Last week, a giant of mixed martial arts bowed out of the sport forever. In his home country, in front of a crowd of his fellow Russians, Fedor Emelianenko ended his career with an emphatic win over veteran Pedro Rizzo. He’d been talking abou…
Last week, a giant of mixed martial arts bowed out of the sport forever. In his home country, in front of a crowd of his fellow Russians, Fedor Emelianenko ended his career with an emphatic win over veteran Pedro Rizzo.
He’d been talking about retiring for a long time, but throwing in his gloves on the back of three ignominious losses was never the way for a champion to go.
Those losses—to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson—exposed how far from the modern sport of MMA the 35-year-old had drifted, as he struggled to keep pace with the new breed of heavyweights.
Over the last two years, following his loss to Henderson, Emelianenko embarked on a legacy-salvaging operation, taking on the paucity of talent left fighting outside mainstream organizations.
A final victory over Rizzo was enough for The Last Emperor, as he exited the sport a hero to his fellow countrymen but largely ignored by the mainstream MMA media.
It is a situation another great—perhaps the greatest—of the sport, should be paying attention to.
When he marks his final moments in the cage, Anderson Silva should be acutely aware that in the unsentimental world of sport, few get to go out on their own terms.
At 37 years old, Silva has been fighting professionally since 1997. In that time, he’s racked up 31 wins and only four losses. Since 2006, he’s embarked on a 15-fight undefeated run, winning the UFC Middleweight Championship the same year and defending it an unprecedented nine times.
He’s set records and benchmarks in every aspect of the sport, and today he stands on top of the UFC empire, with a reputation unmatched in MMA, having cleaned out his division several times over.
But despite the glittering career, Silva’s forthcoming rematch against Chael Sonnen at UFC 148, this coming weekend, promises to be his biggest fight ever.
Part of that has to do with the beating the Brazilian took at the hands of Sonnen for almost five full rounds in their first encounter—narrowly defeating him with an armbar triangle in the dying minutes.
But part of it also has to do with the hype and media frenzy that Sonnen has been whipping up for the fight for almost two years now.
It could potentially be the biggest fight in the UFC’s history and offer unprecedented paydays to both fighters.
Dana White has called it one of the biggest sporting events of the year—period (h/t FOX’s yardbarker.com).
That’s quite a boast in a year that boasts the recently completed Euro 2012 football tournament and the upcoming Olympic games.
If any of this is remotely true, then its hard to imagine how Silva will ever top a win over Sonnen.
That’s not to say that lucrative fights can’t still be made. At 37 Silva is old in the sport, but there are those older still fighting at the top level. And Silva has only now achieved rock-star status in his home country or Brazil—any fight with him, especially in Brazil, would be a massive money-spinner for everyone concerned.
There are fighters, too, who could conceivably give him challenges. Dan Henderson, Michael Bisping, Mark Munoz and others are all snapping at his heels.
But can any one of those fighters create the kind of interest in fights with Silva that Sonnen has managed?
And what happens if Silva were to lose?
Will we start to eulogize a fighter in decline? Talk about a man fighting past his prime, a shadow of his former self?
Worse fates have befallen athletes more accomplished.
Of course, a post-Sonnen Silva could go on to fight and defeat many more challengers, earning an obscene about of money and extending his reputation as the greatest of all time, putting that epithet beyond the reach of any would-be challenger.
And I’m sure that’s how he would imagine himself leaving the sport—unassailable, untouchable; the richest, most well-known fighter in UFC’s history.
But then, that’s exactly how he would be remembered with a victory over Sonnen, the only man every truly to threaten his legacy.
Athletes tend to be some of the most boring interview subjects. If caught before their game or event, they usually spout some boring platitude about how they respect their opponent and that they will do their best to come out on top. Sometimes they&…
Athletes tend to be some of the most boring interview subjects. If caught before their game or event, they usually spout some boring platitude about how they respect their opponent and that they will do their best to come out on top. Sometimes they’ll even throw in some vague statement about how well prepared they are for the approaching contest.
The postgame/event interview is not much better, just more drivel about how the best man/team won and again how much they respect their opponent. Oh yeah, don’t forget God if the interview subject is the winner; these days it’s almost a prerequisite to give a shout out to the almighty.
