UFC 90 recap and final thoughts

I’m so happy I put money on Junior Dos Santos! Any1 that trains with Silva should never have a line of +900….

That is just silly.

cant believe clementi lost..

Cote should get a rematch. He made it to the 3rd round and has never been knocked out. Silvas gameplan should have been to get Cote to the ground.

The only problem with a rematch is the fact that Silva will be retiring soon. I think Silva should give the other promised fights as well as a rematch with Cote. Technically he is declared the victor, but your opponents knee giving out and winning 2 rounds doesn’t constitute a victory in my opinion.

fuck i dont want to see cote v silva 2 .?! annoying!/

I hate Mike Goldberg, he says some of the dumbest things!!
He may deserve a rematch but who really wants to see that? If were only gonna get silva for 6 more fights than he should be fighting guys like gsp, and a couple of the top light heavyweights.

Some great fights. I hope Anderson Silva learned a valuable lesson. Get in the fight instead of goofing around for 2 rounds. I’m a huge fan of his, but taking 2 rounds to play around like that, only to have a freak accident cause a stoppage. I bet he wishes he could have the first 2 rounds back!

All in all, decent card. Considering all the crap stuff that has happened in some of the major cards in boxing over the last 15 years, this is the only crazy thing that has happened in the UFC. That’s with 30 or so events over 3 years. That’s impressive if you think about it.

I don’t know about you guys, but Silva’s flashy ‘boating was NOT putting me in a good mood during the main event. If it wasn’t evident already from his recent interviews or by comments made by those close to his camp, Silva sure appeared severely apathetic throughout the first two rounds tonight. It looked like he was simply bored and trying to keep himself entertained.

Maybe it’s just me, but his demeanor screamed of someone not very interested in defending his title against a fighter of Cote’s “caliber”.

My question: was his uncommonly passive performance attributed to

a) a desire to not risk tarnishing his near god-like status as pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport by getting into an early exchange with someone with proven power in his hands, thus the ridiculous amount of juking and (christ, I can’t believe I’m gonna say this….) almost Starnes-like sprint running in the first round?

b) a genuine case of boredom and eagerness to ride out the remainder of his contract and absolutely no concern to hide it?

c) he simply wanted to at least attempt to make the fight last more than the 45 seconds it should have required him to put Cote into the obituary column of Sunday’s newspapers?

d) or his mind was completely somewhere else tonight and was not entirely focused on the match? After watching his wining-and-dining of Rachelle Leah on All Access, part of me wonders if he mighta “got lucky” before his fight and isn’t 100% focused right now.

For my money, he’s starting to mimic some highly irritating tendencies from certain boxing legends he’s publicly stated he wishes to fight, and I’m not really gelling with his David Coppefield hand tricks and fancy footwork. I could only take so much of it tonight before I found myself yelling at my television.

What do you guys think?

Great night of fights, can’t say the same thin about silva…. im a HUGE fan of silva neve once have i been dispointed.. but tonight wow man, what the fuck was he thinking?? i understan the first min dancing around to get a feel for the guy(he always does that) but 2 rounds without really doing anything is stupid… i truely believe 2 things- either Silva wanted to give fans like a 4 or 5 round fight and he tried to be entertaing but took it too far.. or 2 he really likes cote and didn’t want to hurt him (i.e. putting his hand out to help him up) whatever the case it wasn’t smart nor fun to watch it was more annoying than anything… wonder who he fights next

Hey Sawyer…good point. This type of thing NEVER happens in the UFC. I was a bit puzzled with Silva’s performance tonight. He clearly was the better striker for the few brief exchanges but he wasn’t very aggressive. Yes, he was ‘feeling him out’…but geez, that shouldn’t take two rounds. He looked bored. I feel he could have easily put Cote away in the 1st or 2nd if he engaged more. Hopefully, he makes up for this in his next fight.

