It seems that every time the UFC heads to Brazil something memorable happens, and the case wasn’t any different with UFC 153. From Anderson Silva’s incredible display of dominance to Demian Maia’s clinical victory over Rick Story, the…
It seems that every time the UFC heads to Brazil something memorable happens, and the case wasn’t any different with UFC 153.
From Anderson Silva’s incredible display of dominance to Demian Maia’s clinical victory over Rick Story, the main card had something for everyone and could be considered among the very best events we’ve seen this year.
UFC 153 didn’t do a lot for the advancement of title contenders or give us a truly significant fight, but it gave us a fun night of fights in which every main card fight ended by stoppage.
While there was a lack of top five fighters this weekend, there was no lack of talent and there was plenty of movement in the bottom half of the top 10 in quite a few divisions.
With UFC 153 finally in the rearview mirror, here’s a look at the post-fight stock report for the main card fighters.
After another dominant performance at this weekend’s UFC 153, Anderson Silva has all but cemented himself in the history books as MMA’s pound-for-pound king.Sure, an easy win over Stephan Bonnar may not be the most amazing victory on “The Spider’s…
After another dominant performance at this weekend’s UFC 153, Anderson Silva has all but cemented himself in the history books as MMA‘s pound-for-pound king.
Sure, an easy win over Stephan Bonnar may not be the most amazing victory on “The Spider’s” résumé, but it does speak to the lack of serious challengers left for the reigning middleweight champ, as he’s ran through almost everyone the UFC has put in front of him.
At this point in Silva’s career, he’s really only fighting for his own legacy, so the only bouts that make sense are fights against the biggest names in the sport—i.e. Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones. Those are really the only two names out there who could pose a challenge to Silva, who’s expressed a disinterest in leaving his home at 185.
An argument can be made that there are challengers left at middleweight for the champ, with the likes of Michael Bisping and Chris Weidman staking their claims as the division’s leading contenders. While there’s no denying that these men deserve a shot at the title, they really don’t make sense for Silva, who’s already taken out a plethora of top 185ers during his long title reign.
Top contenders are constantly emerging, so it’s impossible for the champ to take on every single person who appears to be a threat to his belt. To really cement himself as the greatest of all time, Silva needs to look at the bigger picture of his career.
As UFC commentator Joe Rogan noted during last night’s broadcast, it would be a shame if fans never got the chance to see Silva take on Jones. Both men are at the top of their games and are set to go down as two of the greatest in MMA history, so missing out on this superfight would be a travesty to say the least.
Even though this bout is still just a fan’s fantasy, as both Silva and Jones have squashed any talk of facing each other, a potential superfight with St-Pierre is much more likely.
Both men have expressed serious interest in facing each other in a catchweight bout in recent months, and that might just come to fruition if the Canadian can take out interim champ Carlos Condit at UFC 154.
Regardless of which champ Silva may or may not take on, the clock is ticking on his career. If he wants to go down as the best, he has to go out beating the best.
If Anderson Silva’s brutal knee to Stephan Bonnar’s body wasn’t proof enough of “The Spider’s” dominance at UFC 153, we got the FightMetric numbers to back it up.Despite spending the majority of the time with his back against the Octagon, Silva absolut…
If Anderson Silva‘s brutal knee to Stephan Bonnar‘s body wasn’t proof enough of “The Spider’s” dominance at UFC 153, we got the FightMetric numbers to back it up.
Despite spending the majority of the time with his back against the Octagon, Silva absolutely dominated Bonnar in every significant category during their short bout and showed once again why he’s the pound-for-pound MMA king.
Let’s break down the numbers from the exciting main event in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil.
Anderson Silva has been the best mixed martial arts fighter on the planet for six years. He has defeated the best middleweights and a few light heavyweights during his UFC tenure, including an incredible knockout of Stephan Bonnar at UFC 153 on Saturda…
Anderson Silva has been the best mixed martial arts fighter on the planet for six years. He has defeated the best middleweights and a few light heavyweights during his UFC tenure, including an incredible knockout of Stephan Bonnar at UFC 153 on Saturday night.
