It is refreshing to see Cofield actually critical of some UFC fighters.. Well, fighter.. It's a start at unbiased journalism. You can do it Steve.. Put your toe in the water, it is not that cold..

Who wants to see Rodney go against Anderson Silva in the octagon? You decide!

I am a die hard UFC fan, and have been for several years. I have to wonder if any of you so called sports "experts" watched the same fight I did. Anyone who knows anything about MMA knows that there was nothing Andersen Silva could have done in that fight. Everytime Silva was within striking distance, Leites flopped like a fish out of water. Instead of criticism, Silva should be praised for the fact that no one is willing to stand toe to toe with him. Leites on the other hand, should be banned from the sport forever. I honestly hope he didn't get paid, because I could go in the ring with any MMA fighter and lay on my back. Could Silva have took the fight to the ground? Sure he could have, but he didn't have to. He was fighting his fight, the way he wanted to fight it. That's what makes MMA beautiful. There are no rules on how you fight, whether it is wrestling, boxing, BJJ, karate, etc. If Leites wanted to fight Silva on the ground, then he should have tried to take Silva to the ground. Don't question Silva because he stuck to his game plan, and had an opponent that was not even close to being worthy of stepping in the ring with any fighter, let alone probably the best pound for pound fighter in MMA. My hat goes off to Silva, and I am severely disappointed with the way the fight was handled by Dana White, and every sports writer out there who blames Silva for a boring fight. It takes two to tango.

Dan White thinks by exploding first it covers up the fact he has not put a good card together 2 out of the last 3 times.

Frank I agree. Why aren't people ripping Leites and also the ref for not pushing the fighters to engage, or warning Leites after a couple rounds of 'turtling' that he better engage or start to lose points.

This is why we need proficient strikers in the UFC such as Kimbo Slice and Cung Le. Both are legendary champions. Brock Lesnar is a great example. In his fight against Herring, he hit him so hard he literaly made Herring do no less then 3 cartwheels until the fencing on the cage stopped him from soaring into the crowd.

number 5 post frank the tank i agree with evrything you have said your right on! well said.

Dana totally threw Silva under the bus!

Great comment #5

@ #5:
I agree that leites is largely to blame for the fight turning out the way it did. 100% agree he needed to be in there actually shooting or working for a clinch and takedown rather than flopping.
I am reading a lot of people saying that silva put on a great fight, though. I cant disagree more. I think it was clear there was a severe mismatch in skill between those two fighters and if silva had shown some aggression he could easily have ended this fight. For those of you who still have the fight on your Tivo, watch it again and tell me when silva threw his first punch. 3:00 into the fight and he throws his first punch? i think that shows the kind of apathy im seeing from silva in his last couple fights.
If silva wants to fight perfect fights and never take damage, score a couple points and then evade , then i am happy for him, but he needs to realize that the fans who buy the tickets and ppvs that ultimately pay his salary dont want to watch that garbage. UFC is a business, they put on fights to make money. Fans pay for fights to be entertained. If he doesnt entertain, he doesnt deserve to be compensated at the same level as the guys who sell tickets and ppvs. Let him point out some more boring wins on the undercard if thats how he wants to fight.

I agree with frank and 4mma. why are we ripping silva apart? I get it, he gave a lackluster performance and should be criticized, but cmon! It pales in comparison to shameful display of turtling! There's ONE blog about who leietes should fight next, not how horrible he was, how disgraceful he was as a fighter, how retarded Levine was by not docking him points and not pushing the action....nothing. I say drop him. He lost all respect and dignity doing what he did. He should be getting hounded by the media and Dana alike. Seriously, one of the judges actually gave Leites 2 rounds!!!! Who in the world would do that? I didn't know you could win 2 rounds by just showing up!
And to all the idiots that are gonna eventually start whining about how I should step up and fight them instead of talking smack on a computer: After what Leites did, I have no doubt that I could be a fighter in the UFC. All I have to do is show up, back pedal, and everytime my opponent goes for a punch, I can just fall on my back and take a breather and wait for the ref to stand me up. AND if that gets me 2 rounds in a NON title fight, I'll be number one contender in no timE! I say bring it on!

The Canadian fans in attendance at UFC 97 were nothingmore than drunken casual fans. The first 2 rounds of the fight were slow and there was a lot of feeling out. Rounds 3, 4 & 5 were absolute thrashings for Leites. Silva took Leites' legs out and thus, took his opponent out fo the fight. Anderson had Leites resorting to flopping on his back trying to invit Anderson into open guard. I was wondering if we were going to start seeing the Royler Gracie butt-scoot. Everytime Leites was on the verge of being folded he would flop to the ground. Anderson was picking him apart effortlessly. He broke him down early on, got his distance timed and absolutely mauled Lietes in the later rounds. Perfect execution of Silva's gameplan and he would've delivered the KO had Leites not flopped to the ground everytime he was in danger.
Honestly, after the comments I read about the fight I was certain it was going to be like the Cote fight but after watching it myself I was shocked that all of these sport's writer's were complaining about Silva's performance.
Dana White and the so-called experts got this one horribly wrong. And like Dana White after the mentally challenged comments I think you media fools owe everyone an apology for being so horrible at your job that you couldn't decipher Silva's performance against Cote from his performance against Leites. I would suggest deciphering your career options and hopefully moving in a different direction because you're doing this sport a diservice.

and silva needs to stop walking around like he s*** dont stink....it does, Silva. it does. Even the most die hard fan can see that your hold on the top spot is wavering, and your misunderstanding about entertainment is costing you a lot of money as well as a lot of fans. If no one wants to see you fight, then you no ones gonna by the tickets, if no one buys the tickets, your already lackluster salary goes down, and when that happens, you make less money than you already do. You get paid to fight AND entertain, not disregard both and still think you're best. OBVIOUSLY something was wrong, or we would all be singing a different tune. The world doesn't revolve around Silva, and if that many people, real mma people saw the same thing, I think its time for Silva to do some intropspective reflection instead having a bad case of ostrich syndrome.

Put him in with Rampage. He will have to stand and throw then.

Lets keep it real, no one at 185 can even come close to silva. he has to move up to 205 to be challenged.

These guys are right. The guy that needs to take the heat is Leites. He decided to not fight and run from Silva all night. What a joke. Straka is a turd.

what about the blatant greasing!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!!

I think a so called "entertaining" fight for silva would be for him to go to the 205 class and fight forrest griffin.

vudusup did you even watch that fight? only reason herring got caught with that punch was the refs eyepoke at the beginning of the fight

Frank ur right on.
What is goal when u fight? To win. what is silva doing? winning.
Seems pretty simple to me. Leites = Punk Silva = Champ

GREASING!
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5992/vdzn2w.gif
GREASING!
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5992/vdzn2w.gif
GREASING!
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5992/vdzn2w.gif
GREASING!
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5992/vdzn2w.gif
GREASING!
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5992/vdzn2w.gif
GREASING!
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5992/vdzn2w.gif
GREASING!
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5992/vdzn2w.gif

Anderson Silva was there to defend his title and he did it. In my opinion he was willing to fight, but his opponent wasn't. Leites, was the disappointment of the night. The champs challenger should always be trying harder to get the win. Dana shouldn't be embarrassed, it should be the fighters who don't want to fight that should be embarrassed.

Larry Fukwad, nobody cares...it's a none issue..

BREAKING THE RULES IS A NONE ISSUE?!?!?!!?!!?
THIS ISN'T NAM!!!!!
SPIDER SILVA IS A GREASER! http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5992/vdzn2w.gif