Ed Soares Discusses Chris Weidman: He Should Get Respect For Beating Silva Twice

anderson silva ed soares

UFC 168 rounded off a pretty amazing year in MMA, culminating in the title rematch between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman. The result was a TKO win for Weidman when ‘The Spider’ winged a kick and his leg snapped in grotesque fashion. The fight may have ended in disappointment for Silva fans, but such is life in the unpredictable world of MMA.

The fight obviously sparked a heated debate as to whether Weidman intended to break Silva’s leg, and what would the result have been had ‘The Spider’ not thrown the infamous kick. Whatever the result, Ed Soares (Silva’s manager) spoke to Hollywood MMA to declare his respect for ‘The All-American’:

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“Regardless, he won the fight. I wouldn’t say he beat him, but he won the fight. He won the competition and you have to congratulate him — what he’s done nobody’s ever been able to do, one of them is knock out Anderson Silva and the other thing is beat Anderson Silva twice.

“Nobody’s ever done that, so congratulations to him. Regardless if it’s [way he won] controversial people are going to say things and yeah there’s something [the injury] but at the end of the day he went out there and won the fight. He should be respected — he was counted out both times. Chris Weidman should be respected.””

Silva has since said that he felt he would have beaten Weidman had the fight continued, but the truth is that was as speculative a statement as you will ever hear. ‘The Spider’ was an incredible champion, and Weidman moves on to make his next title defense against Vitor Belfort.

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“I do think he’ll make a full recovery and I do think he’ll be back. I haven’t lost any belief in Anderson Silva, I believe in him just as much now as I always have, I still think he’s the greatest fighter of all time and hats off to Chris Weidman, he beat Anderson Silva twice.”

The only definitive answer as to whether Silva can beat Weidman will come if they fight for a third time. The reality right now is that Weidman beat Silva twice, and ‘The Spider’ must sit out and wait until his injury is completely healed.

It sounds like Soares is very confident about the former champion returning to MMA, but at what level can he realistically reach at this stage? I’d hope to see him back on form if he returns, but it could be too far to climb at this stage for the 38 year old MMA legend.

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