title reign to a dramatic and unforgettable end.
As soon as the fight was waved off, the word ‘rematch’ should have been bouncing around everyone’s head. And with it, some big questions. These should not, of course, have been about whether the fight was fixed. Leave that to the swivel-eyed tinfoil hat brigade and ‘experts’ who really should know better but apparently don’t.
No, I mean the real questions. The ones the December rematch should answer at what might be the biggest UFC event of 2013. Was it a lucky punch? What would have happened if Silva hadn’t goaded Weidman into a stand-up fight? Or if he hadn’t taken it quite so far? And what happens when, or if, Silva gets deadly serious and wants his title back?
Did Weidman land a ‘lucky’ punch? No. Silva left himself open. Weidman aimed a hefty shot at his face and landed it. That’s not luck.
What if Silva hadn’t goaded Weidman into a stand-up fight in the first round? At first, Weidman took Silva down and was firmly in charge of the fight. It was only when the submission-hunting Weidman lost position that Silva popped up and started taunting and goading him into a brawl.
But that’s just Silva. It’s what he does and it usually works because he drags people into his kind of fight.
What if he hadn’t taken it so far? Looking back at Silva’s mocking of opponents, the Bonnar fight and the Weidman fight saw him not just taunt opponents but let them hit him. He took it so far because he felt he could and had always been able to in the past. He was wrong this time and paid a heavy price for it.
So, last question: what if he gets serious and wants his title back? Simply put, Weidman could be in trouble. Silva immediately opened as the bookies’ favorite for a rematch, not something you normally see when someone gets KO’ed in the second round. But Silva is no ordinary fighter and when he actually tried to hit Weidman, he was able to.
Clearly faster and slicker, he was landing the kind of leg kicks that can ruin a fighter’s chances and was able to easily slip away from a takedown attempt. At the very beginning of that round he looked to be taking control of the pace and the fight.
Even at 38, Silva’s speed and reflexes still looked incredible and he has so much more experience inside the Octagon. He’d been UFC middleweight champion for over two years when Weidman made his professional MMA debut.
But Weidman, the undefeated 2012 World MMA Awards ‘Breakthrough Fighter of the Year’ was picked to beat Silva by a host of UFC fighters, several of whom had trained with him. A superb submission grappler, highly decorated collegiate wrestler and ever-improving striker, Weidman’s path to glory was a short one for good reason.
Inking a UFC deal after just four fights the ‘All American’ impressively won three bouts against mid-level opposition before decisioning former title challenger Demian Maia and then obliterating fringe contender Mark Munoz in fearsome style.
In one of the biggest, most anticipated rematches the UFC has ever promoted he’s more than capable of beating Silva again. But will he?
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