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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Anderson Silva suffered the first loss of his UFC career on Saturday night at UFC 162, bringing an end to a seven-year, 16-fight streak that had him firmly established as the greatest fighter in the organization's history. However, the very style he'd employed in numerous fights came back to bite him against Chris Weidman, as his clowning antics left him open to a vicious left hook.
After the fight, Silva immediately said he wasn't interested in a rematch, and that he wasn't looking to continue fighting for a title. However, he softened that stance a bit at the post-fight press conference, saying he needed to go back home to his family and to think about things for a while.
UFC President Dana White agreed with that, and thinks it's going to take a little while for Silva to fully process what happened.
"Anderson Silva needs to go home, hang out with his family, take a week or two to shake this thing off," White said the post-UFC 162 press conference (via MMAJunkie.com). "There are times when guys will win a fight, and they don't want to talk for three weeks. It's really part of the process, it really is, and especially a big night like tonight. And when you lose the way that he lost, there's a process for this."
"Nobody wants to lose, and he doesn't know how to lose. He doesn't remember how to lose. It's been too long since he lost. This one's going to sink in a few days after."
Still, while Silva wasn't all that interested in the rematch right after the fight, White said it's the fight that needs to happen next. He threw out the possibility of Super Bowl weekend 2014 for the rematch, though that's far from set. The rematch isn't sitting well with Vitor Belfort, who immediately began campaigning for his own title shot, but White made it clear that Belfort will not be getting the next fight against Weidman, and that the rematch will indeed happen.
"Anderson Silva has gone undefeated since 2006 and has beat everybody and held the title," White said. "He deserves the rematch. I mean, Chris Weidman said that before he even fought him. Vitor is just going to have to wait. He's not getting the rematch. He can text. He can tweet. He can write f***ing letters. He can call his congressman. He can do whatever he wants to do. He's going to have to wait. Anderson Silva is getting the rematch."
"Anderson plays a lot of things off publicly. The guy went on this win streak because he's an amazing competitor and is an amazing talent. He's going to want to redeem himself."
Penick's Analysis: Because of the way Saturday's fight went down, with Weidman scoring the improbable KO win off of Anderson Silva's own - in retrospect - foolishness, a lot of people are going to want to see how a rematch plays out. Was Saturday's result a lucky punch? Was Chris Weidman just criminally underrated? Did Anderson Silva beat himself? Will he approach a rematch differently? There are a lot of things up in the air with that fight right now, and if it takes place the day before the Super Bowl in close proximity, it's a fight that could reach record proportions for business for the UFC. That rematch right now might bring as much interest as the super fights they had been talking about beforehand, and we'll see if Weidman can do it again.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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