Weidman-Silva 2 will take place on December 28th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as the main event for UFC 168. The card is co-headlined by Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate, who will also be rematching after coaching against one another on the historic co-ed edition of The Ultimate Fighter.
Chris Weidman shocked the world at UFC 162 on July 6th by knocking out Anderson Silva in the second round. The rematch is expected to be one of the biggest pay-per-view draws in quite some time. The rematch will be very interesting because Weidman has the better ground game and wrestling takedowns, but now also has a knockout to his credit against Anderson Silva. It will be very interesting how Anderson fights in this rematch. Will he take a completely serious approach or go back to trying to clown his opponents and use a variety of head games to break their confidence and play his game. Silva has become legendary in mixed martial arts after his 16 fight unbeaten streak in the UFC which has included a record-setting 10 title defenses; but we have never seen him come back from losing a fight in the UFC. It will be one of his greatest challenges to date, as well as for Weidman, who actually predicted this whole scenario leading up to the first fight: he said he would defeat Anderson and then rematch him again later in the year.
"My style of fighting is very free. I like to fight happy and loose...I like to use Muhammad Ali as a reference. He fought as if he was dancing and that's what I try to do."
It's a wonderful thing as a practitioner of traditional martial arts to see a classical technique come back into vogue and be used to great effect in full contact combative sports. John Smith reintroduced the low single leg take-down which appears in dozens of Eastern martial arts forms to the world of amateur wrestling, Jon Jones is bringing back the savate style push kick or "Chassee" to the knee, and between them Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva have brought the front snap kick back into vogue. Following their use of it so masterfully we have seen a proliferation of it's use in mixed martial arts particularly. Even one dimensional grappler Rousimar Palhares landed it out of nowhere, stunning Dan Miller in the UFC. Just the other night Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim, known somewhat for having turned into a "decision fighter" since his move state side, managed to land a Lyoto Machida style jumping kick or "Tobi-Geri". The only thing that made Stun Gun's attempt less impressive was the fact that he had already attempted to land the crane kick over ten times before in the same fight.
The main difference between the front kick that Machida and Anderson threw and the Muay Thai style front kick which is much more common place in combat sports today is in the chambering of the leg. Notice how Machida and Anderson both bring their heel almost to their buttock and then use the bucking forward of their hips to throw the foot out, as opposed to the driving push kick or "teep" of traditional Muay Thai and kickboxing. That is not to say that teeps have not been used to score knockouts before. Witness the kick Kohiruimaki drives into the face of Nitta at 4:44 in this 2005 K-1 Max match. The key difference is that where the Mae-Geri Keage or Front Snap Kick whips up and under the opponent's chin like an uppercut, often cutting through the blind angle, the Muay Thai teep drives straight through the target. The teep is traditionally used to push an opponent back in hopes of him becoming more determined to push forward - walking into strikes as he does, or to push him into the ropes or corner. The snap kick is intended to cause a knockout or punish the body. Though the teep is used more routinely, it is also hard to find fighters who use the kick to it's full potential - Buakaw Por Pramuk being the most notable push kicker in common knowledge.
The front snap kick existed before Anderson and Lyoto (or Steven Seagal if you're feeling particularly gullible) stormed our living rooms with it in 2011, and had been used on the big stages of kickboxing and mma before, but never as effectively to the jaw. Semmy Schilt - the towering Dutch kickboxer - came to the 2009 K-1 Grand Prix with a front kick that he never before or since demonstrated. In three fights with three top kickboxers Schilt brutalised their bodies with snap kicks to the floating ribs and beat each fighter in under 3 minutes, making the total time he spent in the ring that night under ten minutes. In this fight with Badr Hari - the consensus best in the world at the time of the tournament final, having already KO'd Schilt earlier that year, Semmy brutalises the mid-section of Hari which had never previously been thought to be a weakness. After avoiding Hari's initial charge Schilt connects his first good front kick at 3:08, falling into the clinch. He lands it against the ropes at 3:13 and again at 3:42. Though Hari does not appear wounded, his hands drop in an attempt to defend further uses of his foe's unfamiliar weapon - this allows Schilt to land a huge left straight (I would scarcely call it a jab) that drops Hari. Hari has been down before in fights, his chin being the biggest challenge his career has faced, but it is the wince of pain and the gasps that he is seen to give while sitting up after the knockdown that show the effect of Schilt's front kick. Schilt peppers Hari with jabs, delivers another front kick, some more jabs and then a high kick - Hari's usually high guard is absent though, further indicating the efficacy of Schilt's body work with the front kick. The final kick comes in shortly after - again a front kick to the floating rib, and Hari falls swinging, and writhes in agony once he hits the deck.
