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Anderson Silva can’t get out of his own way
Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen recently “participated” in a conference call with the media to discuss their upcoming bout on August 7th at UFC 117 (listen to call here http://videos.mmaweekly.com/view_player.php?id=2921). I use the word participated loosely as Anderson Silva was not making a best effort or cooperating with his responses to most of the questions posed by the reporters. He either responded with a “no” or very short comments and even those were unarticulated and never answered the question(s) asked. His translator and manager Ed Soares finally had to step in to field some of the questions to talk about how he “thought” Anderson felt.
Here is a guy who is the current UFC Middleweight Champion, has a tremendous amount of talent and consistently has been called the best pound for pound fighter in the world and ranked # 1 or #2 by many of the MMA websites, polls not to mention one of his biggest supporters, his boss and UFC President Dana White. Despite all of the accolades and also being undefeated since 2006, Silva has also come under fire for his performances or lack thereof in his fights with Patrick Cote and most recently with Demian Maia and the spectacle that became the main event at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. It should be noted that while White has been a very vocal and ardent supporter of Silva, he also made it very clear after UFC 112, if Silva ever turned in a performance like that again he would be cut from the organization immediately. This latest interview is just another example of Anderson Silva doing more harm to himself. In the last several years, he has done nothing to endear himself to the fans, the media and to his employer the UFC. He has become the proverbial public relations nightmare. He does not speak English all that well nor does he seem to want to try to learn which you would think he would if for no other reason than to become more marketable and a good ambassador for the sport. Speaking of which, Silva creates quite the juxtaposition next to the current UFC Welterweight Champion and French Canadian, Georges St-Pierre. Georges, who does not speak English as well as his French, does try and conducts many interviews in his broken English. Georges is also one of the first MMA stars to secure major endorsements for himself from companies like Under Armor and Gatorade just to name a few. Georges displays many of the characteristics that one might expect from a champion and carries himself as a gentleman both in and outside the ring. Anderson does not come off as humble. Even when he attempts, you never get the sense that he even believes himself. In his initial defense of his unsportsmanlike behavior in the ring against Demian Maia, he claimed he acted that way because Maia had disrespected him. When pressed on what exactly Maia said or did to disrespect him, Silva never really gave a definitive answer. Fast forward to his fight coming up on August 7th and the hype generated mostly by Chael Sonnen, who has been more than disrespectful to say the least, the question begs “what say you about that Anderson?” And, on the media call, the question was asked by several reporters. His response was that he thought Chael was “funny.” Once again, this was not a very convincing response on his part. He didn’t sound believable then and he didn’t come off as believable this week on the call. Incidentally, note to some of the reporters and any future reporters who plan on interviewing Silva. You may not want to ask a question that elicits a yes/no response because chances are; that is what you will get. With respect to the hype to this fight, you have to hand it to Sonnen. While the Rashad Evans / Rampage Jackson fight had over a year long buildup with some entertaining verbal jabs thrown at each other and then some, no one quite delivers a great sound bite like Sonnen. One of my favorites is Sonnen’s contention that he was going to put him (Silva) on his back "more than a prostitute with a mortgage." Sonnen can write a book on how to promote a fight. Let’s just hope that this fight does not turn into the anti climatic let down that was the Evans/Jackson fight. While the build-up was great and led to a lot of ticket sales and media attention, the main event just did not live up to the hype. This coming fight is interesting more so to see how Anderson is going to perform and react win or lose. He has not really shown any remorse for his actions at UFC 112 and he came off flippant in the interview. I don't buy the speculation that he just wants to take the high road and do his talking in the ring. At this point you don’t know what, if anything, his goals are with respect to what his legacy will be. There is no denying his talent and when he does actually fight he is one of the most exciting and dynamic fighters to ever compete. It would be nice to see him figure this out and turn things around but he first has to learn how to get out of his own way. By Rich Serpa Leave Comment:All Posts
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