No…..in my opinion he was goofing around. He never once really engaged Cote. Cote was clearly the agressor and I had him winning the fight until the accident happened.

how was cote the agressor? he never took the second or third step to get in Silvas face that fucking pussy all bark no bite

Any way, ok could get a lot of flack for this but here it goes, Alves once he gets his shot at gsp, should def move to 185 HE’S HUGE and FAST could def be a contender easily has huge ko power great take down defence and is a wrecking machine would like to see him and anderson go at it muay thai stand up ko or be ko’d fight

I myself was completly impresses by the performances tonight. i really though Tyson had the tools to beat sherk but sherks "boxing" and stamina proved to be more valuable than tyson’s high pace…too bad he forgot sherk is the master of high pace! samthig with alves it thought it was going to be close fight. difference was i thought Kos was going to be the one to dictate the fight with his decent stand up and awesome wrestling..Alves showed some crazy takedown defense. GSP should have a good fight with him but not a win for alves. Alves neede to make a big statement out of Kos. he made some heads turn tonite tho. NOW for Cote…wow..it was a lil slow but for all the right reasons. cote finally proved his worth tonite. went 3 rounds with silva and took his best shots he wasnt worse for the wear or anything he got hurt once when he caught that knee but he shook it off and put silva in a very peculiar place….couldnt really find an opening alot of you are mistaking silva’s actions as showboating…i think its either becuz you are hating or uneducated. Silva was doing his weird dance…to distract Cote. he was finding it very hard to get into any rhythm or bait cote into a mistake he could capitalize in. very unfortunate for both guys that cote got hurt. Cote has got my respect and i hold silva in even higher regard after he tried to keep the unkind and ignorant crowd of chicago from booing cote. i would love to see cote get his rematch. if anything this looked like 5 round technical fight.

Wow that Clementi/Maynard fight was garbage. Neither guy did anything.

Sherk/Griffin was on of the best fights ive seen in a very long time. Forget all the knockouts, that was just a 3 round war by both men. Incredible combos and exchanges for 15 minutes.

As for AS. Dude knows what he is doing. Sure its not your traditional way of fighting, but haven’t you noticed he’s done the same sort of thing before? And why go balls out in the 1st 2 when he knows he can go all 5? He was waiting for the 1 perfect chance. It’s his fight, let him fight the way he wants without complaining. If you dont like it, dont watch him fight.

Its hard to say. No one publicly expressed such a desire to fight A.Silva like Cote. Cote was trying his best to play a mental game, and it could have played a factor in Silva’s more patient approach. All in all a good night of fights. Even the Maynard vs Clementi one, i think those who really appreciate the ground game would have no problem enjoying it. It wasn’t fast paced, nor did someone throw massive shots, but it did offer two men trying to nullify each others game, while trying to gain an advantage. Maynard came out ahead. For me, thats good enough.

OH MY GOD “AJ”
Thank you, I actually laughed out loud by myself in the middle of the night…

“I had him winning the fight until the accident happened”

I read a good observation by someone on another posting saying Silva was waiting for Cote to make a move and a mistake to counterstrike and capitalize but this took longer then expected. As far as a rematch, WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING? I told my friend look up cote on WikIpedia. My friend came back with how did cote earn a title shot? He has beat NO ONE!

and another thing, do you really thing Silva really cares how he won? He took this $250k and he will gladly take another $250k in Dec, Jan because he sustained no damage.

I dont think Silva was ‘playing’ with Cote. I have been a fan of this sport for over ten years, and i think in that time plenty of fighters have seen what happens when you try to ‘play’ with someone. Accidents happen. Sure we didn’t expect Cote to win, but sometimes all it takes is one hit, and you have an upset. I’d like to think a seasoned professional such as Anderson Silva would not take such a chance with anyone. He was doing what he could, and even though not totally decisively, was winning the rounds too.

Silva tried to give fight fans a longer fight, in order to really showcase his skills. Cote did not want to fight……he was clapping for Silva during Silva’s introduction along with the other fans. By 3rd round let’s admit, it was just a matter of time before the inevitable was gonna happen. Cote was so content with making it to the 3rd that winning the fight was the furtherest thing from his mind….he was trying to survive……… his corner wasnt even trying to give him technical advice just tryna motivate him….it was sad. Personally I think he intentionally dropped cus there was no knee pop on the replay. Anderson hit him with some nasty shots. I will always respect the fighter with the scalpel in hand. Cote is softer than baby dodo when Silva steps in the room.

Cote winning before the accident? Are you crazy?!

