At what point do we start REASONABLY discussing the increasingly uncharacteristic behavior of Ed Soares, and by extension Anderson Silva, which Justin H and others have recently touched on here at the frenZy?
Didn’t we hear from Soares at one point that Silva was good to go, and then “suddenly” ELECTED to have elbow surgery?
Lets bear in mind here, it’s not like Silva blew out his elbow in a lengthy, grueling throwdown with Forrest Griffin. It’s also not like Silva had his elbow popped in a fight defending his title against Nate Marquardt, the forgotten man at 185.
The man simply CHOSE to have the surgery at the time, even though he knew he was going to have to defend his 185 belt against someone, eventually.
IMO its one thing to be dealing with staph, or whatever mutant T virus strain Brock Lesnar is currently under treatment for. Its quite another to have elective surgery, especially so close to the “deadline” wherein Silva-thru-Soares has commented that he’d like to hang up his gloves [April/Spring 2010].

Between Silva [and/or Soares] waving off fighters like Hendo and Marqaurdt, expressing “disappointment” over facing Vitor Belfort, a former training partner of sorts, and then “preferring” not to fight fellow BlackHouse-mates like Lyoto Machida, and I guess by association LittleNog, the question remains:
Who exactly is Anderson Silva willing to fight, and when?
And exactly what it is going to take to get this guy back in the Octagon?
More money? Some sort of contractual concession? Co-promotion?
Also, how much if this “irregularity” can be placed at the feet of Anderson Silva, and how much at the feet of Ed Soares?
I don’t consider myself a Silva supporter, nor a detractor. I can respect his in-cage performances without ordering a ton of his walkout wear from Silver Star or whoever.

The truth is Anderson Silva has earned a lot of latitude with his HoF run in the UFC. He’s cleaned out his division and humilated arguably the most popular guy in the UFC, and more importantly, he’s done it in a sportsmanlike fashion.
But when exactly does Silva expend all of his goodwill?
How long are we supposed to cheer for a man that allows Ed Soares to run his mouth unchecked?
I’m pretty much at the end of my personal Anderson Silva rope.
I won’t go as far to say that Silva is ducking anyone, because I don’t see any evidence of that. What I do see is an emerging pattern of managerial obfuscation and irregular timing which lead to, as Justin H terms it, “shady” optics.

If Silva is no longer passionate about MMA, then he should simply retire. If Silva’s more seriously injured than previously reported, then he should come clean and not allow Ed Soares to tarnish his image with offhanded commentary and such.
Basically, I’mm looking for Anderson Silva to do what I’m waiting for Fedor to do, which is basically to tell his handler/s to shut the fu<k up, and allow their principal to handle his business in the cage, regardless of consequence…

The way it was reported, Belfort trained with Silva and the Nogs and showed a lack of loyalty by agreeing to this fight. Now Silva seems to be ducking Belfort.

Silva has said he would never fight Machida because they’ve trained together and it would show a lack of loyalty and respect for each other.

Perhaps that’s why Silva’s not stepping up to the plate.

Besides, jtroll was just too good of a spur of the moment line to waste.

However…

The reason the UFC holds off until 6-8 weeks before to announce their cards is two-fold. 1. It allows them to shuffle in the case one of their planned fights has to be scratched. 2. It allows the fighters part of their camps – and possibly the most cardio-intense and likely to be injured part – to begin before the fight is truly committed.

This particular fight is different altogether. This was not some freak training injury. Silva had surgery. There is no way this fight was going to be announced until that elbow has been cleared AND he had a chance to get a camp started. Any delay was 100% guaranteed to delay the fight.

How this could be unforeseen or unexpected is totally beyond me.

On the UFC.com website, nothing is up for 109. You think that no one is training to fight at 109? UFC.com typically waits until the card is 2 months away before posting official fights.

And to be fair I’ll go on the record to say that I don’t agree with jcohl’s idea that Dana and his fighters need to get it together. I think rather in today’s day (and being a healthcare professional), communicable disease is more dangerous than ever and gyms need to invest in proper cleaning and disinfectants. You can’t blame the fighters and the promoters for wanting to give us the best fights possible.

The fight wasn’t cancelled, it just isn’t happening. You can’t blame Dana and the fighters for not putting together a fight that was rumored. You have to blame the rumors that got you excited.

As far as waiting to bust out a line? Come on, now. You know better. You drank your Trollerade, I called you on it. Go back to posting something solid. Redeem yourself.

You wanna blame someone for this? Blame us. Blame every blog that has to have the inside source and first announcement of a rumored fight.

You’re better than this, jtroll.