It’s fair to say Anderson Silva wasn’t shedding any tears when his nemesis Chris Weidman suffered his third loss in a row on Saturday night in controversial fashion against Gegard Mousasi at UFC 210.
“Weidman is a very lucky guy, and this time he wasn’t lucky,” Silva said in an interview with MMAJunkie. “He’s very lucky, but his luck ran out. He had some luck for a while, and now it’s over.”
Of course Silva has firsthand knowledge of what he perceives to be Weidman’s luck as he lost both his title and his unbeaten UFC record to him back in 2013 when his risky showboating antics led to him getting knocked out by a punch.
In their second fight things went even worse for Silva when he suffered a broken leg after a low kick connected with Weidman’s shin.
No doubt the bitter, painful memories of those back-to-back losses still haunts Silva, but he insists that Mousasi emerged as the rightful winner against Weidman this past weekend, despite some post-fight controversy as to whether he’d landed an illegal knee or not.
“I quickly saw a clip the guys showed me on their phones. The rule is very clear: He didn’t have his hand on the ground,” Silva said. “So, he was kneed and the knee was legal. The rule is clear. If he has his hands on the ground, four points of contact, you can’t hit him. Mousasi lifted him off the ground when he was hitting.”
Referee Dan Miragliotta didn’t see the incident so clearly at first glance and initially ruled it as an illegal knee and told Weidman he had five minutes to recover, but after instant replays were shown in the arena he appeared to change his tune and eventually doctor’s declared the former champ wasn’t fit to continue.
Weidman has since stated his intention to appeal the decision, but his chances of having the fight overturned to a no-contest ruling have been dealt a blow this week after the New York State Athletic Commission stated that instant replays are allowed in the state, even though it doesn’t say so in their rulebook.
Weidman has also called from an immediate rematch with Mousasi, but that may be dependent on whether his opponent is able to sign a new deal with the UFC as his current contract came to an end on Saturday night.
If that doesn’t work out though, Weidman won’t be short of other potential match-up, including a trilogy fight with Anderson Silva, who sounds like he may still have unfinished business with the down-on-his-luck star.
