If there was any doubt that Anderson Silva was the toughest fighter to ever step in the UFC ring, he made sure that doubt was gone when he beat down Yushin Okami during UFC 134.
UFC 134 was the first fight in Brazil for the UFC in 13 years, and Silva returned to his homeland with a bang, knocking Okami out in the second round with a barrage of punches to the head and body.
Okami was standing with Silva for most of the fight, but it was hard to tell if he was as good as him or if Silva was toying with him.
One knockout later, he was just toying with him.
Silva told ESPN after the fight about his mentality entering the battle:
I’m training hard; I’m training hard for my team. I came here to fight. I train hard for the best guys in the world. I pushed the fight.
To say that he pushed the fight would be an understatement, and Silva made Okami abandon the strategy that he had been working on for months in a matter of minutes.
That is the beauty of Silva.
When anyone fights Silva for his title, that fighter prepares for months in every way that he can to try to take the Brazilian champion down, but unlike any fighter I ever saw before, Silva will spends the first round studying the opposition and the second round exploiting the weaknesses he finds.
It has now been almost five years since Silva won the UFC Middleweight title, and with the lack of competition that can stand with Silva, I don’t see Silva losing the belt unless he moved weight classes.
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