A man tends to fear far more for hits to his status than hits to the body. Ironically enough, a man can have little fear in taking fights he has little chance of winning, if everyone else also doesn't expect him to win.
That was the situation Silva observed on the eve of UFC 200, when Mr. Jones popped for yet another doping violation, and he threw his name into the suddenly wide open field.
He was long since past his best days, and everyone understood that. DC was a heavyweight champion, while Silva would be moving up a lot in size class to meet him, and everyone understood that. It was a short notice turnaround with no training camp, and everyone understood that. Noone actually expected him to win, and so likewise, there would be no hard feelings when he didn't. All talk around the announcement was just wall to wall 'what a warrior he is for taking this fight'.
Kind of like how when George Foreman put on an exhibition after the first Ali meeting, fighting five different fighters on the same night, to prove he was the baddest man in boxing still, public opinion was almost universally in favor of the journeymen who got whooped up on instead. Individually, none of them had any business being in the same ring as Foreman, didn't even deserve to share the same ring as Foreman; and that's exactly what worked in their favor. There was no benefit in it for Foreman, he gained no honor for tooling them, just like how none gave DC any credit in the matchup either.
It's easy to take that kind of fight, because you don't actually have anything to lose.
And you can tell that is true, because how many people remember how much the fight itself sucked? The brave challenger stunk up the joint, didn't expose himself or take any proactive risks to engage with Cormier, merely hung onto lockdown halfguard for all his life to stall DC out for five rounds strait. The strategy wasn't to win, it was just to not lose. To be able to say 'i went the distance, isnt that an impressive achievement in of itself, considering the circumstances?' (Of course, only if you are also gambling on victory at the same time).
It goes to show that Anderson was thinking the exact same things too when he took that opportunity. That's the power of expectations. The only thing most will remember is the narrative.
