Anderson “The Spider” Silva retained his UFC middleweight title this past Saturday night against Thales Leites at UFC 97 “Redemption.” In what many believed was Silva’s worst performance in his entire MMA career, the UFC champion felt that he executed his gameplan appropriately to win the 5-round bout. The 21,451 UFC fans that attended the Centre Bell booed the lackluster title match throughout the entire fight, yet either fighter failed to go beyond feeling each other out for 5 rounds.
Here’s a snip from Anderson Silva immediately after his UFC 97 victory:
“I don’t know if it’s that people don’t understand my style of fighting, but I go out there to train to try and be efficient and have a perfect fight…Not every fight is going to be a knockout, and not every fight is going to be some spectacular finish…I’m comfortable with people’s opinion…People have a right to their own opinion. But when I go out there, everything I do in training I feel that I executed in the fight…My gameplan, I wanted to go into the later rounds with Thales. I was unable to finish. Sometimes I’m able to finish guys, sometimes I’m not able to. (But) I felt that I proved to everybody that I’m able to go five rounds, and I’m in good shape.”
