Ever since Jon ‘Bones’ Jones won the UFC light heavyweight title from ‘Shogun’ Rua, at UFC 128, fans have wondered who would win in a superfight—Jon Jones or UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva?Each fighter has their own streng…
Ever since Jon ‘Bones’ Jones won the UFC light heavyweight title from ‘Shogun’ Rua, at UFC 128, fans have wondered who would win in a superfight—Jon Jones or UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva?
Each fighter has their own strengths that they would bring to the table for this fight.
Jon Jones has an outstanding wrestling background, fantastic ground-and-pound, a huge size advantage, and some of the most unorthodox strikes in MMA.
Anderson Silva would likely have the edge in striking, jiu-jitsu, and overall speed.
On paper, this would appear to be a pretty even match-up.
Unfortunately for Silva, there’s one area where he lacks skill, and Jones excels.
Anderson Silva has had one fight in the UFC where he was clearly in danger of losing for the first time in his UFC career, and that was when he faced off against Chael Sonnen at UFC 117.
Sonnen laid the groundwork, and showed the world how to beat Anderson Silva—you take him down and you beat him up.
Jon Jones just so happens to be a master of that craft.
Jones has won two fights by using ground-and-pound, with another two coming indirectly from ground-and-pound.
In the fights against Brandon Vera and Vladimir Matyushenko, Jones was able to take down the fighters and TKO them with elbows and punches, in 3:19 and 1:52 respectively.
In the fights against Ryan Bader and Mauricio Rua, he beat them up on the ground and was able to finish them via other methods.
Many would agree that Jones has better ground-and-pound than Chael Sonnen, who generally goes to a decision. So does Jones have the ability to beat Anderson Silva?
Yes, Jones has every tool available, and all the right skills to beat Anderson Silva.
He has one thing that’s working against him though, and that is his relative inexperience in the sport.
Anderson Silva has been around for years, and it is well known amongst hardcore fans that Silva takes the first few minutes of a fight to get the timing of his opponent, and figure out when to strike.
If Jones makes any mistakes or shows any weaknesses, Silva could easily exploit them, and capitalize.
Jones has the skills to beat Anderson, but Anderson has the experience to beat Jones.
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It seems as if Anderson Silva is simply never challenged inside the Octagon.Except for one night, in August of 2010 in Oakland, California, that all changed.Chael Sonnen was 1:50 away from being the new UFC middleweight champion, and the one to dethron…
It seems as if Anderson Silva is simply never challenged inside the Octagon.
Except for one night, in August of 2010 in Oakland, California, that all changed.
Chael Sonnen was 1:50 away from being the new UFC middleweight champion, and the one to dethrone Anderson Silva as the pound-for-pound king.
Unfortunately for Chael, he was caught in a triangle-armbar and was forced to submit.
Since that time, Chael has been out of action, dealing with legal problems, while Anderson has defended his middleweight title twice, making it look easy both times.
Anderson most recently defend his title Saturday night against Yushin Okami.
Chael is now set to return to the Octagon at UFC 136 against Brian Stann in a No. 1 contender match.
Here are five reasons why Anderson Silva will fight Chael Sonnen next.
For an event that showcased the Brazilians in front of their countrymen, UFC 134 on Saturday was sure to be a dramatic affair.Highlighted by the main event of Anderson Silva vs. Yushin Okami, Saturday’s fight card was one to behold, complete with Anton…
For an event that showcased the Brazilians in front of their countrymen, UFC 134 on Saturday was sure to be a dramatic affair.
Highlighted by the main event of Anderson Silva vs. Yushin Okami, Saturday’s fight card was one to behold, complete with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s comeback from multiple surgeries.
Here are the top three inspiring performances of UFC 134, interestingly enough all by the Brazilians.
