UFC Light Heavyweight Bout: Anderson Silva vs. Stephan Bonnar
Odds: (-1100 Silva / +650 Bonnar )
Betting Pick: Silva in a Parlay
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In the main event of the evening, dominant UFC Middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva returns to the Light Heavyweight division, where he will square off against Ultimate Fighter Season 1 finalist “The American Psycho” Stephan Bonnar. Bonnar is a company man through and through, and stepping on late notice to fight such a dangerous opponent proves it, but he is quite likely biting off a lot more than he can chew in this one. Silva is arguably the most prolific and dominant striker in the history of Mixed Martial Arts, and since Bonnar also relies pretty much exclusively on his standup, he is going to wind up trying to beat the master at his own game. Forrest Griffin, who famously defeated Bonnar in the legendary Ultimate Fighter Season 1 finals, learned the hard way that trying to stand and trade shots with Silva is a foolish plan, so if Bonnar wants to avoid his friend’s fate he is going to need to pull off a miracle.
Stephan Bonnar is not one of the UFC’s most talented Light Heavyweights, but there is no denying that he is one of the toughest. Although he is riding a three-fight win streak, he has won only three of his last six and and five of his last ten fights. Bonnar is a tough, durable fighter, which he showed by being one of the few guys who managed to last three rounds against Light Heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones, but he is not a very good finisher and lacks any one dominant offensive skill that allows him to control fights. Silva has shown time and again that if you can’t finish a fight against him, he will find a way to pull out a win, so that is going to cause big problems for Bonnar here. While Bonnar has a fair number of wins by submission, most of those came very early in his career against subpar opponents, and in the UFC he has largely relied on his solid boxing and durable chin to win fights. Standing in front of Anderson Silva with little to no chance of knocking him out and hoping your chin holds up for three rounds does not seem like a recipe for success, though.
Anderson “The Spider” Silva is, without a doubt, the most dominant champion in UFC history. He has cleaned out UFC’s Middleweight division in unprecedented fashion, and even holds a couple of impressive knockout wins in the Light Heavyweight division already. There is no question that Silva is the best striker in the history of the UFC. He not only possesses devastating power with both punches and kicks, he is one of the most creative and dynamic kickboxers the sport has ever seen. His clinch game probably still haunts Rich Franklin’s nightmares. Not only has Silva shown that he is capable of overwhelming opponents with unbelievable striking, he has proven that he is more than capable of handling adversity as well. Against Dan Henderson and in his first fight with Chael Sonnen, Silva found himself in very bad positions, and both times managed to hold on, survive, and pull off excellent submissions to win. The idea of a striker as prolific as Silva who also has submissions from every position and can work effectively off his back would be hard to believe had he not been doing it for years already.
Let’s call this fight what it is: a huge, glaring mismatch. Not to take anything away from Bonnar, who is a solid fighter with a good chin and a ton of heart, but he has absolutely nothing to offer Silva here. Bonnar is a boxer who lacks knockout power, and he is going to stand in front of a vastly superior kickboxer who hits twice as hard, at least. Not only that, it is entirely likely that Silva is the better grappler as well. Bonnar is outclassed here in every way. It’s commendable that he stepped up to take this fight and give the Brazilian fans an entertaining main event, but his chances of victory are so low as to be almost zero. Silva will have his way with Bonnar on the feet before taking a one-sided T/KO victory.
Prediction: Anderson “The Spider” Silva by second round T/KO.
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