Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva was supposed to be the one who rattled his opponent, mentally breaking him before he ever stepped foot inside the Octagon.
Turns out, it may have been the other way around.
"The Spider" was knocked out by Chris Weidman at the UFC 162 pay-per-view (PPV) event earlier this month in Las Vegas, Nevada (video), ending his seven-year reign of terror over the 185-pound division. So what went wrong? Well, as Silva explains to Agora é Tarde (via ESPN), he made a lot of mistakes.
Losing control was apparently one of them.
"Getting knocked out is the worst. There are always going to be questions -- people want to know what happened, but [when you're knocked out] you don't remember anything. You black out and that's it. It [the awkward movement] was a technical error to keep my legs parallel; I should have taken a step back instead. Several factors led to the knockout. The tension in the air before the fight, you just want to burst ... it was a series of mistakes. In my career, I've always went back to my corner [for advice]. Against Weidman, I went back to argue, and I should have gone back to my corner and calmed down. I didn't do any of that; I lost control."
But don't worry, he's back.
If we take Silva at his word, then we can say goodbye to the tomfoolery that marred his first go-round against the "All American" over Fourth of July Weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, which some mixed martial arts (MMA) fans attribute to his shocking upset defeat.
Time to put up or shut up.
"Weidman vs. Silva 2" has now been announced as headliner for the upcoming UFC 168 PPV on Dec. 28 in "Sin City," which marks the promotion's traditional year-end event and also features a women's bantamweight co-main event of Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate.
And those who don't learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.