Despite the fact that Anderson Silva scored a win just 13 months after breaking both his left tibia and fibula, the man responsible for those injuries, UFC middleweight champ Chris Weidman, evidently wasn’t all that moved by the feat.
Top-ranked middleweight Silva amazingly proved he’s fully recovered from the gruesome injuries he suffered on a leg check from Weidman at UFC 168 by outpointing Nick Diaz in the main event at UFC 183 on Saturday. Still, Weidman, who seemed to be speaking genuinely and from a fan’s point of view, essentially said on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, per a report by MMA Fighting, that he hopes the longtime former middleweight champ and pound-for-pound king will now decide to call it quits:
Being the champion, I know this ends up going further than I’d even want my comments to go, because my opinion, I don’t think, really matters that much and I don’t want it to weigh on him at all. But me as a fan, if I’m just a normal person, I want to see him done. As Chris Weidman, as me, it’s a big money fight, a third fight eventually. But I’d really just like to see him retire. I think he’s got a great family, he’s got five kids, he’s made a lot of money, he has a great legacy. He just won a fight. I wouldn’t mind seeing him retire on a (win).
In his first win since whipping Stephan Bonnar in the main event of UFC 153 in October 2012, The Spider looked like his former self in spurts, out-striking Diaz 108-80 and stuffing the Californian’s lone takedown attempt. Each of Silva’s 108 strikes landed was deemed a significant strike, and though Silva didn’t score a knockdown or threaten to finish the ever-durable former middleweight title challenger, he clearly outclassed a battered Diaz in a win that brought him to tears.
But even though Weidman expressed excitement about watching Silva bounce back from his injuries, he didn’t seem impressed by his performance or convinced that the 39-year-old Brazilian deserves a title shot in the near future:
In the fight, you know, I’m happy that he came back. He was healthy, he was able to go out there and get a (win). But do I think he looked impressive? No. I don’t think he’s what everybody thought Anderson would look like and what he could do to Nick Diaz. There was a lot going against him with the leg injury, (and) it didn’t seem like he was kicking the legs as much as he usually could. But, you know, I don’t know. I don’t think he deserves a title shot. There’s a lot of other guys that I think are better than him right now.
In just his 10th career fight, Weidman upset Silva and took his middleweight belt at UFC 162 in July 2013, becoming the first man to KO The Spider in the process. Less than six months later in their rematch at UFC 168, Weidman checked a low kick that ended up breaking Silva’s tibia and fibula.
All statistics were gathered via Fightmetric.com.
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