Fight history

Weidman vs. Silva 1, UFC 162: The Knockout, the Judges and the Stats

Silva dropped his hands and dared the unbeaten challenger to hit him. Early in the second round a left hook ended a reign of nearly seven years.

By Jashan Nov 2, 2026 · 9 min read

At a glance

ResultWeidman by KO (left hook, then punches on the ground), round 2, 1:18; referee Herb Dean
The judgesOnly round 1 was scored; the judges' cards could not be confirmed
The stakesSilva's middleweight title, held since October 2006 with a record 10 defenses
The statsWeidman 16 significant strikes to 14, the only takedown, two submission attempts and the knockdown
The bonusKnockout of the Night for Weidman, $50,000
Our card10-9 Weidman after round 1, then Weidman by knockout

What was at stake

Anderson Silva had held the UFC middleweight title since knocking out Rich Franklin at UFC 64 on October 14, 2006, as Yahoo Sports and Sherdog both record. He had defended it 10 times, the most in UFC history at the time, according to UFC.com and Sherdog. He was 16-0 in the UFC, which Yahoo Sports and UFC.com both note, and had won 17 fights in a row in all, according to the Associated Press and Sherdog. His last defeat was a disqualification against Yushin Okami in January 2006, as Yahoo Sports and Sherdog report. He was 38, as Sherdog and Bleacher Report both note, and 33-4: Bleacher Report gives that record, and the AP has him 33-5 after the fight.

Chris Weidman was 29, according to UFC.com and Sherdog, and unbeaten. He left the cage 10-0, as the AP and Sherdog record, so he came in 9-0, and 5-0 in the UFC by the official record. He had earned the shot with a second-round knockout of Mark Munoz in July 2012, which Yahoo Sports and the official record both show.

The betting made Silva the favorite and Weidman roughly a 2-to-1 underdog: +200 in Bleacher Report's final odds, +205 at MMAOddsBreaker.

The official result and the judges' cards

Winner	Method	Round	Time	Referee
Chris Weidman	KO (left hook, punches)	2 of 5	1:18	Herb Dean

The official statistics record a KO/TKO by a "Punch to Head At Distance"; Fox Sports lists it as a KO by punches and LowKick MMA as a TKO by punches. The official statistics, Sherdog, Fox Sports and the AP all name Herb Dean as the referee.

The fight ended 78 seconds into the second round, so the judges scored only the first. We could not confirm their cards for it. No outlet we could read printed the three judges' scores for round 1 or named the judges, and we do not guess, so there is no judge-by-judge table here.

The media scored the round one way. Sherdog's three scorers, Jordan Breen, Chris Nelson and Mike Whitman, each had it 10-9 Weidman, and so did the live coverage of Fox Sports, Bleacher Report and MMARising. Two of them called it close. Fox Sports wrote that "Silva had the edge easily standing but Weidman may have gotten the round", and MMARising scored it "10-9 Weidman, just barely, despite Silva's late offence and antics."

Round by round

Round 1 - Weidman on every media card we found

Silva would not touch gloves at the start, which Sherdog and Fox Sports both report. Early in the round Weidman took him down and hit him from the top, as Sherdog and MMARising describe. He then dropped back for a kneebar and switched to a heel hook; Silva escaped both and stood up, in Sherdog's and MMARising's accounts. Fox Sports mentions only the kneebar and Bleacher Report only the heel hook. The official count credits Weidman with two submission attempts.

The rest of the round was Silva taunting. He kept his hands down and shouted at Weidman to fight, Yahoo Sports reports, and the AP wrote that he "talked, taunted and dared Weidman to engage him". He stood with his hands on his hips, which Sherdog, Fox Sports and Bleacher Report all describe. He also offered Weidman his leg to kick: Bleacher Report has him "patting his leg, telling him where to kick him", and Sherdog says Weidman did not throw. At the horn Silva gave him a hug and a kiss, as Sherdog and Bleacher Report both report.

Officially Weidman landed 11 of 27 significant strikes to Silva's 9 of 18 and 21 total strikes to 15, completed one of two takedowns and held 1:52 of control. Standing, Silva out-landed him 9 to 6; five of Weidman's 11 came on the ground.

