In 2015, does the Leites fight help/hurt/no difference to Spider's legacy?

[Not Tuf]

argh that fight was so bad. Everyone forgot about anderson's bad UFC fights and they aren't held against him.

 

[Gatts]

Leitas is/was a great fighter. He has improved and I want to see what he looks like against the current top 5.
It has nothing to do with Silva.

 

[Yolandabecool**]

I takes two to tango. If someone wants to run away for the entire fight they may as well not even show up.

To the credit of Bones opponents - They have at least tried to win the fight. Leites just tried to survive.

 

[Renegadewonder1]

I only remember the Weidman fights and the Chonan fight when it comes to discussing Anderson.

 

[thinkandbeslim]

Everyone forgot about anderson's bad UFC fights and they aren't held against him.

I think the way he fought against Griffin erased a lot of very bad memories for many.

 

[SerrabyTKO]

That's the issue, he really didn't press forward much at all in this fight, Leites flopped a few times but what really made the fight dull was that Anderson couldn't defend the takedown AND be aggressive standing.

Couldn't defend the takedown?

Leites went 1-14 in takedown attempts.

Anderson also landed 28 significant strikes on the ground and in the clinch. And almost 100 in total.

http://www.fightmetric.com/fight-details/7291a111058dbf0e

 

[Dart Feld]

Couldn't defend the takedown?

Leites went 1-14 in takedown attempts.

Anderson also landed 28 significant strikes on the ground and in the clinch.

http://www.fightmetric.com/fight-details/7291a111058dbf0e

You're perception of this fight seems completely skewed from what seems to me like a bias against Anderson.

If that is not the case please feel free to explain why.

I think he was saying Thales Leites constant thwarted attempts to get it to the ground led to Anderson not opening up on the feet as much as he'd normally do which led to a low activity dull fight.

 

[Deleted member 245586]

Never agreed with that, I think Anderson was just as much if not more(being the higher level fighter) to blame for the match being dull simply because he wasn't willing to engage Leites for fear of being taken down.

A good point. Andy clearly refused to engage as well. At any point in time he could have decided to go to the ground an engage in the fight.

He chose the wise course and remained standing but you definitely cannot say he chose to engage in a fight.

 

[SerrabyTKO]

I think he was saying Thales Leites constant thwarted attempts to get it to the ground led to Anderson not opening up on the feet as much as he'd normally do which led to a low activity dull fight.

I understand what he's saying wich is why I also listed the Sig strikes, which Anderson had 94. Compare that with Jose aldos strike totals against Mendes, he had 102.

 

[Claude]

He got a title shot with a win by deducted points. That was his only top win at the time.

That's the fighter Silva fought to a decision / failed to finish.

 

[PeterGriffin]

I don't get why Anderson gets the criticism he does for this fight at all.

As a Silva fan, yes... while watching the fight, there were moments where I was saying "FFS, just knock him the f**k out and get this ridiculousness over with.".

As the fight wore on, I found my frustration directed the other way. It was almost as pathetic as Starnes vs. Quarry. Silva was right to walk away. Leites had no interest in even trying to win the title unless it meant Silva fought his way and made a mistake. I have a hard time remembering a round that shouldn't have been scored 10-8.

Yes, it's Silva's job to defend the title, and the challenger's job to at least TRY to win it. If Leites wanted the fight on the ground, it was on him to take it there, not lay down and wait for Silva to oblige him. He didn't just lose, he lost embarassingly. Why should Silva throw his own gameplan out the window and fight Leites'? Makes no sense.

I think the collective that criticize Silva for this fight, more or less are just Silva haters.

 

[tenniswhiz]

He won, didn't he?

Does anyone dispute that he won?
Why would it harm his legacy?

 

[jdrr]

I was thinking about Bones (hard not to on Sherdog these days) and Silva, and remembering the time after the Cote/Leites/Maia fights when Silva was pretty much the most hated fighter out there. (I won't defend the Maia fight, that was awful and weird.)

At the time, Silva was booed after the Leites fight for not engaging, and a lot of people got on him for not finishing a (relatively) low-level opponent who got the fight more due to Nate fouling than anything else, and there was at least one "Fedor would have dived into that guard with BOTH FISTS!" thread, because it's Sherdog and of course there was.

Here's what happened: Every time Silva and Leites would go to exchange, Leites would pretty much flop to his back and beg Silva to engage him in a grappling match, then wait until the ref told him to stand back up when Silva refused. (In Leites' defense, Nog did this in the first round of his fight with Cro Cop, and ended up winning by submission when he finally landed a TD in the second round.) Anderson wasn't able to do real damage to him, but won an easy decision because Leites wasn't actually trying to hurt him.

A few years after the fact, do you look at that fight as detrimental to Spider's potential GOAT status because he didn't go balls-out and try to finish Leites with GnP, and was satisfied with taking the decision, give him credit because he actively terrified a guy in a UFC championship match so much he wouldn't actually fight him, or just put the fight down as one of those weird fights that could happen to anyone when their opponent doesn't want to engage?

P.S.: Before the fight, Leites got the "If you were building a fighter to defeat Anderson Silva, it would be Thales Leites" treatment. Gotta love fight hyping.

Leites didn't want to fight him. He moved straight backwards anytime they were standing and flopped to his back anytime Andy cut him off in the cage. If you want to be a ground fighter in the UFC, that's fine, but pulling out Shinya Aoki strategies is never going win you any favors in the UFC.

That fight was Leites' fault and no one elses. He should take notes from guys like Werdum if he wants to find clever ways to get the fight to the ground, rather than just buttflopping and hoping your opponent will get frustrated and play your guard.