Don't Be Hatin' - On Tim Sylvia

The MMA fanscape is going through major MMA event withdrawl at the moment and most are snapping at the easiest target they can find and that huge target of the day is Tim "The Maine-iac" Sylvia.

Mad Squabbles captured most of the hatin' goin' on with their recent post titled, "Did Tim Sylvia fuck your mothers?"

Now, I admit to taking a shot or two at the big man when he deserved it and the only shot I took at him was when Tim told Joe Rogan that he was injured coming into the fight immediately following his loss to the new Champion, Randy Couture at UFC 68. I did it because he deserved it. Period!

Tim admitted it too in a recent interview with the Baltimore Sun:

Q. After the match, in your post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, you alluded to your back injury. Do you think it was a mistake to bring that up right after the fight?

TS. Yeah, not that it was a mistake … Randy beat me fair and square. Plain and simple. He was the better man that night. He beat me. So, I shouldn't have even brought it up.

That's about as far as I would go on Tim Sylvia who is also a favorite fighter of mine. I have given big Tim some really good press on this site and I also supported him to beat Randy at UFC 68. Yeah, I backed Tim Sylvia and I am not ashamed to say that I did... check that, I backed what I thought was a healthy Tim Sylvia... there is a difference.

Honestly, I feel cheated now that I discovered that Tim was withholding what he knew was an serious injury that he should not have gone into UFC 68 with against Couture. Do I blame Tim or the marketing machine that is the UFC? Well, I blame the UFC and Tim.

If the injury was that bad, bad enough that he could not fight up to his own potential then do the right thing and withdraw. Here's the dilemma... if Tim withdraws, UFC 68 goes down the tubes and so does Tim's payday and potentially his future with the UFC if he pisses off Dana White and makes him look bad.

I almost feel like Randy Couture's victory deserves and asterisk beside it just like Rogers Maris had beside his name for the longest time for beating Babe Ruth with the most home runs in one regular season. Then again, why penalize Randy after all, he owned Tim the whole 5 rounds.

According to Tim, Randy beat and already beaten Tim Sylvia. This places a huge dark cloud over Randy's win and to me, it would be best for Tim to keep his mouth shut and accept the loss because he had a chance to bow out of the event and CHOSE NOT TO!

Q. Did you consider pulling out of the match?

TS. Yeah, I did.

So does Tim deserve the hatin' that's been going on in all the MMA fan sites... well, yes and no. Tim does deserve what he gets as a professional fighter for casting a negative veil over Randy Couture's win however, Tim does not deserve the personal attacks that some have been writing about him on the MMA fan sites in my opinion.

Keep it above Tim's Heavyweight belt tan line please!