First off, he pisses me off as a competitor. Everyone he has fought I have cheered for. Tim wins. Now I really wanted Couture to win, and ultimately went with Randy when it came to betting time, but in the back of my head I KNEW time would win. Then he manages to piss me off again.
So we sit through all the bullshit about "Not good against big guys...not good against strikers...I'm the best at both." (How you're the best at being big is beyond me but...) So I try to put myself in his shoes. He obviously works hard at his craft. He was the champ for a while. Even when he won people booed. No one seemed to like him no matter what he did. He comes out and gets his ass whooped for 5 rounds...and then gets booed again. I felt for him.
I felt bad for him at that point. THEN, when Rogan has the mic in his face after the fight he was humble. He said Randy was a legend and it was an honor to fight him. He explained how Randy had him off balance etc. I thought to myself "Nice, some humility. Tim's not that bad." After the claim to an injury my mouth dropped open and I automatically thought "What a frickin douche."
If you come in with an injury, so be it, you're a man. You know what you're capable of and if you feel you can't fight at 100%, don't fight and deal with any backlash. Obviously Tim felt he could still beat Randy and came in with an injury. Once you make that decision to enter the ring with said injury, no one outside of your camp needs it to be known. You made the decision, deal with it don't make excuses after the fact.
I don't feel sorry for Tim for any of the backlash he receives, because he keeps running his mouth and acting the ass.
I feel sorry for him. I know he's worked hard, I know being champ meant a lot to him, and I know it must have sucked being hated and booed all the time.
Tim take too much heat. Practically every fighter that has ever stepped into the Octagon has used that excuse or used their mental state as an excuse and even couture did last night about his nasty divorce and he said the same things in his interviews before teh comeback.
I feel sorry for Tim. He, just like many others, puts his heart and soul into this.
When Roagan was interviewing Randy afterwards and said "...just talk..." and Randy said in a very calm, cool voice "Not bad for an old man" about 3 women at the party went "awwww..."
Tim is an idiot. He shot his mouth off and Randy shut it. He claimed that he was going to prove everyone wrong who said he was too tentative and instead he proved them all right. Then to top it off he feigns humility before exposing his true character and using an injury excuse. Fuck Tim Sylvia. I can't wait to see Cro Cop finish him off. I certainly won't be shedding any tears like his boy Matt Hughes.
Just sitting there watching the fight it was great to see who had prepared properly and who hadn't. Don't get me wrong, Tim trained, no doubt but you can see what he did beforehand. He trained that long jab and TD defense and probably did that a bazillion times. Randy figured out what to do to avoid that jab (maybe the PVC pipe with a glove?) and then took his ass down. He didn't try to shoot from across the ring. Boom. Great fight.
Big deal, he mentioned an injury. 90% of everyone who loses does. People say dumb things. Look at Henderson making that comment about Silva's afterparty in the hospital, which he apologized for later (Tim apologized immediately for his dumb remark).
Tims ok in my book. His recent performances however lacked intent and intensity. The best way to get fans on your side or to stick it to them is to keep blasting guys out of there.
Ive always defended Tim, he is so underated but its hard to defend him if he made the injury claim like he did when he did.
But, look, everyone knows how hard it is to win a fight after youve been dropped and how much harder it is to re-claim a belt but he did both against AA. Give him credit for that.
So what you want about him vs. Monsen and Couture but at least give him props for not letting ADCC world subgrappling champ, Monson do a thing to him on the ground (where Tim actually had the edge on it) and where he survived having his back taken by Randy and not taking any serious damage when mounted by Randy. Randy would have finished most peopel in the mount and he has in the past but Tim defended well.
Hes far from my fav fighter but he should get respect for that.