On Saturday night, Stephan Bonnar will step into the Octagon against Anderson Silva with the opportunity of a lifetime.Bonnar was essentially retired after his win over Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 139. He said he wanted to fight someone with a lot of Twitter…
On Saturday night, Stephan Bonnar will step into the Octagon against Anderson Silva with the opportunity of a lifetime.
Bonnar was essentially retired after his win over Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 139. He said he wanted to fight someone with a lot of Twitter followers, and not an up-and-comer who he would essentially be a launching pad for.
So almost a year after his last fight, he gets a call to face Anderson Silva in a light heavyweight fight in the main event of UFC 153 in Brazil. That was understandably enough to pull Bonnar out of retirement and back into the cage.
Bonnar knows this will be his last fight ever.
This is his swan song, and he’s going to go out on top, pulling off the upset of the century over Anderson Silva.
MMA Junkie has Bonnar as a 13-to-1 underdog—the biggest underdog in UFC history. The two other biggest underdogs in UFC history were Matt Serra against Georges St-Pierre and VitorBelfort against Jon Jones.
Serra knocked out St-Pierre, and Belfort nearly submitted Jones in the first round. No matter how big an underdog, they always stand a chance.
And speaking of standing a chance, Bonnar‘s iron chin gives him the best chance to remain standing against Silva.
Bonnar has never been knocked out in his career—except for two losses to cuts—and Silva will not be the first to knock him out.
For a full 15 minutes, Silva will find himself in a fight against an opponent who has more heart than any opponent he has faced in the past. Bonnar has a never-say-die attitude, and will never stop coming forward against Silva.
Bonnar will always have a chance to land a big punch, a big kick, a solid takedown or grab a limb and submit Silva. Bonnar has a black belt in BJJ, an iron chin, a wealth of experience and a huge heart.
Bonnar is primed to pull off the upset of the century and shake the entire MMA world.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.
Tomorrow, Anderson Silva will move up to light heavyweight for the third time in his UFC career to face off against Ultimate Fighter alumni, Stephan Bonnar. Silva stepped up for this fight against Bonnar when both the main and co-main events of UFC 153…
Tomorrow, Anderson Silva will move up to light heavyweight for the third time in his UFC career to face off against Ultimate Fighter alumni, Stephan Bonnar. Silva stepped up for this fight against Bonnar when both the main and co-main events of UFC 153 went down within several hours of each other.
This is being heralded as one of the biggest mismatches in UFC history, and Bonnar is going off at as much as a 13-to-1 underdog. People are saying that Silva is going to destroy Bonnar, and that this will be a terrible beatdown, on the level of Silva against Forrest Griffin.
I’m here to tell you that that’s exactly what’s going to happen, and Anderson Silva is going to wreck Stephan Bonnar.
Silva has arguably the best striking in MMA history, and is also, arguably, the greatest fighter of all time. Bonnar has never really been much more than a gatekeeper in the light heavyweight division. The majority of his fame comes from the legendary battle he had against Forrest Griffin at the finale of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Every legitimate defeat Bonnar has suffered—ignoring the loss to KrzysztofSoszynski from a cut—has been to a past or future UFC champion. He falters against the top tier competition, and Saturday night will prove no different.
Expect this fight to look like Silva against Griffin. The only difference is the fact that Bonnar has a better chin, and that may prove to be a problem against Silva.
Instead of getting knocked out early like Griffin did, Bonnar may suffer an absolute beating of epic proportions. Because of Bonnar‘s chin, he could go 15 minutes with Silva, whilst suffering an absolute beatdown.
He will always be in the fight, and he’ll always have a chance to throw a big haymaker that could put down Silva, but for the most part, expect Silva to dominate Bonnar.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.
Over the course of his mixed martial arts career, Jon Fitch has seen it all. For the past five years, the Indiana native has been considered one of the world’s top fighters at 170 pounds. He holds victories over some of the division’s best, and on the …
Over the course of his mixed martial arts career, Jon Fitch has seen it all. For the past five years, the Indiana native has been considered one of the world’s top fighters at 170 pounds. He holds victories over some of the division’s best, and on the strength of those performances, Fitch has loomed within striking distance of another title shot.
Unfortunately for the American Kickboxing Academy trained fighter, a series of injuries and a first-round loss to Johny Hendricks have threatened to push him out of the sport’s upper tier.
