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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
If Jose Aldo loses his UFC Featherweight Championship on Saturday night at UFC 179, the UFC will be without a Brazilian Champion for the first time since just before Anderson Silva defeated Rich Franklin in 2006.
Silva himself lost that title last summer, getting knocked out by Chris Weidman before breaking his leg in the rematch last December. In his press conference last week for his UFC 183 return, Silva opened up about why he believes he - and perhaps fellow former Brazilian champs (Renan Barao, Junior dos Santos, and Shogun Rua) - have all lost their titles in recent years.
"It's natural. Brazilians forgot some things to focus more on other things. We forgot the evolution," Silva said (transcribed by MMAFighting.com). "It's important. I speak for myself. In my last two fights, I should have evolved more, but I didn't follow this evolution."
Silva says he's changing that into his return against Nick Diaz on Super Bowl weekend, bringing in new coaches and trainers to show him new ways to go about his fighting career.
"That's why I brought in [Ricardo] De La Riva, [Luiz Carlos] Dorea," Silva said, "[that's why] Rogerio Camoes is always seeking evolution, [Josuel] Distak and the whole X-Gym team, to see how we can evolve."
Penick's Analysis: It's a very honest look at what went wrong for him, and admitting that is sometimes the first step to changing things for the better. It doesn't always work out that way, of course, as simply trying new things doesn't guarantee success. However, it's at times the right thing to do anyway. It's an intriguing concept though, especially in consideration to Aldo, who has been on the same level for years, but who hasn't needed to really change much up because of that. If the challengers do, and succeed, that's perhaps when a closer look at things is warranted.
[Anderson Silva art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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