1. Anderson Silva
How can you not put Silva here? With his performance against Okami on Saturday, a second-round TKO, he not only was the best fighter in the Octagon at UFC 134, he proved he’s the greatest fighter in UFC history. Silva calmly controlled the fight against the challenger on Saturday, then exacted his dominance in the second round. He defended his middleweight a UFC-record ninth straight time and won a UFC -record 14th straight fight. When Silva is this good, you wonder if his brilliance will ever be challenged again.
2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
I admit. I was wrong about Nogueira. Coming off an 18-month layoff, and surgeries to his hip and both knees, Nogueira showed the form that has made him a legend in the UFC. Against a younger Brendan Schaub, he forgot all about his last two defeats and promptly set Schaub down in the first round. It was a great thing to see, in front of his adoring countrymen, and it proved Nogueira still has something left to give after a troublesome year and a half.
3. Mauricio Rua
Rua came into his fight against Forrest Griffin with the Rio de Janeiro crowd behind him, and left the Octagon with the crowd roaring. Rua took advantage of Griffin’s aggressiveness in the fight early, landing a vicious right as Griffin moved in, then proceeded to pummel him on the mat before the ref called the fight at 1:53 in the first round. Rua, known as the more aggressive fighter coming into the matchup, was the fighter with more poise on Saturday, and that was the difference in the outcome.
If you watched just one of these fights, you were happy. If you watched all three, you were in bliss.
With his second-round TKO against Yushin Okami on Saturday in UFC 134, Anderson Silva continues to prove he’s the best fighter in the UFC.After controlling the first round, and then taking over in the second, Silva recorded his ninth straight middlewei…
With his second-round TKO against YushinOkami on Saturday in UFC 134, Anderson Silva continues to prove he’s the best fighter in the UFC.
After controlling the first round, and then taking over in the second, Silva recorded his ninth straight middleweight title defense and 14th straight win inside the Octagon, both UFC records.
His striking on Saturday was vintage Silva, after a period before the Vitor Belfort fight that had some questioning if his heart was still in it.
Well, it is.
Here are five reasons why Anderson Silva is the best fighter in the UFC:
1. The Streak
Dominance is not only measured by a couple rounds, it’s measured throughout a fighter’s career, and it marks consistency when someone like Silva goes on a 14-fight winning streak. Consistency is dominance, no doubt about it, and it distinguishes the great from the legendary.
2. Performance on the Big Stage
You can’t be the best fighter without being the champion. Silva has been the champion nine straight times, and nearly every defense has been heart-stopping. The pressure just doesn’t get to this guy. In fact, his dominance is apparent in his ability to raise his level of fighting when it truly matters most.
3. He’s Not the Most Strongest or Fastest
Saying someone is not the strongest and fastest fighter and declaring him the best fighter seems like an oxymoron. But, at 36 years of age, Silva still dominates despite not being in his peak physical form. That admirable, because it means he has mastered his craft. So many young fighters think you just have to be the biggest and fastest to make waves in the UFC. It’s not how quick you throw those strikes, it’s how they land.
4. We’re Trying to Find Flaws in His Style
After his fight with ChaelSonnen, murmurs began to surface of whether Silva was losing it. He did, after all, go five rounds with Sonnen. But that is what’s so absurd. Silva was in the midst of a historic streak and all we could focus on is that he didn’t win quickly. When you begin nitpicking like that, that’s when you know this guy is like some kind of freak video game character.
5. He Will Beat You Without His Best Stuff
There’s always going to come a time in a fighter’s career when he simply doesn’t have it in a particular fight. He’s not as explosive, has less rhythm than usual, simply isn’t himself, for whatever reason. Silva has predictably had some down fights, but he has still won, and sometimes won convincingly, despite the fact. The true greats know how to win when they don’t have their best stuff.
You have to be a little crazy to dominate inside the Octagon, there’s no denying that.But the great fighters understand how to channel their energy and Rousimar Palhares has yet to comprehend this.In his unanimous decision over Dan Miller on Saturday i…
You have to be a little crazy to dominate inside the Octagon, there’s no denying that.
