Dear Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, and Joe Silva:

It has come to our attention that UFC 100 will be held July 11th at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. We, the undersigned, implore you to book a superfight between welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and middleweight champion Anderson Silva as the main event. 

St. Pierre and Silva are both proud, humble champions who have proven their dominance in their individual weight classes. What better way to commemorate the evolution of the sport during the UFC’s historic 100th pay-per-view event than a bout between two of the most complete fighters that mixed martial arts has ever seen? St. Pierre vs. Silva would determine not only the best fighter in the UFC, but arguably the best fighter in the world as well. Would St. Pierre be able to control the middleweight champ with his takedowns and explosive athleticism, or would Silva’s laser-guided striking win the day? As UFC commentator Joe Rogan might say, how the fuck could you know?

Of course, a superfight between St. Pierre and Silva would be a huge economic boon to whatever city is fortunate enough to host it. According to an economic impact study pulled directly out of our own asses, UFC 100: St. Pierre vs. Silva would generate $187.3 million in tax and tourist revenue for Las Vegas, or $531.9 million for Montreal — most of it delivered via fierce “rain-making” sessions in Montreal’s many fine nude cabarets.

In closing, we urge you to arrange this historic match for UFC 100. Please don’t allow fight-booking to be dictated by sensible weight-class-based champion vs. challenger matchups, rather than what would make fans lose their shit the hardest.

Respectfully,

Fans and Supporters of Things That Kick So Much Fucking Ass

Show your support for our proposal in the comments section, and if you haven’t yet signed our real petition to get the MMA ban lifted in New York, please click here.

 
("If you’d like to donate to the Michael Bisping Memorial Fund…")

According to UFC prez Dana White (via Fighters Only magazine), Michael Bisping would be ready for a title shot if he manages to defeat Dan Henderson following their coaching stints on The Ultimate Fighter: Team U.S. vs. Team U.K., which is scheduled to premiere on April 1st after UFC Fight Night 18. The only thing that would prevent an immediate title shot for Bisping in this scenario is if Anderson Silva is tied up in the light-heavyweight division. As White explains:

Ever the good employee, Bisping is already preparing mentally for the possibility. As he tells FO:

Oh man. Fighters talking about the proper way to beat Anderson Silva (and Fedor Emelianenko) never stops being hilarious to me. It should be noted that Dan Henderson actually had some early success against Silva with an aggressive rough-’em-up style during their fight at UFC 82 last March, but that only made the Spider angrier, and Hendo was obliterated in the second round. And as we saw in his last fight against Patrick Cote, Anderson Silva now has the power to blow-out knees using only his mind. So basically, Bisping had better start training with Freddie Roach, or he has no chance in this one.

Fighter of the Year: Anderson Silva


Okay, so all the headlines weren’t positive for "The Spider" this year, but when the worst complaint you can lodge against a guy is that he acted like a jerk in toying with an outclassed challenger, you don’t have that much to complain about.  He’s still the most dominant force in the MMA universe, and that doesn’t seem like it’s going to change any time soon.

Beatdown of the Year: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia – Watch more free videos

Thirty-six seconds.  That’s all it took for Fedor to dispatch a former UFC heavyweight champ and earn himself a ride on “the big rollercoasters” in southern California.  A more satisfying and complete destruction you shall rarely see.

Best Pre-Fight Ritual: The Jackson Camp Nipple-Tweak

Yeah, you’re going to look like a creep if you do it.  You’re also going to look like a creep who just spent six weeks in Greg Jackson’s gym and is now fixing to kick some ass.  Rashad Evans claimed UFC gold without it, but given its track record this little ritual probably isn’t going anywhere.

Worst Event: EliteXC Primetime

"That ear popped!"  When this is your main event, you already know you’re bullshit.  When it ends like this on live network TV, the rest of the world knows it too.

(Leites smashes Pete Sell at UFC 69. Photo courtesy of miyanville.com.)

According to MMA Junkie, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and Thales Leites have verbally agreed to face each other at an April event (update: IntheGuard.tv says it’ll be UFC 97 on 4/18), though bout agreements have not been signed yet. As the story goes, the UFC is hoping to replicate the success of UFC 83 by returning to Montreal for the card, one year after "Serra vs. St. Pierre II."

