Anderson Silva did not throw his fight with Chris Weidman

frame width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KDWJEWVhANg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> This has been fun THElittleRISK. I also hope Silva takes an interview before we reach round 5. I"d also love to revisit this debate in 6-8 months when Silva makes his next career move. 1) Silva may have actually been knocked out. I understand the analysis of the knockout, and I understand that perspective. It makes sense. Though personally, I think the facts that he wasn"t planted, that he was awake enough to catch the ref, that he has taken so many shots from better strikers, and that Weidman missed so many times outweighs the facts that his eyes rolling back, that his head hit the floor, and that it was an accurate strike. However, even if was was KO"d, it doesn"t mean he didn"t throw the fight. Letting Weidman knock him out counts as throwing the fight. 2) Why would Silva choose not to allow himself to get submitted, and then turn around and let himself get knocked out? Whether or not he threw the fight, I know the answer to this question. Jujitsu for a Brazilian is more than a discipline. It is a lifestyle. It is tantamount to ones honor or ones soul. For a long time, people have underestimated Silva"s jujitsu. They tout his striking and his standup defense as unparalleled, the greatest of all time. But, it seems like every mediocre fighter he KO"s came into the fight with the slight advantage in Jujitsu, regardless of the fact that Silva hasn"t been submitted in over a decade. My buddy who watched the fight with me, said "I think he threw the fight. And, I think it is bada$$ that he refused to be submitted even though he knew he wasn"t trying to win. He wanted to go out with his strength, all the while refusing to compromise his perceived weakness, his jujutsu or his Brazilian pride." I should note, my buddy thinks he actually got knocked out. I think he was awake and aware the whole time. Either way, you can"t deny that choosing to throw a fight by taking a shot to the face takes big Brazilian nuts, even if most people find it immoral. If we know anything about Silva, it is that he is a crazy motherf****er and doesn"t do things in an orthodox manner. I think Silva knew he was doing something selfish, so he compensated for it by doing like a boss. You have to admit that getting KO"d from a shot to the face is the most bada$$ way to go out. Regardless of what is an easer flop to sell, I think the Brazilian culture surrounding submissions answers the why KO instead of submission. http://www.datelinebrazil.org... 3) I think we"ve explored this as far as we can. Both are valid perspectives. 4) I think your misunderstanding the monetary compensations associate with winning and loosing. If he won this fight he would have gotten a total of 800K (600k for fighting, 200k for winning) and assuming he fights Roy Jones next an additional 600k for fighting and possible 200k for winning. The UFC would take the rest of the money since the UFC has pre-negotiated his per fight salary. That is how UFC contracts work. You get paid a base salary per fight, and a bonus for winning. Those numbers are worked out in advance. That is why Weidman on got 50k (25k for fighting, 25k for winning). Now, by loosing, Silva can opt out of his contract with the UFC and negotiate a new contract with the WBA, pocketing the 200K from loosing to Weidman and W76;10 million from the Roy Jones fight. Therefore, the difference is a max of $800,000 for beating Weidman and beating Roy Jones Jr vs. $10,200,000 for loosing to Weidman and fighting Roy Jones Jr. That estimate is erring on the cautious side. Giving the relative increase in WBL wages over the years since Roy Jones Jr last fought, it is probably a much greater difference. The point is that loosing is in Silva"s best interest monetarily. And, since he stated both before and after the fight that loosing to Weidman won"t affect his UFC legacy and that wants to focus on his students and his family, it seems pretty clear that loosing was in his best interest. For the sake out our debate, it doesn"t matter how he lost, only that he did so on purpose. Maybe he really did get KO"d, but if he allowed Weidman to KO him that means he threw the fight. When you put together this incentive with his strange pre-fight and post-fight comments, it paints a picture of an Anderson Silva that didn"t seem to have any interest in winning this fight. Deciding not to win, is the same thing as deciding to loose. Ipso facto, he threw the fight. How he threw the fight is a is not quite as clear as the fact that he did throw the fight. As you pointed out, Roy Jones Jr. said, "the fight with Weidman wasn"t on his mind." Let"s say Silva went into the fight with the intention of not fighting hard, and instead just clowning around. He knew Weidman was a very good fight. It is reasonable for Silva to expect that Weidman would beat him. And, when it started to become clear that Weidman wasn"t coming as close to beating him as Silva would have like, he started being even more ridiculous and giving Weidman opportunities that were so great that Weidman would have had to be incompetent not to capitalize on. Behaving in that fashion, is throwing the fight. It didn"t need to be scripted to be thrown. Anderson could have actually been KO"d and still thrown the fight. I think it is clear that Silva didn"t go in with the intention to win. The extent to which he let Weidman win is debatable. But, he let Weidman win. 5)There are a number of points that I make that don"t stand up on their own as evidence that the fight were thrown. These points are: Weidman"s post fight reaction, Silva"s iron chin, the apparent lack of force in the KO punch, Weidman missing punches while mounted on Silva, Silva appearing not to counterstrike, Silva clowning around to the point of absurdity, Silva"s pre-fight interviews, and Silva"s post-fight interviews. While non of these points stand on their own as proof, the entirety of these points in combination with the clear monetary incentive for Silva to lose to Weidman and Silva"s lack of enthusiasm for continuing to fight in the UFC do paint a picture in which it appears more likely that Silva threw the fight than that he did not throw the fight. I can"t prove it was a fix. You can"t prove it wasn"t. The question is what does the evidence suggests is more likely. I feel strongly that Silva chose to loose the fight before he entered the octagon is the most likely explanation for what we saw at UFC 162. Silva walking sideways. It is in this recap clip. You can"t see his mouth move, but he says come on then waves at Weidman: http://www.mmajunkie.com...