A Final Look at Anderson Silva

By TLOS listener Barry Pape

Anderson Silva survived. After being thoroughly dominated for 23 minutes of the main event at UFC 117 against Chael Sonnen, Silva managed to submit Sonnen via a triangle choke with less than 2 minutes left in the fight, a fight he was going to lose if it went to the cards. Now Silva is planning on taking the rest of the year off to heal ribs he claims he fractured in training. What Silva should also do in that time in consider his future in the UFC, and one of those things he should do is vacate the Middleweight title and make a move to Light Heavyweight.

The main reason for this is complacency. Silva has gotten bored with the division, so much so that Silva’s training appears to have suffered. Silva was repeatedly taken down by Sonnen’s wrestling ability, a skill that Silva has not had to train diligently on since he fought Dan Henderson in March of 2008. Since then, Silva has not had to train hard on takedown defense because of his size. Silva frequently outweighs his opponents by 10-20 pounds on fight night, and his height and flexibility allow him to simply shrug off most takedown attempts with ease. Sonnen, a world class wrestler, used technique to take down Silva, and then Sonnen was able to use technique to keep Silva, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt on the ground, using technique to avoid being swept by Silva.

Another reason for Silva to move up is for the challenge, something that is lacking at the Middleweight division. Silva has cleared out the Middleweight division, and now the next set of challengers are either going to be people he has fought and defeated already, like Sonnen, or people that are close but not quite there yet, fighters like Vitor Belfort or Yushin Okami. In Silva’s two prior forays in the 205 pound division, he has looked much better than he has in the 185 pound class over the last two years, stopping James Irwin and Forrest Griffin via knockout while fighting to decisions in the title defense he has had in the same amount of time, with the exception of the fight against Patrick Cote. A move up into the LHW division would force Silva to train much more intensely, because while he can shrug off the strikes against the fighters at the 185 pound division, at the 205 pound division, those same strikes are fight-enders, especially if those strikes come from fighters of the skill and strength of people like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson or Jon Jones. A move to the light heavyweight division will force Silva to train intensively on ground defense and his BJJ skills, making him a more exciting fighter and a fan favorite once again.

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