Who’s the baddest other-worldly slayer of mortals in the universe? Superman? Predator? Alien? Or is it Anderson Silva? Since falling victim to one of the most highlighted submissions in MMA history, Anderson Silva has gone on a historic tea…
Who’s the baddest other-worldly slayer of mortals in the universe? Superman? Predator? Alien?
Since falling victim to one of the most highlighted submissions in MMA history, Anderson Silva has gone on a historic tear, winning 17 straight fights (DQ loss to Yushin Okami excluded) against his division’s best.
That embarrassing defeat was eight years ago in Pride against the unheralded Ryo Chonan. Silva was a different fighter then. A feared striker but not much more than that, Silva would take that defeat and channel it into the greatest championship run in UFC history.
He’s won 14 straight in the Octagon, including nine title defenses. To say that nine title defenses is merely a record is to minimize the severity of it. The previous record was five, which was considered a lot for a long time. Silva isn’t just raising the bar. He’s redefining the phrase.
Simply put, Anderson Silva is just operating on a more advanced channel than everyone else.
His two bizarre decisions against Demian Maia and Thales Letes aside, Silva has finished every opponent he’s faced in the UFC and in devastating fashion, no less. He was kind enough to give Rich Franklin a free nose job. He earned the pride of Sensei Seagal by knocking Vitor Belfort into next year with a front kick. And what he did to Forrest Griffin was just wrong and should never be spoken of again.
Silva is so tough he’ll even get on stage and lip synch to Justin Bieber. No, seriously. Check out the video for yourself. In a weird way it actually makes Silva more terrifying.
The guy is a horror, a genetically engineered fighting specimen. Long and lean with incredible speed and athleticism, Silva also possesses deceptive power. It’s a lethal combination that makes me question his planetary origin.
The ease with which he dispatches most of his opponents is actually eerie. And you can tell when his kill switch goes on. Once he calibrates the distance between his fists and his foe’s chin, he gets a serious look in his eyes, starts spinning those fists and then it’s just a matter of time before someone experiences some pain.
He doesn’t even get cut. If he did, he would probably confirm these suspicions by bleeding a mix of space goo and machine parts.
It’s an inhuman scenario. Even Superman had a weakness—kryptonite. Silva’s ostensible weakness—wrestling—hasn’t really been much of a detriment. He’s beaten a two time Olympian in Dan Henderson and an Olympic alternate in Chael Sonnen.
If Silva defeats Sonnen again at UFC 148, I’m half-expecting him to levitate above the Octagon while Dana White and Joe Rogan gesture wildly and yell, “The power of Christ compels you,” over and over again.
Maybe those fictitious monsters and superheroes can give Silva a run for his money, because there certainly aren’t many humans who have. And after UFC 148, when he demolishes Chael Sonnen, any doubt that may have been born after their first fight will be put to rest.
Human or not, Anderson Silva is the baddest fighter in the universe.
When Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen first met at UFC 117, Sonnen shocked the world by administering a severe whooping on Silva for four-and-a-half-rounds. All Sonnen had to do was ride out another two minutes. But in a moment of uncanny déj&agr…
When Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen first met at UFC 117, Sonnen shocked the world by administering a severe whooping on Silva for four-and-a-half-rounds. All Sonnen had to do was ride out another two minutes. But in a moment of uncanny déjà vu, Sonnen would succumb to a submission—an unfortunate bit of history that has plagued his career.
At UFC 148, he’ll get a second chance.
The strategy is simple for both parties: Silva wants the fight to look completely different. Sonnen wants it to be exactly the same, at least the first four-and-a-half-rounds.
Here’s how it’s going to play out.
Sonnen is going to look to establish the takedown threat early by blasting his double leg on Silva in the opening minutes of the first round. From there he’ll want to punish Silva. The idea is to insert a little nugget of hesitation into Silva’s brain, forcing him to think about the takedown instead of allowing him to fall into his devastating stand-up attack.
Sonnen’s advantage in this fight is his ability to dictate where it takes place. This is central to his strategy, and his best weapon.
Silva won’t be able to defend all, or even most of Sonnen’s takedown attempts, but he must defend some of them. And he must make Sonnen pay for failed attempts by exploding on him.
Sonnen proved in their first fight that he’s not afraid to charge forward with strikes. He even got the better of most of the exchanges. But Silva is an elite striker, Sonnen is not. Just because he had Silva’s number last time, it does not mean he’ll have it again.