When someone does actually speak their mind or at least gives an honest answer, they are often looked at as a troublemaker or labeled as having an attitude problem. That individual is looked upon as someone that gives the opposition some kind of “locker room bulletin board” material that they can then use as motivation to defeat that individual or his team.
The paycheck, job security and shear desire to win don’t seem to be enough for some professional athletes; they need that extra motivation of an opponents words to motivate them.
And then you have UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen, a fighter who says enough outlandish things that UFC president Dana White has said that he has to have press conferences after the press conferences Sonnen is involved in just to cover the things that Sonnen has said.
Sonnen, while maybe not one of a kind, is in an elite group of salesmen, athletes that make you want to tune in for their exploits before, during and after whatever event they are participating in.
Some say that Sonnen’s talk is too much show, too much bombast and bluster, too much WWE and not “real” enough. Thinking like that entirely misses the mark.
For the athletes that participate in sports, that sport is their job, it’s a way to make money and provide for their family while they participate in an athletic endeavor, that’s pretty simple to understand. For the rest of us, those that stand on the sidelines or surround the Octagon, it’s entertainment, and neither of those facts is lost on Chael P. Sonnen.
Sonnen has two jobs with the UFC; the first is to get you talking about his fight. He needs to get you interested in tuning in to watch him battle. The more people talking about him, the more he moves the needle on his career, the more money he can potentially make both inside and outside the Octagon.
Sonnen had once aspired to a political career, but with the federal money laundering conviction in his past, that career is not going to happen. The real estate career that he had begun, that’s not going to happen either. Sonnen needs to earn his cash now and he knows it and he wants you to tune it to see him fight and he’s doing his best to make that happen.
That covers his first job—getting you to care about his fights. His second job is performing inside the Octagon. In his second stint with the UFC, Sonnen has gone 5-2, losing to Demian Maia and UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
While he doesn’t have the greatest record in the UFC, when you combine his ability to do his first job, selling the fights with the admirable work he has done in his second job inside the Octagon, he’s been able to set himself up for a second battle with Anderson Silva, a fight that will take place at UFC 148.
The upcoming fight, on July 7, is the most anticipated fight of the year, and the reason why is that Chael Sonnen has done his job, he has sold this rematch since losing to Silva at UFC 117 back in August of 2010. Sonnen has made fans want to sit at home on the July 4 weekend and fork over $55 to watch him and Anderson Silva fight for the middleweight crown.
In a world of boring athletes who have all studied the same interview scripts, we should all take time to celebrate those athletes like Sonnen, athletes that make you want to watch them compete. And let’s face it, love him or hate him, Sonnen makes you want to watch him compete.
Anyone who, like me, grew up on pro wrestling in the eighties has realized by now that Dana White is some sort of bizarre hybrid between Vince McMahon and a legitimate professional athletic commissioner. And.
Anyone who, like me, grew up on pro wrestling in the eighties has realized by now that Dana White is some sort of bizarre hybrid between Vince McMahon and a legitimate professional athletic commissioner. And as we head into this week’s UFC 148 card, his brain must be buzzing as both aspects of that persona are watching a dream scenario unfold. Every pro wrestling promoter knows the most important part of creating an explosive main event is creating a dramatic back story involving two characters that force fans to pick a side. For the uninitiated, that scenario traditionally involves a heel (bad guy) and a babyface (good guy).
Going into UFC 148, Chael Sonnen is clearly the heal. In real life, he may not actually be the biggest asshole in the world but at this point, it doesn’t even matter because he has become his character. He has let an endless stream of arrogant guarantees interspersed with blatantly disrespectful trash talk ooze out of him throughout his rivalry with Anderson Silva. On top of that, he was suspended after the first Silva fight for having elevated levels of testosterone. If Sonnen ever gets tired of putting his body in jeopardy in the octagon, he could take his gimmick to the WWE and not have to change a thing.
