I find your comments very interesting but they are the same as everyone else's. no one in this sport has even challenged the thought of if Anderson is the best at MMA. THEN WHYNOT TAKE IT TO THE GROUND! No one give credit to the ground fighter that chooses to stand and losses the fight. yes he has won on the ground but so has GSP.

Joe Rogans clown comments last night about Silva not giving the fans what they want just shows how much of a wet brain he has. Silva has the belt period. If you want the belt GO AND GET IT. Its not up to Silva to put on a show for the fans. Silva not worried about marketability, he's about to retire, plus he already takes lower pay than a lot of fighters. Rogan really out did himself last night. People are going to remember on the other hand, how Silva defended the belt 8 straight times gracefully. Its not up to Silva to put on a show, its up to the UFC. Rogan your A CLOWN. GET WOUR WEIGHT UP SUCKA AZZZZZ....

Thank god I got my tickets for free. This is what I get for staying for the main event, a lackluster performance, missing my last train back home, and the crowd at the bell centre raining boos and chanting for GSP.

Bill,

Silva had a lot more to lose than to gain in this bout. If it was against an equal opponent, you may have seen Silva more on the ground.

Make no mistake, he's a BJJ black belt and can fight on the ground just fine, but he had too much to lose by playing Leites' game.

If Leitus wanted a ground battle, he should have done the work to take Silva down, not just do the lazy butt "dead turtle" move over and over. That's not Silva's fault.

I didn;'t buy it. Have been burned in past purchases and was not intrigued by any of the matchups. sounds like i made the right call this time.

UFC 97 is the absolute worst! What a waste of talent. What an insult. Another reason why we need Fedor to come to the UFC.

I am frustrated that I spent the money I did to buy this HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE UFC! Time and time again I keep saying that I will never get another fight again, because they never live up to there hype, and last not was definately it! I guess I'm going to have to becaome a boxing fan again!? Liddell is finished, Couture is done, there is nobody except GSP left and there is no match for him! I would of rather spent $45 on another Tyson-Hollyfield fight! UFC SUCKS!

Bad time to get out of the UFC game, the next few cards, through UFC 100, are stacked

Thanks for the write up, and I largely agree although I would give shogun a little more credit than you seem to. For one thing, just taking chuck down (even at this stage in his career & even if only momentarily) was something that surprised me.

Additionally Shogun showed both speed & patience, in initiating/disengaging from his attacks, & timing that last blow. He laso mixed in kicks and had a nice heelhook attack. It's a more varied shogun than what we've seen from him to this point in the UFC.

The big question that hasn't been answered however is his cardio, & we'll just need to see him in more fights

UFC 97 was a boring debacle! Chuck Liddel's another Frank Shamrock... Great fighter who sadly doesn't realize that he's past his prime and steps into the Octagon only to embarrass himself.
Unlike Silva, Chuck may have lost, but at least he provided for an entertaining fight by getting knocked out. You get a title fight like Leites and you throw zero strikes, flop on your back repeatedly, and try maybe 2 or 3 take down attempts? Leites should go down in history as the worst contender ever to compete for a title. Much like in baseball when someone pulls a Buchner, Leites name should have the same legacy.

I am happy ur article point to the fact that the blame lies with the UFC and Leites and not silva. The Silva I saw would have fought brillaintly if he was fighting an equally brilliant fighter.

The fact he was not stretched is not his fault, Leites did not challenge him and why risk ur whole career for a KO and a pat on the back from Dana or the fans. The man I saw is simply the best in the UFC

Not every card can be a blockbuster. It's live sports. Shit happens. Deal with it. Go to a bar and watch it and get more for your money. You know it is an exciting sport and most nights have some great fights and a few don't. I do think it would be better if they showed two or three more fights from the undercard each time.

Mark Chalifoux.. first off what the hell do you know about MMA? you're just a columnist that writes on everytoher sport. Yuou want to see a Frankiling vs Silva III? you idiot havent u seen how the first 2 ended?