Anderson has lots of weapons. The key for Chael is to keep Silva guessing strike or takedown.
When he does land those takedowns, Sonnen has to remain just busy enough to avoid stand-ups by the referee. He’s a master at that. Even if he’s not really landing, he’s constantly throwing punches.
That puts him at risk for a submission though—which is Anderson’s key to surviving the bottom position. Now, this being MMA and all, the guy on the bottom is not going to win a decision. But staying busy with attempts will put Silva in a position to lock on a submission, get a sweep or even land some strikes.
Never forget, when Silva had Travis Lutter in a triangle, he was also bashing Lutter in the head with some nasty elbows. Silva only requires a little room to do a lot of damage. It’s unlikely that he’ll be able to overcome the smothering top control of Sonnen and score a sweep, but if he can, there is really no one in the sport you’d rather not have on top of you than Anderson Silva.
Silva’s advantage is that he’s a devastating finisher, whereas Sonnen usually goes to decisions. That means that while Chael needs all 25 minutes to win, Silva needs only a few seconds. All it takes is one knee, or a good shot to the chin and Silva will end the fight.
On the feet, Anderson will need to establish some distance. He’ll also need to pick his kicks wisely. To a wrestler of Sonnen’s ability, a kick sets off an automatic shoot instinct and usually results in a takedown. But if Silva plays it smart and is able to avoid some takedowns, he should own the stand-up. Five rounds is a long time to avoid the lethal striking of Anderson Silva.
And in Sonnen’s case, with eight submission losses to his record, it’s also a long time to play the ground game.
Silva may lack the BJJ credentials of the sport’s top grapplers, but he is a legitimate black belt who has proven quite dangerous on the ground.
Chael came within two minutes of dethroning the greatest fighter in the world the last time out. That was his chance. The stars were aligned for him that night at UFC 117. This time, they won’t be.
At UFC 148 Silva will prove, again, why he’s the best the sport has to offer.
Sonnen won’t go down without a fight. He’ll make a war out of it. He’s going to strike. He’s going to take Silva down and beat him up. He’s going to entertain. But at some point in the fight, he’s going to get clipped, and he’s going to go down.
Chael Sonnen had his shot two years ago. He fought a nearly perfect fight for 23 minutes. He still came up short. Don’t expect it to go that long this time.
The UFC has leveled off with their pay-per-view (PPV) sales. They’re still posting solid figures, but with absent draws like Brock Lesnar (retired), and Georges St. Pierre (injured), the company has struggled to increase the most profitable aspec…
The UFC has leveled off with their pay-per-view (PPV) sales. They’re still posting solid figures, but with absent draws like Brock Lesnar (retired), and Georges St. Pierre (injured), the company has struggled to increase the most profitable aspect of their business.
It’s certainly not a gloom-and-doom scenario. Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans recorded 700,000 buys at UFC 145; the all-heavyweight card featuring Junior Dos Santos vs. Frank Mir did 560,000; and the UFC 148 rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will undoubtedly pull in great numbers.
But cards that do not feature huge names are not doing well. To kick off 2012, UFC 142 sold only 235,000 buys. And UFC 147, for which estimates have not yet been disclosed, is widely believed to be even lower.
This is not to suggest the UFC execs are applying for food stamps. Quite the contrary. They’re a successful, profitable company. But as the front company for a sport that has ambitions of being bigger than the NFL, a lack of growth in their most important area is not going to deliver them to the promised land.
There isn’t a lack of interest in the sport. It’s just that people are buying only the biggest events. And who can blame them? At about $50 a pop, with 16 PPVs a year, it’s quite an expense. It becomes a choice. Should we buy the Anderson Silva PPV or the Rich Franklin one? You don’t have to be Kreskin to predict that one.
So what can the UFC do to spark more interest in PPVs? Here’s a simple solution.
They can price events based on quality. Currently, every event comes with the same price tag. The reason is because the UFC has built their business on the UFC brand, not any particular fighters. It’s the anti-boxing strategy, and it’s worked beautifully for them.
But they’ve leveled off, so perhaps a little tweaking is in order.
A Ford Focus and a Ford F-150 are both of the Ford brand, yet they’re priced differently based on cost and quality. Almost every product we buy is priced that way. For a big card like UFC 148, the current price tag is fair, and consumers can justify their purchase. But for UFC 147—with a main event of Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin—the cost should have been calculated to take those things into account.