Anderson’s strikes were vicious when he decided to strike. And then he take down on Cote.

cote was not winning that fight before the stoppage. but he was definatley doing the best out of all ufc fighters to fight anderson silva. and i dont buy that anderson was playing with him, he even stated that he wasnt playing with him in the post fight interview. i think cote was confusing him by not chasing him as other fighters have. cote stuck to his gameplan really well and didnt buckle or overpursue even when the crowd was booing.

anderson silva is my favorite fighter, but i think cote deserves a rematch. he took a lot of punishment from anderson tonight and kept bringing it. even if he doesnt get the rematch, i cant wait to see his next fight.

“Whatever the case was, his Machida-like approach cost fans a satisfactory ending” mma mania

youre blaming anderson for the crowd not getting what they wanted? that aint right.

also, cote’s leg did not buckle because of all the damage silva did to his leg. silva never kicked his right leg once during the whole fight. it was a genuine unfortunate injury.

DA SPIDER ONLY MAKES 80K PER FIGHT AND HAS THE LOWEST PPV BUYS OF THERE CHAMPIONS

Yeah I had Cote winning too. He was crushing Silva. Cote 10-8 for the first and second round. Silva is lucky Cote couldn’t get back up. You could see it on Silvas face praying he would stay down. Out of all of Silvas UFC fights Cote was putting a beat down. Just my two cents… Gees its cold up here in Canada. What about down there in the states:)Give me a break.

Just to let you guys know, the judges had Silva winning the fight before the injury.

Hey Jesse,
   The “queer street” remark gave me a pretty good laugh. Jim Rome is a freaking idiot when it comes to MMA. I can’t stand watching Rome Is Burning.

Anderson Silva will not hear the end of it now pertaining to him horsing around with Cote instead of finishing him, Silva will be criticized BIG TIME!

I think it was a “Rope-a-Dope” scenario. During the first(and only) 2 rounds, I was getting to think someone paid Anderson to let Cote get to the 3rd round (good money in fixing-fights). BUT!

3rd round, Anderson engaged right away and he seemed to me to just look more serious.

Giving Anderson the benefit of the doubt, I think he respected Cote’s power and used the 1st 2 rounds to

1)keep himself fresh and
2) frustrate and tire out Cote

Just like Ali frustrated and tired out Foreman before going in for the kill.

I don’t think, Cote was all that tired, but I do think he was getting frustrated.

I really like both fighters, but I really think Anderson was acting differently in the 3rd round prior to the knee injury, and was just about to “Level Up” a la DragonBallZ style.

It’s too bad though, I hope Cote’s alright.

Watch the fight again and see how many clean, precise, powerful shots hit Cote in the face and elsewhere. Anderson wasn’t trying to figure him out as much as he was TRYING to knock him out. Cote received shots that would have folded other guys and kept pushing forward.

Cote should have mounted more of an offense. He may have been in the center of the ring but he wasn’t doing much about it.

He may have looked a bit scared but HE’S FIGHTING ANDERSON SILVA FOR THE TITLE!!

I think both guys get props for putting on 2 great rounds before that unfortunate accident. Sucks to see someone’s dream go down in flames like that.

i blinked and thought i was watching Rashad Evans for a while there especially with all that crazy hand movement. silva for Dec 27

Never got a chance to watch the show last night.

Sounds interesting and lots of mediocre fights, but some parts interest me.

Kos lost but really how bad if it were a 5 rounder who would have won? What about the eye poke? Who was the aggressor?

I thought Grey would win.

Silva probably did the math and figured…
1. Engage Cote and there is a 20% chance I wake up 2 minutes later cause I cant put this guy out.

2. This guy really isnt top 10 material and if I lose to him my stock goes down… Bigtime.

3. If I make it look like I am bored maybe they will let me fight the top WW (GSP OR BJ) Heck maybe they would even sign randy or Fedor…

Regardless its all about the A. Silva show and I have a love/hate relationship with this guy. I love to watch and cross my fingers hoping someone is gonna flatten him. I Hate him just cause he pulls wins out of his a hole.

I think his next fight should be Chuck Liddell… That way if Liddell wins its a bit of “I still got it” and Silva can say “I aint really in this division”. If Silva wins maybe that gives him a crack at top contendership… And shows Chuck the door.

Silva would be better used fighting a guy like Rampage or Wandy. It would give everyone a bit more versitile action.

