No silver lining for Silva
FORMER UFC GREAT’S LOSS TO HALL HAD DEFINITE RING OF FINALITY TO IT
There’s a reason it’s so celebrated when one of the truly iconic fighters walks away from the game on top.
It’s because we know how oh so rare it truly is when a Georges St. Pierre or a Khabib Nurmagomedov retires before age catches up with them and they start taking more damage than they are capable of handing out.
There was no such happy ending for Anderson Silva on Saturday night. The fight game is a cruel mistress, but at the very least Silva’s final fight against Uriah Hall didn’t leave any room for controversy.
Hall finished Silva in the fourth round with a perfectly placed right hand.
There was a finality to it, not just in terms of the fight itself but also to Silva’s time in the UFC.
It just felt over. Afterward, UFC president Dana White was adamant that Silva won’t fight in the UFC again. Whether he’ll be released from his contract and allowed to fight somewhere else is unclear.
It obviously would have been nice for Silva, his family and his fans to have him go out on a high note. Maybe he’ll have one more opportunity to do that fighting for a promotion other than the UFC. Maybe he won’t.
On Saturday night, though, the fight game served up another reminder that age catches up with everyone and it’s only a special few who walk away on top.
FOR REAL, THOUGH?
It’s worth noting that throughout fight week, Silva hinted that Saturday’s fight would be his last in the UFC but not necessarily his last anywhere.
White said after the knockout that Silva still had one fight left on his UFC contract but would never be allowed to fight under the promotion’s banner.
So what does that mean, exactly?
It’s hard to say. He could be released — Bellator would snatch him up in a second — or he could convince the UFC to give him one last chance to go out on a win. Maybe this really is the end, too.
While the finish to Saturday’s fight was ugly, Silva still managed to steal a round or two from a top-10 middleweight. At 45 years old, he probably should retire, but there have been far more pronounced examples of that with men who were significantly younger than Silva.
One way or another, you have to hope it’s his choice. Promoters should be responsible and push fighters toward retirement when the time comes, but they shouldn’t necessarily have the power to make that decision for someone like Silva.
WHERE DOES HE RANK?
The loss to Hall doesn’t do much to hamper Silva’s legacy. He’s an all-time great and one of the most important figures in MMA history.
There are few who would put him as the No. 1 fighter ever, though, which would be stunning to anyone who was following his career back prior to 2013 when he was knocked out by Chris Weidman.
A subsequent run of losses and trouble with the UFC’S drug testing policy has hurt his legacy, though, and it’s just hard to rank him ahead of Jon Jones, St. Pierre, or even Nurmagomedov.
Silva probably slots in right after those three, though, and being in the top 5 all- time at your discipline
is no small thing.
TOUCH OF CLASS
If you were looking for proof of just how much Silva meant to the current generation of MMA fighters, you need to look no further than the centre of the octagon after Saturday’s main event.
There, Hall and Silva embraced and shared a profoundly beautiful moment. These two men had just spent the better part of 20 minutes punching each other in the face, but Hall apologized to Silva and repeatedly thanked him for all he’d done for the sport.
The win probably doesn’t do a tonne for Hall’s standing in the 185- pound division, but you could see how much it meant to him just to have the opportunity to share the cage with one of his idols.
Those human moments are just as newsworthy as anything else.
STILL CLIMBING
For people who don’t watch MMA closely, it prob
ably would have been completely bizarre seeing how much time the UFC broadcast spent focusing on Bryce Mitchell’s camouflage shorts.
They were literally just … camouflage shorts.
It’s rare that a UFC fighter gets to display so much personality on his Reebok uniform, though, so the MMA world essentially lost its collective mind about it. It’s a weird sports sometimes.
Mitchell’s performance against Andre Fili deserves a lot of focus, too. He remains a work- in- progress but is now 5- 0 in the UFC and seems sure to be a problem in the featherweight division for years to come.
INTERESTING BOOKING
After the fights, White said middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is going to go up in weight for his next fight and take on 205- pound champ Jan Blachowicz.
That’s an interesting call for the UFC. Blachowicz just won the light heavyweight title that was vacated by Jones and there are no bigname stars in the division who he can beat to legitimize his title reign.
Adesanya is already a big star and winning a second belt would solidify his status as one of the promotion’s top draws. It would also set up a potential fight with Jones after months of the two trash- talking on social media.
Not all champ vs. champ fights are worthy, but this one makes a lot of sense.