Anderson Silva 'badly' wants Chris Weidman rematch, calls for UFC fight before year's end

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So much for all that yammering about not wanting a rematch.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva is still licking his wounds following a second-round knockout to Chris Weidman in the main event of UFC 162, which took place on July 6, 2013 from the MGM Grand Graden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

See it again here.

In the aftermath of his Fourth of July Weekend upset, "The Spider" initially claimed he was done contending for the title and would need a few months to figure out his next move. Apparently, a few months turned into a few hours, and Silva is already champing at the bit to get back inside the Octagon.

MMA Fighting has the report:

According to sources very close to the former UFC middleweight champion, Silva changed his tune about not fighting Weidman again just hours after he was knocked out by Weidman at UFC 162 on Saturday night in Las Vegas. The sources said they have never seen Silva so motivated to fight someone, and that a little over 24 hours after the loss Silva was jokingly wishing the rematch could happen this week. That's how badly he wants to avenge his loss to Weidman.

Angry "Spider" is angry.

The good news is, Weidman is down for a rematch. In addition to believing he's the better fighter, I'm sure he would love the opportunity to silence the critics who may attribute the upset win to the Brazilian's antics and not the "All American's" skill.

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I read that a couple hours ago. Hopefully it's true. I guess it could be a case of Silva thinking he knew what he wanted, but truly had never tasted defeat like this, and now that it's reality he's changed his tune.

Oh, I'm sure dude was all sorts of fucked up with mixed emotions after getting KTFO. I'm sure he just needed a little time to deal with what just happened.

Yep... hard to take anyone's statements seriously when a mic is stuck in their face right after getting knocked out on a worldly stage.

Plus, no way Silva would turn down a payday like that regaurdless of his personal feelings on the matter.

In truth, this would be the best possible scenario for eveybody. Silva gets to go in there and (hopefully) fight Weidman like he's supposed to and not fuck around, Weidman gets the chance to prove he really is the better fighter, and the fans on both sides of this will get a little closure one way or the other.

With that said, I'm still not convinced. Let's hear what Silva himself actually has to say before booking this. He is notorious for misdirection with the media, so I'll need to hear something definitive bofore I'm convinced this is how he really feels.

So, if Silva wins the rematch, should Weidman be granted an immediate rubber match?

I'm with Trigger...I'd like to SEE the excitement in Silva...not just hear it from "sources close to him"

Chrom wrote:

So, if Silva wins the rematch, should Weidman be granted an immediate rubber match?

I would say no. Weidman would have to fight 1 or 2 top fighters to get another crack. I have kind of followed this rule. if a fighter can win the belt and defend sucessfully atleast 3-4 times then i would say rematch. Anything under that could be considered a flash in the pan type of win and should have to fight a couple of times to get a rematch. So weidman beats silva and defends the belt atleast 2 more times sucessfully then i would say weidman gets a rematch if/when he loses it.

I can kind of see where gecko is coming from and there is some solid logic there (aside from the likely mix-up of names in the last sentence, which kind of confused me for a second LOL), but I am actually inclined to say yes; Weidman would deserve an immediate rematch. I say that only because it's Anderson Silva we're talking about, not Ben Henderson or Cain Velasquez or some other barely established champion. Weidman beating Silva will be talked about much longer than Silva beating Weidman (if Silva wins the rematch), because that's like history book-type shit. For being able to do that, Weidman should get a chance to see if he can take 2 out of 3.