Your e idiot.... Stupid.. i dont kno why this company even hire u to write for them u dumbass

The problem lies in Joe Silva and Dana White. They are protecting there investment by matching him up with opponents who can't challenge him. A key reason the UFC got such a surge in popularity was that they pitted fighters against one another who were more or less evenly matched and were going to put on a show. Protecting Silva by not pitting him against credible competitors has led the UFC down the wrong path of boxing. Shame!

Learn how to spell man. That's ridiculous.
Anderson Silva is the best. I'm sure Leites went into this fight confident, but found out just like every other one of Silva's opponents, that once you get in the cage with Silva it's a whole different story. Leites was scared, and this fight shows how dominant Silva is, that other supposedly top contenders just fall at his feet. Lets not forget the 7 straight wins by KO, TKO, or submission that Silva ended his fights with. I can't blame someone from running away from him for 25 minutes. Give him an opponent that will attempt to fight him, and you'll see Silva destroy them. The only problem, is nobody wants to take a beating, and that's what is going on here. Silva is still the best, and Dana is a chump for calling out Silva. Why don't you give him better competition, and once he destroys them I'm sure you'll be kissing his ass once again you cocky nobody.

Anderson Silva's job is to win. Its the UFC's job to find opponents that make interesting fights. Silva was flawless in executing his game plan and Leites was not. This show was not "garbage". Are you off your meds again?

Gotta agree with you I don't place blame on Anderson. Thales must have realised by round 3 that he couldn't be winning and by that point should have gone for broke.

One things for sure...don't think anyone wants to see Silva V Machida now!!

It seems to me that a lot of people in here have never done mma or martial arts, As these kinds of comments would never come from a martial artis. Anderson Silva didn't put on a show, but im guessing if he was given the respect of say a Chuck Liddell (by Dana White) and given the pay day he deserves then we may be talking about this fight in a very different way. I wouldn't be killing myself if i was getting paid peanuts.

Perry,

It was garbage because Leites shouldn't have been fighting Silva, which made the main event pretty dull.

Silva dominated but even he was frustrated with how it went. Plus, there weren't too many other fights on the card (outside of Shogun's) that was overly appealing.

Thales Leites had no business being in the cage with Silva in the first place. He has one upper echelon win in his career, against Nate the Great. I watched that fight and he only won because of point penalties, Marquardt inflicted much more damage.

We only get to see a bit more of one of the all time greatest fighters in mma history, it's a shame these precious opportunities are wasted on unworthy opponents.

The blame for Saturday's waste of time clearly falls on UFC organizers like Dana White. Anderson couldn't care less about putting on a show. that's not his job, that's Dana's job. Dana is always criticizing Fedor for not fighting tough fighters, but that's exactly what he's doing with Silva. Silva's last three fights have been a joke. Fedor is clearly the best pound for pound fighter in the world because he fights real fighters.

I'm surprised the ref didn't take a point or 2 from TL for the kind of passivity he showed in that fight. I hate to say it but AS looked bored out there against TL and Cote. He toyed around with Cote in their fight and looked dissapointed at times with how TL kept falling to the ground. AS did what he had to do to win, TL just ran from him

I think Dana deep down knows that for the most part AS wasn't challenged by TL. TL had a nice takedown on AS but couldn't do anything once he had him there, just goes to show that AS was never in any real danger. I believe we'll see the AS we're used to seeing when he meets an opponent who challenges him ala Henderson or Franklin. If we see GSP vs AS it'll be a good fight for sure

The problem is there are no middleweights good enough to be in with Silva right now. It's not his fault Leites couldn't get him down and was pretty much begging him to go to the ground with him. It looked rather pitiful. I can't see GSP being able to hang with Silva. I think he'll get destroyed. If Matt Serra can knock him out, what do you think Silva would do? His only hope would be on the ground and there he would be giving up some strength to the larger man. Lately GSP's game plan has been beating fighters at their own game. That won't happen against Silva. I'd rather see him go up into LHW where there is solid competition.

Dana pretty much confirmed on the Jason Ellis show yesterday that Silva is going to move up and fight at LHW. The probably with fight GSP is that Silva can't get lower than 180 (he apparently walks around at 210), and GSP would be at the disadvantage of having to come up to fight him. He wouldn't say who in the LHW division he was going to fight, but at least he realizes that MW is a problem...