On the other side of this middleweight title matchup is the ideal babyface. Again, I’m not really sure if Anderson Silva is Bruce Lee reincarnated but it doesn’t matter because he too has become his character. Silva is a martial artist. He’s a family man. He respects the traditions of the sport. He does nothing but train hard, say his prayers and eat his vitamins. He already defeated Sonnen once and still Sonnen antagonizes him. Finally, Silva has snapped. Now he is threatening Sonnen. And who can blame him. Even a peaceful warrior must eventually stand up to a bully and that moment has now arrived.
We have our heel. We have our babyface. All we need now is a back story. And as you may have heard, these two men have fought before. In typical pro wrestling fashion, the heel beat the face around the cage for twenty three straight minutes. The fight seemed over. Sonnen was dominating. But in an instant, the whole course of the fight changed. Silva slapped on a triangle, Sonnen panic tapped, tried to pretend he didn’t and then realized that he just lost the biggest fight of his life.
On Saturday night, we get to see the rematch that was inevitable from the moment Sonnen felt Silva’s spider legs pressing against his arteries. I expect the atmosphere to be one of the most electric in MMA history. If I was Dana White, I would hire Gorilla Monsoon for one night just so he could say, “You can cut the electricity with a knife!” Only the most professional, detached and potentially non-human observers will be watching this without at least a slight rooting interest.
My brain is well aware that Chael Sonnen is not the person he portrays himself to be to sell fights and Anderson Silva isn’t a real life version of the ninja from the NES Ninja Gaiden series. Both men are great athletes looking to test their skills at the highest level of combat sports and Sonnen is doing everything he can to make both men as much money as possible. And normally, that would be my mindset for watching a fight. But for some reason, this matchup brings back those pro wrestling days and I’m going to choose to suspend my disbelief for one evening. I’m going to buy what the hype machine is selling me and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.
Chael Sonnen was too slow, too undeveloped as a striker and too one-dimensional to legitimately challenge Anderson Silva at UFC 117 in 2010. Silva’s striking was devastatingly dynamic and would not allow the challenger to get into range…
Chael Sonnen was too slow, too undeveloped as a striker and too one-dimensional to legitimately challenge Anderson Silva at UFC 117 in 2010. Silva’s striking was devastatingly dynamic and would not allow the challenger to get into range to utilize his world-class wrestling.
Or so I thought.
In fact, Sonnen was the more effective striker and the champion had no answer for the former NCAA Division I wrestler.
Anderson Silva is the greatest fighter of all time. He is also one of the most dominant athletes of all time. There must be an explanation as to why Sonnen outclassed him. Rib injuries are terribly debilitating and hinder many angles of body movements. With a deeply bruised or fractured rib, any single movement can produce a sharp, stabbing pain that can cause shortness of breath and intense discomfort.
This would definitely explain why the underdog was so successful for over 22 minutes.
In order to understand how differently the champion fought that night compared to his usual self, I analyzed the fight thoroughly on a round-by-round basis. Specifically, looking for instances of where Anderson was holding back or obviously unable to perform certain movements.
My goal is to understand how different the champ was that night as a result of his rib injury. What can UFC 148 Anderson Silva do that UFC 117 Silva could not?
Can the brash challenger’s success at UFC be explained by the rib injury?
Round One
Pre-fight, the Spider inhales deeply and stretches with no visible repercussions from any strain on his ribs. As the show starts, he moves very well—and as per usual—is throwing punches and blocking kicks. He sprawls cleanly on the first shot attempt. He throws punches and a perfect low leg kick.
At 4:13, the champ gets caught with a straight left. He recovers and even attempts a throw and secures a takedown. Later, he is taken down and plays bottom very well. He recovers guard and is often actively using his legs in open guard to attempt to keep Sonnen at a distance.
There was nothing evident from this first stanza to demonstrate that any area of his arsenal was unable to be utilized.
Round Two
The 29-4 (at the time) legend starts the round well by moving dexterously, throwing a hard low leg kick and gets caught trying what might have been an aborted flying knee. After being taken down, he has wrist and head control and even tries a few heel strikes to Sonnen’s sides from closed guard.
Silva ttempted a few arm bars and had his feet on Sonnen’s hips while rotating well. He transitions nicely from kimura to heel hook attempts all with excellent swift hips. While he could have been more actively trying to escape that could be explained by his fighting style.
