Anderson Silva: "I'm not risking something that took a long time for me to win."

If you're sick of reading about Anderson Silva's performance this past weekend, here's a few fun facts for you: the next major UFC show isn't for a month. On top of that, DREAM doesn't come back until May 26th. But that's not all: we'll have to wait until June 6th and 7th, respectively, to see Lawler vs. Shields in Strikeforce and Brown vs. Faber II in the WEC.

Looks as though The Ultimate Fighter, Bully Beatdown, your collection of old Pride FC DVDs, and rummaging through Cyborg's garbage for a dirty tampon will be the only ways to quench your thirst for blood over the next few weeks. If only mom forced you to socialize more in grade school.

Oh well. In the meantime, here's what 'The Spider' had to say to TATAME about why he performed the way he did.

Every day we get older, the reflex is no longer the same... Fight with a kid like Thales and try to do things that might put me at risk wouldn’t be good for my career. One way or another he fought well, came well prepared, but I would have a lot to risk. I'm not risking something that took a long time for me to win. I think the fans are talking, criticizing... Each one has their opinion, I have to respect their opinion ... I try to fight and don’t get hurt and this is working over all these years. Sometimes I can fight faster, sometimes not, showing superiority, is better for me, for my career and the athletes who fight with me. Even because Thales is a dangerous athlete and I couldn’t risk something more.

Fuck. Sounds like Silva really is fighting with a Machida-esque mindset.

Someone needs to get in Silva's ear and tell him that putting on an impressive display of dance-fighting isn't good for his career either. That doesn't mean he needs to go out there, swing wildly no matter the situation, and put himself at risk. What it means is he needs to go out there and give us -- the fans that keep the sport going -- a reason to believe he's actually trying to finish the fight, as opposed to simply avoiding damage and trying to win on points.

Most people are referring to the size of their wallet when they reference their career. While winning fights and remaining champion matters, the fact remains that if people aren't paying to see Silva fight it won't be good for his checkbook. His previous pay-per-view numbers haven't been all that great -- and that was when he was destroying legitimate competition. After Saturday's debacle -- and without Chuck Liddell to help him draw in viewers -- I can't imagine those numbers will go anywhere but down.

The sad part is that all Silva needs is one entertaining fight to change all of this. In light of his current mindset, it is readily apparent that Silva's next opponent needs to be someone who will bring the fight to him. The vast majority of his potential next opponents -- Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson, Michael Bisping, Shogun Rua, Wanderlei Silva, and Georges St. Pierre -- all fit the bill.

Sorry, Demian Maia. You can thank your buddy Thales for screwing up any chances of a title shot. He's primarily a grappler and his fight against the champ was shit, so the thinking goes that yours would be too. Don't worry though; there are still a bunch of 185 pounders that have limbs you can snap. Kyle Maynard doesn't fight in your weight class.