Round 2 - Weidman by KO at 1:18

Silva kept clowning. Sherdog describes him "mocking Weidman with a fake wobble after the challenger lands a glancing blow", and Bleacher Report has him "wobbling around, back pedaling, dancing". He stuffed a takedown, which Sherdog, Fox Sports and Bleacher Report all report, and he kicked Weidman's legs, as Fox Sports describes and the official count confirms: all five strikes he landed in the round went to the legs. Weidman missed with a head kick, Sherdog and Fox Sports note.

Then Weidman came forward with punches while Silva leaned back with his hands low, as Sherdog, Yahoo Sports and the AP describe. A right hand came first. Yahoo Sports says it "grazed him", Sherdog says Weidman "flicked out his right hand as a range-finder", and Bleacher Report's technical breakdown calls it a powerless backhand that made Silva lean back as far as he could. The left hook behind it landed on Silva's chin, as Sherdog, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report all report, and he was unconscious before he landed: "out cold with his eyes glazed over when he hits the canvas," in Sherdog's words; "out when he hit the ground," in Bleacher Report's. Weidman followed him down with more punches, and Herb Dean stopped it at 1:18.

The reports differ on what followed the knockdown. Sherdog and Bleacher Report have Weidman landing a right and a left on the ground, Fox Sports three punches, UFC.com four unanswered blows and MMARising five. The official count records 3 significant strikes landed on the ground in the round, from 5 thrown, and we go by that. For the round, Weidman landed 5 of 16 significant strikes, all to the head, and scored the fight's only knockdown; Silva landed 5 of 6. Neither man completed a takedown.

What the numbers say

The official statistics, round by round (Weidman first; landed/thrown for significant strikes, landed/attempted for takedowns):

Round	KD	Sig. strikes	Head	Body	Legs	Ground	TD	Control
R1	0 – 0	11/27 – 9/18	11 – 4	0 – 1	0 – 4	5 – 0	1/2 – 0/0	1:52 – 0:00
R2	1 – 0	5/16 – 5/6	5 – 0	0 – 0	0 – 5	3 – 0	0/1 – 0/0	0:03 – 0:00
Total	1 – 0	16/43 – 14/24	16 – 4	0 – 1	0 – 9	8 – 0	1/3 – 0/0	1:55 – 0:00

It was a small fight on the numbers: 6 minutes and 18 seconds, with 30 significant strikes landed between the two men. Weidman out-landed Silva 16 to 14 in significant strikes and 26 to 20 in total strikes. Sherdog's "By the Numbers" gives the same 26 for Weidman and the same first-round split in total strikes, 21 to 15. Silva was far more accurate, 58% to 37%, but he threw only 24 significant strikes to Weidman's 43.

The targets show two different plans. All 16 of Weidman's landed significant strikes went to the head. Silva landed 9 of his 14 to the legs and only 4 to the head, none of them in the second round. Eight of Weidman's came on the ground, after the takedown in round 1 and the knockdown in round 2; on the feet, Silva out-landed him 14 to 8.

The numbers cannot record the taunting, and that is the story of this fight. They show Silva winning the exchanges on the feet while throwing very little. They do not show that he spent much of the fight with his hands at his waist, or that he was leaning back, hands low, when the left hook landed. Those details come from the reports, and every report we read agrees on them.

How we scored it

Round	MMA.SOCIAL	Why
R1	10-9 Weidman	The takedown, 1:52 of control, a kneebar and a heel hook, and 11-9 in significant strikes. Silva won the exchanges on the feet, 9-6, but spent much of the round taunting instead of attacking.
R2	Weidman by KO	The left hook at 1:18, landed while Silva leaned back with his hands low, and the punches on the ground.

Our card matches every media card we found. The case for Silva in round 1 is the striking on the feet, which Fox Sports and MMARising both credit him with, MMARising for the final minute in particular. But Weidman took him down, controlled him for almost two minutes, threatened two leg locks and landed more significant strikes over the round. Silva spent much of the rest of it daring Weidman to hit him rather than hitting him. On the evidence, round 1 was Weidman's.

