Anderson Silva came out on top again Saturday night, earning a TKO victory over nemesis Chael Sonnen for his 16th straight win. The triumph proved, once again, that Silva is the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter.
Silva looked like he was in serious trouble against Sonnen again. Sonnen dominated the first round, taking Silva down and keeping him there for the fight’s first five minutes. As the second round opened, Sonnen approached Silva with confidence when everything changed in the blink of an eye.
Sonnen‘s confidence was extremely high after that first round and he tried for a spinning back fist that missed badly. He ended up on the ground and Silva hit him with a vicious knee to the body. That started a series of punches that led to a stoppage at 1:55 of Round 2.
Sonnen clearly had a smart game plan for how to attack Silva. He attacked the same way he did during their first fight and put him on his back. That worked beautifully in the first round, but he couldn’t manage to take Silva down in the second, and his confidence led him to make a huge mistake in going for that back fist.
After the first round most fighters would have panicked and tried to attack relentlessly to open the second. Silva didn’t do that. He waited for Sonnen to make a mistake and pounced on him. It was a brilliant piece of fighting that only adds to the legacy “The Spider” has already built up.
At 37 years old, Silva is still as good as anyone in mixed martial arts. In fact, he’s the best. He may be the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. After Saturday’s win we will probably have to start thinking of him in that context.
I don’t know what’s next for Silva, but after a phenomenal win over Sonnen there really isn’t much more out there for him to accomplish.
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