Manager says champ Anderson Silva "not bored," isn't sure weight jump is answer
by Steven Marrocco on Apr 13, 2010 at 9:45 pm ET
Ed Soares is again stuck between a rock and a hard place.
He understands fans who wish UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva would have finished Demian Maia during the main event of UFC 112. He does, too. He doesn't excuse the lack of action.
On the other hand, he's Silva's friend and manager and has a duty to understand – and to a certain degree, defend – the champion's actions this past Saturday night at Concert Arena on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
"The bottom line is that I would have liked him to finish the fight just like the rest of the world," Soares today told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "Unfortunately, he wasn't able to. But am I doubting who he is? He's still to me the best pound-for-pound fighter in the planet."
All the way home, he's taken heat from virtually everyone, including UFC president Dana White, who is angry with Silva's performance. He's gotten hate mail by the ton since he returned to the U.S. on Monday.
Silva (26-4 MMA, 11-0 UFC) appeared to have an in-cage exorcism for the first two rounds of the UFC 112 main event as he danced, shimmied and channeled other fighters in front of the challenger. Then he openly berated Maia. Then he spent the fourth and fifth rounds on his bicycle as Maia tried in vain to engage.
Like the majority of MMA fans out there, Soares was confused by what he saw.
"After the first two rounds, I was like, 'Enough already; let's get this thing over with,'" Soares said. "I wanted him to get in there and get out as quickly as possible. I was just thinking, 'what's going on?'"
Before the end of the fourth round, White walked over to the fighter's corner and handed the middleweight belt to Soares. He told the manager to put the strap on Silva – he wouldn't. Then, he left the arena.
Silva apologized in the cage after the fight and said he didn't know what got into him. At the post-fight press conference, though, he said he didn't owe anyone an apology for his performance. Soares can't explain the switch.
White later told reporters that Silva's next fight could be in a non-televised "dark match" and held a closed-door meeting with the champion and Soares after the post-event press conference.
In the end, Silva's record-setting 11th consecutive octagon win and sixth consecutive title defense were overshadowed by the antics.
Soares explained that Silva was angered by comments Maia made in the build-up to the fight and lost his cool inside the cage.
"He was really pissed off about this one article that came out (where Maia said), 'I respect him as a fighter, but I don't respect him as a person,'" Soares said. "Demian Maia doesn't know Anderson enough to be able to say he doesn't respect him as a person. I think [Anderson] took that very personally.
"It's really easy for people to judge people when you're not inside their head. You're not inside [Silva's] mind at the moment. By me saying this, I'm not saying I agree with what he did. I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is when you're inside the octagon fighting, you get a different view than people outside watching."
Many have suggested the champion is bored with the middleweight class and is acting out inside the cage. Soares points to Silva's knockout of Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 to shoot that idea down.
"He's not bored," he said. "People want to see knockouts? Then put someone in there that's going to want to fight. (When) you put in a guy that's going to stand and exchange with him like Forrest did, what happened?"
Soares is adamant that the champion is not in the wrong for refusing to fight opponents on their terms.
"He's the champ; he's got the belt," Soares said. "You're going to want to come in and take that belt from him? You're a jiu-jitsu guy and you want to take him to the ground and submit him? Then take him to the ground and submit him.
"If you can't get him there, does that mean Anderson should go there just to make it interesting?"
Many fans and media members suggest Silva make an immediate move to a heavier weight class in which he'll be forced to engage. Others suggest he should face middleweight contender Chael Sonnen, who has promised to take the fight to the champion.
Either way, three out of four of the champion's most recent performances have been marred by a lack of action. Prior to his knockout of Griffin, his fifth title defense, which came against Thales Leites at UFC 97, was universally panned for such an offense.
Something needs to change.
But Soares is not sold on a weight jump. A jiu-jitsu-based style is the primary culprit for the lack of action, he said.
"It was just one of those weird situations," Soares said. "Against Thales Leites, you could blame the UFC. But in this particular case, you can't blame the UFC because Demian Maia wasn't their first choice. He was there to replace Vitor Belfort.
"It's really nobody's fault."
Silva is currently in Brazil but will return to Los Angeles within 10 days.
For complete coverage of UFC 112, including the night's official results, check out the UFC Events section of MMAjunkie.com.