It wasn’t, and the poor numbers will reflect the attitude of consumers.
The consequence of such price structuring is an immediate loss of revenue. But that’s short-term. The long-term, ancillary benefit is that more on-the-fence fans will be enticed to buy an event they normally wouldn’t—some of whom will become loyal fans who develop a personal stake in the sport and its athletes, and they’ll purchase more PPVs down the road.
It’s a simple growth strategy, and it adheres to the one absolute economic truth: people respond to incentives.
The UFC would be throwing the fans a bone at a time when they would most benefit from it. This may sound greedy considering the amount of free fights they offer. Those free fights are greatly appreciated, but they’re not big name fights. People who become avid fans don’t care who’s fighting on FOX. They’ll watch regardless.
Right now that is what the UFC is lacking.
Big name fights are what generate buzz. Dana White is right and wrong when he says you cannot judge a card until it happens. He’s right in that we’ve seen time and again lackluster events on paper turn out to produce some great fights. But he’s wrong in that as consumers, we can and do judge our purchases, and we have every right to. That lackluster card may have turned out to be great, but that doesn’t matter if no one had interest enough to buy it.
Now is the time for the UFC to draw in the millions of potential fans out there. They have a near monopoly on the market to the point where many of the fans they want to reach don’t even know the sport as “MMA,” but as either “UFC” or even worse, “Ultimate Fighting.”
They own Strikeforce. Bellator is still a second rate promotion. They have 90 percent of the world’s top talent. And they already realize that to get to the next level, they need to veer away from the PPV model. But that will take time.
In the interim, the UFC needs a strategy that will draw in new fans. Those potential fans—we call them “casual fans”—want in. They simply cannot justify the cost.
By offering casual fans incentives to buy, the UFC will draw them in and ensure a bright future for not only themselves, but the sport as a whole.
It’s human nature to overreact; to make more of things than they actually are, especially things that are important to us. MMA fans, like all sports fans, and all people for that matter, tend to be a little dramatic about the things that are most…
It’s human nature to overreact; to make more of things than they actually are, especially things that are important to us. MMA fans, like all sports fans, and all people for that matter, tend to be a little dramatic about the things that are most important to us.
In the MMA world, there are four things that immediately come to mind when thinking about colossal overreactions: mainstream acceptance, performance enhancing drugs, the poor FOX ratings, and officiating.
According to MMA fans, these things are doom incarnate and are eventually going to kill the sport.
Let’s take a practical look at these issues and try to deflate the overreaction melodrama behind them, and look at them for what they are: legitimate concerns that while important, do not pose a risk to the future of the sport.
Mainstream Acceptance
Long before Bud Light and FOX took an interest in the UFC, there was Mickey’s and Spike. And guess what? The UFC, and MMA in general, did just fine.
The desire for mainstream acceptance is understandable. What’s baffling is the obsession with it.
Aside from a sense of validation, the tangible benefit for fans is more free fights. Halfway through this year, because of the FOX deal, there have been 11 free events. Last year there were ten.
And that’s great. What MMA fan doesn’t love free fights? We’ve been getting hammered with pay-per-views for so long, the more free fights the better. But there would still be free fights without this mainstream FOX deal, just fewer of them.
And maybe that’s a good thing. Quality beats out quantity, and the more events that are on, the lower the quality.
There are always going to be networks that want in. The UFC pretty much made Spike. And likewise, the WEC made Versus. The FOX brand brings in more dollars, no doubt, but for fans, that is of little consequence.
I’m not arguing to maintain MMA’s marginal status. I’m just saying that it wasn’t so bad, and if this whole mainstream acceptance thing doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of the world, and it’s certainly not the end of MMA.
Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED’s)
Drugs are an unfortunate fact of life. The reason they exist is because there’s a demand for them. It really is that simple.
That being said, athletes who use performance enhancing drugs are, without question, cheating. But cheating is human nature.
We’re talking about a sport where the top athletes make millions of dollars. Whenever big money is involved in anything, cheating is a forgone conclusion for some, which are more than enough rotten apples to spoil the bunch.
Anyone living in the real world knows that PED’s are a reality in all sports, from high school football to the Olympics.
It’s nice to hold idealistic views about the nature of sport and competition. When you’re a kid it’s all about the sport. If you reach a high level in high school and college, it also becomes about the money.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. But that’s an incentive that could rationalize the cutting of corners. It’s easy to force the ends to justify the means when the payout is handsome.
