Anderson Silva is known for taunting opponents in the ring. He’s also known for dodging the resulting punches and counterattacking with astounding quickness and power.
Chris Weidman was having none of that.
Weidman and the middleweight champion Silva met at UFC 162 Saturday night in a match most predicted Silva would win with relative ease. Weidman is a plucky, talented fighter, but Silva is a legend. He is among the best pound-for-pound fighters in MMA history. He hadn’t lost in seven years, ever in the UFC, and had dispatched 17 straight challengers. In fact, in that 2006 loss, it was a disqualification for an illegal kick, not a knockout or submission, which did him in. You have to go back to 2004 for a true loss (by submission to Ryo Chonan).
But as you can see in the video above, Weidman danced around with Silva, who taunted his opponent just little too much. He got caught with a left hand during a combination which knocked him to his back for the first KO of his career.
The rumors of a fix are already in, but only by people unfamiliar with Silva or UFC. UFC President Dana White dismissed the criticism by calling those people “f—ing idiots” after the fight. Silva always clowns his opponents and an embarrassing loss to a young fighter with a big payday against light heavyweight champion Jon Jones ruined makes no sense if the fight was fixed.
Take it for what it was — one of the classic “taunts gone wrong” in sports history.
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports. Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis knows how Silva is feeling today.