The best example of the front kick in MMA that I can offer is not Anderson or Lyoto, but a Japanese lightweight named Katsunori Kikuno. For those of you unfamiliar with Kikuno's work - he is a solidly entertaining fighter and has fought some top names. Suffering a robbery loss to JZ Calvan and outstriking Eddie Alvarez - the consensus best boxer and at the time best all around fighter at lightweight in the world - for almost 10 whole minutes, forcing Alvarez to take the fight to the ground, something he is rarely seen to do. Is Kikuno a great boxer or kickboxer? Hell no. Kikuno fights (or used to fight) from what fans referred to as "Zombie stance", with his hands open, palm facing the opponent in front of him. Kikuno's entire game was the front kick for the first part of his career - and it worked against top fighters. He winded kickboxing ace Andre Dida with one before throwing him to the floor and pounding him out. he brutalised Alvarez and kept him at range with it for the almost ten minutes in their match, and he used it almost exclusively to win his DEEP lightweight title. In recent fights he has abandoned his best weapon and fought almost exclusively with his hands down by his thighs, relying on his chin and punching power, but having seen him at his best it is clear he is wasting his talent in this way. Though it's a losing effort, this is a brilliant example of how the front snap kick can throw even the best strikers off:
Kikuno throws and lands the front kick at 2:32, 2:35, 2:52, 3:16, 3:28, 3:47, 4:55, 5:00, 5:05, and 7:06. Eddie eventually catches Kikuno and changes strategy by wearing him down on the ground, but this is a career defining performance by Kikuno. Few have made Alvarez suffer so much for a win in recent years, and it was almost entirely Kikuno's front snap kick that did it. One more front kick to finish; 5:02 for the money shot.
Sometimes it's not victories that so much define champions, but how they emerge front eh ashes after a loss. How will Anderson Silva respond to his loss to Chris Weidman and do in the rematch at UFC 168? Well, it's hard to say because he hardly ever loses. He has done just fine after losses in Pride FC to Daiju Takase and Ryo Chonan, but we have never seen Anderson Silva lose inside the UFC Octagon until he was knocked out by Chris Weidman.
Well, fighters definitely reveal who they are inside the cage. The cage or ring is a truth-telling instrument which reveals who a fighter is and what they're made of. For Anderson Silva, I feel it's not so much his incredible wins that showcased his character, but actually the fight where he had the toughest time in his career: against Chael Sonnen in their first fight. Anderson was down four rounds and was looking like it was over as he was getting pounded in the fifth against Sonnen. But despite the three hundred plus punches which rained on him and the adversity he was facing, Anderson Silva came back and found a way to win. That fight showed that not only does Anderson Silva have the championship skill, but the championship will and heart to take a beating but claw his way back and find a way to win.
UFC Middlewieght Champion, Anderson Silva is considered by most to be the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the world. This weekend at UFC 134 in Rio, he defends his UFC title against Yushin Okami. Silva is best known for his unorthodox but still incredibly accurate and powerful striking, with highlight reel knockouts of former champions, Vitor Belfort, Rich Franklin, and Forrest Griffin, to name a few.
Before Silva competed in the UFC, he fought in a smaller organization called Cage Rage. One of his opponents during that period, Tony Frykland, had the misfortune of fighting him shortly after he saw Midnight Madness 2003 selection, Ong-Bak for the first time. The UFC champion tells the story of how Tony Jaa inspired him for that fight:
Not long before my Cage Rage fight with Tony Frykland, I saw the movie Ong Bak (sic). Tony Jaa, the martial arts hero in the movie is a master at Muay Boran, an art I have always been interested in. There was one move in particular he did that blew me away. Instead of attacking with a side elbow or an over-the-top elbow, both of which are common in Muay Thai, Jaa stepped toward one of the villains and threw a lead reverse back elbow. I was so enamored with the move I went to my trainers and told them that I was going to use the strike in my next fight to knock out my opponent. Immediately they shut the idea down. 'That won’t work,' they said. 'Just forget about that elbow.' I wasn’t convinced but every time I tried to practice the move during training, the could come run over and tell me to focus on techniques that would actually work.
