The Career of Anderson Silva

FightMetric has done a great breakdown, analyzing each fight of Anderson Silva’s career according to their unique scoring system. (They note that “There is apparently no existing video of Silva’s victory against Waldir Dos Anjos. That one is not included.” bummer!)

Most commenters looking at Silva’s career have focused on his great performances in the UFC as compared to his uneven work in PRIDE. I really think the guy’s just been on a tear since 2005. He rebounded to his legendary flying heel-hook loss to Ryo Chonan by going on a fucking tear. He’s jsut been deadly ever since then. Yeah Lutter gave him a hiccup and he got DQ’d against Okami (by using a kick that I don’t think should be illegal — IMO if you’re on your back you should be able to kick your opponent anywhere except his nuts and his kidneys regardless of where his knees are. The kick he used against Okami was just too beautiful to be banned.)

It’s also worth noting that even in his few losses, Anderson has rarely been dominated. Chonan was losing until he got the famous submission. Okami was getting a beat down before the DQ. The only guy to really take Silva out of his game was Takase who used better grappling to nullify Anderson’s game and get triangle choke. (watch it here). His loss to fellow Chute Boxe fighter (at the time) Luiz Azeredo was a close fought match but it was a long long time ago.

Here’s a fun highlight of Silva’s work. It’s too long, and has music and crap, but the first 2:30 are pretty magic.

In addition to the famous beatdowns of Franklin and Leben, his standing reverse elbow KO of Tony Frykland, and the side kick to the head of Okami from his back are heavily featured. I just wish that the HL reels would include that incredible switch he used to beat Nathan Marquardt. Marquardt was working a single leg that could’ve saved the round for him when Anderson reversed it beautifully and got a single leg of his own. From there he Pwned Nate the Great.

You can say what you want about hating wrestlers, but Silva has certainly learned some fine elements of that game. How much that will help him against a monster like Dan Henderson I don’t know.

I think the ever-improving wrestling of all top MMAers is a key factor of why the fights just keep getting better to watch. Why do you think the WEC is so fun to watch? Guys like Faber and Beebe can just flat-out wrestler. Same goes for Griffin/Edgar or Griffin/Guida — get two really good wrestlers in there and the last thing you’ll see is a boring lay and pray.

I hope they do a similar analysis of Henderson’s whole career before the March 2nd showdown.

Be sure and check out their philosophy of judging fights. I have to say I agree with 99% of it — the only quibbles I have are with these two points:

I agree with most of this BUT I think that big slam takedowns and dramatic throws should score points. They do damage and disorient and demoralize an opponent. Besides they’re fun as shit to watch and should be encouraged.

Again, I agree in part. Escaping the mount should definitely score points, but I don’t think a defensive maneuver should count quite as much as an offensive one. Maybe 3/4 as much. But those are minor quibbles, check out their site and their system, it’s a great piece of work and call me naive but I’d love to see it replace the 10 point must system some day.