But if there is one thing about Fitch you can pick up from his time in the Octagon, it is resilience. While he has spent his entire career testing the heart and spirit of the opposition, Fitch now finds himself under the microscope. He knows the first step in his rejuvenation begins with a victory over Erick Silva at UFC 153 because losing is simply not an option.
“Honestly it has to be,” Fitch told Bleacher Report in regard to the next chapter of his career. “If this fight doesn’t go the way I need it to, I’m kind of at a loss of what to do next. Losing fights is not paying the bills. It is not really an option for me to go out there and not perform well or not put on a good show. I’m really looking for the ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus. That is something which is really going to put some distance between me and financial problems.
“Fans are going to see a man who is highly motivated and a man who is driven to perform well. They are going to see a man who has to perform well, not just for himself, but for his family and career.”
The saying in MMA is “styles make fights,” and there a few better examples in contrasting styles than Fitch and Silva.
The young Brazilian brings a unique blend of speed, power and accuracy into the cage. During his three fights in the UFC, Silva has made short work inside the cage, as he’s dispatched all three opponents in quick and dominant fashion. He has yet to make it out of the opening round under the UFC banner, and that is one of the areas Fitch will look to test the young prospect.
“My intention is to drop him into deep water,” Fitch said. “He’s a prospect, very explosive, with a lot of ability, but he hasn’t been tested. In his career leading up to the UFC, he wasn’t really tested. That can mislead a lot of people and the fighters themselves because fast knockouts or fast finishes over opponents who get finished and knocked out often could build a false sense of confidence.”
When Fitch’s grinding style of fighting is mentioned, criticism is sure to follow. Over his seven years on the sport’s biggest stage, he has held the line as a perennial contender.
Despite carrying one of the highest winning percentages of any fighter in the organization, a lengthy run of decision victories and a wrestling-heavy attack have put Fitch on the defensive where fans are concerned.
The ideology of being a better fighter who can impose his will on the opposition at anytime is something which drives a wedge between the sport’s fanbase, and Fitch believes it is a point the fans miss.
“I think that concept is a little bit lost in MMA today,” Fitch said. “On top of that, I believe I receive unfair criticism. If you look at the guys I’ve fought and the fighters I’ve been matched up against, they are not people who get finished often or ever. I think that is lost on a lot of people. Take a guy like Mike Pierce who has never been finished. A guy like AkihiroGono, who at the time I fought him, had been finished four times in a 15-year career. He’s fought guys like Dan Henderson. He’s fought multiple times against opponents several weight classes past his size. The list goes on with a lot of the guys I’ve fought.
“I still don’t get credit for great performances against really tough guys who are very tough to finish. I think people are kind of superficial with their fandom in this sport. Sometimes I think they are more impressed with somebody beating up an opponent who isn’t that good in quick fashion rather than a drawn out battle between two guys who are top tier and very good at what they do. If you are a better fighter than me, then you are going to be able to stop what I’m trying to do and be able to take advantage of whatever holes in my game you find.”
When he steps into the Octagon Saturday night in Rio deJaneiro, Fitch will be a man at a distinct crossroads of his life and career. The 34-year-old is fully aware of everything teetering on the line and knows only one result will suffice.
This is a case of the savvy veteran versus the dynamic young prospect, and Fitch intends to prove the time for a change in positions has not yet come.
He will square off against Silva in the Brazilian’s home country and rather than allow the pressure of the situation to set in, Fitch believes he will harness the energy of the spirited crowd in Rio.
“It is something I think I’m going to be able to feed off of,” Fitch said about fighting in Brazil. “I love it when the crowd is excited, screaming and going nuts. It is something I missed and really didn’t have in a wrestling background. When I played football in high school, it was there, but not when it came to wrestling. We had a very good team and performed well, but the crowds weren’t there going crazy.
“Being able to to be in that type of environment with that type of crowd creates a lot of energy to feed off of and I’m looking forward to it.”
Anderson Silva and Stephan Bonnar will face one another in the main event of UFC 153. The replacement main event takes over for the UFC featherweight championship match originally planned.Fans are now treated to watching Silva one more time i…
Anderson Silva and Stephan Bonnar will face one another in the main event of UFC 153. The replacement main event takes over for the UFC featherweight championship match originally planned.
Fans are now treated to watching Silva one more time in 2012, as Bonnar tries to pull off one of the biggest upsets in MMA history and cement his UFC legacy.
Whatever happens, this matchup has all the makings of an exciting fight, and the one sure winner in this instance is the fans.
This is not a fight to determine a top contender and there is no title on the line. This is simply a good fight.
