Anderson Silva, "The Spider”, Bites Back

After thinking about it a bit, it's become apparent to me what Anderson Silva is doing.

His last three title defenses at Middleweight have all resulted in lackluster performances and are the only fights in his UFC career in which he's gone past the second round.

It seems clear now that Silva isn't really interested in fighting at Middleweight anymore. This is evidenced by the fact that his mouthpiece/manager Ed Soares, keeps repeating "He wants to be involved in the biggest fights possible at any weight class."

This also explains his Silva's recent talk about dropping down to 170 lbs to fight Georges St. Pierre: He knows that it would be a HUGE Pay-Per-View draw which directly translates to more royalty money for him. At the same time, he doesn't want to vacate his Middlewight title since he then would lose out on the whole "most dominant champion in UFC history with the most consecutive title defenses" puffery that adds to his legacy as a pound-for-pound great.

Silva’s previous two fights at Middleweight and this most recent one were punctuated by his Light Heavyweight first-round domination of Forrest Griffin at UFC 101.

Does anybody else find it strange that his performances in his last two fights are so wildly different. Clearly “The Spider” can turn it up when he wants to. Yes, he did mock Forrest Griffin and made the former LHW champ look positively silly. However, he also finished the fight quickly and decisvely, on his own terms.

Contrast that with his performance tonight. I feel strongly that if Silva either cannot or is unwilling to finish a fight, then he has no business taunting and showboating in front of his opponent and crowd. That kind of showmanship only works if you have thoroughly dominated your opponent and nothing that transpired in UFC 122’s main event tonight suggests that this was the case.

If indeed he wants "the biggest fights available", Anderson Silva should vacate his Middleweight title and move around between weight classes. That would certainly be better for the fans than watching him dick around for five rounds and insult both his opponent and the audience.

By the way, it's funny that for all the grief that GSP gets from the haters for not moving up a weight class , he never screws around like this in his title fights. If St. Pierre has the opportunity to finish a fight, he goes for it. After Silva’s dismal performance, the difference between these two P4P greats could not be more obvious. And GSP has certainly never been threatened with a point deduction by the ref for "inactivity" in one of his fights...