Midnight Mania! Squashed Spider? Silva Suffered Two KOs In Paul Preparation

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Welcome to (early) Midnight Mania!

If you have money on Anderson Silva to defeat Jake Paul at the Showtime pay-per-view (PPV) this weekend (Sat. Oct. 29, 2022) from Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, it may be time to hedge that bet. While speaking with MMA Weekly in the video above, Silva revealed some concerning results from his training camp for the Paul showdown.

“I’m training hard for win — I’m training with the good boxers, high-level, and five guys come to help me,” Silva said (via MMAFighting). “And the last sparring with [my sparring partner], he is knocked me out two times, and when I finish my training, I talked to my coach and even said, ‘Coach, let me tell you something, why the guys knock me out two times?’ And the coach said, ‘You need to prepare for war, and you prepare for war.’”

Getting knocked out twice in a single session is bad news for anyone in the fight business, let alone a 47-year-old veteran of more than 50 professional combat sports contests. Still, it’s not all doom and gloom from camp “Spider,” as Silva’s coach Luiz Carlos Dorea denied any such incidents had occurred.

“What I can say is that didn’t happen,” he said. “Thank God we follow all the steps in training and Anderson did excellent sparring [sessions]. He’s 100 percent for the fight.”

It’s also worth-mentioning that Silva is known to toy with media a bit. He’s not afraid to exaggerate or tell a tale, and he’s even previously mentioned being knocked out in sparring prior to a UFC fight. Whatever the case, the Arizona Department of Gambling issued the following statement to MMA Fighting regarding Silva’s comments, “We are looking into the matter and have no further comment at this time.”

Just a few days ago, TJ Dillashaw intentionally hid a major shoulder injury from the UFC in order to still compete for the Bantamweight title. His shoulder immediately blew out in the opening of the fight, essentially wasting everyone’s time in a widely criticized move. Some of that critique fell on UFC and the athletic commission, as many fans questioned why the bout was allowed to happen.

Given Silva’s forthcoming nature, this bout might just be at risk.

Insomnia

It sounds like UFC is somewhat committed to Aljamain Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo now, a fairly sudden change from just a few weeks ago.

A great philosophical question for our times,

Mateusz Gamrot reacts to his loss to Beneil Dariush. If nothing else, “Gamer” is tough as nails!

Belal Muhammad scoring a standing knockout should remove his name off this list even if it technically produced no knockdown.

Ryan Bader offers up some important car maintenance advice.

Anderson Silva shows off his extensive collection of action figures and toys.

I didn’t expect this type of Instagram content from Cory Sandhagen, but “The Sandman” made me laugh here!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

These knees are either legal or this is a terrible referee.

I have never seen a spin into a roundhouse quite like this, let alone from this distance. Nice!

This man’s knee said “No Mas.”

Random Land

Shoutout MMAmania’s Alex Behunin for this Halloween-y randomness.

Midnight Music: Indie folk, 2001

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.