In past fights, Silva has played bottom in the same fashion. Sonnen’s top dominance or limited lateral strength due to his rib injury could also have explained why he was never able to escape from bottom.
Round Three
Silva lights up Sonnen with an electric spinning back kick. It is executed perfectly and forcefully. There is no hesitance or lack of confidence in the striker. The fight quickly ends up on the ground with the American Gangster on top.
Silva takes heavy direct shots to his left ribs with no terrible reaction nor even a defensive game plan to protect his ribs. From the bottom, he applies a body triangle and is content to lay there with occasional movement and attacks with good hip movement.
Round Four
The man who now has a 15-fight win streak starts the fourth strong. The sensational striker is throwing perfect punches and kicks with heavy power. His attack is fast and furious. He utilizes kicks and various punches.
He looks very similar to himself in the Forrest Griffin fight, minus the head movement. He sprawls exceptionally well and stuffs Sonnen’s takedown and gets on top. After being swept soon after, he spends the rest of the round on the bottom.
Silva tries a body triangle and attempts to play some butterfly guard briefly. He throws numerous elbows but mostly is content to sit in open guard.
Round Five
Anderson comes out and shows good footwork and head movement and avoids a takedown. He then falls over after throwing an unbalanced shot. While this may be the first obvious example that there may be something physically different from Silva tonight—because he has sublime balance and never just falls—this also could have been from fatigue as he was smothered and beaten for four rounds.
Sonnen again dominates from top position. Silva uses good hip movements and regains his guard when Sonnen obtains side control. With 2:04 remaining in the final round, Silva controlled the Oregon star’s right hand and catches the challenger in the triangle that will haunt the American to his dying day.
This climatic submission requires explosive core power and hip thrust to close it out.
At the end of the fight, the Brazilian begins wincing and looking as if he was in great discomfort. He tells Joe Rogan: “desculpe nenhuma” (no excuses) and credits Sonnen for being a great fighter. He then follows that up with another statement. It is again prefaced with a declaration of no excuses…but…last week he hurt his rib.
It is difficult to find overt examples of how Andreson’s rib was a detriment to his performance.
Travis Lutter and Dan Henderson, who have similar fight styles and backgrounds to Sonnen, each had their moments of success with the Brazilian as well. There were no rib injuries on those occasions. Lutter won the first round by eating shots to get in shot-range and scoring takedowns. He worked from closed-guard top position very similarly to Sonnen. Travis even mounted and was landing punches and then transitioned to an armbar that he could not procure. He was subsequently submitted in the next round.
Dan also won the first round by closing the distance with strikes and taking the champ down via body lock and scoring with strikes from half-guard, but he too was submitted in the second.
The way Anderson played bottom closed-guard in these fights did not differ much from the way he fought against Sonnen.
It is possible that he is capable of controlling his countenance and does not reveal the pain that he feels. This is essential for all great fighters. His ability to kick, punch, sprawl and hit submissions despite a fractured rib could be a testament to his ability to rise above pain and deliver.
These theories are more than plausible for one crowned the greatest fighter of all time. Only Anderson Silva really knows how badly his rib was injured but his actual fighting did not vary greatly as a result. He still was able to execute, more or less, his typical fight plan, but Sonnen executed his plan better.
The challenger’s ability to find his striking range and land significant punches allowed him to hit his shots and obtain that dominant top position. Shooting from distance rarely works with Silva as he is too athletic. Demian Maia and Thales Leites can testify to that. Sonnen would land with serious punches, close the distance and then get in deep on his shots and secure the takedown.
The times when he shot without setting it up with a punch were easily stuffed. I suspect his ability to find his striking range gain will reveal if he has a chance to repeat his incredible, but losing, performance.
What will happen when one of the most anticipated rematches in MMA history unfolds July 7, 2012?
Odds are that the anomaly that perplexed the world two years ago will not be repeated. In addition to being undefeated in the UFC, the champ has been working on his wrestling with Mark Munoz. Munoz is a high level MMA fighter and holds a wrestling win over Sonnen from their college days.This may play an important factor in keeping the fight on its feet.
However, one should not surmise that there existed a dramatic difference between the performance of Silva in the first encounter and his other fights. We will all need to watch to see if Sonnen is the matchup nightmare for Silva or if the incredible footwork and fighting style of Silva will crush the spirit of the plodding wrestler.
Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will meet for the second time when they headline UFC 148 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. next weekend. It’s a long-anticipated rematch and features two of the best middleweight fighters the U…
Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will meet for the second time when they headline UFC 148 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. next weekend.
It’s a long-anticipated rematch and features two of the best middleweight fighters the UFC has to offer. Trash talk and personal attacks aside, both fighters know what to expect from their opponent come Saturday night.
Expect Silva to try and utilize his standup skills to outbox and control Sonnen in the clinch, while the challenger will do exactly what he did last time: turn this into a grinding ground battle.
At UFC 117 in 2010, Sonnen was just a couple minutes away from dethroning Silva from his long-held middleweight championship. Instead, the Team Quest wrestler, after dominating more than four rounds of the fight utilizing grappling and ground and pound, tapped out due to a triangle armbar submission.
Surprisingly, Silva needed the come-from-behind victory, as he spent most of the fight on his back, defending punches and elbows.
Of Sonnen’s 11 career MMA losses, eight of them have come via submission. A rather telling statistic, even if the last five submission losses came to strong grapplers and BJJ practitioners such as Silva, Demian Maia, Paulo Filho, Jeremy Horn and Renato Sobral.
Silva is extremely crafty when he’s working his ground game, even if it’s not a skill set he prefers to use against opponents in the cage. A BJJ black belt under the Nogueira brothers, Silva has lanky limbs and impressive strength when he needs to defend—or attack—with submissions.
When Sonnen finds himself in Silva’s guard, the American wrestler can’t let Silva get wrist or arm control. If Silva captures one of his arms, Sonnen should be aware of the Spider’s legs possibly sliding up his back to set up a triangle choke.
Don’t be content to sit in Silva’s full guard! If Sonnen tries to pass to side control or full mount, he needs to be careful not to be swept during any transitions. He’ll have better luck trying to finish Silva if he can put Silva in even more precarious positions, as Silva will most certainly try and have a more offensive guard.
To help prepare for a possible ground war again, Sonnen recruited BJJ ace Vinny Magalhaes to grapple with. The ADCC champion has a strong BJJ resume, and likely served as a great quality training partner for the West Linn, Ore. native.
“Chael makes fun of a lot of things – but he picks stuff up really fast. And the stuff that we worked on, I can guarantee you if he has the chance to use it in the fight, he will do it. If it’s a submission, if it’s a guard pass, whatever, I guarantee you he can do it. If he gets the chance, he can catch Anderson with something.”
Even though Sonnen got submitted by Silva the first time around, he does have the ability to learn new techniques rather quickly. Sonnen has studied the first fight and will look to posture up more—even if Silva has full guard and head control—the Team Quest wrestler was able to land short elbows and punches throughout the fight.
If Silva tries to latch on the triangle choke, Sonnen may be able to escape it without leaving his arm exposed in the wrong position. Before losing in the fifth round, Sonnen was able to defend other triangle setups by Silva earlier in the fight.
Regardless of what MMA fans perceive about the cocky loud mouth, we can expect to see a new and improved ground game from Sonnen.
We are just one week away from one of the most anticipated fights of the year, and we’ll be able to see if Sonnen can take the belt from Silva.
Anderson Silva is one of the pound-for-pound greatest fighters in MMA history and he’s undefeated since coming to the UFC in June of 2006.Currently he’s a part of, without question, the most talked about rivalry in UFC history between himself and Chael…
Anderson Silva is one of the pound-for-pound greatest fighters in MMA history and he’s undefeated since coming to the UFC in June of 2006.
Currently he’s a part of, without question, the most talked about rivalry in UFC history between himself and Chael Sonnen.
Yesterday, we took a look back at Chael Sonnen’s previous fights in the UFC before this Saturday’s main event between Sonnen and Silva.
Therefore, today, we will once again put the rematch on hold and revisit the UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s UFC fights.
Last week, a giant of mixed martial arts bowed out of the sport forever. In his home country, in front of a crowd of his fellow Russians, Fedor Emelianenko ended his career with an emphatic win over veteran Pedro Rizzo.
