Tag: UFC 168

Matt Serra Confesses to Being the Perpetrator in Weidman-Silva “F Him” Video

Matt Serra revealed on Monday that he was the one responsible for yelling celebratory obscenities after Anderson Silva broke his leg against Chris Weidman at UFC 168.
The infamous video clip, which surfaced a couple of days after the UFC 168 main event…

Matt Serra revealed on Monday that he was the one responsible for yelling celebratory obscenities after Anderson Silva broke his leg against Chris Weidman at UFC 168.

The infamous video clip, which surfaced a couple of days after the UFC 168 main event on Break.com, replays the horrific ending in the middleweight championship bout with the audio from Weidman’s corner turned up.

Silva goes to throw a leg kick, and Weidman immediately checks the kick with his knee, breaking Silva’s tibia and fibula in his left leg. The former UFC champ falls to the canvas almost instantly, cradling his leg and screaming in agony.

While Silva is plastered on his backside, someone from Weidman’s corner can clearly be heard in the video saying, “Good, F*** him.”

The story picked up enough steam in the mainstream media to warrant a response from Weidman’s corner. In speaking with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Serra took the time to clear the air and set the story straight:

I heard the thing, and then at first, I was like, ‘Oh, what did [Ray] Longo say?’ Then I was like, ‘Oh man, f***, that was me.’ …None of us saw what happened. We saw [Silva] just drop, and I didn’t see Chris throw strikes.

…For two months, me and Longo are talking every night, ‘Alright listen man, he does this, he does these shenanigans. This is where he’s going to f*** him. This is where the kid’s going to f*** him. This is where Chris is going to get him. If he gets him here on the floor, I swear this is where he’s going to f*** the guy.’ This is how we talk. I hate to say it, but I’m being honest with you. …As far as Chris, we even tell him the mentality and all the mystique of this guy, ‘No, f*** him dude. He’s stepping into the cage with you.’

To be fair, the vast majority of fans were completely unaware of the severity of Silva’s injury until the post-fight replay.

There was clearly a lot of confusion immediately following the finish. It wasn’t until the UFC cued up the replay booth that a chorus of oohs and ahhs echoed throughout the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Unfortunately for Weidman, Serra yelling obscenities at one of the most beloved fighters in MMA history isn’t doing the young champ any favors.

Those still unwilling to give Weidman the credit he rightfully deserves for defeating Silva twice in a row have now turned to calling him arrogant and disrespectful.

It truly is a sad turn of events considering the fact that Weidman has been nothing but respectful towards Silva throughout this entire ordeal.

Before Serra’s appearance on The MMA Hour, Weidman was also a guest on the show, where he continued to proclaim Silva as the greatest fighter in MMA history.

At the end of the day, people make mistakes. Even though Serra made an honest mistake, he still owned up to the incident and took the initiative to apologize to Silva’s family for his comments during the fight:

I didn’t see it until the next day on how that thing broke. We’re not heartless pricks, we’re not bad sportsmen. He’s got kids, he’s got people who love him. The first thing I did when I knew it was me is I got [Silva’s manager] Ed Soares number, and I gave him a call. If I hurt anybody’s feelings, of course Anderson’s kids, his wife and everything, I do apologize. That definitely did not come out of a bad place or negative place.

Serra has always been a straight shooter, and he has remained generally respectful towards just about every fighter he’s come in contact with.

It’ll be interesting to see how his apology plays out in the court of public opinion.

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Diego Brandao Admits He Threatened to Stab Dustin Poirier, Who Was “Scared” and “Lucky” at UFC 168


(“Yeah, I’d like to see you do that three more ti-THWOMP!” Photo via Getty.)

It’s such a shame that TUF 14 winner Diego Brandao is going to be forced into retirement at just 26 years of age on account of his mental illness. What’s that? You hadn’t heard that Diego Brandao is suffering from a multitude of mental illnesses? Well maybe you should check out his recent interview with MMAFighting, in which he not only confirms that he threatened to “stab Dustin Poirier with a pen” (you hear a little girl, Ace?) backstage at the UFC 168 weigh-ins, but believes that Poirier was “scared” and “got lucky” in their fight the following night:

He was there, bouncing at the weigh-ins, staring at me. I told him backstage ‘if you ever do that again, I’ll stab you with a pen.’ That’s what happened.

Every time he saw me at the hotel he kept staring at me, and I responded asked what was the problem, if he looking like that because he was hungry or what. When he got inside the cage I saw he was scared. He got lucky (to win).

“Quite honestly,” Brandao added, “I’ve never seen a fighter get lucky so many times in a 30-second period. You’d think that at least some of the punches he threw at me would have missed, but nooooooo.”

I’m kidding, of course. There’s no way that Brandao has ever started a sentence with “quite honestly.”


(“Yeah, I’d like to see you do that three more ti-THWOMP!” Photo via Getty.)

