Anderson Silva is a fighting god. There is no other way to put it. In the pantheon of great fighters, all boxers and mixed martial artists, Anderson Silva belongs in the same breath as any of the greats.
Tonight he moved up to light heavyweight to save an event, took on a man who has never been stopped (other than on cuts) and made his larger foe look like a fool. Bonnar got inside, held Silva to the cage and attempted to work him over there and maybe get a takedown. Instead, Silva stayed upright and, when given the chance to escape, leaned back on the cage and dared Bonnar to hit him. The few times Stephan did land, Silva shook them off like they were nothing. But basically, he didn’t get hit by anything he didn’t want to get hit with.
And when he threw strikes, they were pinpoint. Eventually he threw what may have been the most perfect knee possible, leaving Bonnar in a ball on the ground and Silva able to pound away to the stoppage.
It was fun to once again pull for “chaos” via a Bonnar win, but the reality is that Silva was simply eight different degrees of better than Bonnar.
- Silva again said that he has no plans to fight at 205 again and only took the fight to save the event. We should all move on from the idea of Silva against Jon Jones, considering all both men have said about the fight is that they don’t want it. But no one will, so hold on for a whole lot more talking about it.
- I don’t really understand why people continue to think Dave Herman is a legit heavyweight. Sure, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira looked out of shape at the weigh-in, as he has for every fight for a few years now. But Herman looked like he had no gameplan again. He’d try to stand there and be cute, not moving at all, and Nogueira would pop him with a few hard shots. It never really seemed like a fight on paper (says the guy who picked Bonnar for the hell of it).
- Before I go any farther here, everyone go out of your way to catch the first fight on the HBO Boxing After Dark card tonight. Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado put on an all-time great type fight. It’s must watch stuff and will be on HBO plenty the next few days.
- Fabio Maldonado took a beating that rivals anything I’ve seen in combat sports in the past few years. Glover Teixiera put an insane beating on him and, while it’s commendable that Maldonado was able to badly hurt Glover near the end of the first, it’s crazy that the ref let the fight continue as long as he did. There were plenty of good times to stop it, but he waited for the doctor instead. It’s also yet another case of a guy’s corner not throwing in the towel or telling the ref to stop the fight.
- I’m not quite sold on Glover as “man to beat Jon Jones” but he’s a guy who is going to put a beating on a lot of good fighters at 205.
- I’ve never really had a problem with Jon Fitch fights. I’ve thought a few were boring, but on the whole he never stood out as one of those guys who I dread watching fight. Tonight was an unusual performance though. Erick Silva brought the fight and Fitch was more aggressive than normal which led to a really entertaining battle. In the end it was Jon’s cardio and relentlessness that wore Silva down and out, allowing him to pick up a very meaningful win over a guy with a very bright future.
- Phil Davis looked good, but it’s hard not to be a little frustrated that someone of his talent level has had to waste all this time on two fights with a guy like Wagner Prado, isn’t it?
- Demian Maia cranking on Rick Story until blood burst from his nose was one of the most over-the-top visuals I can remember. It was also a good moment for a guy who really needed a submission win.
- Rony Jason has some skills, but he’s also still a bit too reckless at times. It’s hard to know how the fight would play out in a normal world considering it was the victim of awful reffing with absurdly quick stand-ups.
- Seriously, the reffing on the undercard. Is there a worse ref working major shows than Fernando Yamasaki? The idea that the UFC is voluntarily choosing him to work events is truly baffling.
- Gleison Tibau had to go through an awful second round against Francisco Trinaldo to get the win, but he did it. Tibau had to earn it and it brought out the guy we see on his better nights.
- This was a great show for the UFC. One of the big reasons was the number of “good finishes” as opposed to acting like finishes are good just because they happened. These were finishes of good fighters in good fights and completely memorable. I really hope that this card exceeds expectations on PPV buyrate and draws in a good 500,000 viewers, it deserved to be seen.
About the author
