Anderson Silva Perplexes Fans As He Punishes Opponents

For the second straight fight, Anderson Silva left a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering what is going on with the UFC Middleweight Champion.  After carrying a fighter that had no real business being in the cage with him to a five-round decision, those looking for criticisms, justifications or guesses regarding Silva’s befuddling performances as of late will find no shortage of them among MMA fans and pundits.

Here are some of the things that we were treated to in Anderson Silva’s win over Thales Leites: side kicks to the knee (not only used effectively but startlingly often), a standing punch to the thigh of Leites, a punch to Leites’ foot as he laid in his too-comfortable butt scoot position, and even a kick that is as hard to describe as it was to predict, where Silva brought his back leg behind his front leg to kick the leg of his confused opponent.

However, it is the things that we didn’t see that have defined the fight more than anything, chief among them being Silva finishing Leites in the fashion that we would have expected.  We also didn’t see Silva take any real damage, or really ever get into any kind of trouble.  Leites did take a round of the fight on many scorecards (although Nelson Hamilton somehow gave two rounds to Leites, making you wonder whether the young fighter asked for an official copy of the scorecard to frame for display), but that was due as much to Silva’s reluctance to attack as it was to anything that Leites really did.  We even got a rare 10-10 round on one scorecard, indicative of the fact that neither fighter did anything to win the first round.

Silva’s own justification for his performance seems to be that his job is to win the fight without being damaged or put into the position where he can lose, and he did just that.  If his goal was, as he put it, “to be efficient and have a perfect fight”, then it would appear that he accomplished that goal.  He was never in danger, did not show any signs of battle afterward, and cruised to a decision victory to retain his title.  He also communicated that he was pleased that he was able to go five rounds, which shows that he was in good shape.

Is the problem, then, that we as fans of the sport define success in a different way than Silva does?  Fellow UFC 97 victor and former Chute Boxe teammate, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, said that “Anderson did the right thing, he fought well and didn’t get too much exposed.”  After all, Silva’s objectives are to win first and foremost, and to entertain if possible.  Those of us watching are usually looking for an entertaining fight first and foremost, except those that are huge fans of a particular fighter.  Still, even those that are huge Silva fans probably expected him to be able to finish someone as overwhelmed as Leites was throughout much of the fight.  We’ve seen fighters fight conservatively before, especially when they feel they need a win or are against a dangerous opponent (see: many of Tim Sylvia’s fights, especially the late rounds against Andrei Arlovski and Jeff Monson), but the question many have is, why would Silva need to be cautious against a fighter of Leites’ standing?

That brings us to another possible reason for the disappointing fight, Silva’s opponent himself.  Starting at about the midway point of the fight, Leites made it a habit to fall to his back and attempt to entice Silva to the ground, where he obviously had a much better chance to pull off an upset victory.  To Leites’ credit, he did attempt to get Silva to the ground by more proactive means earlier on (and with some success), but when he tired and the kicks to his left knee piled up, he probably felt that he couldn’t score a takedown against the champion.

So, is it Leites’ fault that Silva didn’t finish, because he seemed tentative and didn’t want to engage?  Many think so.  Chuck Liddell was one fighter who came to Silva’s defense, even taking the initiative to argue with a reporter who was asking Silva why he didn’t attack more in the post-fight press conference.  Liddell, apparently annoyed by the insinuation that Silva looked “afraid to attack” his opponent, said that Silva “was attacking him the whole time,” blaming it on the fact that Leites kept falling to his back.  Silva’s interpreter added that it takes two people to fight.

However, if we’re going off of the logic that each fighter should fight in the manner that will give them the best chance to win, wasn’t Leites just doing what he should have done?  How would it serve him to aggressively attack Silva in the standup portion of the fight? 
Perhaps he thought that a bored Silva would finally just jump into his guard in the later rounds.  If we are going to take the blame away from Silva for not pursuing a finish because he needs to fight smart, shouldn’t we also spare Leites of his share of the blame, as well?

In the end, none of these excuses do it for me.  Leites didn’t start falling to his back until the midway part of the fight, and before then, Silva looked just as reluctant to strike as Leites did.  If Leites was running away the whole time, it would be understandable, but much of the fight consisted of the two being in striking range, but simply not striking.  When Silva did strike, he either threw shots that had no chance of stopping the fight (such as the leg kicks), or he would throw one or two shots at a time, rather than throwing combinations that could overwhelm and hurt his opponent.

As far as Silva not wanting to initiate the attack for fear of being taken down, I don’t buy that either.  He found himself on the ground against Leites early in the fight and had no problem staying out of trouble.  Later in the fight, he finally seemed to grow frustrated and followed Leites to the ground, unleashing some hard shots to the challenger’s face.  I’m not saying that Silva should have been shooting for takedowns, but I think he could have been much more aggressive in the standup portion of the fight without worrying too much about being taken down himself.

Can you justify Silva’s performance?  Sure, you can.  There is nothing obligating Silva to attack an opponent aggressively when he is on his way to winning a sure decision.  However, the reason for all the surprise and disappointment is that this is not the Silva that we know and admire.  Silva has always shown a willingness to use his deadly array of skills to punish and put away opponents in the past. 
Remember the back elbow that knocked out Tony Fryklund?  The amazingly accurate flurry of strikes that put away Chris Leben?  The pinpoint knees that rearranged Rich Franklin’s nose?  Silva has shown what he is capable of, and he has always indicated an intent to be known as one of the greatest fighters ever.  So, why is he screwing around?

Some of the more annoying speculation involves conspiracy theories that Silva is either bored with (or even insulted by) the level of his competition, or the outlandish idea that Silva’s angry that the UFC won’t let him box Roy Jones, Jr. while he’s under contract, so he’s performing this way on purpose to get back at them.  I won’t even consider the second theory, but the first one seems more plausible and is just as troubling.  If you don’t feel that the other guy belongs in the cage with you, why would you allow him to go all five rounds with you?  Why bother to show such respect after the fight, as if you just engaged in a five-round war with the guy?  And what’s with the celebration after the fight, jumping on top of the cage as if you just knocked out the best fighter in the world in half a minute?

Perhaps we’ll never understand why Silva has swayed and danced his way through two fights in a row, after brutally dispatching of foes for the majority of his career.  Here’s hoping that, if he’s just bored of the sport or the level of competition, that he addresses it in a different way than putting fans who pay their hard-earned money to watch him fight through another aggravating snoozefest.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Anderson Silva, Andrei Arlovski, Chris Leben, Chuck Liddell, Rich Franklin, Tim Sylvia, UFC