Midnight Mania! Soccer Star Silva Deserved Defeat After Dramatic Collapse

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Chris Weidman’s performance against Bruno Silva over the weekend (Sat., March 30, 2024) at UFC Atlantic City was, in many ways, a considerable return to form. I’m not saying Weidman is back at championship level, but for the first time since he beat Kelvin Gastelum, Weidman at least resembled the man who rose through the ranks as an undefeated up-and-comer.

On the feet, Weidman was noticeably sharper with his shot selection and distance management. His gas tank held up well, and he handled the shots “Blindado” did land without too much issue. He outwrestled the Brazilian, and he was generally well on his way to a decision win with a few minutes remaining.

There’s just one problem: Weidman poked his opponent in the eyes on at least three separate occasions (watch highlights). The bout ended due to a double eye poke that the referee missed, and Weidman used that opportunity to score a TKO stoppage that was quickly overturned to a technical decisions.

Silva plans to appeal the controversial call, which has generated quite a bit of discussion about eye pokes and gloves from the community. Now, UFC color commentator and former champion Daniel Cormier has offered his thoughts on the “Good Guy/Bad Guy” show, and he wasn’t impressed with Silva’s reaction to being poked. As such, he believes Weidman deserved the nod.

“There’s a rule in place, that if you go past a certain point in the fight, it’s scored,” Cormier said (via MMA Junkie). “If there is an illegal blow, they score the fight and if you score that fight, Chris Weidman wins. So I think by them making it a decision, it saves the fight, staying a win for Chris Weidman – because he really did deserve to get a victory because he fought so well. He made one point that I thought was very important. He said, ‘I get it, but Bruno Silva has to understand you can’t fall to the ground and turn away from the fight because I am going to jump on you and finish the fight.’

“Chris Weidman did what his instincts told him, and that was to go finish Bruno Silva when Bruno reacted the way that he did from the eye poke. I’m only saying this because, to me, it felt like a soccer player when they get fouled and they’re rolling around on the ground when the guy barely touches them. Bruno Silva got eye poked, but I think he understood where he was in the fight. He was getting beat. He was losing. He fell to the ground. He reacted in the way he was reacting, hoping, ‘Wait, stop, stop, stop, poke to the eye. No contest.’ Instead, Weidman went and finished him.”

Part of that controversy here is that perhaps those scorecards would’ve looked different had Weidman lost a point or two due to the multiple offenses.

Either way, Cormier is certainly qualified to give his thoughts on eye pokes. He’s lived and died by the poke, famously trading gouges with Stipe Miocic across their championship trilogy.

And suffering the consequences.

Insomnia

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Slips, rips, and KO clips

Caught the head kick but went out before it could matter …

RIP to the great Rob Kaman, who passed away over the weekend. Netherlands’ “Mr. Lowkick” retired in 1999 with a 97-12-1 (2) record and many championships to his name.

14 years of jiu-jitsu and I wouldn’t have been able to name this submission off the cuff either.

Random Land

Ping-pong!

Midnight Music: Folk, 1962

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.