Is Anderson Silva at a crossroad?

Silva defeat

UFC 162 will probably go down as one of the most historic events in the history of the sport.

The event marked the day Anderson Silva, the pound for pound best fighter in MMA was defeated by knockout for the first time in his career. The defeat also ended his long 16 fight winning streak, which was the longest in UFC’s history.

Chris Weidman, the 29-year-old American came into this bout with a modest record of 9 fights and 9 wins. Looking confident and talking even more confidently in the build-up to the fight, he stated it was his “destiny” to win.

He upset the middleweight champion, taking advantage of Silva dropping his hands and inviting Weidman to hit him….Which he did, hard.

Wiedman's left hook

Early in the second round, while Silva had his chin up in the air, trying to avoid punches as he had done in his previous fights.

Weidman caught him with a sharp left hook that sent him to the canvas. Without hesitation, Weidman followed it with two thunderous hammer fist right hands to end the bout and send shock waves through in UFC.

The fallout after Silva’s loss, especially in Brazil was enormous. As we all know Brazil is a massive country dripped in sporting history. Silva’s achievements have placed Brazil at the top of the sporting tree in the most demanding and macho sport of them all.

Brazilian’s naturally were shocked but many were outraged at his loss, claiming he threw the fight or he wasn’t showing his opponent any respect.

There was a 48 hour media frenzy in the immediate aftermath of his loss. Silva had to give several interviews stating he trained hard for four months, as he has always done so why would he do all that to throw a fight?

He also stated he has too much love for the sport and its fans to ever do something like this or disrespect an opponent.

Rematch

This could be the reason for the almost instantaneous announcement of the rematch, which will be on December 28th at UFC 168. Naturally Silva will be hurting from the nature of his defeat.

Tempting fate one too many times to get caught and knocked out for the first time in his career must burn him immensely.

But Silva is 38 years old. As we all know father time catches up to all of us and even though he is / was at the top of the tree in the most brutal sport of them all, he did state after his loss he was tired.

He did state he would fight on but not for the title, he did state he had done this for a long time and it was all getting on top of him.

Obviously being the champ for so long, he has a rematch clause in his contract. But the almost immediate rematch date makes me think the pressure of the fans and the way he was defeated may have forced him into this rematch so soon. I believe if he lost any other way, at 38, he probably could have called it a day.

Silva & Weidman

But now, even for a national superstar and a global icon as he is, the pressure is really on to perform.

As great as he is, after making the admission of being tired, does he have another great finish in him or he is really tired?

Some fighters go old overnight; I don’t see that happening to Silva but Weidman may just have his number. Two straight defeats to Weidman will tarnish his legacy more than this one defeat.

And even if he is the same old Anderson Silva, comes back and crushes Weidman in the first or second round, what next? Will he be pushed or forced to defend that title again? Maybe even a rubber match with Weidman.

Will he want to finish his UFC career with one last devastating finish? If he does, will the public, Dana White or even Weidman force a third deciding fight? If so, his will mean another long four months of training for a tired 38/39-year-old fighter.

Silva v Weidman 2

The permutations seem to be endless due to this loss. This is why I feel more than probably anytime in his illustrious career, Anderson Silva is at a crossroad.

No doubt at 38 he definitely has not got many fights in him.

Did the defeat expose a chink in the armour, tiredness or was it just a blip or a lack of concentration which often happens in the sport of MMA? I suppose only time will tell but it does provide a valuable lesson to younger fighters that nobody is invincible and anybody can be beat.

All roads will lead to UFC 168 on December 28th, which is sure to be one of the biggest events in UFC’s history. One thing is for sure, the build-up will be amazing, intense and very exciting.

Throughout his 16 fight winning streak, we got so much from an Anderson Silva victory. But now, funny enough, we are actually getting so much more, from an Anderson Silva defeat. Go figure.

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