This of course means that Silva won’t be headlining UFC 95 (February 21st, London), and it means that his next match won’t be one of those "superfights" that people love so much. Not taking anything away from Thales Leites, who’s obviously very talented, but does anybody believe that he’s truly the #1 contender in the UFC’s middleweight division? Though Leites is on a five-fight win streak — just like Patrick Cote was when he got his title shot — the only big name he’s beaten during his current run is Nate Marquardt, and he would have lost that fight if Marquardt didn’t have two points deducted for illegal strikes; one judge still scored the fight for Nate.

Now that Dan Henderson is (temporarily?) back at light-heavyweight, I see two guys ahead of Leites in the middleweight title picture…

(There may be only one man on earth who can make the Santa hat look cool.)

I don’t want much this holiday season.  Well, besides that Red Ryder BB Gun I ask for every year.  And a pony.  But there are some fights I’d like to see in 2009, and while I don’t think that mall Santa I tried to talk to is going to be any help (let’s just say it got heated and we both said some things we didn’t really mean), I’m holding out hope that the powers that be will hear my pleas and make some of these happen.  

Here’s my wish list of ten fights for 2009.  Some are very likely.  Some are just barely feasible.  But I tried to stay away from the downright impossible, hence the absence of Fedor vs. The Highlander.  Feel free to let me know all about what’s on your list in the comments section:

1. Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre: Whether GSP beats Penn or not (magic eight ball says, “all signs point to yes,”) this has the potential to be the UFC’s biggest superfight ever.  They have precious few opportunities to settle pound-for-pound debates, but this is their best shot.  If MMA becomes legal in New York this year, as it probably will, this fight could do a Jay-Z and sell out the Garden in a day.

2. B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian: Perhaps no fighter in the UFC has improved so much by sheer force of will as KenFlo.  Penn is the lightweight champ, and he deserves to be, which is why I really wish he’d stop chasing fights in other weight classes and set his sights on defending that title.  Winning a belt is great, but defending it is how you cement your status as a dominant champ.  Penn probably beats Florian in a tough fight, but there’s only one way to find out.

3. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett: If he beats Arlovski, this is the only realistically possible bout for Fedor that would still be compelling.  I know they’re friends and all, but Affliction is starting to feel like a narrowing path leading only to this fight.  Hopefully all parties concerned – Affliction, Barnett, Fedor, Fedor’s management team – can hold it together long enough to make it happen.

Remember Anderson Silva, the UFC middleweight champ, the guy who got so pissed at the reaction to his fight with Patrick Cote that he wanted to be put on another UFC card as fast as possible just so he could punch a hole in someone’s face and shut everybody up? 

Well he’s calmed down now.  Despite Dana White’s indications that Silva would headline UFC 95 in February, possibly against Thales Leites, Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, says they’re thinking they’d rather wait until April to fight again.

"With our timing and our scheduling, it just makes more sense to come back [in April]," Soares said.

"As of right now, nothing has been 100 percent decided yet," Soares said. "It looks like we’re looking to fight in April. We don’t know what can happen, but as of right now, I think we’re going to be fighting in April."

Okay, so that’s not a firm declaration that Silva absolutely will not fight in February.  He seems like a guy who can be convinced to strap on the gloves and hurt somebody if Dana White sweetens the deal and gives a speech that includes the phrase “it’s the boss’s car,” but it still sounds like bad news for the UFC 95 card.

(Great fighter, but he’s absolutely terrible at rock-paper-scissors.)

During a Q & A session in Fayetteville, N.C. to hype up tonight’s “Fight for the Troops” card, Dana White revealed that Thiago Alves is going to get the next crack at the welterweight strap after the Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn bout at UFC 94, and it doesn’t matter who’s got it around their waist at the time:

"He’s next in line for a title shot. If GSP beats B.J. Penn, then (Alves) fights GSP. If B.J. Penn wins, then he fights B.J. And then he’d have to defend that title for a while before I let him move up and try to fight Anderson."

Sounds like we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves.  The first thing Alves would have to do before any of this can happen is make weight for a 170-pound title fight.  That means no one-pound allowance, so he might as well start weaning himself off the Creamsicles right now (but OMG they’re so good!!!!).

