It took less than a week for Anderson Silva to go from lukewarm on a rematch with Chris Weidman to signing the contract for a December 28th date at UFC 168. UFC President Dana White called it the biggest fight in UFC history, and with new meal ticket Ronda Rousey in the supporting role of co-main event, the UFC is looking at a box office bonanza to end the year. But how will the sportbooks set up a line for this one? The 5DIMES sportbooks has a preliminary line with Weidman as a (+130) underdog to Silva’s (-170), which has to safely qualify as the closest line for an Anderson Silva fight in at least 5 years. But is Anderson Silva worth betting on? There is an overwhelming feeling among observers that Silva messed up, that he did not take the fight seriously, and that he went too far in taunting his opponent. Silva combined the over the top taunts with an alarming lack of offense, the thought being that had he gone on the offensive, that this would have been a different fight. Remember the fights against Forrest Griffin and Stephen Bonnar, both bigger opponents that Silva dropped in the blink of an eye. Silva doesn’t win on points a la Georges St Pierre, he takes people out, and none of that was evident against Weidman. The UFC better pray or rain dance or sacrifice midget matchmakers, whatever it takes to appease the God’s and keep both men healthy over the next 5 months. Silva, though an athlete who deserves all the credit he gets for his conditioning and his mainteneance of a well preserved body, is 38 years old, and he has a lot of miles on that body. He already had 20 fights all over the world before he joined the UFC, and his roots are in the rigorous training camps at the old Rudimar Federigo Chute Boxe Academy in Curitiba, in other words he has been in the serious fight game for a VERY LONG time. Weidman stated ‘It is my time to shine’ or something along those lines, implying in a way that we are at the end of the Anderson Silva era. Silva will have to be careful in his prep work for this fight, as a back to his roots hardcore training camp could result in an injury. For his part, Weidman is coming off a long layoff due to injury, so he has to be smart as well. Any injury to Weidman, and we will wind up with an ‘interim’ title at play.