It made no difference. No scorecard decided this fight, and the one open question, how the three judges scored round 1, cannot change the result.

What happened next

Silva praised Weidman and sounded finished with title fights. "Chris is the champion now," he said, in words Sherdog and Bleacher Report both print, and "I've finished my working." He added: "I've had the belt for a long time. I'm tired," as the AP and Bleacher Report both quote him. He said he would keep fighting but would not fight for the belt again, which Sherdog, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report all report. Weidman said the win "still feels surreal", as Sherdog and Yahoo Sports quote him, and that he had looked up to Silva for years, according to the AP and Sherdog. He also took the $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus, MMA Sucka and LowKick MMA report.

The loss ended talk of a super fight between Silva and the light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, as Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report noted. Silva did fight for the belt again. The rematch headlined UFC 168 on December 28, 2013, and ended in the second round: Silva's leg broke when Weidman checked one of his kicks, and the fight was stopped at 1:16, as Sherdog, GMA News and the official record report. It left Silva 33-6, according to Sherdog and GMA News, and Weidman 11-0.

Weidman defended the title twice more, against Lyoto Machida at UFC 175 in July 2014 and Vitor Belfort at UFC 187 in May 2015, three defenses in all counting the rematch, as Yahoo Sports and Fightful record and the official record shows. He lost the belt to Luke Rockhold at UFC 194 in December 2015, according to theScore and the official record.

The two careers crossed once more, through the same opponent. Uriah Hall stopped Silva in the fourth round on October 31, 2020, as the official record and Knockdown News show. Six months later, at UFC 261 in April 2021, Weidman broke his leg 17 seconds into a fight with Hall, which theScore, Fightful and the official record all report. Weidman fought three more times and announced his retirement on the UFC 311 weigh-in show on January 17, 2025, after a loss to Eryk Anders at UFC 310, according to theScore and Fightful. "I'm hanging up the gloves in the UFC," he said, in words both outlets print. He finished 16-8.

The verdict

Weidman vs. Silva 1 is not a disputed result. Weidman was ahead on every media card after the first round, he had taken Silva down and threatened two leg locks, and the knockout was clean: one left hook, landed while Silva leaned back with his hands low. The taunting is what people remember, and every report we read describes it the same way. It cost Silva a reign of nearly seven years and an unbeaten UFC record. It should not take anything from Weidman, who stayed patient through a round of being mocked and punished the one opening Silva gave him.

Full fight stats: Silva vs. Weidman. The rest of the night: UFC 162. More: the most title fights in UFC history.

Sources

Questions

Who won Weidman vs. Silva 1?

Chris Weidman, by knockout at 1:18 of the second round at UFC 162 on July 6, 2013. He won the UFC middleweight title, ended Anderson Silva's 16-0 run in the UFC and moved to 10-0.

How did Weidman knock out Silva?

Silva was taunting with his hands low and leaning back when Weidman threw a right hand and then a left hook that landed on his chin. Silva was unconscious when he hit the canvas, and Weidman landed more punches on the ground before referee Herb Dean stopped it.

What were the scorecards for Weidman vs. Silva 1?

The fight ended in round 2, so only round 1 was scored, and we could not confirm the three judges' scores for it. Every media scorer we found, including Sherdog's three, Fox Sports, Bleacher Report and MMARising, had round 1 10-9 for Weidman.

Was Anderson Silva taunting when Weidman knocked him out?

Yes. Sherdog, Yahoo Sports, the AP and Bleacher Report describe Silva dropping his hands, putting them on his hips and daring Weidman to hit him from the first round on. In the second he mocked Weidman with a fake wobble, and he was leaning back with his hands low when the left hook landed.

How long was Anderson Silva the UFC middleweight champion?

From October 14, 2006, when he knocked out Rich Franklin at UFC 64, to July 6, 2013, nearly seven years. He defended the title 10 times, the UFC record at the time.

Did Weidman and Silva have a rematch?

Yes, at UFC 168 on December 28, 2013. Silva's leg broke when Weidman checked one of his kicks, and Weidman won by TKO at 1:16 of the second round.