This also means that a potential GSP-Anderson Silva bout is but a very distant dream, as St. Pierre would have to beat Penn, then beat Alves a few months later before we could even talk about that superfight.  If Penn wins, it will continue to screw up the lightweight division, as he’ll be expected to fight Alves and poor, patient Kenny Florian – that is, if the UFC allows him to try and defend both titles, which they shouldn’t.

I’m just saying, a lightweight tournament for a vacant 155-pound title sure sounds fun, doesn’t it?

In this video interview with Fighters Only, Chuck Liddell shoots down rumors that he may face Anderson Silva in February or Randy Couture in June, saying that a potential fourth fight with Couture, “doesn’t make sense.”  He seems to have his sights set on a fight some time in March or April.  The opponent sounds less important to him than the date, but then that story could change once he sits down with Dana White and looks at his options.

Liddell also makes the case for continuing his career after the knockout loss to Rashad Evans, pointing out that he was winning the fight (technically true, since not much had happened) before getting caught with Evans’ brutal right hand.

Fair enough, but he has to realize that the situation will only become more desperate if he can’t notch a win in this mystery bout in the spring.  As long as he’s turning down interesting possible fights for himself, he might as well throw out a name or two of someone he would like to fight.   And don’t say James Irvin.  Just please, don’t.

It’s going to be nice to have Chael Sonnen back in the UFC.  He’s a certain type of asshole.  The type who prefers the cutting remark to the overtly insulting one.  The type who will sell your house and/or beat you up.  The type who might ask you what time you got up this morning, just so he can tell you, no matter how you respond, that he had already been up for hours at that point.  In other words, he’s totally sweet.

From the sound of things, he isn’t interested in just dipping his toe in the UFC middleweight waters, either.  He’s doing a cannonball aimed straight at Anderson Silva:

I’m not going to the UFC with a white flag. My flag is red, I’m declaring war. It’s always like that, all fighters when he grabs the microphone says the same thing, they challenge every fighter in the world, except Anderson Silva. A lot of folks don’t have what it takes, before even fighting they’re all ready yellow. I’m not going to do that, it would really disappointing to my fans. I’m the only fighter who wants to fight him, and the only one who has what it takes to beat him.

CagePotato reader Facey sent us this rather sick-ass highlight video that he made, featuring some of the greatest MMA submissions ever, starring Shinya Aoki, Dustin Hazelett, "Jacare" Souza, Frank Mir, Rumina Sato, Anderson Silva (both giving and receiving), and both Diaz brothers. Easy-breezy soundtrack provided by Donavan. 

 
(Props: Bloody Elbow)

In this promo clip for UFC 92, light-heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin discusses his opponent Rashad Evans and what challenges he might present. It’s clear that Griff isn’t underestimating Sugar whatsoever. As he says, "He’s got more knockouts than I do. And his knockouts have been impressive. Like, people-don’t-get-up-right-away knockouts." Speaking of Forrest Griffin, his September 2003 IFC fight with Chael Sonnen is after the jump, courtesy of MMA Scraps.

(One of MMA’s greatest rivalries is about to get a completely unnecessary epilogue. Photo courtesy of ko.susumug.com.)

Bloody Elbow and The Sun are both reporting that the UFC is currently in negotiations to have dethroned heavyweight champion Randy Couture and former light-heavyweight champ Chuck Liddell face each other for a fourth time in Cologne, Germany, on June 13th. As BE’s Michael Rome writes:

The UFC wants to have Randy on their [first-ever] Germany show because he speaks the language and can do all the promotion. The winner of the fight would face the heavyweight champion in a big fight at the end of the year.

Couture is uninterested in moving down to 205 where Forrest Griffin is champion and Wanderlei Silva is also a contender. Both are close to him and in his camp, and weight cutting takes a toll at his age…

For Liddell, the thought is that…whereas he would have to win a bunch of fights to get back at contention at 205, the heavyweight division is thin enough where he could jump in and be an immediate contender with a win.

It is believed internally that Couture/Liddell will draw better than Silva/Liddell, and they know that a potential Liddell/Lesnar match would probably be the biggest PPV in the history of MMA.

You can’t really argue with the business logic of angling for a Liddell/Lesnar superfight, what with Anderson Silva’s disappointing PPV numbers. And if Couture vs. Liddell IV goes like the previous two installments in 2005 and 2006 (which Chuck won via knockouts), the UFC will get their wish. But where does this leave the Spider?