It’s such a shame that TUF 14 winner Diego Brandao is going to be forced into retirement at just 26 years of age on account of his mental illness. What’s that? You hadn’t heard that Diego Brandao is suffering from a multitude of mental illnesses? Well maybe you should check out his recent interview with MMAFighting, in which he not only confirms that he threatened to “stab Dustin Poirier with a pen” (you hear a little girl, Ace?) backstage at the UFC 168 weigh-ins, but believes that Poirier was “scared” and “got lucky” in their fight the following night:

He was there, bouncing at the weigh-ins, staring at me. I told him backstage ‘if you ever do that again, I’ll stab you with a pen.’ That’s what happened.

Every time he saw me at the hotel he kept staring at me, and I responded asked what was the problem, if he looking like that because he was hungry or what. When he got inside the cage I saw he was scared. He got lucky (to win).

“Quite honestly,” Brandao added, “I’ve never seen a fighter get lucky so many times in a 30-second period. You’d think that at least some of the punches he threw at me would have missed, but nooooooo.”

I’m kidding, of course. There’s no way that Brandao has ever started a sentence with “quite honestly.” But I do find it funny that Brandao would attribute Poirier’s pre-fight ‘tude to hunger, when Brandao himself was clearly the angrier and fatter of the two.

Of course, there’s a chance that Brandao isn’t full-on Bynesing here. He could simply be suffering the aftereffects of not only his KO loss at UFC 168, but the car accident he was allegedly involved in just two weeks before the fight:

A drunk man hit my car, and I ended up crashing in another car. I had to go to my lawyer. (The other driver) didn’t want to pay the costs to fix my car. I did my best, I was a warrior just to step inside that cage. Any other fighter would just run away, but I needed that.

I couldn’t run, I couldn’t cut weight to fight. I had injuries in my back and ribs, but I went there and fought. I don’t think I trained more than five times for this fight and I knocked him down twice in the first round.

Something tells me that Brandao has to “go to his lawyer” a lot, with all the pen-stabbings he is probably involved in and all. If he takes offense to a guy he’s about to fight staring at him for too long, Lord knows how he treats some bum who eyeballs his girlfriend at the gas station.

–J. Jones

UFC 168: Anderson Silva Surgery Breakdown by Dr. Steven Sanders

In case your head was buried in sand, Anderson Silva brutally broke his left leg at UFC 168 after champion Chris Weidman checked a hard second-round kick.
Now, while there have been countless reports about how serious the injury was, what the recovery …

In case your head was buried in sand, Anderson Silva brutally broke his left leg at UFC 168 after champion Chris Weidman checked a hard second-round kick.

Now, while there have been countless reports about how serious the injury was, what the recovery entails and the chances of Silva coming back, none are more educational than Dr. Steven Sanders’ breakdown earlier this week.

Sanders is the UFC’s orthopedic surgeon and explains in detail how Silva’s leg snapped, what exactly went wrong, the rod that was placed to stable the Brazilian’s broken limb and the recommendations he had when operating on the former champ.

 

Youtube video courtesy of the UFC.

For more UFC news and coverage, .

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Pedro Rizzo: Anderson Silva Said ‘I Will Be Back’

There has been so much speculation as to whether or not mixed martial arts legend Anderson Silva will return from a nasty leg injury suffered at UFC 168.
Some people think he’ll physically be unable to return, while others think it will be a lack of me…

There has been so much speculation as to whether or not mixed martial arts legend Anderson Silva will return from a nasty leg injury suffered at UFC 168.

Some people think he’ll physically be unable to return, while others think it will be a lack of mental motivation that will fuel future retirement.

Some people think he will return to the Octagon and fight like his former self, while others simply don’t know.

Either way, Silva’s return will never be truly set in stone until he actually says so or actually steps inside the cage.  So in the meantime—especially considering the timetable of his return—all we can do is speculate.

And if we can’t get a final decision from the man himself, why not ask the man who trains him?

Former UFC heavyweight Pedro Rizzo and current trainer to Silva recently shed some light on the whole retirement situation, originally reported by Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting:

“At the hospital, Anderson told me ‘I will be back, master. I will be back,’” said Rizzo. “I told him ‘yeah, you’ll be back home to recover and rest’. And he said ‘I will be back, master.’ He’s a fighter. He has six months to recover, heal and then decide what he’s going to do next.”

“He has everything to come back to fighting if he wants,” added Rizzo.  “He has a good head to handle all the pressure from the UFC through all these years. Anderson will decide that. He just broke a leg, he has a lot of things to think now. He has nothing left to prove inside the Octagon. But if he decides to fight again, we will be there to help him.”

Rizzo was in Silva’s corner at UFC 168 when the former middleweight champion landed a leg kick that was perfectly checked by Chris Weidman.  According to him, it was an ending that “nobody could ever imagine.”

In any case, it’s going to be up to Silva’s body, mental fortitude and support from his family and friends that will dictate whether or not he makes a return to the UFC.

We would all be so lucky to see him entertain one more time.

 

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Is Chris Weidman Simply Confident (and Honest) or Being a Bit of a Jerk?

Chris Weidman carries confidence—and American flags—in spades, into the cage.
He had confidence before knocking out Anderson Silva in their first fight at UFC 162. He flashed even more of it for the rematch at UFC 168, where he went on to l…

Chris Weidman carries confidence—and American flags—in spades, into the cage.