It’s almost incomprehensible when a fighter fails a post-fight drug test. They know they’re going to be tested. So why do they do it? Because the reward outweighs the risk.
In 2007, Royce Gracie failed a drug test after defeating Kazushi Sakuraba. He was fined $2,500. No one knows for sure what Royce made off that fight, but rest assured it was a generous amount. And he was fined only $2,500. Not a bad cost/benefit outcome.
Josh Barnett has failed a few drug tests, and he just made a couple hundred thousand dollars in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
Chael Sonnen failed one after his epic 2012 championship clash with Anderson Silva. Sonnen is fighting for the title again very shortly.
The point is that until there’s a real disincentive to use PED’s, there will be no shortage of fighters who are willing to take that risk.
There’s a feeling that PED’s will damage the sport’s reputation. We’ve been discussing PED’s for the past few years, and the sport continues on. The only major damage will be to the athletes who take them.
Every professional sport suffers the stigma of PED’s, yet somehow they’ve managed to survive and thrive. No one runs away from baseball when the drug issue pops up. MMA may not be truly mainstream, but it’s entrenched enough to survive this.
FOX Ratings
After every UFC event on FOX, FX, or FUEL, the talk of the town is the disappointing ratings.
The UFC on FOX 3 posted a 1.5 household rating, and the pundits screamed of oversaturation and a lack of stars to beef up both pay per views and televised events.
They aren’t wrong about those things. What they are wrong about is the sky-is-falling scenario. The UFC is still pulling down solid ratings for these events. They’re just not spectacular.
The FOX deal is still in its infancy. Simply landing on FOX isn’t a magic wand that all of a sudden sends ratings into the stratosphere. It needs time to flourish.
Many casual fans are still not aware when there’s an event on regular television. The UFC is toeing a fine line between pumping their promotional resources into huge pay per view events and sub-par televised ones. Once they figure it out, they’ll get the eyeballs.
This is a long-term deal. The UFC has prospered because they play chess, not checkers.
Officiating
MMA is a sport where decisions are decided by human beings. Human beings see things differently, interpret things differently, and have different priorities.
To some, a body kick is more devastating than a punch to the face. To others, it’s not.
We could enact specific judging criteria and we would still have bad decisions because human beings would be tasked with interpreting those criteria.
Razor-close fights that go to judges’ scorecards can not justifiably be considered bad decisions one way or the other. When it’s close, it can go either way.
Sure, we’ve seen really bad decisions that most people agree are bad, but those don’t happen too often.
Education is paramount. Judges need to be trained in the nuances of MMA, which differ tremendously from boxing or kickboxing. But even with more training, judging is an inherently subjective endeavor that will always bring about some controversy.
Referees are in the same boat, although sailing in much more treacherous waters.
Referees have to make split-second decisions. Is a fighter out? Is he intelligently defending himself? Is his arm about to be broken by his pride? These are just a few of the questions referees face.
Call a fight too soon and people get angry. Call it too late, same thing. It’s a thankless duty.
Dana White likes to say how Steve Mazzagatti is the worst referee in the business. And certainly, Mazzagatti has earned some of that negativity.
He allowed Jason McDonald to hammer-fist Joe Doerksen almost into a coma, but then ran across the cage and dove at Pablo Garza to rescue Fredson Paixao from unnecessary damage.
Things happen fast in the cage, and the right call is not always going to be made.
And if we’re to blame the referees for everything that goes wrong, then surely we must also praise them when things go right.
White is also big on boasting of the UFC’s record on fighter safety. There has never been a death or serious injury in the Octagon. That’s pretty amazing.
But why is that? Some of it can be attributed to rules and regulations, but some of that credit must also be given to that third person in the cage responsible for fighter safety: the referee.
The basic gist is this: MMA does have problems. Everyone and everything does. But these are manageable problems. Our sport is still young. There are many kinks that need to be worked out, but it will never be prefect.
These are issues that should indeed be worked on, but they’ll always be around, and regardless, so will MMA.
The life of a professional fighter isn’t easy. There are long days in the gym, time away from family, constant injuries, and then after all that, you have to get into a cage with another man who is looking to put a serious hurting on you. Sure, the opp…
The life of a professional fighter isn’t easy. There are long days in the gym, time away from family, constant injuries, and then after all that, you have to get into a cage with another man who is looking to put a serious hurting on you.