(“Screw it, nobody’s watching anyway.”)

I know, I know, you’re all antsy to learn how many pay-per-view buys UFC 91 took in, and whether Dana White’s estimate of 1.2 million was either strongly optimistic or batshit delusional. You’ll have to be patient, because numbers from UFC 90 are just coming out now — and they aren’t too encouraging. Says the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

The trending patterns as a prediction of the buy rate continued to be right on as the 10/25 show in Chicago headlined by Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote did 300,000 buys.

Silva has never been a big main-event draw, PPV-wise. His headlining appearances at UFC 82, 77, and 67 all translated to buys in the 330,000-350,000 range. But in the run-up to last month’s Chicago show, the UFC had been trying extra hard to push him over as a fan-favorite, frequently repeating the talking point that UFC 90 was your chance to see the world’s greatest pound-for-pound fighter in action. The Spike TV special Countdown to UFC 90 brought in a record number of viewers, which was seen as a great sign for the event’s performance on pay-per-view, though MMA Payout points out that the strong viewership could have been due to having a high-rated TNA wrestling show as a lead in.

(Props: Yardbarker.com)

Holy crap, you guys. Here’s the first trailer for Never Surrender, which stars Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, Heath Herring, and Quinton Jackson. Judging from the preview, the movie seems to be about UFC stars kicking people. But according to the plot summary on IMDb, there’s more to it than that:

Never Surrender is an erotically charged [Ed. note: seriously?], controversial action-thriller set in the world of underground street fighting where an MMA fighter who has been drawn into the world by an erotic [Ed. note: there's that word again!] and sexy promoter, quickly realizes that there is no way out, other than death.

Erotic and sexy, huh? Might this mysterious promoter be based on Gary Shaw, perhaps? Never Surrender is written and directed by Hector Echavarria, and will hit theaters in the Spring. Someday a smart filmmaker will make a good movie about above-ground street fighting, but for now this will have to do.

After the jump: A new promo for WEC 37, where Frank Mir talks about what a beast Miguel Torres is. The clip they show at 0:39-0:42 is just one of the reasons that Torres’s most recent fight against Yoshiro Maeda was immediately hailed as a fight-of-the-year candidate.

(Let’s try this again, “Ace”, this time with a little enthusiasm.)

Despite the fact that UFC 93 and 95 are taking place in Dublin and London respectively, they will not air for free on Spike TV, reports MMA Rated. Does that mean you’re going to have to pay more of your rapidly dwindling cash to see an event that goes live in the middle of the afternoon? Either that or wait until the videos hit the internet, and for some reason it’s considered “troubling behavior” for me to drink in front of my computer at ten o’clock on a Sunday morning, even though it’s perfectly acceptable to do it in front of the TV on a Saturday. I blame this Puritanical society.

The explanation for why this is happening centers around Spike TV’s production budget. Broadcasting these overseas events is costly, and since both UFC 93 and 95 take place within the first two months of 2009, that would mean blowing a big portion of their budget in the first quarter. This, my friends, is a side effect of the UFC going global.

So now we’re looking at three pay-per-views in the first sixty days of the new year from the UFC, plus another one on January 24 from Affliction. I don’t know what your disposable income looks like these days, but it sure seems like someone’s got to lose in this scenario. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you could only afford two of these events without being forced to make extra money by letting your creepy neighbor install that webcam he keeps talking about. What’s it gonna be: Fedor-Arlovski (Affliction), Franklin-Henderson (UFC 93, with a side order of Coleman-Rua), Penn-St. Pierre (UFC 94), or Liddell-Silva (UFC 95, hopefully)? As a bonus question, how important will the undercards of said events be in your decision-making?

(“It was a big, white, semi-truck. The license plate was JACKLINKS.”)

“The ref [Mario Yamasaki] was going, ‘Eh, is [Couture] OK?’ Mario was trying to give him time [to recover]. There’s a fine line between that and [allowing] too many punches. When I saw Randy go back down, I thought we had crossed that line.” — Dana White on the stoppage in UFC 91′s Lesnar/Couture fight, which some questioned as dangerously late.