I still wasn’t convinced, so one night I went home and asked my wife to stand on the couch and hold out her hand. I executed a lead reverse back elbow into her palm, and she told me what I already knew — it was a very painful strike. To get in the practice I needed, I had her stand on the couch every evening after my official training — this time holding a pillow — and I would do one hundred reverse back elbows. By the time the Frykland fight came around, I felt very confident. Unfortunately, backstage I couldn’t sneak off with my wife to warm up on a pillow, so I had one of my training partners hold out a mitt so I could squeeze in a few more lead reverse back elbows. Again my trainers told me to forget that move. I figured I had no other choice but to prove them wrong, so two minutes into my fight with Frykland, I stepped toward him, threw a lead reverse back elbow at his chin, and knocked him out.
Some fighters use their physical weapons in the cage, and some people get into mental warfare. If you have the physical tools and on top of that start getting into mind games, that can be a highly deadly combination. Three guys have been most successful with this tool of mind warfar:
1. Anderson Silva
Putting his hands down, letting you hit him, dodging out of the way, and a variety of different antics have been used by Anderson Silva to throw off his opponent's games. He is able to prey upon fighters' insecurities and bring them out in the UFC Octagon. It didn't end up working against Chris Weidman, but it is important to note that if Weidman didn't land the fourth strike of the combination he fired at Silva to end the fight, the bout could have ended drastically differently. Because Weidman was getting angry and charged at Silva, and if he missed four straight shots after that, then that could have turned the momentum totally in Silva's favor; he was keeping the fight on the feet and starting to shift the bout into his control.
2. Nick Diaz
"Why is your nose bleeding?"
"Oh, we're throwing spinning s**t now?"
These are the sorts of verbal tongue lashings that Nick Diaz doled out to Carlos Condit in addition to slapping him in the face. Kudos to Carlos Condit for staying composed and not biting on the mind games, but many others aren't as mentally disciplined as Condit. Diaz's mind games in addition to his punching skills and endless endurance have made him a force at 170 his whole career. Go back to early in his UFC career when he fought Robbie Lawler; he was tagging Lawler and talking smack to him, slapping him, and Lawler got very angry and came at Diaz rushing in, only to be met with a straight punch that dropped him and ended the fight. Diaz is a master of boxing, cardio, and mental warfare.
3. Frank Shamrock
Frank Shamrock was tremendously strong in his mind, body, and spirit. He was another fighter who was able to expose his opponents' insecurities inside the cage. He would ask his opponents why they are breathing heavy, make a gesture that he is going to put them to sleep, and continually badger them with words and antics. It worked well for him in most of his fights and he used that mind trickery to mess with the head of the his foes in combat.
One thing to note is that using these techniques can be very effective, but if someone uses these techniques on you, you combat them and use them your advantage. Chris Weidman took the approach that if Anderson Silva stands there letting him punch him in the face, that's great, because now he's winning the fight. He's the one scoring points. Carlos Condit also was effective and stuck to his gameplan better than anyone against Nick Diaz on route to victory and showed incredible focus and discipline in the process.
You can change the way you perceive things. You can go into competition already thinking that if someone uses antics, this shows that they are not confident in themselves. Your opponent is no longer using his physical tools, but has to resort to other tactics. You can take the viewpoint that he is mentally breaking, running out of ideas, and grasping at straws, because he is insecure about using just his physical skills alone to win. That changes the way you frame things in you mind and the antics have a different energy because of your perception. Instead of a sign of confidence and bravado, now in your mind it is a sign of weakness in your opponent that he's resorting to these tactics; now you have the mental edge in your brain; which is the only point of view which matters in competition.
Additionally, you can mentally prepare to use your opponent's smack-talking and antics as an "anchor". So you can visualize your opponent doing what he normally does in terms of mental games, and the second he does that, you can visualize yourself successfully landing techniques on him. Basically conditioning your mind to get into a state where you're totally confident and in the zone when you see your opponent doing these things. For example, when you mentally rehearse reacting to something your opponent does or says, think of a time where you were totally on fire and in the zone and landing your techniques with total precision, accuracy, and confidence. Feel the feelings associated with this, hear the sounds, and get a clear mental picture of it all. The more you practice visualizing this success after picturing your opponent engaging in mental ware, then when it happens in combat, you are prepared for it and you have mentally conditioned yourself to get into a peak performance mindset when it happens. So instead of being a negative factor during competition, it becomes a positive one.
