Anderson Silva did not throw his fight with Chris Weidman

I think he threw the fight based on what I saw when I watched the fight over again for the 3rd and 4th times. My friend who is an MMA fighter, told me that he didn't believe that a jab to Silva's iron chin as he was moving backwards was capable of knocking him out cold. The kinetic energy transfer just doesn't make sense. Maybe it knocks him over. Maybe it hurts him bad. But, he was coherent enough to put his hands up to block without actually blocking and then he got up an spoke a foreign language with greater mastery than he has demonstrated at any point in his career. I'm not saying he didn't get clipped. He clearly did. But, so many things about that fight just seem off. There are too many little things that you never see in a fight. I detail them in my rebuttal. I recorded the entire fight on my tivo and re-watched it a bunch before HBO forced the recording to expire. I can only guess at what the motivation was, but I think that as more time goes by we will begin to have more concrete answers to my conjectures as to the motives. Contract status: "Silva['s] manager Ed Soares said Saturday Silva can opt in defeat to retire at any time during the deal." (Pugmire, pg 1) Rebuttal Section: Pro argument 1) He had to defend his legacy as the greatest MMA fighter of all time, and loosing this fight tarnished that legacy. If you take Anderson at his word, he stated before the fight that he did not believe that loosing to Weidman would effect his legacy. "I think my legacy is already fully completed. I already fought in many places in the world and I think I am the one athlete in the sport who has four belts in four different worldwide events. I no longer look for any bigger challenge for my career, I don"t look to be better than anybody, I only look to be better than who I am every day as a person, as a human being. I try to pass a good example of human being for people who are around me, this is the most important for me. It"s not a fight against Jon Jones, Georges Saint Pierre or even with Chris Weidman that will change my legacy. Winning or losing is part of the business and it won" be changed. What"s written, has been written. I believe a fight versus Roy Jones Jr would be way more cool [than fighting Jones or GSP]." (Cruz, pg 1) Pro Argument 2) You can't plan things in UFC. Fights have been fixed since fighting for entertainment became inextricably linked with money. This fight may not have been fixed, but suggesting that is may have been is not ludicrous. I will go into detail below about the motivations for fixing this fight. Pro Argument 3) Silva embracing his team before entering the ring. I concede this point. Pro Argument 4) He landed leg kicks. True, but he did not throw a single shot that could have hurt Weidman. I am not basing this on memory. I went back and checked. Pro Argument 5) Clowning is his style. True, however, when Anderson clowns he always counterstrikes in between his taunts to keep his opponents off of him. He did not counterstrike once in this fight. Not once. Even on the ground, he on used his Jujitsu to escape. He throw one soft up kick that missed by a mile, and that was is as far as string goes. He has never fought like that before. It is possible that it he was simply pushing the envelope, but pushing the envelope to the point where you know you will be knocked out is tantamount to throwing the fight. Pro Argument 6) It was a calculated tactical decision. Maybe, but again, why was he not counterstriking? Weidman left plenty of openings. Pro Argument 7) Silva let Weidman hit him when he was on the ground. False, if you watched the replay of the knockout, Weidman connects with one (1) punch and then doesn't connect with any more of the punches he throws while Anderson is on his back. It looks like he is missing on purpose. The whole time Silva is "knocked out," he is defending with his hands lazily. The reason why I think that Weidman may have been in on it is this: When Silva is on his back, Weidman jumps on him and starts throwing hooks that miss completely. Anyone who has any kind of MMA training is told to throw down punches when an opponent is on the ground. Why wasn't Weidman throwing punishing down punches? Why was he missing with hooks? One explanation is he was simply totally incompetent/lacked a killer instinct. Another, is that he know Anderson was going to go down. On why he threw the fight: I think there are three (3) possible reasons why he would have thrown the fight: 1) That he is old and wants to retire so he can spend time with his family. Evidence: his post-fight speech. His age. 2) Silva wants to fight Roy Jones, and under his current contract he can only do so by retiring and relinquishing his UFC fight. Or, by coming to an agreement with Dana White. Relating back to what I said in rebuttal to the legacy tarnishing argument. Roy Jones Jr. stated that he is "not surprised with Anderson Silva knockout loss at UFC 162 because 'he wants to do something else'" (Myers, pg 1) That something else, according to Anderson Silva is fight Roy Jones. Dana White even acknowledged this fact: "It's not that I'm necessarily interested in this, Anderson Silva's the greatest fighter of all time, you know, he's a guy who's never lost in the UFC, I respect him -- he wants to fight Roy Jones." (O'Reagan, pg 1) 3) That the fight was fixed as part of a negotiation between Silva and White. "Anderson Silva has talked for a long time about wanting to fight the boxing legend Roy Jones Jr, but the fight has always been ruled out by the UFC for contractual reasons - until now." (O'Reagan, pg 1). What has changed that White feels it is in the UFC's best interest to let Silva fight Roy Jones Jr? There is monetary motive. A super fight between Jon Jones and Silva or GSP and Silva would cost the UFC money. Sure, that fight would sell a ton of tickets, but if Jones wins people will say there is a weight advantage. His legacy has nothing to gain by beating a smaller fighter. If Silva wins, Jones legacy is tarnished. He is no longer invincible. As it stands right now, Weidman can headline a fight with another challenger while Silva goes off and fights Roy Jones. Then, they can rematch Silva against Weidman and sell a ton of tickets as Anderson makes a comeback late in his carrear. Once Silva wins, they can sell a tie break match. Meanwhile, Jones and GSP can serve as their own headliners that will put people in seats for two (2) separate UFC events. As a business man, I can promise you that Silva losing was the best thing for UFC's bottom line. I'm not saying I'm convinced it was a fix. I'm saying it is possible. (1) http://www.latimes.com... (2)http://www.fightersonlymag.com... (3) http://www.fightersonlymag.com...