Numbers don’t even do him justice anymore. Yes, Anderson Silva added to his record number of title defenses (nine) and consecutive UFC wins (14) Saturday night at the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, but in stopping number one contender Yushin Okami in the second round of the UFC RIO main event, the 36-year old Silva isn’t getting older – he’s getting better.
What’s next?
“My clone,” he laughed.
That might be the only one capable of stopping the reign of Silva, who avenged a 2006 disqualification loss to Okami in the UFC’s first visit to Brazil since Ultimate Brazil in 1998. And as soon as the bout began to heat up, there was no doubt that the Curitiba native was going to send his home country fans away happy.
Showing little emotion before the opening bell, Okami came right at Silva to begin the fight, and the champion smoothly moved around the Octagon, feinting and keeping the challenger from committing. Two minutes in, Silva started opening up a bit, not fully unleashing his arsenal but giving his foe something to think about. Midway through the round, Okami closed the distance and bulled Silva into the fence, but it was “The Spider” who did the bulk of the offensive work as he landed a few knees at close range. Okami responded by looking for the takedown, but when it came up empty, he pushed off and resumed the standup duel. In the final 30 seconds, Okami scored with a couple of punches, which prompted Silva to finish up the round with a jarring left kick to the head.
Silva came out fast in round two, with kicks to the leg and punches to the head. Okami weathered the storm initially, but as Silva dropped his hands, the champion dropped the challenger with a straight right. Okami got back to his feet, but a few moments later he was sent to the mat again with a right hand. This time, Silva knew Okami was hurt, and he finished the bout with a variety of strikes, forcing referee Herb Dean to intervene at 2:04 of the round.
With the win, the champion improves to 29-4; Okami falls to 27-6.