Anderson Silva was close to saving UFC 151.
According to UFC president Dana White, Silva relayed a message through his manager Ed Soares just moments after White announced on Thursday that UFC 151 was canceled after Jon Jones turned down a fight against Chael Sonnen. The middleweight champion, who admitted he wasn't in the best shape, volunteered to fight on eight days' notice in Las Vegas against another light heavyweight fighter. Unfortunately, he was a few hours late as the promotion had already decided to scrap the event.
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god damnit, I wish this had happened.
So was silva offering to fight Jones or just saying he would take on a different LHW? Either way I feel like it gives him some props.
Posted by jlock003
So was silva offering to fight Jones or just saying he would take on a different LHW? Either way I feel like it gives him some props.
Someone other than Jones in a non-title fight is how I read it.
Posted by Aether
Posted by jlock003
So was silva offering to fight Jones or just saying he would take on a different LHW? Either way I feel like it gives him some props.
Someone other than Jones in a non-title fight is how I read it.
That's how I read it too. Still think it's nice of him to offer. I do wonder though if he was willing to fight against like a rashad or a Rampage or if he was like, I'll fight Matt Hamill. I mean it sounds like he was ready to fight whoever (except for jones) so I'm curious what all this meant.
Similar thing when Silva said yes to a short-notice fight at LHW back in 2008 to counter Affliction's pay-per-view. Cool for him to offer, but I wonder if Dana White would be willing to put Anderson Silva in such a precarious situation considering how much his draw might just be because he's riding that 15-fight win streak had the event not already been nixed.
And as for him not wanting to fight Jones, that does not surprise me. The money made by a superfight would be lost if there was only a week's worth of promotion.
anderson wanted to headline with eliot marshall
Just to play devil's advocate, it's pretty easy to step up and make that offer after the event was scrapped. This could seem like PR move more than anything else just to prove he's a company man. Props to him for offering at all, he didn't have to and it's something we expect out of a true fighting champion. It's nice to see that, I'm just tossing the idea out there due to the timing of it. I'm not saying that's what I think happened. At this point most of the guys on the roster want to make sure the fans and management know that they wouldn't let an event fall apart if the ball was in their court a la Bones.
Posted by cowcatcher
Just to play devil's advocate, it's pretty easy to step up and make that offer after the event was scrapped. This could seem like PR move more than anything else just to prove he's a company man. Props to him for offering at all, he didn't have to and it's something we expect out of a true fighting champion. It's nice to see that, I'm just tossing the idea out there due to the timing of it. I'm not saying that's what I think happened. At this point most of the guys on the roster want to make sure the fans and management know that they wouldn't let an event fall apart if the ball was in their court a la Bones.
I now have a bit more respect for Silva
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I only give props to Silva if he didn't know the event was scrapped before he made the offer
If that wasn't the case like cc said its easy to make an offer to make yourself smell like roses
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Posted by cowcatcher
Just to play devil's advocate, it's pretty easy to step up and make that offer after the event was scrapped. This could seem like PR move more than anything else just to prove he's a company man. Props to him for offering at all, he didn't have to and it's something we expect out of a true fighting champion. It's nice to see that, I'm just tossing the idea out there due to the timing of it. I'm not saying that's what I think happened. At this point most of the guys on the roster want to make sure the fans and management know that they wouldn't let an event fall apart if the ball was in their court a la Bones.
It is possible that it was merely trying to get good PR (which he might need here in North America), but to play a devil's advocate to your devil's advocate, it seems apparent that Silva would not have asked to step into the main event unless he knew Jones was pulling himself off the card, which nobody thought was possible twenty-four hours ago. How narrow is the time frame between Jones's refusals and the UFC starting its closing of shop? Like five painful minutes of angry Dana time? Once those calls to anything from sponsors, vendors, tech crews, etc. start happening, it is very hard to undo them. And if the UFC was going to even try to undo them, one of the fighters they would be willing to make an attempt to do so for would be AS.
I buy him being genuine about it, but then again, I hang from Silva's nuts.
Posted by george112
I only give props to Silva if he didn't know the event was scrapped before he made the offer
If that wasn't the case like cc said its easy to make an offer to make yourself smell like roses
I disagree, in my mind at least HE tried something, as opposed to Jones who wouldn't take a fight against a MW who wasn't even training for the fight.
I wish they would have tried to replace the main event before scrapping the whole card, my life would be complete if Silva had stepped up and by some miracle was pitted against Shogun. Of course, now I'm just rambling about an awesome match up.
White said he never expected Silva to offer his services and appreciated the offer.
This is what I was thinking...I think Silva was being genuine too, but not to fight JJ and I don't think it ever crossed Dana's mind to ask him to step up in some (any) capacity.
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I have a little test which I like to call "The last piece of pizza test." This test is a good test to determines the character of an individual. There are two types of people.
1) Person A will see the last piece of pizza, but being an honest, kind, generous person, Person A will leave that piece of pizza for another person to enjoy.
2) Person B will see the last piece of pizza, but being a dishonest, cruel, greedy person, Person B will quickly snatch the last piece of pizza with no thoughts or cares for anyone around them.
Funny thing. Some MMA fighters have recently been eating pizza. Silva enjoyed a few slices of pizza yesterday, but Silva left the last slice of pizza in the form of an offer to fight on the UFC 151 card.
Jones has also recently enjoyed some pizza. When he saw the last piece of pizza, well, he showed his true colors.
Props to real fighters like Sonnen, Weidman, and Silva
