Anderson Silva: A Ridiculous Champion
Posted by RB, 26 Oct 2007
Anderson Silva looked like a white hot prospect when he was introduced in Pride over five years ago: his style was exciting, his standup was dangerous, and he had a colourful and confidant character to put him across to fans. This was all obvious from his debut fight for the disbanded organisation against Alex Stiebling.
As it turned out however, his run in Pride would come to an end after he suffered successive submission losses, and he left the organisation after a New Year’s Eve 2004 loss to Ryo Chonan (in one of the most spectacular submissions in MMA history). Looking back, Pride let Silva go surprisingly easily considering what seems like obvious star potential.
Silva continued to fight and evolve as a mixed martial artist, steadily growing into the beast we saw in the Octagon last Saturday -- a razor sharp technician defending his belt with ease against the division’s foremost contender.
Prior to his UFC arrival he reigned as Cage Rage middleweight champ for twenty months, whipping Lee Murray convincingly to get the belt and defending it with style -- his last Cage Rage defence was a blistering standing elbow knockout, something rarely seen, over Tony Fryklund.
His UFC record has spanned across five fights now, none of which have gone past the second round. Those who have chose to fight him on the feet, Leben and Franklin x 2, have been completely destroyed in short order. Those who have taken him to the ground, Lutter and Marquardt, have failed to escape his striking power from there either.
Lutter tapped due to elbows to the head while trapped in a triangle, and Marquardt was TKO’d after Silva stood up out of his guard and rained down a few precise, fight-ending punches from the crouching position.
And it is the precision of his striking, as much as the power, that makes him so dangerous: Anderson often seems to know how to end a fight with one well placed strike, landed in exactly the right way from exactly the right angle -- and at exactly the right time.
It is partly because of the sense of danger this brings to Silva’s fights that makes him one of the most exciting competitors in MMA today. Very few MMA fighters are consistently such a pleasure to watch -- and this is not just in regard to his last five UFC bouts, but throughout his career in some outstanding Pride and Cage Rage performances.
Along with this awesome finishing power, there are some basic elements of style keeping fans on the edge of their seats during Silva fights -- incredible striking versatility and flashiness, an active ground game that rarely reaches stalemates in position, and the high pace he sets everything to. Just the way he moves in the cage makes you think something amazing is about to happen.
The Franklin bout last weekend served as a perfect demonstration of all of the above, round one alone featuring more enthralling striking than the last two UFC events before it put together. Spinning kick then spinning back-fist then flying knee then combinations of body kicks, knees and punches strung together with impeccable fluidity and incredible timing. It can be breathtaking to behold.
The question now is what competition we can expect to step up and next challenge for Silva’s belt. While some have suggested following his latest victory that the weight division has nothing much left to offer him for now, I think there’s a number of good candidates out there for the UFC to pursue.
1. Dan Henderson
The biggest challenge for Anderson would likely be Pride 183 lb. champ Dan Henderson -- a Greco roman wrestler who would be likely to give Silva more than his money’s worth on the ground. Dan has made it clear that despite his experience at middleweight and the fact that he’s coming off a loss at light heavyweight, he has no intention of cutting to 185 lbs for now. With a hypothetical loss to Silva ruling him out of the title pictures of two weight divisions in two fights, who can blame him. Dana White has been insistent on the fact that this fight can be put together however, and so there’s a fair chance we will end up seeing it.
2. Yushin Okami
Okami has been making a good run through the middleweight talent put in front of him, and has gone undefeated with the exception of his decision loss to Franklin. On the under card of UFC 77 he managed to outscore MacDonald to a victory -- yet the fact this match was a prelim speaks loudly to the fact that the UFC was not considering either fighter for a title shot in their next fight: surprising, given Okami’s success in the Octagon. His performances may have not been the most crowd pleasing, but Okami is world class competition and even has a disqualification win over Silva in his past. If the UFC choose not to extend his contract, it is a straightforward case of protecting their champion against non-marketable opposition (as Matt Lindland will tell you).
3. Dean Lister
Lister is set to return to the Octagon in a middleweight fight against Jordan Radev at UFC 79, nine months after losing a unanimous decision to Nathan Marquardt. We all know he has world class submission skills, and undoubtedly he would be able to pose problems for Silva on the ground. He has been given a push by the UFC brass before, even getting face time on The Ultimate Fighter as assistant coach for Team Ortiz, and I would not be surprised to see him given the push again if he can win his upcoming fight convincingly. Again, we might not be talking about the most crowd-pleasing of competitors, but if the UFC are in need of a contender, Lister should be able to fit that description in the near term future.
4. Matt Lindland
With plenty of room for more in the middleweight ranks, and considering the fact that the UFC’s most exciting champion happens to be a middleweight, it’s hard not to wonder why there isn’t a more active drive to deepen the division on the UFC’s part. Middleweight is in fact one of the most stacked divisions across all MMA organisations. Lindland was probably cut from his contract two years ago because he was not seen as crowd pleasing enough. I say at a certain level talent becomes crowd pleasing in itself -- and Lindland is world class talent. Although he has fights left on his Bodog contract, a medium term signing of Lindland once he hits the free market would noticeably deepen the UFC division. An Olympic wrestler over-qualified for his current here-nor-there position in the sport, Lindland would again be a great test for Silva.
5. Evan Tanner/Jason Miller
A few names from the UFC’s middleweight past, and who could bring a lot of excitement with them into a Silva matchup, would be Evan Tanner and Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller. Both have had issues in the past, but are more than capable of putting together wins against top competition. Miller has a loss to Trigg in his recent past, but has otherwise looked great since leaving the UFC in 2005 -- he boasts a good win over Robbie Lawler in that time period. Tanner looked excellent in his last UFC performance over a year and a half ago, when he submitted Justin Levens in the first round -- but problems with alcoholism have kept him out of the ring since then. He has threatened to re-dedicate himself to making a serious comeback in the Octagon more than once. If he follows through on such a comeback, the fans will love to see it -- Tanner has always been something of a cult fan favourite.