But the great fighters understand how to channel their energy and RousimarPalhares has yet to comprehend this.
In his unanimous decision over Dan Miller on Saturday in UFC 134, Palhares, now 31 years of age and apparently not getting any wiser, gave MMA fans yet another bizarre outing in which his outlandish behavior inside the ring outtrumped the outcome.
With 44 seconds left in the first round on Saturday, Palhares exhibited his prowess inside the ring, pummeling Miller with nine shots as Miller appeared all but done. Then, inexplicably, despite the fact that referee Herb Dean hadn’t stopped the fight, he let up. In fact, he not only let up, he sprung off Miller and jumped on the cage as if he had just won the fight.
This, of course, allowed Miller to get up off the mat (while Dean was literally pulling Palhares off the cage), and proceed to land a left and score a takedown before the round ended.
This is nothing new for Palhares, who is seven fights into his UFC career. In his previous loss, against Nate Marquardt, he failed to realize Marquardt was pummeling him on the mat while he looked up and complained to the referee that Marquardt was too oily. Yes, too oily.
In his win against TomaszDrwal last March, Palhares spoiled a good moment in his young UFC career by failing to let go of his submission upon the referee’s order. The action earned him a 90-day suspension by the N.J. Athletic Control Board.
Palhares is one of those sad cases right now because he’s undoubtedly setting himself up for disappointment against the top dogs of the UFC when he should be a legitimate rising fighter in mixed martial arts. He has supreme athletic ability, has great submission skills and can be a nightmare for his foes.
But he doesn’t think. He’s a headcase and it’s going to hurt him down the line.
What’s more, his foolishness in the first round on Saturday shows that he hasn’t learned from his suspension.
I like Palhares as a fighter based on his skills, but his head’s just not in the ring, and one can only hope he gets it together. Otherwise, he will never live up to his potential.
RIO DE JANEIRO — As far as UFC president Dana White is concerned, there hasn’t been any doubt about where Anderson Silva stands for some time now. But after Saturday night’s destruction of Yushin Okami at UFC 134, White said, it should no longer even be a question.
“One thing I want to make clear, and I’ve been saying this for a long time, this guy is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world,” White said of Silva. “There’s no debate. You’re out of your mind if you don’t think this guy is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. People will say, ‘Oh, he needs to be challenged.’ The [185-pound] division has a ton of great fighters. The reality is, this guy is so good, he makes it look like it’s not.”
Former foe Forrest Griffin had a more succinct way of putting it when discussing who Silva should face next: “I say he fights two guys.”
Fighting in front of his countrymen for the first time in his UFC career, the middleweight champion easily dispatched Okami in the second round, and seemed as if he might have even been drawing the fight out to get it to last that long. From the opening minutes of the bout, Okami wasn’t much more than target practice for Silva, who eventually dropped him with a punch combo and then finished the woozy challenger with a barrage of strikes on the ground.
For Silva, who had watched the first UFC event in Brazil in 1998, it was a dream come true, he said, and one that would have seemed improbable at best back in the days of the UFC’s first foray into South America.
“At that time I practiced other martial arts,” Silva said via an interpreter. “I didn’t even consider doing mixed martial arts. It was awesome to be able to fight here in Brazil, in front of Brazilian people.”
Of course, at this point every Silva fight concludes the same way, and that’s with questions about when he might face UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre.
As is typical, Silva didn’t do much more than make silly faces as potential opponents were mentioned at the post-fight press conference, saying once again that, ideally, he’d like to face his clone in his next fight.
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Until the scientific community can make that dream a reality, however, it sounds like White has some other ideas.
“I think there’s a couple other fights out there for him at 185 [pounds],” the UFC president said of Silva before admitting that both GSP and the middleweight champ are “getting into a position here where that fight’s going to make sense.”
If it does materialize soon, the biggest problem, according to White, might be finding the right venue to host the dream fight.
