We have almost forgotten about that frustrating letdown on Silva’s performance during UFC 90 last year but the first 3 minutes of the main event of UFC 97 at the Bell Center in Canada just gave us an idea of how horribly boring and irritating things are going to be. It was all dancing and tentative strikes all the way till the end. Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites was horribly frustrating we felt we waz wobbed.

Leites was like someone in heat that at the slightest chance, he flops on his back to the ground, legs raised to expose his bottom. It would have been okay if Silva would oblige, but no. He just stands there, hands akimbo, feasting his eyes on Leites’ exposed derriere. A lot of instances, Silva would bend over gingerly trying to touch his opponent’s splayed legs. It was such a bizarre sight.

And we thought it was the only time we’ll see Anderson Silva in a “ bizarro world” with that dismal performance against Cote in UFC 90 last October.

Now comes UFC 97…what? “Redemption”? Nothing was redeemed here. Silva just sank deeper into his “bizzaro world.” We felt robbed.

When someone whose reputation is being peddled as one of the world’s best MMA fighters; one who is not only a martial artist but maybe the finest artist inside the octagon; one with eight consecutive wins (the highest record in the history of MMA); one who is hitting accuracy rate is touted at an astounding 80% while the rest of MMA gladiators only have an average 35% hitting accuracy, you would always expect nothing less than an explosive display of skill and power. But no, we waz wobbed.

A couple of months back, we remember him through a translator saying, “What’s important to me is to step into the octagon and give the public and the world a good performance.” What good performance was he talking about?

After the fight, when asked by Joe Rogan how he felt about the crowd’s boos, he said, “unless you’re here inside the octagon, you wouldn’t know what’s happening,” or something to that effect. He also said, sometimes even though you want a good fight, things just don’t go your way – or something to that effect. But Silva, YOU are one of the world’s finest fighters. You are supposed to have a lot of techniques in your mojo to force an attack against Leites.

We understand you want to keep a standup fight but when Leites have repeatedly flopped his back to invite you on the mat repeatedly, and it was obvious that he would not do it with you otherwise than by rubbing body parts on the ground, you should have obliged. You trained specifically for this in Rio, right?

But you didn’t. We, the spectators who paid a total of $ 4.9 million on tickets, and the several other millions of fans around the world who watched this game on TV felt we waz wobbed.

Anderson Silva now has the impressive top record of 9 consecutive undefeated matches. This does not mean anything to the fans. Mixed martial arts is a spectator sports. The fans wouldn’t mind if a fighter wins or losses as much as they would mind a lousy performance. They watch to see a fight. Mixed martial arts is about the fight, the skills, the action, the drama. Who wins or losses is just the anti-climax of the event.