I disagree [with the decision]. First of all, I disagree with the knockout. He landed the knee, [Bisping] went down completely out. Anderson stopped hitting him, celebrated. He couldn’t have pushed forward, but stopped. According to [Silva], he looked to the guy and he was bad. And Herb Dean begging him to come back… I never saw something like that in the fight world, the cornerman bringing the stool next to where he went down. The referee told him to come back up, and he didn’t. The fight is over. He couldn’t even go back to his corner. Almost two minutes have passed between rounds. The fight is over, winner by knockout. Let’s talk about the scorecards now. Anderson lost the first and second rounds, and won the third really well. How do you score a round like that? If the fight wasn’t over by knockout, you can’t score it [10-9] like the others. He won the fourth round, a close one, and won really well the fifth. To me, he won the fight. The commissions are too subjective. How do you score the third round after that massacre the same way you score for a guy that threw 30 punches and missed 25, and those that landed were ineffective? His only effective punch was the one that knocked Anderson down, but Anderson’s punches were way more effective… said he wants to fight. He will take two or three weeks off to rest and come back. Anderson wants to fight in Brazil. I believe he will be ready to train again in two or three weeks, and then fight again in two or three months. That also shows who won the fight. Anderson can fight in two months. Can Bisping do the same after that beating?
-One of Anderson Silva’s coaches, Luiz Dorea, talks to MMAFighting.com’s Guilherme Cruz about the lack of a stoppage after the third round flying knee against Michael Bisping and the decision at UFC Fight Night 84.
Penick’s Analysis: There is very much a conversation to be had about everything involved with that third round. Bisping went down and out, and Dean probably should have stepped in to stop it when Silva walked off. That’s especially the case given Bisping’s struggles to get to his corner because he very much went out. Now, that the fight went on still meant Silva needed to do more than he did in that final ten minutes, but Dorea’s got a point regarding the scoring of that third round. Silva’s knockout blow should have had a much better case for a 10-8 round despite Bisping doing more for the first 4:30 of the frame, and I say that having scored it 10-9 live in the moment. That would have led to a draw, which in some ways would have been a correct call given Silva came closest to finishing that fight. Regardless, though, it’s not anything that’s going to wind up leading to it being overturned, so all Silva has is the inconsequential moral victory.
[Photo (c) Jayne Kamin-Oncea via USA Today Sports]
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Bisping was saved by the bell, which is not allowed to happen in MMA. The fight should have been ruled Silva (KO) 4:59 Rd. 3.