To say Silva’s goofing around “cost us” a finish in the fight is crazy. This is like when Belfort cut Randy’s eye with his glove, its a freak accident, and assuming a rematch that assumes Cote comes back before Silva uses up the rest of his fights. Silva wants to fight again (hell I wouldn’t even be surprised if he is on Ultimate 08) and if it is an acl tear that’s not exactly an easy comeback.

I thought that the fans last night were some of the worst I’ve ever seen. I don’t think there was one fight that they didn’t boo. UFC should never go back to Chicago.

A TKO? what the hell was that. Thist rule has to change as there are a number of people betting on the fight. This should have been classed a NO contest. The fight was going exactly as I predicted . Silva has done this style of show boating before to confuse his opponents however Cote was not falling into this trap and was sticking to his game plan. It did not take long for Silva to realize how hard Cote can strike and what a shot he can take. Those knees would have TKOed anyone else. I am sure Silva was being cautious for good reason.

Silva ‘horsing around’ is down to two things.

Either he’s a cocky bastard who was ‘toying’ with Cote (doubtful i think).

Or….

He was waiting for Cote to make a mistake so he could go in and destroy him.

Cote clearly has a good chin, Silva got him with a good knee and it didnt really phase him whastoever.

Noone else would be accused of ‘showboating’ in this position apart from Silva (because everyone just assumes he should win all his fights in the first round.

If you understand Portuguese, and watch between rounds 1 and 2, the corner was arguing with Silva to engage and take the fight to him. I understand that Silva loves to feed off his opponent to make the fight. I know he is a gracious and humble guy. I have seen many of his fights well before he came into the UFC as a “little known” fighter to most. The guy is the best fighter in the world, bar none (and yes that includes boxing too). I don’t question his game plan or his knowledge and experience, given the guy has it all, and in spades.

BUT, he never has taken such a laid back approach to any fight. Watch his old fights, and look at his focus. He may move around, but he is always in the position to explode with exactly what is needed. Last night he was being coy and trying to get Cote to engage, and just never got the chance to do what he does best, land the exact attack to dismantle his opponent. I’m just disappointed I didn’t get to see it.

Anderson Silva is the type of fighter that comes along once in a generation, much like Ali and Tyson when they were at their prime. I just hate to think he only has a few fights left, and this one went the way it went.

Was anyone else ready to murder the refs for the “let’s get going” – type comments? I understand that when the crowd boos, the refs generally try to get things moving, but last night was ridiculous. Anytime the fight went to the ground, people booed. Interesting that in OH & MI, people appreciate the ground game but in Chicago they only wanted a wide-open brawl.

Silva has much better standup, but Silva was necessarily cautious, because Cote has an iron chin, and a power punch that can end a fight at any time. That was the first time I ever saw Silva try to take someone down. He has respect for Cote on his feet.

Thats the last time Ill pay to watch AS fight. That crap was worse than watching sweatin’ to the oldies.
 Cote had a good chance to take that belt while AS pissed it away doing the moonwalk & all that other funky stuff.

The thing everyone needs to understand is that there is STRATEGY in a fight.

Just because you are a great striker doesn’t mean you go in crazy guns blazing! We know Silva was more passive than normal, but he was likely waiting to counter Cote as Cote was looking to counter him.

It was a 5 round fight and Cote actually has good power. So if Anderson were to lose, it may be to a guy that has NOTHING to lose and is relatively unknown to the casual fan.

Anderson partly didn’t want to get rocked by good power and was waiting for Cote to get aggressive and the pop him. Which is good STRATEGY.

Forrest Griffin realized, in his loss to Jardine, that going guns blazing and crowd pleasing can lose you a fight. Instead it is good to mix it up, maybe counter attack and then when the time is right, ATTACK.

Anderson likely would have KO’ed in 3rd or 4th. Can’t blame him for rounds 1 and 2 not being fully action packed, it is a 5 round fight with strategy.

I thought the refs were horrible. The one Rogan started complaining about actually annoyed me so much I muted the final round so I couldn’t here him. Also, at the end of the Alves Kos fight, that ref didn’t have a clue what was going on…as if he didn’t step in immediately upon the horn, which is standard when two guys are trading at the horn. Rookie refs killed this card for me. Also, that Fennel ref that let Fabricio take what, like 4 shots to the head AFTER he was already on queer street, all because he was so far out of position and so slow to react Dos Santos threw 4 more bombs before he recovered. Absolutely ridiculous. The “come on, guys” ref is also the same clown that was patting down the fighters like there were inmates, Cote even made the what is this crap face as he patted down his BARE legs!!! Please Dana, never have any of those 3 new clowns again. I was utterly relieved to see Herb Dean doing the main event…thank god.

