The title of an article on www.ESPN.co.uk posted on January 14 reads: "Anderson Silva 'would like to fight Bisping in the UK'". Yes, you're reading that right. Silva has potentially called out Michael Bisping. A man with a 13 fight win streak would like to face an opponent who is still at this time a gatekeeper. This is odd for a number of reasons. It was widely assumed by the MMA community that the reason Silva has recently been rather lackadaisical in recent title outings was due largely to the fact he has faced competition that he felt was sub-par. Against Patrick Cote he seemed unwilling to pull the trigger early on (though some have speculated as well he felt under pressure to take the fight into the championship rounds to provide more entertainment). To be fair to Cote though, he had put together a healthy win streak of 5 including 3 wins via TKO. Then there was the Leites fight, a man some felt had been gifted a split decision win over Marquardt en route to his title shot. But Anderson bobbed and weaved his way to a decision, showing a distinct air of contempt throughout the fight. The fact that many believed Leites should never have gotten a title shot at all seemed vindicated by his UFC release just one fight after.
A trip down to light-heavy weight against the sacrificial offering of Griffin helped to reignite the hype. His striking was so damn good no one even cared that he embarassed one of the most popular fighters in the UFC.
Then the Maia fight. And it all seemed to be going so well. There were many reasons bandied about for Silva's behaviour, but ultimately the result left such a sour taste in so many of the fan's mouths that even Dana White couldn't bring himself to be in the same Octagon as Silva.
The Republican Renegade, Chael Sonnen, was posted as the next challenger and even before his fantastic showing of imperious wrestling against Silva, many bought into the hype. However, Sonnen's unwillingness to learn even the basics of bjj defence was revealed as he was caught in a triangle-armbar.
So what have we learnt from all of this? It would seem that unless you have the striking to threaten Silva, he does not seem interested. Unless you have the wrestling to threaten Silva, he does not seem interested. But then, even if you do have the striking and/or the wrestling to test him, he is still probably going to win! This brings me back to the beginning of this post: Bisping. Bisping literally offers none of these things. He is well rounded, but not well rounded enough, or skilled enough in one area to prove a legitimate threat. What's more, his mental state is far from rock solid. For example, in his fight against Dan Henderson he looked nervous, constantly turning into Hendo's power shots and failed to implement any sort of game plan. Yet in his comeback fight against Denis Kang, a man he knew he could beat, he was fluid, confident, aggressive, listen to his corner and the fight ended with a finish. I cannot believe he will show any of this against Silva were he to face him. He would literally crumble during the 8 week training camp. Then there is the problem of Silva. If he Silva appeared disinterested against Leites and Thales, two competent MMA fighters who both contain supreme bjj skills, how is he going to treat a fighter of Bispings caliber. The ultimate Jack-of-all-trades. I think a fight against Marquardt would be more beneficial as to seeing where he really stands in the Middleweight picture.
Good points here. Silva's choice of opponent here is utterly maddening. Maybe Soras team thinks that will be a big money fight overseas or something. But I can't see it performing well on PPV so I am not sure how that would make Silva a particularly large amount of cash. He should be looking at Wanderlei Silva, the guy who just beat Bisping instead if he wants an "easy" fight as it somewhat appears.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he just wants strikers or something. Who knows.
I'm starting to think as well that given how loaded the question was it was almost an inevitable answer, and I may have jumped the gun a bit in my post. ESPN essentially said "If Bisping is the best MW fighter, would you fight him?" Of course there can only be one answer. I think I got a bit fooled by ESPN making an obvious story into an almost controversial matter.
ReplyDeleteI think this would be a big money event. Bisping is huge in the UK and giving him a title shot at home in the UK would make a ton of money. It would also help to grow the sport in the UK where it is expanding.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Dana said after the Mai fight, "if your that good go out there and knock people out in 30 seconds like Tyson". Anderson is so dominant that he can and has done that to the best fighters but he has shown that he has no respect for other fighters and is such an ass he makes Sonnen look like a nice guy. He has nothing left to prove in the middle weight division. He should move up to Light Heavy Weight and see what he can do.
This was a very well written analysis.