All it took was one mistake for Anderson Silva to shut down Chael Sonnen the same way he shut down everyone else.
If there’s one fighter in the world that you can absolutely make no mistakes against, it has to be “The Spider.” This time, Sonnen just gave him the opening a little bit earlier than in their first fight.
When Silva immediately stuffed the takedown that Sonnen came at him with in the second round, most of us knew that “Uncle Chael” was in for a long couple of minutes before he either got the fight to the mat or was left lying on it, wondering how he had been beaten again.
Unfortunately for Sonnen, that’s exactly what happened, as Silva added another win to his current 13-fight win streak in the UFC and added yet another incredible victory to his resume.
Over the last six years Silva has done everything short of decapitate someone inside the cage. Yet when someone has been so dominant for such a long time, their accomplishments almost get taken for granted at some point.
Many people are calling last night’s win over Chael Sonnen the greatest of Anderson Silva’s career. At some point, though, the hysteria is going to wind down, and people will come back to their senses.
Silva’s win over Sonnen came in a big fight, in a big performance and at one of the biggest events in UFC history, but still it doesn’t even touch Silva’s first win over Sonnen at UFC 117.
Picking fighters apart on the feet is what Silva’s known for. While it was weird to see it finally happen to Sonnen after roughly seven rounds of fighting, the win itself was no better than “The Spider’s” knockout wins over Forrest Griffin or Chris Leben.
Obviously, fights like the UFC 148 main event and the front-kick KO of Vitor Belfort will stick around in fan’s minds for a long time, but the first win over Chael is honestly something Silva can build his legend around.
The man got beaten up for almost five full rounds, and he still found a way to pull off the victory with nothing but a last-ditch effort thrown together out of desperation.
As much far as the pre-fight hype and weigh-in staredowns go, this was probably the best fight of all time.
The problem is that no matter what happened, it was never going to be able to match its predecessor as far as the in-cage action is concerned. Unless Silva ends up in a superfight against Jon Jones or Georges St-Pierre, there isn’t a single fight that Anderson can take that will reach the same amount of publicity.
UFC 148 may have been the most important fight of Silva’s career. He definitely was in a must-win situation, so he showed up and did his job the way he usually does.
He weathered an early barrage, got his head together and finished the fight. It wasn’t as beautiful as some of his other finishes, but it served its purpose. Silva has now taken out every single fighter that’s been put in front of him with relative ease.
Maybe one day we’ll look back and see this fight as a monumental moment in UFC history, but unless that happens, it will have to settle with being tied as Anderson Silva’s second-greatest win of all time.
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