The UFC 97 Main Event = A Call For The Return Of The Yellow Card

UFC 97 yielded some interesting results, records were broken and a legend has likely graced the octagon for the last time. As to the name Redemption the only one who lived up to that one was Mauricio "Shogun" Rua who beat Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell.

First I would like to say thank you to Chuck "the Iceman" Liddell for his years of entertaining fights and for going out swinging. One of the greatest warriors to ever enter the octagon has reached his end I believe going 1-4 in his last five fights is surely a sign it's over.

I believe he is still a top ten light heavy weight at this point but he is not in that title shot circle anymore. Dana White Liddell's long time friend and former manager has stated he considers Liddell officially retired.

Now onto the real issue here which is the obvious five round oddity dubbed the main event. Anderson Silva defeated Thales Leites in a unanimous five round decision. Silva broke the record for most consecutive wins with nine and tied the title defense at 5. But it was anything but what was expected.

You can never truly predict how fighters styles will determine the outcome of their meeting, until its happening we're all speculating really. So maybe this was a bad style match up as some believe or Silva is protesting due to lack of competition at middle weight and, wants to go back to light heavy weight or because his desire to box Roy Jone Jr. was shut down by Dana White.

Again until something further comes to light on the matter we can just speculate.

I saw a few things in this fight that make me believe the yellow card penalty could be implemented as it once was in Pride Fighting Championships. A yellow card was issued for inactivity at the penalty of 10 percent of the fighters purse per card in addition to that if three were issued it was a disqualification not to mention 30 percent of your pay. That's like being taxed twice!

So I know this sounds harsh even wrong. Well I saw a great fighter in Anderson Silva who had numerous opportunities to finish the fight but chose to disengage from striking at any time he appeared to be dominat.  I saw a challenger in Thales Leites who clearly was just not ready. 

The first two rounds Anderson did nothing aggressive he just move around probing here and there with strikes Leites won these rounds on just trying.  YELLOW CARD! to Silva probably twice if he kept it up after the first one.

The one take down Leites scored put Silva on his back briefly for the only time in the fight. This doesn't last very long and Silva gets up. At one point Anderson Silva fake's Thales Leites with a head lunge not an actually strike and Leites literally covers up and slides down the fence as if cowering in fear. YELLOW CARD! to Leites.

Silva utilizes his best striking barrage of the fight with a single repetitive side kick to the knee that looked devastating. Then again considering the lack of either fighter doing anything this maneuver could just look great in contrast to nothing.Yet Leites is doing less than Silva so YELLOW CARD!

This kept up into the next round so likely both get a YELLOW CARD! That's three for Leites so fight over DQ. Now if Silva was passive through the second fight over here as well DQ Silva rule the fight a No Contest. No one should ever win a title via disqualification strip the champ if you have to but no DQ title wins. 

Also at one point Silva was on top of Leites who was in a semi fetal position with Silva on his knees at Leites's back and, landing some solid shots  to Leites's head it looks on its way to being stopped then Silva just stood up for no apparent reason.  YELLOW CARD! to Silva fight over DQ same as above.

Is this necessarily a better scenario than what actually happened? No.

However the point is the YELLOW CARD! is going to do what it was designed to and force the action. I see this as a solution to a common problem in roughly one or two fights per event.

Whatever the case title fights such as the one at UFC 97 are horrendous and not worthy of pay per view. Also Silva's fight with Cote was similar to his one with Leites. While I can understand some fighters of lesser experience having the jitters or just not knowing what to do I saw now evidence of that here.

Anderson Silva looked to be in control and toying with Leites dancing around and making a circus out of a title fight or just doing nothing for the better part of five rounds.

I think something should be done and the UFC needs to step up and make that happen. So why not the yellow card? Adjust it if you have to make it 5% or perhaps a yellow card takes a point. Whatever needs to be done but there was severe lack of Ultimate Fighting in the latest middle weight Championship.