Without bias, did Silva lose his first fight to Chris or did Chris really win?

As the saying goes,” It was his fight to lose”. By that it means, he just acted reckless and lost the fight and not because his opponent was better than him. So my question goes like this, is this the case of Anderson Silva vs Chris Weidman and that it was Silva’s fight to lose since he started leaving this hands down clowning around and being reckless or did Chris expose his weaknesses?

The second round really did look like Chris was given the opportunity of a lifetime with SIlva doing the chicken leg dance not once but twice. Anderson stuffed the TD attempt, made Chris miss, landed leg kicks at well.. it didn't look good.

It doesn't matter what people say, the fight vs Chris will always be controversial between Silva haters and lovers.
 
Silva was certainly out of his peak/prime, but that doesn't discredit what Chris accomplished against him. Chris was winning that fight and Anderson clowning his opponents was nothing new, nor something that can be used as a huge mitigating factor IMO to say that Chris didn't "win". And I'm sorry, but in regards to the second fight it's not a "fluke leg break" when the opponent deliberately checks the kick and explicitly spent much of his camp leading up to the rematch working on checking leg kicks because he felt that was the most successful/harmful attack landed against him in the first fight.

Silva had a wonderful career (minus the PED bust) and there's no shame in him losing to a surging undefeated phenom like Weidman at each man's respective time that they met up, honestly.
 
I don’t know. I would have to go back and see it. Was a very tough fight to score hard to say who won and who lost.

easier question: who got KTFO?
 
Admittedly at the time this would've been bias but over time I've come to appreciate Anderson.

I tend to lead toward that Chris won but as someone said Anderson could've probably performed better and capitalized on Chris missing shots but gotta look at it from a different perspective as well.

Chris was not committed to a lot of the shots he was throwing in the first round. He was feinting well. He's one of the few people Silva fought that was as tall and longer than him and he had already caused problems with his wrestling and MMA grappling before Silva started doing his shtick.
 
Silva wasn't "clowning around", he was playing head games with his opponent to try to get him leaping and lunging and over-extending into punches (like he did against Griffin) so he could counter, the difference is that Weidman connected. Clowning is what Nate Quarry did to Kaleb Starnes after Starnes allegedly broke his foot and went on his bicycle for the remainder of the fight.
 
Admittedly at the time this would've been bias but over time I've come to appreciate Anderson.

I tend to lead toward that Chris won but as someone said Anderson could've probably performed better and capitalized on Chris missing shots but gotta look at it from a different perspective as well.

Chris was not committed to a lot of the shots he was throwing in the first round. He was feinting well. He's one of the few people Silva fought that was as tall and longer than him and he had already caused problems with his wrestling and MMA grappling before Silva started doing his shtick.
Great observation
 
Let's start a 10 year old argument about if the glass was half full...
 
He clearly lost the fight. And I thought he was losing before the finish. Make whatever excuses you have to, but when you get paid to fight in a cage. A loss is a loss. There was no controversy. That’s as objective as it gets imo.
 
Everyone has said what I feel is true. Yes Silva could have done better no doubt but that's who he was at that point. He was trying to see what he could get away with inside the octagon and paid the price to a guy that wasn't scared to keep moving forward and attacking when most others wouldnt.
The second fight he lost the first round and then the accidental leg break happened. But, it's not like he hadn't faced that adversity before being taken down and grinded out.
My overall feeling is he should and could have won but he didn't and it's his fault, for not taking a prime Weidman who was very dangerous serious.
 
I said it at the time an I still say that Anderson looked like he wanted to lose.
 
Did Silva lose? Yes, he lost to an undefeated phenom after 20+ Years of wear and tear at 37-38 years old, years removed from his actual prime, let alone his peak. Finally suffering his first UFC defeat a couple years from 40….


Could he have performed far better? Yes, and did he have enough in the tank to pull off the win? IMO yes
That's an awfully low bar you got there for phenom status.
 
Also, they fought at different points in their career. Chris was a beast at the time. He was really peaking at the time and Anderson had already had a long career and should have been towards the end of it. Damn near every fighter at this point has either declined or retired.
I was sure the Chris would rule the division with an iron fist... ;( ;(
 
Silva was sloppy and over confident which opened the door for Chris. I say that not to take anything away from his win. He was hot coming in and as prepared for that fight as one could be. He did what he had to do. Up to that point others were not able to take advantage of Anderson in that way when there were openings.
 
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