We don't see Anderson Silva lose much, but when he does, he does it with the class of a champion. His antics in the cage are one thing, but he definitely shows a tremendous amount of class, grace, and respect towards his opponent Chris Weidman, after Weidman knocked him out at UFC 162 and took the UFC middleweight belt from Silva. Look eight minutes into this clip of Anderson Silva on Brazilian TV and he shows a large amount of respect to Weidman:
I respect him so much, he has a nice background. He started training MMA and fighting professional because he had seen me fighting. His goals was to train in order to be able to fight me someday. So he did. He was very focused, his goal was to defeat me, and he finally made it.
Anderson Silva is not someone who has experienced loss much in his illustrious mixed martial arts career. But he does have a very positive attitude with regards to how he has approached his loss to Chris Weidman at UFC 162. While many criticized Anderson's antics inside the cage during the fight, Silva was extremely gracious, humble, and respectful after the fight and gave Chris Weidman an immense amount of credit for his knockout victory.
The loss is something Anderson Silva has reflected upon and is confident it will be a powerful learning tool for him in the rematch with Chris Weidman at UFC 168, as well as in future fights.
The opportunity for Anderson Silva to fight Chris Weidman again six months after being defeated by the American middleweight is chance for Anderson to reinvent himself as a person and fighter. We have seen Anderson Silva be extremely dominant and blow through an entire weight class, but never seen him suffer defeat in the UFC Octagon. What sort of reinvented Anderson Silva will we see at UFC 168 on December 28th against Chris Weidman?
Anderson Silva chanted the following in his locker room with his team after suffering his first loss in the UFC against Chris Weidman at UFC 162: I come from there from far away to compete and never give up. We are not the best but capable of doing what most call impossible. To us all and the one like us are very few.
Pop star Usher is also someone who trains with UFC superstar Anderson Silva. After Anderson Silva was knocked out by Chris Weidman, lost his belt, and suffered his first defeat in the UFC, Usher sat down to counsel Anderson and tell him "You give me hope".
In times like this...There's a lesson. And I think you know the lesson. I guess the student becomes the teacher a lot of times. You're still going to be an incredible teacher but, the student of this is understand the responsibility that comes with wearing that crown. I just wanted to say to you because, you give me hope.
There have been many champions who have made it to the top of the UFC mountain in their weight classes, but there have only been a select few who have been able to win the belt, lose it, and then gain it back. Three fighters have been able to accomplish this feat: Randy Couture, Georges St-Pierre, and Cain Velasquez. Randy Couture has the unique distinction for doing this not only at light-heavyweight but also at heavyweight. One of the things that all three of these fighters have in common is their work ethic and extreme commitment to improvement.
Frank Mir almost accomplished this feat, as he did win the UFC heavyweight title and then go on to win the UFC interim heavyweight title. The most impressive thing about winning the second belt for Mir was that he was to achieve it after his terrible motorcycle accident that broke his femur.
In December, Anderson Silva tries to become the next fighter to achieve this goal when he looks regain the UFC middleweight belt against Chris Weidman at UFC 168. And at UFC 166, Junior Dos Santos tries to do the same by defeating Cain Velasquez for the UFC heavyweight title
For Randy Couture, this type of overcoming adversity is something that his whole career was defined on. It was not so much the victories, but the coming back from losses that he felt really showed the championship spirit of a fighter. That's one of the themes that you hear a lot when you listen to fighter: it's how you bounce back from losses which really defines who you are. Here are some quotes which reflect that position:
There are many lessons one can pick up from the world of mixed martial arts.
Here are 25 of them with some pictures, quotes, and video linked to them.
1. Believe in yourself.
2. If you get knocked out down, get back up.
3. Don't let a fear of failure stop you. Even the greatest like Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, and Fedor Emeliaenko have losses on their record.
4. Seize opportunities to the maximum. Matt Serra had a chance to be on TUF and get a title shot if he won it. He won the show and won the belt in the biggest upset in MMA history.
5. No matter how bad a fight is going, you can come back.
6. Even if you don't want to practice, go ahead and do it.
7. Discipline pays off.
8. Bring value to people in whatever you do. Even if fighters don't win, if they're exciting and fight their hearts out, people have a respect for that.
