UFC 153: Which Fighter Has the Most to Gain?

This may be one of the easiest questions to answer heading into UFC 153. The card has been salvaged due to injury concerns and now features a colossal mismatch in the main event. Without a question the fighter with the most to gain is Stephan Bonn…

This may be one of the easiest questions to answer heading into UFC 153. The card has been salvaged due to injury concerns and now features a colossal mismatch in the main event.

Without a question the fighter with the most to gain is Stephan Bonnar. Nobody, not even Bonnar‘s own mother believes he will walk away from this without some serious battle scars. He is after all facing one of, if not the greatest fighter of all time.

A fighter will often fight to the best of their abilities when they have nothing to lose. Such is the case for “The American Psycho” on Saturday night at UFC 153.

Bonnar created a career for himself with one fight, the finale to the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. His bout with Forrest Griffin is universally accepted as being the match to kickstart MMA into the popular entity it has become.

He will have another chance to define his career with a single fight at UFC 153.

Silva has reigned over the UFC middleweight division since joining the company. He’s either destroyed or toyed with every opponent put in his path sans Chael Sonnen. Silva has made mincemeat of his opponents when jumping up to 205 lbs.

Silva’s victory over Griffin was awe inspiring of what a talented fighter he is.

Bonnar will have the chance to stain or possibly even erase all that at UFC 153. He enters the contest on a three-fight win streak but none of those men will have prepared Bonnar for what awaits him against Silva.

For a man whose career has been pedestrian at best, the fight against Silva could be a godsend. It gives Bonnar that chance to walk away from the sport he helped grow with the ultimate trump card, a victory over “The Spider.”

It’s an honor very few men have in life and for Bonnar, it would be a miraculous end to a career.

If Bonnar walks out of the Octagon with his head still on his shoulders it will be viewed as a moral victory at the least. Bonnar has absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain against Silva. It’s Silva’s legacy on the line at UFC 153.

Will Bonnar seize the moment and pull off the biggest upset in MMA history?

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