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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"I wish his leg didn't break. It's not the way I'd like to finish a fight. I know there's no way Anderson Silva could ever beat me, but it still bothers me that it ended that way. It's a huge relief, though, to have the Anderson Silva part of my journey behind me. You put so much pressure on yourself and you believe in yourself, but you never really know what's gonna happen on fight night. For everything to happen just the way I imagined, it's amazing. I wouldn't even be excited for a third fight against Silva. After winning those two fights and having beaten Lyoto Machida to defend the middleweight title since, I need competition. And today, it's clear to everyone what I've known to be true all along: Anderson Silva will never beat me."
-Chris Weidman writes about getting past Anderson Silva in an article for The Players' Tribune.
Penick's Analysis: There's a lot more to Weidman's article, running through his aspirations to fight Anderson Silva well before MMA became a reality for him, as well as moving beyond this part of his career. However, these comments are interesting in seeing where he sees that portion of his run now that he's more than a year removed from the second fight. A third fight at this stage, especially after Silva's failed drug test for drostanolone in November, doesn't seem like it's going to happen, and doesn't seem like it has to happen. Weidman doesn't have anything to prove despite the leg break, but while some still believe that was a fluke, he can move far beyond it with each successive title defense. It continues Saturday at UFC 187, and if he beats Vitor Belfort impressively, he'll keep carving out his place in the UFC middleweight division's history.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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