(The courtship continues.)
Anderson Silva insisted immediately after his knockout loss to Chris Weidman last Saturday at UFC 162 that he didn’t want a rematch. Then again, the guy just had his brain scrambled up real good and probably shouldn’t be held accountable for anything he said in the post-fight interview. A recent tweet from Brazilian journalist Guilherme Cruz who himself cites Lauro Jardim of Veja (I know, we’re stretching it here, but we want to believe) says that “sources close to Anderson Silva revealed he wants a rematch with Weidman on Feb. 2014.”
That would probably be the UFC’s big Super Bowl weekend event, if true. Sounds reasonable, right nation?
Silva is currently serving a forty-five day injury suspension and will need more time than that to even begin to recover from his knockout, at least to the extent that one’s brain can ever recover from being knocked out. Silva ate some thudding shots to the dome in the first round while on his back from Weidman before ever getting knocked out and eating more shots on the ground in the second.
Add a couple decades of damage from sparring and training for the 38-year-old and you’ve got an ex-champ who needs a breather. But, an early February bout would at least give “The Spider” a few months off for nothing but rest before he’d have to get back into a training camp. If he’s going to continue to fight and fight in the middleweight division, that’s about as reasonable a schedule as he’ll likely be offered.
Looking towards the possibility of a rematch between Silva and Weidman, betting lines have already been released, and they’ve opened with Anderson as only slightly less of a favorite than he was going into their first bout. According to MMA Fighting, “Sportsbook.com made Silva a -175 favorite (he’s already been bet up to -185), while 5Dimes.eu listed the Brazilian at -140. Weidman is a +155 and +100 underdog on the sites, respectively.”
Looks like the American still has to make believers out of a few more degenerate gamblers. Perhaps after the initial shock of him beating Silva wears off, money will start to come in on Weidman.
Do you want to see the immediate rematch, ‘taters? And, if so, who would you put your money on and why?