9. You mind can be the strongest weapon you have.
10. Giving everything you have is all you can ask of yourself.
11. Don't let age limit you. Randy Couture won the UFC heavyweight title at 43, defended it at 44, and fought in the UFC until 47.
12. Let you imagination go wild. Nobody would have suggested to Anthony Pettis that he should kick off the cage, but he imagined it, believed he could do it, practiced it, and executed it in competition.
13. Surround yourself with great people and you become great.
14. Learn from everyone.
15. Keep going through adversity and eventually it will be overcome.
16. Don't let ego be a hindrance to your improvement.
17. When you body starts to fail, you mind takes over.
18. Having a sense of purpose extends your career. Randy Couture fought until 47 because he truly felt it was his purpose in life.
19. Visualization works. Visualize yourself succeeding and executing whatever you need to do in life.
20. Pressure can bring out the best in you.
21. Fear and nerves can help you stay sharp and be a good thing.
22. Focus on what you can control. Ignore the rest.
23. Preparation is vital.
24. Adapt, evolve, and innovate.
25. Keep a sense of playfulness. It can help you become great and keeps things fun.
Hand trapping is the act of slapping, pulling or pressing one or both of an opponent's hands out of the way in order to fire a strike through the hole created. Hand trapping can be as simple as slapping someone's hand down and hurling an overhand, or can be a more complex and pressuring art form. Many forms of martial art focus largely on the many variations of hand trapping; Wing Chun and Kali being the main ones, but it exists in Karate, Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai and just about any art form where free sparring is used. Many who watched the UFC match between Overeem and Lesnar will have noticed that Lesnar seemed almost helpless as Overeem stepped forwards toward him - largely due to Alistair's hand fighting. Lesnar (whose shakiness under fire is well known) had clearly been told to keep his hands up by his team and so was reluctant to fire punches, Overeem meanwhile stepped forward, covering the bigger mans hands and eliminating Lesnar's ability to punch while he stepped in to throw is infamous Uberknee. This is an advanced level of hand fighting, and one you will likely only see used by great strikers against less-than-stellar strikers, but many variations on hand trapping exist.
In this clip Japanese boxing phenomenon Hozumi Hasegawa comes out to start the 7th round and immediately drops Gerardo Martinez on the seat of his trunks. If you rewind to 0:05 it becomes clear how Hasegawa managed to drop his opponent with such a basic punch immediately on leaving his own corner. Hasegawa has fought six rounds prior to this in which he, as a southpaw, has been using his right hand to slap down, push around and annoy his opponent's leading, left hand. Immediately after slapping down his opponent's hand he has often used the path opened to throw a right handed jab straight back along his opponents arm - though it is not a damaging punch it has clearly begun to annoy Martinez as when Hasegawa does it again at 0:05 in this video, Martinez instinctively snaps his lead hand back up to cover, leaving the hole needed for the left straight which Hasegawa has already thrown in anticipation of Martinez's reaction. The result is that Martinez's lead hand flies up, exposing his chin and Hasegawa powers a fine looking left straight down the pipe, from which Martinez never recovers and goes on to be TKO'd later in the round.
Another type of handtrap is demonstrated by Fedor Emelianenko (who is going to come up again in this article) against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in their third meeting here. At 15:49 Fedor uses his lead left hand to slap Nogueira's lead left hand outwards and throw an overhand (more accurately termed a "casting punch" by sambo pracitioners) down the middle. This would normally eliminate Nogueira's ability to check the punch, but as Nogueira attempts to kick at the same time, he has the misfortune of running onto the full force of it. At 16:38 you can see what Fedor meant to do without Nogueira running on to his punch as he slaps the Brazilian's hand aside again and throws his overhand down the pipe with frightening accuracy. Nogueira's brilliant chin and heart hold him up where his boxing technique does not however, and he survives the 3 rounds in one of the best heavyweight contests in MMA history. The big hand trap to punches are repeated in slow motion at 21:15 and 21:31.
