Ed Soares was as surprised as anyone to see the fighter he manages, Anderson Silva, get knocked out by Chris Weidman on Saturday night.
But even he had to admit that the now-former UFC middleweight champion may have played with fire once too often.
On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Soares conceded this wasn’t the first time Silva has behaved in such a manner during his fights. This time, it caught up with him.
“I think he went out there and was taunting him and doing certain things Anderson does once in awhile,” Soares said. “There’s a possibility he may have taken it too far this time. And unfortunately he wasn’t able to walk away with the W.”
Still, though, Soares has been around the fight business a long time, both as a manager and as promoter of the Resurrection Fighting Alliance. So he knows by this point to take the good with the bad.
“You move left when you should have moved right, and your night can end,” Soares said. “Unfortunately, Anderson has a tendency to walk on that tightrope of taking risks. It’s part of the reason people like to watch him fight is because he takes those type of risks. Unfortunately, Saturday night, didn’t go his way.”
Soares won’t tolerate talk of a fight fix. While conspiracy theorists barely deserve the time of day, Soares brings up an interesting point: If Silva was bent on giving away his title, why didn’t he just tapped to Weidman’s first-round heel hook, rather than subject himself to a knockout punch which causes his eyes to roll back in his head?
“People have all these conspiracy theories,” Soares said. “It’s stupid. It’s nonsense. Yeah … I plan to get knocked out. C’mon. Who plans to get knocked out like that? If he was planning to do that that, why wouldn’t he just have tapped to the leglock? C’mon. I’m going to plan to get knocked out? That’s ridiculous. Anderson doesn’t like to lose, he just got knocked out. Take nothing away from Chris Weidman. ‘Oh, that was a lucky shot.’ Well, you know what? 100 percent of the punches you don’t throw, don’t land. He threw a punch and it landed.”
Like everyone in the Silva camp, Soares has been gracious toward the winner in the aftermath of the former champ’s defeat. Soares went out of his way to praise Weidman as a humble fighter who has overcome quite a bit of adversity in recent months.
“I thought Anderson was going to knock him out,” Soares said. “But, it didn’t work out that way. Once again, Chris Weidman overcame adversity, like he has several times over the past 12 months. As upset as I am to see Anderson lose and lose that way, and lose his title, on the other hand, I’m happy for Chris. He’s a really good guy, very respectful, and he’ll be a good champion.”
As for the multimillion-dollar question of where Silva goes from here, Soares said his only concern at this moment is on getting Silva away from hangers-on and around the people that matter in his life, and letting the chips fall where they may.
“We’re going to have to sit back and let the dust settle,” Soares said. “What other fight make sense other than the rematch? Right now that’s the last thing on our minds. What I want to see from Anderson is I want to see him sit with his family. Hang out with the people who unconditionally care about him, whether he’s the champ or not the champ, winning or losing, knocking someone out or getting knocked out. He just needs to be around the people who unconditionally care about him, get his thoughts together, and figure out what his next step is.”
While Soares was obviously disappointed, saying he wanted to say Silva finish undefeated in the UFC, he’s also trying to put things in context in the big picture.
“It’s not the end of the world,” Soares said. “The sun came up today. It’s a beautiful day today. We’re healthy, our kids are good, are families are good. … Everything else, you just roll with the punches.”