Anderson Silva: People Who Booed My Last Fight Don't Understand MMA

[Guest baseball25]

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva is moving up to light heavyweight for his upcoming fight with Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 because he has looked in his last couple fights like he was bored at middleweight: He's so much better than the rest of the middleweight division that he doesn't need to be particularly aggressive to beat his opponents.

But while some MMA fans booed Silva's lack of aggression against Thales Leites at UFC 97, Silva dismisses those boos.

"If people are booing, it's from a lack of understanding the sport, because I went out there and executed a good game plan," Silva said Tuesday on a call to promote UFC 101. "I went into the Thales Leites fight to do my job and defend my title. I can't control what my opponent does."

Silva makes a fair point when he says that his ultimate responsibility is to win fights, and he did win against Leites. And not everyone disliked Silva's technique against Leites; famed MMA trainer Greg Jackson said afterward that he thought it was fascinating to watch Silva dish out punishment using a series of leg kicks while not taking any punishment himself.

But I still think Silva is risking alienating UFC fans with the way he's suggesting that the fans who boo are ignorant. I like Silva and I like his fighting style, but I think he could stand to show a little more appreciation for the fans

[UT#1]

he didnt call them ignorant he said lack of understanding and i totally agree with silva about how he approached leites

[silentassasin]

Same here. I feel bad for Silva a little because it is an unfortunate result of the younger crowd with the attitude of wanting to see blood or KO's.

People like most of us on here who love MMA and are fans of all aspects of it understand what Anderson was doing and don't fault him for it. I mean if I was fighting a guy who was known for doing one thing great then I would definitely game plan around that and not worry about the fans as much.

[setxathlete14]

i really wish forrest had a better chance than what i believe to win this fight

[UT#1]

if you ask me forrest has a very good chance of winning this fight hes a larger more technical version of patrick cote who in my opinion gave silva the most trouble in the UFC before blowing his acl. forrest is also going to have about 25-30 lbs on him come fight night and going to a 3  round fight cardio shouldnt be a problem for either i cant wait