“He came in a couple days ago and I introduced him to Manny and the other trainers. We picked out a time…and he’s gonna come in and start training with me. I hear he’s a great striker and I hope we can help him improve even more.” — Beloved boxing trainer Freddie Roach on his new protege, Anderson Silva.

“I’d fight him. The thing about a Machida fight that isn’t appealing to me is that stylistically, Machida is kind of a boring fighter. That’s not a putdown. He’s very, very effective. He’s good at what he does. He’s constantly backing away and forces his opponent into mistakes, and that’s how he catches you. In order to beat him, you really have to fight an intelligent fight, and I think that by not overcommitting yourself on things, it’s going to create a situation where you’re not putting on a fight that’s really exciting for the fans.” — Rich Franklin stating the obvious regarding a potential rematch with Lyoto Machida. Machida gave Franklin his first career loss via TKO at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye Festival in 2003.

(Photo courtesy of NBC Sports)

Britain’s The Sun confirmed that the UFC is headed back to London for UFC 95 in February, and they’re adding weight to the rumor that it might have Anderson Silva vs. Chuck Liddell as its main event.

SunSport understands Middleweight champion Anderson Silva, 33, has been asked to appear on the card, with a potential bout with light heavyweight star Chuck Liddell already being mooted.

Dana White said Silva was “flipping out” about the negative response from fans and media types to his performance against Patrick Cote at UFC 90. Going up a weight class to pummel a former champ might be enough to silence those critics for good. The bout also has enough star power and intersecting story lines to make it a huge draw.

If it does happen, it’s a tough fight for Liddell. Even if he beats Silva, his detractors will just say it was due to the size advantage. If he loses — a real possibility against the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter — it becomes harder to ignore the call of retirement. Then again, after the loss to Rashad Evans you have to wonder how many interesting fights are left for him at 205. This could easily be his last moment in the spotlight. At least it’s a big one.

#10: Rashad Evans serves Tom Murphy on TUF 2

Believe it or not, Rashad Evans used to be a cocky son-of-a-bitch. Finding no challenge from an outmatched Tom Murphy on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter, Sugar entertained himself during the fight by popping, locking, and striking poses until the judges awarded him the victory. The performance also earned him some serious scorn from opposing coach Matt Hughes, but the two eventually put aside their differences and learned to love each other. Now when Rashad dances in the ring, it’s only to pay tribute to the late, great, Redd Foxx.

#9: “Mayhem” Miller mixes clown-and-smile with ground-and-pound

What do you do when Dream gives you a guy who’s nowhere near your level? If you’re “Mayhem” Miller, you have a little fun with it. You start the fight with some kung fu posing, get him down, move to the mount, flash a peace sign for the camera (1:55), then resume punching. Maybe even throw in a double-chop, Sakuraba-style. Why not? The fans love it. What they don’t love is Miller’s faux-retirement. Isn’t it time he dropped that charade? The MMA world is running dangerously low on antics these days.

#8: Anderson Silva’s “52 Blocks” against Patrick Cote

Though Cote continues to tell himself that Silva was simply “lost” and “confused” in this fight, this moment serves as evidence to the contrary. Late in the second round (10:04 in the video) Silva decided to pay homage to his favorite kung fu movies, exhibiting a little Wing Chun action to show his defensive hand skills. At least Silva seemed to be entertaining himself at this point, even if he was the only one who really got a kick out of it. Too bad the fight ended early with Cote’s knee injury. The Dim Mak couldn’t have been far away.

(Cote enjoying the hell out of his alternate reality.)

When I saw the video of Patrick Cote looking inebriated in a hotel room and talking about how bad he had “fucked up” Anderson Silva in their fight at UFC 90, I assumed this was something he needed to tell himself in order to enjoy his post-fight party. We all have our own pleasant fictions, and I can’t begrudge a man with a blown out knee and a cut forehead from getting all hopped up on, well, whatever he was hopped up on, and telling himself a palatable story about what had happened that night.

The fact that he still believes it is a little more disconcerting. Speaking about the fight on MMA Rated Radio, Cote seems to have decided that Silva‘s antics weren’t a show of disrespect, but rather a sign that the champ was so utterly confused in the fight that he didn’t know what to do:

“I don’t think it was a lack of respect. I just think my game plan was perfect. I was moving a lot, going forward but not running after him and I don’t think he was expecting a lot of leg kicks like I did. He gave me a very good shot and I was still there…He didn’t want to exchange, I think, with me.”

