Which Anderson Silva will show up at UFC 117
It seems strange, but after 11 straight wins in the Ultimate Fighting Championships, including a title victory and six title defences, middleweight mixed martial arts legend Anderson Silva still has something to prove.
When he takes on American challenger Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 on Saturday, it won’t just be his belt on his line, and it won’t just be a victory fans are expecting. Simply put, fans, and UFC president Dana White will be expecting Silva to win, and win in the spectacular fashion that made him famous.
Although MMA is a sport, it, like boxing, has always put a huge premium on the entertainment factor. Exciting fighters are the most popular, the most loved, and the ones who pull in the most money for their companies.
And that’s exactly what Silva was when he joined the UFC in 2006. His astonishing striking ability saw him utterly destroy Chris Leben, and then champion Rich Franklin to gain the belt. Fans were buzzing about his amazing ability to pulverize his opponents quickly and brutally. He defended his belt against Travis Lutter, then put on another brutal display against Franklin in a rematch at UFC 77.
He faced PRIDE 185lb champion Dan Henderson after that at UFC 82, choking him out, and then moved up a weight class to fight James Irvin on short notice, once against destroying him, in 61 seconds. None of Silva’s opponents in that span lasted more than 10 minutes against him.
A change of pace
But then something strange started happening. Silva faced Canadian challenger Patrick Cote at UFC 90, and was expected to destroy the heavy underdog quickly. But instead, he danced around and generally refused to engage, peppering Cote with jabs until Cote blew out his knee and was forced to retire in the third round.
But that was simply written off as an aberration as Silva faced another overmatched opponent at UFC 97 in Thales Leites. Silva took his act to new heights, looking bored and only fighting a lukewarm effort, grinding out a weak five-round decision and earning the ire of fans, who booed throughout the fight.
His next fight, this time in the 205lb division against Forrest Griffin was looked at as an important test for Silva. Griffin was an opponent who was known to push the pace and would force to Silva to fight. And Silva stepped up and put on arguably the greatest performance of his career, utterly humiliating Griffin by tearing him apart with pinpoint strikes and knocking him out in under a round.
After that Silva was looked upon with high hopes at UFC 112 as he took on submission specialist Demian Maia. Instead what ensued was arguably the greatest title fight debacle in UFC history, and Silva mocked his opponent, taunted him, danced around the ring and outright ran the last two rounds, earning the decision victory but also the ire of millions of fans who shook their heads in disbelief at his performance.
After the fight White went so far as to threaten to cut Silva, whom he called the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world, if he ever put on a similar performance.
Now all eyes are once again on the Brazilian striker to see what he’ll do against Sonnen. It’s rare that after such a long and distinguished career, a champ has to prove himself in the way Silva does. But Silva must remember that MMA is above all entertainment, and fans’ patience is beginning to run thin. If he wants to restore the trust, and his drawing potential on Saturday, he must do more than simply win. He has to match up to his old legendary standard, and show himself as a fighter who not only can win, but truly wants to fight to the best of his abilities every fight.
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