A third, more advanced form of hand trap is performed with the rear hand, then the lead hand is used to throw a power punch. Most will be familiar with George Foreman and his winning of the heavyweight boxing title for a second time at the age of 45; an interesting note is that for his comeback George hired Archie Moore "The Old Mongoose" to act as his trainer, meaning that his boxing technique and tricks were greater at the age of 45 than they had been when he was in his physical prime. At 7:12 George swings a looping right hand trap downwards, in order to slap down Cooney's lead hand and follows it with a left uppercut that connects. At 7:15 George Foreman comes out of a combination using his rear hand to smother Cooney's famous left hook preemptively, and delivers a hard jab with his left hand, following up with a right hand and a combination on the stunned Cooney, dropping him.
This same hand trap has been used to great affect in Mixed Martial Arts by the aforementioned Fedor Emelianenko and has resulted in two rapid victories for the Russian. Famed for his right hand lead, which he had used to great affect against Nogueira, Gary Goodridge and Kazuyuki Fujita, the Russian's opponents often carried their lead hand out in front of them, ready to parry the straight right. This presented Emelianenko with the opportunity to loop his right hand over their lead hand in a faked punch - turned hand trap, and follow with a hard left hook.
Against Zuluzinho the Russian executes his hand trap to left hook combination (now known around the internet as "zulu'ing") at 0:30 and it is repeated in slow motion several times at 1:00. Finally, proving how difficult this technique is to deal with, Tim Sylvia, a top ten heavyweight at the time took on Fedor in 2009, only to be dispatched in 27 seconds by the same combination and a follow up from The Last Emperor.
Other fighters with excellent hand traps are Andre Arlovski - who attempted to use them against Sergei Kharitanov most recently, Anderson Silva - who landed a wicked left straight against Nate Marquadt using exactly the same technique Hasegawa used in the first video, and Lyoto Machida who similarly uses a slap down of the lead hand to southpaw left straight almost exclusively.
This is an animated gif showing the horrific moment when Brazilian UFC fighter Anderson Silva broke his leg while kicking his opponent Chris Weidman. Seeing a leg bend like that is not a pretty sight.
Well I finally got the chance to see UFC 101 yesterday and boy was it worth the wait. If you haven't seen it yet look away now cause I know how it feels when fights are ruined for me. I usually opt for a media block out, and yeah don't use twitter the next day, trust me!
I can say with absolute confidence that the performance of Anderson Silva against Forrest has to be the greatest performance I have ever seen inside the Octagon. Joe Rogan says it a lot, but Silva is definitely a character out of a movie. Silva was up against the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion and one of the most beloved fighters in the UFC ever since his slug fest with Stefan Bonner in the Ultimate Fighter finally season one. Forrest also has excellent cardio, great power and most of all heart! People might have been excused if they thought he had a chance against the reigning Middleweight champion, I sure did, especially taking into account Silva's last two fights versus Cote and Laites. Cote got injured mid way through and Laites ran from Silva for 5 rounds. Lets also not Forget that Silva was moving up a weight class to fight Griffin. What we were treated too was magical.
Silva felt up Griffin for the usual minute and then turned on the action. He managed to knock down Griffin 3 times in the first round the last of which finished the fight as Forrest waved that he has had enough! The first knock down was via a right hook to the jaw which dropped Forrest instantly but he was able to recover pretty quickly. The second one was truly brilliant. Silva stayed in the "pocket" in front of Forrest ducking under 3 punches with incredible head movement only to land a straight right and Forrest was down again. It was something you could only see in a Hollywood movie, something Jet-Li could pull off. Silva immediately pounced on him and at that point I though Forrest was done, but either he recovered or Anderson wasn't ready to finish him off yet. With Forrest out of options he attempted a flurry of punches while moving aggressively forward, Silva moved back smoothly and landed a jab while doing so that downed Griffin for the final time. I couldn't believe my eyes.
I was watching with my brother, who follows UFC diligently like myself, my wife who is a huge Ultimate Fighter fan, and a friend who sees a game with me once every blue moon. Prior to the game my brother and I were trying to explain why Anderson Silva is a legend but no amount of words could explain what my friend saw with his own eyes a few minutes later. If you ever see an MMA match this one has to be it!
Anderson Silva is the best pound for pound fighter in the world, and probably the best fighter that ever lived. Like Jordan was for basketball and Mardonna was to football, Anderson Silva is for MMA!
Anderson Silva on his respect for Chris Weidman knocking him out at UFC 162 to win the UFC middleweight title:
People are going to be saying a lot of things now; they're going to say that Chris got lucky, they're going to say I underestimated him, but we need to respect what he did, we need to respect that he went in there and he beat me, and that's pretty much it.
