Thiago Silva explains slapping Brandon Vera
by FiveKnuckles.com Staff on January 03, 2011

"Brandon was saying in interviews that he was going to beat me, that he'd do this or that. All I said was tell him to try and beat me. I threw some slaps just to get him to lose focus so I could get the submission." - Thiago Silva

Thiago Silva explains his reasons for slapping Brandon Vera in the third round of his win at UFC 125 this past Saturday.

Silva has fielded some criticizes over the actions, notably from UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones, who called it "disrespectful" and stated that he'd like to slap Silva "in the face."

To add injury to insult, Silva also broke Vera's nose in the same round likely ensuring that Vera will require surgery for the second straight fight. Vera suffered a broken orbital bone in his previous loss coincidently against Jones.

 |  (16) Comments snuff: Because he couldn't do it standing with Vera.. tsss... Anyhoo.. still like you. Hope Silva gets Ortiz instead of Lil nog. flyangler: The only thing that I thought was a little disrespectful was playing the bongos on his back. Open hand strikes are fine. D_V: I like Thiago and I don't care that he did this. One thing though, the ref might have been able to stand it up a few times. Silva wasn't over active for a lot of the ground exchanges. GO HARD: Dana White dissed Mazzagati hard inthe Ariel Helwani interveiw about not standing them up when it wasnt very active for a long period of time. Wandering_Minstrel: Brock did the "bull ride" thing to Heath Herring.
HOW WILL THE THIAGO ALVES VS. MARTIN KAMPMANN FIGHT END AT UFC ON FX 2?
Alves def. Kampmann via TKO/KO
Alves def. Kampmann via submission
Alves def. Kampmann via decision
Kampmann def. Alves via TKO/KO
Kampmann def. Alves via submission
Kampmann def. Alves via decision
TAKE ANOTHER POLL!