Oh Anderson

           UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. Oh boy. Apart from the shocking results of the B.J. Penn-Frankie Edgar fight, there were some other wild things going on. Edgar pulled off one of the biggest upsets in MMA history by defeating Penn for the UFC Lightweight championship. Yet, this was overshadowed by what happened in the fight between Anderson Silva and Demian Maia for the Middleweight championship. This could not be called a fight. It definitely didn’t look like a fight for a championship title. It looked more like the finals of a Dance Dance Revolution tournament where someone was trying to do their thang on the platform and a drunkard passing by attempted to disrupt their display of funk. Or this here might work better for you if you’re more of a guitar player than a dancer.
           The fight got off to a good start-the ref said “lets go” and both fighters were present. Alright, looking good so far. But that positivity didn’t last too long. Basically, Anderson Silva toys with Demian Maia for five rounds. Maia, being an inadequate stand up fighter, develops a game plan of trying to take Silva to the ground. This proves to be a little too difficult as Silva stuffs all of his takedown attempts. The fight is forced to be played out on their feet. Silva is an excellent stand up fighter and this is seen with the ridiculous combos he uses on Maia. Maia shows little effort to fight back and Silva appears to grow restless. So what does he do? He dances the night away. Instead of fighting for the full 5 rounds, he decides “Hey. Lets mix in some dancing. I’m an entertainer. People will enjoy it.” He didn’t say this but his moves said it all. He dances his way around Maia, leaving his hands down and throwing weird-looking punches from awkward angles. He dances in and out of Maia’s face while making faces at him. And that’s basically all that happens for the rest of the fight. Silva wins by unanimous decision and he retains his belt.
           There are two sides to this story. The side that defends Anderson Silva for how he behaved and the side who condemns him for making a mockery of the sport. The side that defends him cites the fact that Demian Maia didn’t deserve a shot at the title. This is so true. The fight only happened because Vitor Belfort had to back out of the fight. For some reason, the UFC decided that Maia would make a good replacement. Wrong. One, he didn’t deserve a shot at the title. And two, he didn’t stand a chance. Silva is a ridiculously good fighter on his feet and has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Maia is probably the best jiu jitsu fighter in the world, but that’s it. Last time he tried to actually fight on his feet, he missed on a head kick and got knocked out so bad by Nate Marquardt. Silva thought this fight was a joke. He even shows it at the weigh in. People feel that what the UFC did by throwing Maia at him was disrespectful to his status as a great fighter. This is true. But still, no. I mean it was an excellent display of skill by Silva, but it was disrespectful on so many levels.
          The other side is the one that feels Silva made a mockery of the sport. He danced around like an idiot for 5 rounds. He disrespected Demian Maia. He disrespected the other fighters in the UFC. He disrespected the executives at UFC. And most importantly, he disrespected the sport as a whole. Dana White, president of the UFC, left the fight early because he couldn’t put the belt on him. The UFC showed that they didn’t respect Silva by throwing Maia at him and Silva showed he didn’t respect the UFC with the way he acted in the octagon. The problem is Silva works for the UFC, they don’t work for him. When you’re under contract with an organization like the UFC, you’re a representative of the company. This company is paying him millions of dollars and he could’ve cost them more with the way he behaved in Abu Dhabi.