“I honestly believe, there’s a couple more fights for Anderson and Georges, and if they both win, I honestly don’t know if there’s a stadium big enough for that fight.”
As for Okami, his future is less certain. The loss against Silva tosses him back into the middle of the UFC’s middleweight pack, but that doesn’t mean White is ready to take back any of the praise he lavished on him in the lead-up to this bout.
“Yushin Okami — I said it before the fight and I’ll say it again after the fight — he’s one of the best 185-pound fighters in the world and he’s the best fighter to come out of Japan,” White said in response to a question about whether the UFC would keep Okami on the roster.
But once again, it was Griffin who put things in terms everyone could understand.
“There’s a long list of guys who get beat up by Anderson,” he said. “If you fire them all, you’re not going to have anybody left.”
RIO DE JANEIRO — As far as UFC president Dana White is concerned, there hasn’t been any doubt about where Anderson Silva stands for some time now. But after Saturday night’s destruction of Yushin Okami at UFC 134, White said, it should no longer even be a question.
“One thing I want to make clear, and I’ve been saying this for a long time, this guy is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world,” White said of Silva. “There’s no debate. You’re out of your mind if you don’t think this guy is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. People will say, ‘Oh, he needs to be challenged.’ The [185-pound] division has a ton of great fighters. The reality is, this guy is so good, he makes it look like it’s not.”
Former foe Forrest Griffin had a more succinct way of putting it when discussing who Silva should face next: “I say he fights two guys.”
Fighting in front of his countrymen for the first time in his UFC career, the middleweight champion easily dispatched Okami in the second round, and seemed as if he might have even been drawing the fight out to get it to last that long. From the opening minutes of the bout, Okami wasn’t much more than target practice for Silva, who eventually dropped him with a punch combo and then finished the woozy challenger with a barrage of strikes on the ground.
For Silva, who had watched the first UFC event in Brazil in 1998, it was a dream come true, he said, and one that would have seemed improbable at best back in the days of the UFC’s first foray into South America.
“At that time I practiced other martial arts,” Silva said via an interpreter. “I didn’t even consider doing mixed martial arts. It was awesome to be able to fight here in Brazil, in front of Brazilian people.”
Of course, at this point every Silva fight concludes the same way, and that’s with questions about when he might face UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre.
As is typical, Silva didn’t do much more than make silly faces as potential opponents were mentioned at the post-fight press conference, saying once again that, ideally, he’d like to face his clone in his next fight.
%VIRTUAL-Gallery-131871%
Until the scientific community can make that dream a reality, however, it sounds like White has some other ideas.
“I think there’s a couple other fights out there for him at 185 [pounds],” the UFC president said of Silva before admitting that both GSP and the middleweight champ are “getting into a position here where that fight’s going to make sense.”
If it does materialize soon, the biggest problem, according to White, might be finding the right venue to host the dream fight.
“I honestly believe, there’s a couple more fights for Anderson and Georges, and if they both win, I honestly don’t know if there’s a stadium big enough for that fight.”
As for Okami, his future is less certain. The loss against Silva tosses him back into the middle of the UFC’s middleweight pack, but that doesn’t mean White is ready to take back any of the praise he lavished on him in the lead-up to this bout.
“Yushin Okami — I said it before the fight and I’ll say it again after the fight — he’s one of the best 185-pound fighters in the world and he’s the best fighter to come out of Japan,” White said in response to a question about whether the UFC would keep Okami on the roster.
But once again, it was Griffin who put things in terms everyone could understand.
“There’s a long list of guys who get beat up by Anderson,” he said. “If you fire them all, you’re not going to have anybody left.”
Ever since Jon ‘Bones’ Jones won the UFC light heavyweight title from ‘Shogun’ Rua, at UFC 128, fans have wondered who would win in a superfight—Jon Jones or UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva?
RIO DE JANEIRO — As far as UFC president Dana White is concerned, there hasn’t been any doubt about where