"My game plan since the beginning was fight five rounds, inducing him to commit mistakes and capitalize on that during the first three rounds and look for the knockout during the fourth and fifth rounds," Silva told Sherdog.com. "It was working, and the biggest proof of that is that I almost didn't waste any blows. I connected with a couple of good punches and knees, but unfortunately he got hurt and the fight was over. This is not my fault."
Silva takes his training for five-round title bouts seriously. When a fight doesn't go the full five rounds -- which has been all the time -- Silva postpones his celebration and goes backstage to continue working a sweat. The UFC caught up with Silva after a workout following his win over Cote Saturday at UFC 90.
"Our body is used to five rounds," Silva said. "Sometimes I'm only able to do three, and I want to come back and work out all the energy I had built up planning to do five rounds."In his previous seven UFC victories, the longest fight was 9 minutes and 52 seconds when Silva tangled with former PRIDE middleweight and light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson at UFC 82 on March 1. Silva said in an interview published today on Sherdog.com that he planned on taking the fight past the third round.
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