Anderson "Tim" Sylvia vs. Thales Leites
Anderson Silva defeats Thales Leites Oh boy. This fight did not go the way anyone wanted it to. There was no upset for Thales Leites. Missing was the dominant nose-smashing performance by Anderson Silva. Fans craving fast-food fighting were left awfully hungry. Let’s start with the good in this match. Silva did bust out some nice leg kicks. No one had seen the lead side kick performed as well as it was tonight. In fact, even Joe Rogan acted like he had never seen it done in MMA at all. Also, Silva can dance like no one else in the UFC. I felt dizzy just trying to keep a fix on his head movement. As for Thales Leites, he’s definitely got a future playing a damsel in distress. I tried to come up with a joke about fainting and smelling salts, but…nothing came up. I guess I wasn’t inspired to make it happen. On a totally unrelated topic, we haven’t seen the Anderson Silva of old since before the Patrick Cote fight. You can’t deny that he looks bored out there. Given the way Leites fought it’s kind of hard to blame him. So, on the one hand you have the defense that you can’t fight somebody who doesn’t want to fight in the first place. Anderson shouldn’t have to risk getting submitted when he has no obligation to follow Leites to the mat. It’s also true that Leites showed zero courage in the few exchanges that did occur. Most of the striking was done by Silva alone. On the other side of the coin, we paid for blood. Actually, what we really want to see was an exciting fight. Contrary to what Joe Rogan says, we don’t need a wild brawl ala Bonnar/Griffin 1. Even Lyoto Machida, a man who has received plenty of boos in his career, has learned to be exciting. He’s still an elusive fighter. He just chooses to attack aggressively when the opportunity arises. Granted, Silva didn’t get much in the way of opportunities because Leites was always on the defensive. Joe speculated that it might be better to have the fans adulation than to be a tactical fighter. The answer is obvious when you consider that this is a business. The UFC exists primarily to make money. Fighters have successful careers by helping the company maintain healthy profit margins. Chuck Liddell did it by producing lots of KO’s. Silva had been doing the same but without getting any of the mainstream appeal. Silva’s record-breaking win-streak doesn’t mean he’s a popular fighter. Chuck Liddell proved there’s a lot of sizzle to the steak of being a UFC super star. Thinking of food, we need to revisit Joe’s comments about us casual fans wanting instant gratification. He was addressing the “GSP” and “Bullshit” chants that were echoing in the arena during the fifth round. Joe Rogan is passionate about this sport and its fighters. It’s why he’s so endearing to us. However he may want to consider that there can be a middle ground between what the fans thought and what he felt at the time. He certainly didn’t lose any respect from me. However he did show that he can be just as narrow-minded as the casual fans he mentioned. As an epilogue to this bout – it needs to be said that the proposed super fight between Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva should definitely happen. It’s unclear what version of Silva will show up. What is clear is the fact that GSP will make the match exciting. I’m sure that the Montreal fans were just making a helpful suggestion to the UFC when they chanted “GSP” during the fight, as opposed to mocking the action in the octagon. Canadians are far too respectful for such behavior. Return to UFC 97 Results
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