We mixed martial arts fans may never truly like Anderson Silva again. In 2010, he’s toyed with our emotions, abused his power, wasted our money and made no effort to connect with fans. Chael Sonnen even claims Silva secretly speaks perfect English.
But, even though we may not like him anymore, don’t expect UFC 117 to be his swan song.
Yes, Silva has been maddening as hell this year. His display against Demian Maia at UFC 112, in which he essentially stopped fighting for the last few rounds, was a disgrace.
But that result was actually easy to predict. And it’s also easy to predict that he’ll do something spectacular in his middleweight title defense against former Olympic wrestling alternate Sonnen next month.
Why? Because certain types of fighters and situations force the best out of Silva and certain ones don’t.
You could see his lollygagging against Maia coming a mile away because Maia was the third choice to fight Silva; Vitor Belfort got hurt and Sonnen wasn’t healed from his previous bout. If Silva doesn’t respect his opponent, doesn’t feel like that opponent deserves to fight him, he mails in the performance, almost as if he’s flipping off Dana White for giving him the inferior matchup.
The other two times we saw Silva dick around: when he fought Patrick Cote and Thales Leites. Both of those challengers drew the “Who?” reaction from fans when they were announced. As a result, they were tentative – fearful – during their bouts with Silva. They didn’t challenge him and he didn’t feel the need to fight back very hard.
All of Anderson Silva’s best efforts have come against skilled fighters who (a) deserved to fight him and (b) weren’t afraid to risk their necks in order to beat him. Think about your favorite Silva highlights:
- The devastating Muay Thai against Rich Franklin, a fearless and accomplished fighter
- The rear-naked choke against Dan Henderson, the multi-weight-class Pride champ
- The absolute clinic against Forrest Griffin, the wildman and ex-light heavyweight champ
- The vicious knockout over James Irvin, who represented a new challenge as Silva’s first LHW opponent
You see? When The Spider cares, The Spider flourishes. The tougher opponents don’t rest on their laurels. They force Silva to fight back and fight back in spectacular fashion. Chael Sonnen will do just that. Win or lose, that means Anderson Silva should re-emerge as MMA’s most breathtaking fighter to watch on August 7.
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