Sure, the opportunity for fame and fortune is there. But, most never achieve those things. Most retire with no money in the bank, a poor work history for breaking into the corporate world, and at least a couple of nagging injuries.
On top of all that hardship is the MMA fan: a particularly noxious breed of individual who just loves to voice his or her opinion, often in a brutally negative manner.
Yes, we love a fighter when he’s on top, and will jump on the bandwagon as fast as any sports fans, but we’ll also bulldoze that fighter just as quickly when things go south.
And in MMA, things can go south in a hurry.
All it takes is a couple of losses and all of a sudden, our formerly beloved hero is too old, too slow, too small, or too leisurely in evolving to the rapid changes of today’s MMA.
Part of our venom can be attributed to sports in general. All fans are rabid creatures when their team is losing. Who could ever forget Bill Buckner’s infamous Game 6 blunder? Or Scott Norwood’s missed field goal at Super Bowl XXV?
Those poor souls were long despised by their team’s fans to the point where they’ve been eternally relegated to folk-villain status.
But those guys came up short when championships were on the line for the team. Fans have such a personal stake in their teams that they have no problem placing all the blame for a big loss on a single, common mistake of one player.
In MMA, there is no team as far as the fans are concerned. No one watches an Anderson Silva fight and cheers for Black House. They cheer for Silva. MMA may be a team sport insofar as training is concerned, but when it’s game time, it’s about the fighter.
Because we lack that team spirit, we’re quicker to jump ship. Fighters come and go. Teams are forever, for which the love of is passed down from father to son. Anderson Silva won’t be around long enough to transcend generations. The Yankees will.
Another factor is just the nature of the sport. It’s violent. There are bloody faces, broken bones, and images of unconscious fighters who weren’t quick enough with the tap.
It’s only natural that MMA attracts a certain type of fan. Just as baseball has a picnic-like atmosphere, a live MMA event is a tornado of testosterone.
Perhaps the most significant reason, though, is that we pay big bucks to enjoy our sport and expect a lot. UFC pay-per-views run about $800 a year, not to mention the necessary Showtime subscription for Strikeforce.
Other sports show most of their games with a basic cable subscription, and if you want to get fancy, you can get the deluxe package for a couple hundred bucks.
Let’s be honest. It is, in fact, all about the benjamins. The more of a financial stake you have in something, the more of a personal stake you’re going to take in it.
Because we spend so much money watching the sport we love, we’ve developed an entitlement mentality.
It’s because of these factors that MMA fans are often described as “fickle,” which is really just a soft term for “obnoxious.” But hey, as “fickle” as we may be, we’re also the most passionate fans in the world.
So for better or worse, ’til death do us part, fighters and fans are forever joined in this blessed, yet dysfunctional union.
Regardless of the tepid fan reception surrounding UFC 147, Wanderlei Silva will take on Rich Franklin in a rematch of their 2009 battle, which Franklin won by unanimous decision. The griping has much more to do with the fact that this fight is being so…
Regardless of the tepid fan reception surrounding UFC 147, Wanderlei Silva will take on Rich Franklin in a rematch of their 2009 battle, which Franklin won by unanimous decision.
The griping has much more to do with the fact that this fight is being sold as the main event of a pay-per-view, which makes the grumbling understandable, than its entertainment value, which is substantial, despite any supplementary considerations.
Their first fight was an entertaining affair that won Fight of the Night honors. This one should be no different. The only problem with it is that it has about zero significance value. It’s a rematch of a fight that wasn’t controversial. It’s being contested, again, at a catchweight. With Franklin at 37 and Wandy at 35, with about 10 times that in fight years between the two of these warriors, neither guy is seriously thought to ever contend for a title again.
People are apprehensive about dropping $50 for anything other than a stellar card. In the No. 3 or 4 spots, even the co-main slot, this wouldn’t be an issue. But as a main event, it’s a rough sell for the UFC.
But that’s just analytical stuff.
Let us, as fans, view this fight through the proper lens. Take the glitz and glamour out of it. Forget about title shots, main events and even divisional relevance. We must do that to truly appreciate this fight because those things have gotten in the way and marred its worth. And that worth is easier to see when you look at this fight for what it is: two MMA stars, albeit aged stars, but still, two fighters who’ve given us their all over the years and produced some epic battles.
Who’s the baddest other-worldly slayer of mortals in the universe? Superman? Predator? Alien?