Yet for all his bravado inside the cage, amazing athleticism and apparent inability to be stopped even in the most dire circumstances, one can’t help but feel like everything that we saw on Saturday night did nothing.
Granted, some of that was to be expected. Silva took this fight on short notice basically as a favor to UFC president Dana White, who was left scrambling to find a main event after Eric Koch had to withdraw from his featherweight title fight against Jose Aldo only to see Aldo forced off the card against replacement challenger Frankie Edgar due to an injury.
Bonnar hadn’t fought since last November and was, for all intents and purposes, as close to retired as a fighter can be without actually being retired: He was still around, but not taking any fights.
So, when you put the best fighter in the world against someone like Bonnar, what should you realistically expect to happen? Exactly what we got, which was a spectacular knockout that will be on highlight reels for years to come.
Silva was toying with Bonnar for basically the entire round before he decided to end it. It was a fun fight and provided a great “Holy Cow” moment for everyone watching, yet where do we go from here?
White told reporters after the fight that he is looking into putting Silva in the Octagon with Jon Jones next, though Silva continues to insist that he doesn’t want to do that fight:
I know my man says “no, no, no” to Jon Jones, but the amount of money that will be offered for that fight, he will say “yes, yes, yes.”
This is a gross overreaction to what we saw Silva do at UFC 153. Bonnar is not in the same league as Jones, so trying to take away anything that happened on Saturday night and applying it towards a super-fight is useless.
Silva does have a body type that can handle fighting Jones at 205 pounds, but he would be out of his element against an athlete who can match him, if not outdo him, in many aspects.
Jones’ limbs are so long that Silva would be lucky to touch him in that fight, though Silva’s speed can create opportunities that a normal fighter wouldn’t get.
None of this is to say that I don’t want to see the fight; anyone who has seen seven seconds of UFC would pay to see Jones fight Silva. But trying to put the two in the Octagon just because of Silva’s performance against Bonnar strikes me as incredibly shortsighted.
We didn’t see anything on Saturday night from Silva that we didn’t already know.
Two fights into his welterweight career, Demian Maia looks like he could be a legitimate contender to the 170lb strap. Maia’s win in his debut over Dong Hyun Kim was a bit lackluster due to Kim getting injured during the opening seconds of the bo…
Two fights into his welterweight career, Demian Maia looks like he could be a legitimate contender to the 170lb strap.
Maia’s win in his debut over Dong Hyun Kim was a bit lackluster due to Kim getting injured during the opening seconds of the bout, so his return to the cage against Rick Story was a huge test for Maia and his welterweight future.
Story is a highly regarded fighter who’s beaten some serious competition in the UFC, including former title challenger ThiagoAlves, and his strong wrestling base was supposed to give Maia some problems.
Instead, Maia used his underrated takedown ability to get the fight to the floor and deliver a grappling clinic, taking the back of Story and forcing “The Horror” to tap in the first round.
With two quick wins under his belt, Maia is going to take a pretty big step up in competition for his next fight and we’ll truly find out if he is a title threat in one of the UFC’s toughest divisions.
Fabio Maldonado might just be the Terminator. You can batter him with punches, smash him with elbows or dip him into a pool of any lava-hot fluid you want*, but he is going to keep coming at you.For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction…
Fabio Maldonado might just be the Terminator. You can batter him with punches, smash him with elbows or dip him into a pool of any lava-hot fluid you want*, but he is going to keep coming at you.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. With light heavyweight monster Glover Teixeira showing the world how much damage he can cause, Maldonado might have absorbed more damage than any human who has ever remained conscious.
This display of toughness was incredible and should earn Maldonado another fight in the UFC despite his current three-fight losing streak.
Here is a look at five fights for Fabio Maldonado to take next.
* This claim has not been approved by the United States Department of Health. Please do not dip Fabio Maldonado in a pool of lava-hot fluid.
After another dominant performance at this weekend’s