He had confidence before knocking out Anderson Silva in their first fight at UFC 162. He flashed even more of it for the rematch at UFC 168, where he went on to leg check the ever-living you-know-what out of Silva’s now titanium-fortified limb.

So it is should come as no surprise that “The All-American” and his confidence are riding high.

He recently spoke with Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times, saying that if the 38-year-old Silva does decide to return to the Octagon after recovering from his broken leg, he cannot envision fighting him a third time.

It’s a tough injury to come back from. I honestly would feel bad to fight him again. I know he’s going to be a little hesitant to kick me. He has to worry about getting knocked out. I’ve dropped him twice, knocked him out once. And I don’t know if it’d even be a fair fight to take. There has to be a lot going through his head. Got a leg broken, got knocked out, got dropped. I don’t know where he is mentally, but fighting is 90% mental.

First of all, someone—anyone—talking about the once unbeatable Silva (everyone is beatable) in that way is disarming for many.

“I honestly would feel bad to fight him again.” He said that? About Silva? Well then.

For those that watched Silva go 16-0 over a seven-year span…it just doesn’t compute. Probably never will.

But that is the fight game. Out with the old and in with the new. Nothing lasts forever, and so on. Silva, in some ways, is already yesterday’s news.

We will continue to monitor any injury-related updates, but from the perspective of Silva being at the top of the food chain, many have already moved on.

Weidman certainly has. He is our new Cinderella man. He looks unstoppable. But so did Silva. So did Jon Jones. So did Georges St-Pierre. How long he can keep that glass slipper wrapped around his fist, well, that’ll be fun to see.

Up next: the terrifying TRT version of Vitor Belfort.

And if Silva attempts some sort of career comeback, it will be a feel-good story. But despite seeming a bit cocky, does Weidman’s statement ring true?

Is he just truth-telling and keeping it real as the kids like to say, or is his confidence at a level where it seems in bad taste and a bit nauseating to some?

Is he kicking the former champ while he is down…or was it the most real thing that could have been said?

For Weidman detractors they point to: (1) the audio that some think captures Weidman’s corner saying, “Good, f*** him“; (2) that, in their first fight, he made sure to land as many shots as he could before the ref stopped the action; and (3) Weidman seeming too giddy to them in his post-fight running-around-the-cage celebration.

Let the dude celebrate, no?

They also focus on how matter-of-fact he was at the post-fight presser about consciously leg-checking Silva’s kick and knowing what could likely happen. He did of course say he would never want to see Silva get hurt like that, and there is no reason to doubt that, right?

(Just for the record, no one would say Silva is some squeaky clean in-cage combatant with only angelic tactics.)

The mousetrap for anyone casting Weidman as anything close to cocky is, of course, the acerbic shadow of Silva—considered by many to be the cockiest MMA fighter to step inside a cage, be it to throw his foes off their game or otherwise.

Many sports fans, though—maybe MMA fans in particular—do not necessarily like their champs being buried early, especially while they are still alive and kicking. So they may not care for this bravado from Weidman.

Silva was, and still very much is, beloved. He has not even officially retired yet. Maybe, just maybe, he wants to make one last run—with a little titanium in his stride this time around.

Is it that crazy to think he could come back and beat Weidman in a third tussle? The American clearly won the first round of their rematch, but Silva looked to be winding up in the second frame before…you know.

So. Weidman. A bit of a jerk? Or simply confident, ready to move on from the Silva saga, get on down the road and pave his own legacy. He certainly looks like he is on his way to doing just that if he can get by Belfort, Lyoto Machida and a few other challengers who emerge.

Whatever you think of Weidman and what he brings, it works; the no-nonsense bravado does the trick because this is the hurt game and champs need all the gall they can muster. He fought fire with fire and burned the old dragon down.

One day in the future, though, he too may be looking down the double barrel of the latest young gun who doesn’t give a you-know-what that a now past-his-prime Weidman once beat the late great Silva.

And so it goes…just ask that cocky Silva guy.

***

Latest on Silva: Report: Manager Says Silva Will Be Back

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How Champion Chris Weidman Matches Up with the Rest of the Middleweight Division

As difficult as it may be for some to admit, Chris Weidman is the UFC middleweight champion. He beat Anderson Silva twice. Back-to-back.
Silva, the consensus greatest fighter of all time. The man who was deemed unbeatable for the better part of six yea…

As difficult as it may be for some to admit, Chris Weidman is the UFC middleweight champion. He beat Anderson Silva twice. Back-to-back.

Silva, the consensus greatest fighter of all time. The man who was deemed unbeatable for the better part of six years by some of the sport’s most respected pundits. The indestructible dynamo that slaughtered some of the toughest men to ever step foot in the Octagon—including the likes of Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen.

Weidman beat him. Twice.

You can fabricate every excuse in the book, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s a new king at 185 lbs, and from the looks of it, he’s holding onto that belt for a while.

We know that Belfort is next in Weidman’s crosshairs, but can “The Phenom” do what Silva couldn’t? Or is Weidman destined to reign over the middleweight kingdom for years on end like his predecessor?

Let’s take a look at how the UFC’s “All-American” champ matches up to the rest of the contenders at middleweight.

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