It’s doubtful. Silva is too good to duck anybody, and, just as the old adage goes, “there’s no such thing as a nine-time defending fluke.” He beat Sonnen once, and he can do it again
But if what we’re really asking is whether he’s reluctant to fight Sonnen a second time, well, that’s just obvious. And you would be, too, if your memories of Oracle Arena were of staring up at the lights for four and a half rounds while a sadist buried his head in your chest. Silva still has spangles in his eyes from that night in Oakland; it’s not something he cares to revisit. Think the lady who survived in “Friday the 13th Part 2” wants a rematch with Jason after surviving the first time through? No, she takes the “W” and goes about her life in a ruined state of trauma.
Had the final two minutes gone the way the previous 23 did at UFC 117, Silva -- and his handlers -- would be insisting on a rematch. As it stands, that late triangle is the most mysterious piece of geometry since the Bermuda one. It was a close call. Too close. And, if we believe what’s coming out of Silva’s camp, it was mysterious enough to make Sonnen’s rights to a rematch disappear. Where we saw narrow, they want definitive.
But if what we’re really asking is whether he’s reluctant to fight Sonnen a second time, well, that’s just obvious. And you would be, too, if your memories of Oracle Arena were of staring up at the lights for four and a half rounds while a sadist buried his head in your chest. Silva still has spangles in his eyes from that night in Oakland; it’s not something he cares to revisit. Think the lady who survived in “Friday the 13th Part 2” wants a rematch with Jason after surviving the first time through? No, she takes the “W” and goes about her life in a ruined state of trauma.
Had the final two minutes gone the way the previous 23 did at UFC 117, Silva -- and his handlers -- would be insisting on a rematch. As it stands, that late triangle is the most mysterious piece of geometry since the Bermuda one. It was a close call. Too close. And, if we believe what’s coming out of Silva’s camp, it was mysterious enough to make Sonnen’s rights to a rematch disappear. Where we saw narrow, they want definitive.