Credit Bisping and Blame Silva

Two of combat sports often most repeated sayings are “Styles make fights” and “Never leave it in the hands of the judges.” Saturday's main event between Michael Bisping and Anderson Silva fit those sayings perfectly. The fight has been hotly debated since the controversial end of the third round. Post fight Bisping celebrated the biggest win of his career while Silva felt he was screwed. The truth is Anderson Silva has no one but himself to blame for the loss he took in the UK.

Leading up to the fight I debated it with many of my friends about what I thought would happen. Time and again I felt “Anderson wins if its a KO or submission. Bisping's best chance to win is a decision. Because Bisping has a style that wins rounds.” And that is pretty much how the fight played out. For years Anderson Silva has gotten away with a lot of game playing inside the cage. UFC 162 is the best example of it costing him. And again it cost him on Saturday. Before we talk about the third round that most people will point to lets look at how Silva dug himself a huge hole on the score cards.

In round one Bisping came out doing what he does best. He was throwing a lot of punches and kicks. Silva who is a counter striker spent most of the round backing up. Now ideally a counter striker is looking for opening to land. A huge problem is Silva was willing to accept back up and not throwing. As a result Silva gave the judges no reason to score the round for him. Also at the end of the round it appeared Bisping landed a strong punch that dazed Silva. As a result anyone scoring the fight should have given the first round to Bisping 10-9.

The second round is where Silva really started to play what I'll call hand games. He had a lot of movement in his hands. Coming off like he was in an old Kung Fu movie but didn't actually throw them. Even if you want to argue he was setting up he never followed up. He rarely even flicked out an attack in this round. Once again Bisping landed more strikes came forward and controlled the action. Late in the round Bisping knocked Silva down. That again by any stranded should secure the round for him 10-9 meaning on the judges cards he was up 20-18.

The third was easily Silva's best round of the fight. After being knocked down he was much more serious. It was Silva in the round landing the better cleaner blows. He disrupted the pace of Bisping and cut off his attempts to hit combos. He was beating Silva up. Even before the knockdown I had Silva winning this round but again it was 10-9. Silva clearly won the round but Bisping stay active enough and was never dominated enough to justify a 10-9 even with the knock DOWN.

And yes it was a knockdown. Like it or not Herb Dean is the one that can call off the fight. He did not do that. Now that is the kind of highlight reel moment we have come to expect from Anderson Silva over the years. It doesn't help because the round ended right as he landed it. So you have Dean stepping in along with various people entering the cage. Adding to the mayhem is Silva celebrating and refusing to come off the cage. How ever stuff like this happen in combat sport and sports in general. A call goes against an athlete and they must fight or play on. Of course this is hard. Mentally it was clear Silva had left the fight.

Still though Silva entered the fourth round with a badly hurt fighter. Instead of attacking though he chose to stall out and let Bisping recover. Add into that a two stops one for a low blow and an eye poke. Bisping not only survived round four he again won it 10-9. Another round where the count controlled the octagon landed more and threw more. While Silva stalled out playing games.

Finally we entered the fifth round. Now on my score card and the three of the official judges there was no way Silva could win this fight unless he some how forced a extremely rare 10-7 round or finished the fight. He came close several times. Clearly through out the round Bisping was rocked and hurt. It seemed like Silva was trying to turn back the clock looking to land that one big highlight moment. He landed the front kick that knocked out Belfort looked for the elbow that ended Frycklands night. The problem is he never followed up.

He would hurt Bisping knock him off balance. But instead of coming forward keeping the pressure he waited. It let Bisping recover just enough to keep going. As time slipped away Bisping tied Silva up looking for a takedown why he didn’t' get it he killed clock with the move. The five minutes of the round ended. Silva won the round but not the fight. Like it or not under the Unified rules fights are scored on the 10 point must system and judged round by round. You can argue that it needs to change but those are the rules fighters in the UFC compete under for now.

Post fight Silva made claims of corruption, he also suggested he had re injured his knee, and a video surfaced of him asking “Do they want me to kill him?” This seems to show Anderson is either in denial or doesn't understand why he lost. He lost because he let an active experience fighter who had wanted this fight for year to stick around. He lost because he was expecting Bisping to freeze or charge forward in desperation. He lost because he didn't fight to win.