That is one possible interpretation. Granted, it’s the interpretation that’s most generous to Cote, and the interpretation that only Cote seems to subscribe to, but it’s an interpretation nonetheless. As for Silva offering his hand to help him up, Cote has an explanation for that one too:

In the latest episode of MMA Live the two sides of the ‘Is Anderson Silva just a big jerk?’ argument adopted here by Stephan Bonner (a fighter) and Franklin McNeil (a writer) tells us something we should have guessed from the start. That is, what you thought about that fight probably depends a great deal on how you see fighting in general.

Bonnar argues that Silva was fighting smart. It’s not his obligation to finish Patrick Cote in one round, even if he can. It’s his obligation to win and not do anything stupid that might jeopardize that.

McNeil takes the fan perspective, arguing that Silva owed a flashy finish to the people who had paid money to see him punch a hole in Cote’s face. He also compares Silva’s “playing around” to Roy Jones Jr.’s, while failing to mention how totally sweet Jones was in his prime.

The thing both men touch on is that because of who Silva is, as well as what the consensus opinion on who Cote is, Silva was in a tough spot. An immediate first-round KO might have seemed satisfactory. Maybe. And if Cote hadn’t blown his knee out, if he had stuck around until Silva put him away, we might not even be talking about this. It’s more a confluence of events that has us talking about Silva as if he’s suddenly public enemy number one, and because of all this talk, I honestly feel sorry for his next opponent.

(It’s like he saw that Condom Depot ad and became enraged. I’ve never seen a man who hates birth control with such a ferocious passion.)

You bastards have done it now. You fans and media with your hate mail and hate articles, accusing Anderson Silva of conduct unbecoming a champion. Now he’s pissed. And Silva is not like your sister. He doesn’t turn to ice cream when he’s upset. He turns to awesomely destructive violence, and he would prefer to do it as soon as possible according to UFC president Dana White, who had this to say to the Las Vegas Review-Journal regarding the champ:

“He’s flipping out. He wants to fight again, like, on Nov. 15,” White said. “He’s (upset) about his performance and he wants to fight again immediately.”

Now that’s the attitude you want from your champ. Of course, it’s completely unreasonable to think the UFC could get him a worthy opponent in time for UFC 91, so don’t get too excited. But this might be the perfect time for creative matchmaking on the UFC’s part. Maybe they can’t get a top-level challenger, but could they get three mid-level guys? Middleweights, light heavyweights, anyone who needs a paycheck, really. How about if Silva faces Ed Herman, Houston Alexander, and an unemployed ninja all at once?

No, that’s still not fair. Okay, the ninja can use his throwing stars and Houston can use illegal knee strikes. Ed Herman, he has to show up drunk. Check that, he gets to show up drunk. This is one night he’s not going to want to remember.

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

After a bizarre UFC 90 main event that saw middleweight champ Anderson Silva try to help Patrick Cote off the ground mid-fight, circle the cage with his arms down, and whip his hands around in a kung fu-esque display, there were many fans who thought Silva was, oh, I don’t know, not taking Cote seriously? But despite our attempts to guess his motivation, Silva says his only concern was winning the fight. As he told Sherdog:

“There are many people saying I was disrespecting Cote, but this is absolutely not true. My game plan since the beginning was fight five rounds, inducing him to commit mistakes and capitalize on that during the first three rounds and look for the knockout during the fourth and fifth rounds. It was working, and the biggest proof of that is that I almost didn’t waste any blows. I connected with a couple of good punches and knees, but unfortunately he got hurt and the fight was over. This is not my fault.”

Taking Silva at his word, maybe he’s only guilty of showing Cote far more respect than fans thought the challenger deserved, which is sort of ironic in light of their subsequent criticisms. Still, it wasn’t the kind of fight that people paid to see. And Silva’s striking maybe wasn’t as effective as he thought it was; by Compustrike’s count, he only landed 39% of his arm strikes — decent, but well below his average.

In a related story, Fighters Only is passing along the rumor that Silva could meet Chuck Liddell in a headlining bout at the UFC’s February 21st card, which will be held in London. When asked about the rumor, Silva told Sherdog “Thank you for the information, I didn’t know about that. Let’s see what [Dana White] will say.”

