Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva told "Showdown" Joe Ferraro that the "perfect fight" at UFC 162, which took place at the "Silva vs. Weidman" pay-per-view (PPV) event last Saturday night (July 6, 2013) in Las Vegas, Nevada, would end like this:
"Chris Weidman! Chris Weidman is the best in the world! Chris Weidman is the new champion of UFC!"
And people call Chael Sonnen a troll.
A lot of mixed martial arts (MMA) conspiracy theorists have latched on to "The Spider's" pre-fight comments as more evidence that the fix was in last weekend in "Sin City," despite the fact that the betting lines did not reflect big returns, in addition to the millions of dollars lost in a potential "super fight" against Jon Jones.
And then there's that whole federal investigation thingy, which would imprison the ZUFFA brass and shut down the entire company, but we can play along anyway.
The more likely scenario is that Silva was playing the same games with Ferraro that he was with Weidman. Even UFC President Dana White admitted that the former Brazilian titleholder likes to (expletive) with the media and this was probably no different.
Or, maybe he had already resigned himself to losing after so many years at the top, which could explain his follow up comments:
"I'm tired bro. No rematch. I'm tired. I win, I win, I win. Go back for all the fights. Please."
Silva was splattered across the cage in the second stanza, after giving Weidman a few rounds of grief, much like he did to Demian Maia way back at UFC 112. The only difference is, the "All American" was able to capitalize on his opponent's shenanigans and leave Las Vegas with the belt (relive the madness here).
Fix gone right? Or tricks gone wrong?
For more UFC 162 results, recaps, videos, reactions and other post-fight fallout, check out our "Silva vs. Weidman" wrap-up and link dump by clicking here.