Here are five questions we are asking about Silva leading in to UFC 153.
There has been a lot of criticism lately about UFC matchmaking. The biggest transgression was booking Stephan Bonnar to face the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world: Anderson Silva. Fans and media almost immediately hit the net to air their …
There has been a lot of criticism lately about UFC matchmaking. The biggest transgression was booking Stephan Bonnar to face the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world: Anderson Silva. Fans and media almost immediately hit the net to air their grievances, and in some cases they were pretty harsh.
They view Bonnar as a fighter who made it to a certain level of success, but was never able to get over the hump to super stardom. To some extent, they are correct. In his UFC run, Bonnar never captured light heavyweight gold.
Instead, he has been in a handful of memorable matches, won because he’s the perfect mixture of technical prowess and grit. He’s willing to trade punches in order to take advantage of his opponents’ lack of toughness.
When it comes to pedigree, there’s few in the light heavyweight division that can match “the American Psycho.” Years learning under Carlson Gracie ensured that he would be one of the most capable fighters on the mat and his Golden Gloves experience means that his punches actually pack some power.
What I’m saying is that while everyone is writing off Bonnar, I think he has what it takes to actually upset the UFC middleweight champ. I’d go as far as to say that Stephan Bonnar is a live dog in this fight.
It’s been pretty obvious if you’ve followed the narrative that Bonnar came out of retirement for this fight. He needed a fight to motivate him to get back into a fighting mindset. He got it in Silva and quite frankly, I think too many people are writing him off.
Very few fighters ever attain “champion” status and even fewer will ever put together the type of career of Stephan Bonnar. Sure, he’s come up short against top fighters, but he also pushed them harder than other fighters.
Which brings us back to the question: What if Stephan Bonnar beats Anderson Silva on Saturday?
The UFC has plans for Anderson Silva that include the much sought after bout against Georges St. Pierre and a possible superfight with Jon Jones. They have spent millions building up the legend of Anderson Silva.
So what happens if Silva is outclassed by Stephan Bonnar? What happens to not just the legacy of Anderson Silva but all those potentially lucrative match ups?
I hope that Bonnar isn’t writing himself off in this match up. This could be the type of springboard he needs to get motivated again to fight. He could play spoiler and use Anderson Silva’s name to reestablish his career.
Don’t sleep on the “American Psycho”. He always has a fighting shot. I hope we see it on Saturday night.
(It was at the UFC 153 pre-fight press conference that Stephan Bonnar revealed his true gameplan to defeat Anderson: G.T.L.)
All the fighters for tomorrow night’s UFC 153 event are scheduled to hit the scales starting at 3 p.m. EST this afternoon from the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so make sure to swing by the Tater to check out all the intense, barely-clothed staredowns you could ever ask for. Did that come off as gay? Because we didn’t mean for it to come off as gay; not that there’s anything wrong with that.
(It was at the UFC 153 pre-fight press conference that Stephan Bonnar revealed his true gameplan to defeat Anderson: G.T.L.)
All the fighters for tomorrow night’s UFC 153 event are scheduled to hit the scales starting at 3 p.m. EST this afternoon from the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so make sure to swing by the Tater to check out all the intense, barely-clothed staredowns you could ever ask for. Did that come off as gay? Because we didn’t mean for it to come off as gay; not that there’s anything wrong with that.
PRELIMINARY CARD (FX 8PM ET)
-Rony “Jason” Mariano Bezerra (145) vs. Sam Sicilia (146)
–Gleison Tibau (155) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (154)
–Diego Brandao (144) vs. Joey Gambino (146)
-Renee Forte (169) vs. Sergio Moraes (169)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook 7PM ET)
-Chris Camozzi (185) vs. Luiz Cane (184)
-Reza Madadi (155) vs. Cristiano Marcello (155)
Notes:
-Make sure to catch Madadi vs. Marcello on the FB prelims, because their staredown nearly erupted into a Strikeforcian brawl.
-Joey Gambino has a tattoo of a cage going halfway around his torso. Just thought that needed mentioning. Also, he’s a dead man.
-Erick Silva is a BEAST. Dude looks like the cartel leader’s henchman from every Brazilian gang movie ever made.
-What the fuck was that one kid in the Silva/Gracie train doing? Because it looked like he was crying. He was definitely crying. Must have been related to Stephan.
On Saturday night, Stephan Bonnar will step into the Octagon against Anderson Silva with the opportunity of a lifetime.
