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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"Well, here's what you've got to understand, he got knocked out cold. It's not like a Mike Tyson fight where you get hit, you stay down until the ref counts ten, and then get right back up. Silva had two choices in that fight. He'd have fought serious and got beaten up, or he'd clown around and get beaten up. That's not me speaking out against Anderson. He's excellent. But Anderson's not Chris Weidman and he's never going to be.
I don't know if [Silva's] in the downside of his career. He's just not Chris Weidman. He just stuck around too long and the next generation is here. There are guys who can beat him, but only a couple of guys. He's a top ten fighter, actually he's ranked No. 2, but he's not going to beat a 28-year-old All-American wrestler named Chris Weidman. That's not going to happen."
-Chael Sonnen talks to the Toucher & Rich Morning show in Boston about Anderson Silva's first fight against Chris Weidman and their rematch in December (transcribed by MMAFighting.com).
Penick's Analysis: Look, Chris Weidman's good. He's very, very good. But this is another example of Chael Sonnen saying outrageous things for the sake of saying outrageous things. Silva may very well lose in December; that seems a more likely outcome than Weidman winning the first fight, that's for sure. But the "Anderson's not Chris Weidman and he's never going to be" line is just laughable. Chris Weidman hopes he can be what Anderson Silva was to the middleweight division for the long haul, and if he beats him a second time in December he'll be on one hell of a start, but one loss which still has the stigma of Silva's clowning around costing him the bout does not put Weidman into "untouchable" territory. He's not there yet.
[Chael Sonnen art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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