(Photo courtesy of NBC Sports.)

Props to UFC.com, NBC Sports, The Chicago Tribune, NationalPost.com, and MMA Weekly.

(‘Sup, Anderson? Seriously. Photo courtesy of Cage Today.)

Mere moments after his bout at UFC 90 had ended, Anderson Silva started getting something he rarely has before: hate mail. I was sitting next to the administrator of Silva’s official website at the time, and his blackberry was suddenly abuzz with critical emails like these:

“You should be apologizing to everyone for the way you fought. While cote was trying to push the fight, all you were doing was trying to show off and not even putting in a effort to knock him out right away. Hollywood has changed you hasnt it.”

“That was ridiculous , was a fan . Now I never want to see you fight again.”

“Please relay to “the spider”, he is an arrogant prick. myself, along with many of my friends, were once great fans of him. after tonights disgusting display, i personally despise him. He was a fucking asshole. the disrespect he displayed to the fans and to cote throughout the fight was something I will never forget.”

The fight had barely ended and already fans were jumping off the Anderson Silva bandwagon by the dozens. The media wasn’t far behind, with Yahoo’s Kevin Iole proclaiming that Silva had “made a mockery of himself” in the fight.

What happened in the fight seems less important now than why it happened. What was Silva trying to accomplish, and what does it say about him? Everyone has their theories, but few are without glaring holes. As long as we’re all speculating as to the man’s motivations, we might as well sort through some of the prevailing ideas:

Dana White’s UFC 90 video blog 10/25/08 – Watch more free videos
(The final UFC 90 video blog installment, just to wrap it all up.)

Who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s baffling us all with his performance? Who got drunk after the fight and let his entourage talk him into thinking that he did really well? Don’t worry, we stayed up all weekend crunching the non-existent numbers, and here’s what we came up with.

Anderson Silva: -3

Okay, so “The Spider” did not improve his public image on Saturday night, but at the same time he didn’t look at all vulnerable. When the most prevalent criticism suggests he was toying with his opponent, which implies he could have put him away at will, what does that even mean for the champ’s status? The Index is befuddled, but it still believes Silva is the world’s best fighter, even on an off night.

Patrick Cote: +5.6

The only thing Cote proved was something we already suspected: he has a solid chin. This alone might have bumped him up higher if only he hadn’t been caught on film during a post-fight delusion of grandeur. You did not fuck anyone up. If your friends really cared about you, they would tell you that.

Junior Dos Santos: +378

The night’s biggest underdog scores the night’s only knockout, and a brutal one at that. Out of nowhere and into the heavyweight spotlight. We’ll need to see him again before we can be sure it wasn’t just a lucky punch, but preliminary indications suggest this guy might have a real future in the UFC.

Wow…the delusions you suffer when Anderson Silva allows you to reach round three. As you can see in this video from MMACanada, Patrick Cote has a rather inflated sense of his own toughness following Saturday night’s debacle. After explaining that his knee was actually toast by the end of the second round, the Predator launches into the money quote:

“I proved to everybody that this guy’s not unbeatable. I think I fucked him up really bad ['you fucked him up' and 'oh, big time' his friends shout, possibly sarcastically]. My gameplan was good and I think he was scared to exchange with me. I received all his best punch and all his best knee and I was still there.”

Well, that’s a matter of opinion. It’s still unclear what was going through Silva’s head during those first two rounds, but I wouldn’t assume that he was scared of Cote (who never gave Silva reason to be), and the small handful of bored strikes he threw certainly did not represent “his best punch and his best knee.” Far from it. What we saw at UFC 90 was Anderson Silva at his most ineffective. Though hey, maybe he was going to make something happen in the championship rounds. Cote would also like you to know that he didn’t fake the knee injury, and he thought it was a little bit rude when Silva offered his hand to help him during the fight. Okay? Now let’s all forget that this ever happened.

Dana White, it should be noted, was understandably disappointed with Silva’s performance, and didn’t think it had anything to do with fear of Cote.

What a bizarre night. If, like me, you can’t quite make sense of what you saw last night, the video above gives you another chance to sort through it all. What does it say when Bruce Buffer provides more intensity than the main event?