I’m so glad I did NOT buy this PPV

Sounds like there was only 2 minutes of fighting worth watching (Junior knockout)

I’m so glad I did NOT buy this PPV

Sounds like there was only 2 minutes of fighting worth watching (Junior knockout) – yep had a feeling that this was going to be weak card with lackluster main event (sorry Silva – would like to see you take on some serious competition – step up in LHW was not a bad idea; no disrespect for Cote – but best he could have hoped for was 5 round grindout for decision loss)

Cote had octagon control for the whole first round and the second round was fairly close but anderson took that round.. and seeing that clean flush full out knee he landed on Cote.. which didnt even faze cote is why anderson has to be careful against him because he still threw a bomb while he took that knee Anderson has to think defense to and be careful against cote… i dont believe in any of this “silva could have ended it when ever he wanted” then why didnt he? obviously not… he was having trouble figuring Cote out and had to be careful exchanging with someone that has that kind of chin..

“Cote was never really given a fair chance to prove his mettle.” – bullshit. He was out of his league and this was a bogus fight to begin with. Silva goofed around for a couple rounds and Cote doesn’t deserve a rematch. Period.

Cote had his chance and Silva kicked him in his injured leg, then it went out on him shortly there after. End of story, lets move on to other fights. No one except some Canadians want to see that rematch.

You guys still have to give Cote some credit. Silva wasn’t goofing around so much as Cote was throwing him off.

The fact is that Cote did go to round 3 with Silva. Something that no other fighter has done in the UFC. A rematch would not make a good main event but they could put it as a co-main event. The problem is that by the time Cote comes back from his injury, Silva will be almost retired.

Enjoyed the card. New respect for Sherk and Alves. That “tough guy” ref was killing me. Refs: we don’t want to see you or hear you. Just shut up, stay out of the way, and ref. I’m not interested in Cote/Silva part 2 at all. Cote is on an even playing field with Leban, and look what happened to him. Time for Silva to move up to 205 and stay there. The only fight left at 185 is St. Pierre( if he beats Penn). I agree with dusty dog. The refs really made the fights less enjoyable. It’s one thing to tell the fighters to get back in their corners each before round, but don’t command them or talk to them disrespectfully like your a fighter or something.

What do you guys think about Cote Leben 2 when Cote is healed????

i was there, i flew over 3000 miles to see silva fight
i was very disappointed in his lack luster fight just to end in a bizarre injury. everyone was booeing like crazy including me. i can’t believe the best fight of the night for me was the sherk vs griffin fight. but overall my trip to chicago was well not worth the money i spend to go

Definitely don’t think that Cote deserves a rematch. His inability to do anything to Silva was comical. It was painfully obvious that Silva decided to be his playful self instead of his focused fighter self.

Goldberg is the worst. I would like to “thud” him up side the head. Can they not find anybody else that actually knows something about the sport. Everything that comes out of his mouth is just retarded. You guys catch the part where rogan shit on him about the poking the eye not being as bad as getting punched in the eye. right after alves got poked. check it out.

FIRE GOLDBERG

I don’t get all the remarks about Anderson Silva being “different” in this fight. His style wasn’t any different than it usually is. Watch any fight: He hops around, does crazy dance stuff, times his opponent, and when there’s an opening, he unleashes a flurry. That’s exactly what he did against Cote. The only difference is that the flurries he threw didn’t end up knocking Cote senseless and he was giving Silva less of an opportunity to counter punch like he always does. I guarantee you that had Cote’s knee not been injured, you all would have been talking today about that spectacular knockout finish in the third or fourth round.

But seriously, watch some of his longer fights. He always starts off by dancing around and looking for openings against strikers. Hell, no one has complained about his “playing” against champion caliber fighters like Rich Franklin. I seem to recall Anderson “playing” with him by holding his hands down at his side while Franklin swung at him and Anderson simply circled his hips and leaned away from him, repeatedly making him miss as if he were using a hula hoop instead of in the middle of a fight. I honestly can’t comprehend why people think his style was so “off” today, because it seemed like more of the same, to me.