Everyone loses eventually.
Sometimes a fighter is beaten by a truly better and more skilled competitor. Young and promising talents rise through the ranks every day to challenge the best in the world,
That wasn’t what happened at UFC 162, though, when Chris Weidman dethroned middleweight champion and UFC legend Anderson Silva by way of second-round knockout.
Weidman, while an undefeated and fierce competitor, capitalized on the antics of the reigning champion who hadn’t lost a bout in over seven years.
He seized the opportunity and caught the taunting champion with a combination of blows that sent the champ to the mat and the nation into an uproar.
“Down goes Silva” were the headlines during the aftermath of the surprising turn of events on Saturday.
No matter how you look at it, it was truly a shocking outcome, one that prompted Silva to mull his future pursuits of the title.
“My legacy for the belt is finished tonight,” Silva said during the post-fight press conference, per MMA Fighting.
Promotion president Dana White believes the former champ will cool on his initial post-fight comments and accept a future rematch against Weidman.
“Regardless of what he says, I guarantee you there’s nothing on earth he wants more than that rematch with Chris Weidman,” White said in a post-fight interview with FuelTV’s Ariel Helwani.
White continued by calling a potential rematch between the two fighters as the “biggest fight in UFC history.”
Weidman is on-board too, according to Mike Whitman of Sherdog.com:
I’m holding onto this belt for as long as I possibly can. I don’t care who they bring up to fight me. I’d rather have a rematch with Anderson Silva. That’s the first thing I said to Anderson right after the fight. I said, “Let’s rematch. You got cocky and put your hands down. Let’s do this again.”
While nothing is certain yet, pending Silva’s acceptance, the potential rematch is already boiling over with anticipation.
A motivated and re-focused Silva will make him like a wild animal to tame the next time Weidman steps into the Octagon with him. Will the new champion be up to the challenge to again get the better of a UFC legend?
Despite his first triumph, Weidman would take a mammoth leap towards writing his own legend by knocking off Silva again—silencing any remaining doubters in the process.
But defending a title is a little bit more problematic than reaching that precipice. He will have to maintain his intensity and drive that it took to get him to this point, which is much easier said than done.
This isn’t about Weidman, though. It’s about Silva’s will and determination to regain his standing among the best of the mixed martial arts world.
Chances are that his taunting will be kept to a minimum and the former champion will give Weidman the fight he should have at UFC 162.
If he takes a step back and decides this rematch and title are paramount to his goals, there is no one that can stop Silva from regaining his place as the best middleweight fighter in the world.
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