Bonus awards for UFC 90 were $65,000 a piece and it played out like this:

Fight of the Night: Sean Sherk and Tyson Griffin
Submission of the Night: Spencer Fisher
KO of the Night: Junior Dos Santos

Awarding bonuses this time around must have felt like a strange process. There were only two submissions (Thales Leites’ choke of McFedries was not impressive enough somehow) and one knockout, and picking a fight of the night had to be a lot like picking a favorite Arena League football team. Apparently 15,359 people showed up to be disappointed by the most unsatisfying UFC in recent memory, with a live gate totaling $2.85 million.

Dos Santos’ vicious knockout of Werdum is after the jump, along with the so-called fight of the night and more.

(As a Brazilian might say, Patrick is about to get haped. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Last week, I sent a letter to Dana White asking if the UFC’s tired old gladiator intro could be replaced with this for tonight’s broadcast. So, fingers crossed. Anyway, we’re about to witness the beginning of the end of Anderson Silva’s career (and possibly Cote’s, depending on how badly he gets injured tonight), a potential fight-of-the-night between the Pitbull vs. the Koscheck, a heavyweight feature that shouldn’t have even been approved by the athletic commission, and a few guys who couldn’t finish a fight to save their balls. Join us, won’t you? Round-by-round updates and commentary await you after the jump; refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

(Check out the full UFC 90 press conference album at Combat Lifestlye.)

- Anderson Silva would just like to know if Patrick Cote is a wizard. (MMA Rated)

- More stupid details from “Bigfoot” Silva’s steroid suspension. (Fightlinker)

- Wagnney Fabiano talks WEC debut. (Tatame)

- Someone wants to buy EliteXC’s websites? (MMA Payout)

- “MMA Live” recaps UFC 89, previews UFC 90. (ESPN)

- Georges St. Pierre on Fox News. (MMA Scraps)

- Carneiro blames “politics” for Chonan loss. (Fighters Only)

- If game shows were made for animals. (Holy Taco)

- Will Ferrell brings some funny back to SNL. (Screen Junkies)

- Sheepdogs make everything better. (Wall Street Fighter)

- Powerful potato gun hurts. Seriously. (Nothing Toxic)

(‘Fixing to go eat, son!’)

Thiago Alves got a chubby monkey off his back and made weight by squeaking just under the wire at 171 this afternoon. Good to see some people can put down the fork when the pressure is on (yeah, that was a shot at you, Gina). The only UFC 90 fighter not to make weight today was Josh Burkman, who weighed in two pounds over at 173 for his preliminary bout with Pete Sell. The sad irony is that the former middleweight Sell was the fighter people were expecting to have trouble making the cut. He hit 170 right on the button for what Goldstein expects to be UFC 90′s worst bout. Sure is off to a hell of a start.

Before today’s weigh-in, Matt Hughes spoke to fans and answered some questions, as he’s known to do. When asked about the Randy Couture/Brock Lesnar bout coming up at UFC 91, Hughes sided with Lesnar, saying: “The younger, stronger, better wrestler right now is going to win.”

He also said he’s voting for John McCain, for those of you who were wondering. Weird, I know. Full weigh-in results after the jump.

Dana White’s UFC 90 video blog 10/23/08 – Watch more free videos

Today on Dana White‘s UFC 90 Video Blog (though it was actually recorded yesterday) White talks with Steve Cofield about the video blog in a conversation that’s captured on the video blog. Is your mind freaked yet? No? How about if we post another picture with Criss Angel in the background? You guys seemed to love that.

The talk with Cofield is actually one of the highlights of this entry. They discuss EliteXC and Jared Shaw, who (surprise!) isn’t really happy about anything these days. This comes after White discusses the situation with the press, who push him a little for being so jubilant about EliteXC folding and leaving plenty of fighters and staff unemployed. As you might expect, White pushes back with swift retorts like “Too fucking bad. Go get another job.” Fortunately Kevin Iole is there to help him clarify this stance.

Those of you who were hoping that the dissolution of EliteXC and the sudden availability of Gina Carano would make White rethink adding a women’s division to the UFC, sorry. He says EliteXC’s fighters will get picked up, but when asked about interest in the women he replies, “not me.” Didn’t even need to think about it.