On Saturday night, longtime light heavyweight fighter Stephan Bonnar will take on the current UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, in a non-title light heavyweight matchup.
It is Silva’s third time going into the light heavyweight division in the UFC, and the first two ended with him handing out brutal knockouts to James Irvin and Forrest Griffin.
Bonnar hasn’t fought since a unanimous decision victory over Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 139, and he is in the midst of a three-fight winning streak. He was previously semi-retired, and only wanted a fight against someone with, as he said, a lot of Twitter followers.
I suppose Anderson Silva—with his two million followers—was enough to bring Bonnar back to the cage.
The odds on this one are off the charts though. Bonnar is a massive underdog to Silva, and rightfully so. Silva is the greatest fighter of all time and Bonnar has never been much more than a gatekeeper in the light heavyweight division.
That begs the question, can Stephan Bonnar actually win against Anderson Silva?
It’s possible, but unlikely.
As we’ve seen in MMA, anything can happen at any time. Think back to UFC 69 when Matt Serra beat Georges St-Pierre. Nobody expected it, but it happened.
Bonnar could always score a good punch and put Silva down, or the fight could go to the ground and Silva could leave a limb for Bonnar to grab.
A fighter can always win a fight, no matter how big an underdog. Vitor Belfort almost beat Jon Jones in the first round at UFC 152. Nobody expected that. Serra beat St-Pierre at UFC 69. Nobody expected that.
Just like how nobody expects Stephan Bonnar to beat Anderson Silva at UFC 153.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com