So I just watched this video interview with Dana White where he basically said he's bullshit about the Silva / Leites fight and how boring it was. It was absolutely boring, there's no getting around that, but what bothered me is that White, and this "reporter" seem to want to pin almost all of the blame on Silva.
I'm curious what the RTTP consensus is on this fight. I think to blame this 5 round nap on Silva is short sighted considering he was the one and only guy in that ring who was doing any fighting whatsoever. Leites is a solid fighter, but if you ask me he's a fucking dick for approaching this fight the way he did. "Unwilling to engage" with Silva doesn't describe what went on here. He was fucking scared to stand and take strikes from the guy I think is the most complete fighter in the UFC. The fact that he kept with his "strategy" of eating 5 or 6 shots and then taking a dive round after round knowing full well that Silva wasn't biting on it should tell you that he was not prepared to compete with Anderson.
My only criticism of Silva is that he didn't punish Leites for it in the last round. He was obviously getting pissed off and frustrated with Leites doing the Crocodile Mile dive every time he got hit with a punch. I really thought with the last minute or two of the fight (especially after he had already bloodied Leites up) he'd want to just take a chance, overwhelm him and try for a knockout. He didn't though. He knew he had the fight won, and decided to just keep it on the perimeter and coast. It's not what I was hoping for from a guy who did extra sparring after the Cote fight because he was so disappointed with himself. But I can hardly blame him for not being able to fight a guy who looked more prepared for a pap smear than an MMA match.
Leites fucking layed on the mat and ran away the whole fight. Fuck these Pride-hating meathead fucks that are trying to blame Silva for that bullshit. Why the fuck should Silva fight sloppy and stupid because that pansy Leites didn't want to fight.
There was some excellent commentary going on during that fight though. "I don't think I've ever seen someone punch a leg from standing before."
I LOLed at Silva's leg punch. He was just clowning Leites at that point. He knew he wouldn't return with anything even with his upper body totally exposed. Then again, that's just more evidence of how bad Silva could have hurt him if he had pushed the envelope.
Still, if Leites was dead set on taking this fight to the ground (which he obviously was) there are plenty of ways to do it besides just jumping to the ground. Did he ever even shoot for a takedown?