After nearly two months, the fight between Anderson Silva and Demian Maia from UFC 112 still remains a hot topic of debate. People are still debating who is to blame for the disastrous main event.
Maia was on Inside MMA this past Friday, alongside Jon Jones and Anthony Johnson. During this week’s episode, Maia stepped up, answered the tough questions, and gave his thoughts about why the fight went down the way it did.
Before Maia was given the chance to tell his side of the story, Inside MMA showed a feature where other fighters gave their opinion of the fight:
Frank Mir: “I felt there was disrespect towards Maia. I know Maia personally. I can’t imagine him upsetting anybody or saying anything bad about anybody. I think the reason why we’re all upset is because if [Silva] wanted to be a showman, just knock people out.”
Jason “Mayhem” Miller:”Yeah you know, [Silva] showed off and shucked and jived and whatever. But, you know, I think it was partially frustration. He figured he’d take Maia out. I don’t really fault him for that. He thought he was going to take him out, but he gassed out doing the cha-cha-slide, you know what I’m saying?”
Frankie Edgar:”I mean, I’ve heard all the hoopla and all that, but a lot of people give him slack for this and that, but as soon as he goes and knocks someone out, everyone will forget about it.”
Herschel Walker:”I don’t blame Anderson at all. What I gotta do is blame his opponent. Your opponent gotta take it to him. When Anderson was getting down, he should have attacked him.”
Matt Serra:”I don’t know what the hell was going on. [Silva] was doing good in the beginning, then it just got weird. I don’t know man, you tell me. What the hell was that?
Cung Le: “It’s not the first time I believe. I believe [Silva has] done that once or twice before, so, I don’t think it’s good for the sport.”
Robbie Lawler: “Well I didn’t really like the way he acted in the ring, but Demian gotta push the issue. If he doesn’t like it, do something about it.”
Dan Henderson: “It is unfortunate because [Silva] has a lot of talent and he just didn’t use it for whatever reason and I think it’s almost disrespectful to his opponent and the fans.”
Bobby Lashley: “I think that Anderson Silva is a great champion and I don’t see anything wrong with what he did. He went out there and had some great shots. And if you look at the fight afterward, Maia’s face is tore up. So he did piece him apart all the way through the fight. And like I said, if you’re fighting for the title, you have to go take the title from the champ.”
Trevor Prangley: “I think it was disgusting. I think it was disrespectful to Maia, and to the sport, and to the fans. I don’t think anyone paid to see that, you know what I mean. If you’re that much better than the guy, you should finish him fast and don’t go out there and try to make a fool out of him. I just think it’s very disrespectful.”
After Kenny Rice complimented Maia for listening to what other fighters thought, it was Maia’s turn to explain things from his point of view.
Please note, Maia’s comments have been cleaned up a bit to make it easier to read. After all, English is his second language.
The first question posed was “How do you feel about this now after a couple of months to let it all absorb?”
Maia answered “First of all, after I analyzed the fight, the first round, I was respecting him too much. I think it was because I thought ‘If the guy catches me with a punch, he’s going to knock me out.’ So I respected him too much. He didn’t engage too much, but he landed some good jabs and one kick or two.
“So in the third round, I start to go more and more to fight to try to get the belt. But I think I could have turned it up a little bit earlier. I think he was disrespectful not just because of his actions, but people in the United States, they don’t understand what he was talking.
“It’s OK if he does his clowning because it’s part of his game, but the problem was that he was talking s*** and bad things.”
Bas Rutten jumped in and asked “What was he saying?”
“He said a lot of, you know, bad things. I don’t want to even say. I don’t know why he was saying these things because I’ve never had any issues with him you know. Actually, we have many friends who are good friends of his and good friends of mine. We train together, but I never have had any problems with him.
“But I just think—before the fight he came to me and was like ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ and it looks fake to me, you know. And Anthony [Johnson] was saying one thing, not about Anderson, but he said about one guy ‘OK, this guy talks bad s***, but he’s himself.’
“As long as you’re yourself, it’s OK, but I don’t like fake people. And for me he was just fake. He’s a fake humble guy, you know. He acts nice, and then he starts talking s***. Either he doesn’t know or he’s bi-polar; I don’t know. He doesn’t know why he does it.”
Kenny Rice then asked “So there was any history here, like with family or a personal thing other than the fight itself when he’s trash talking.”
“No, no. Before, a long time ago, I asked for a shot at the title. And then he started to get mad because I asked for a title shot. He said a real fighter should wait for the title, not ask for the title.
“But I think everyone wants the title. It’s normal; it’s your will to fight for the title. So I don’t think it’s a problem.
“Once in Brazil, they ask me, ‘Demian, what do you know about this fighter you are fighting?’ I was just kidding when I said, ‘Ah, you know, he’s the spider. Maybe I’ll take one of his limbs if I have the chance.’ That’s the worst thing I said but I was laughing, not saying it in a bad way.
“You can see Rashad and Quinton. They said a lot of bad things before the fight, but after the fight they hugged each other. Ya know, that’s fighting. It’s like they’re promoting the fight. We are not even promoting the fight like that and I didn’t feel like that before. I didn’t feel bad. If he is OK with me then we’re OK with each other.”
Kenny then asked Maia why he didn’t do anything while Silva was dancing around and taunting him.
“You know, I’m really cold when I fight. We worked on a strategy for when he starts dancing around. I even had training partners acting like that for me. My coaches said ‘When he start to doing that, don’t go at him like a crazy train because the fight will end like it did for Forrest [Griffin].’ He does that because he wants you to come at him because he’s a counter puncher. He’s very good counter puncher. He’s good attacking, but he’s much better when he’s countering.
“My coach knew for sure that he was going to start dancing and taunting, so he told me not to chase him. Wait for him to come. But like I said, I could have been a little bit more aggressive in the second round or beginning of the third round.
“And probably I landed some punches, but the worse thing was I broke my nose. I knew about it, but I just forgot and my eye was puffed. But yeah, the nose was a problem.”
Maia was then asked about how he felt about people talking about his fight and second guessing what he did, especially those with limited fighting experience.
“It’s OK, everybody can say whatever they want. Everybody is a fan also, not just a fighter, but a fan. And you can’t take what other people say seriously.
“I think it’s bad for the sport what he did, but it was a fight. I lost, and I really lost, but it was not exciting. Maybe the end was the most exciting part of the fight.”
Bas Rutten then brought up the hard punch that Maia landed in the fourth round and stated that he thought that Silva started backpedaling after that punch landed.
“I really felt my hand landing really hard; I almost broke my hand. So, I thought, ‘OK, now I’m going to start doing that.’
“The problem was I think he was a little bit tired and he didn’t want to engage because he was afraid, not to get punched too much I think, but more to get taken down.”
So one-half of this story is put to rest. Will Silva come out and ever truly explain his side of the story?
Personally, I wouldn’t bet on it.
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