Post-Event Recap: UFC 149 PPV Highlights

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Anderson Silva’s Dominance: By the Numbers

The master of MMA … and Anderson Silva.

After Saturday’s TKO win over Chael Sonnen at UFC 148, Anderson Silva reached double figures in title defenses. He’s never lost in his UFC career, which has spanned over six years. To further emphasize The Spider’s total domination of the middleweight division, here are some factoids:

• 15 wins in the UFC, the 5th most all-time amongst all of the organization’s fighters. He’s only behind Matt Hughes with 18 wins, Randy Couture, Georges St. Pierre, and Chuck Liddell, all of whom are sitting at 16. Obviously 15-0 is the longest unbeaten run in UFC history.
• Of those 15 wins, 11 have come in middleweight title fights, 2 at light-heavyweight, 1 non-title fight, his promotional debut against Chris Leben (which would lead to his first title fight with Rich Franklin), and 1 scheduled title fight against Travis Lutter, before it was switched to non-title after Lutter failed to make weight.
• His fight finish breakdown is as follows: 5 KOs, 5 TKOs, 3 submissions, and 2 decisions. Granted, one of those TKOs was Patrick Cote blowing out his knee, and not anything Silva actually did. For technicality’s sake, we’ll count it.
• 6 first-round finishes, 5 second-round, 1 third-round, and 1 in the fifth-round.
• Under the unified rules of MMA, Anderson Silva’s 5th round submission against Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 was the latest stoppage in UFC history at 3:10, or 23:10 seconds of total fighting.
• 9 “….of the Night” award bonuses, including 3 Fight of the Nights, 4 Knockout of the Nights, and 2 Submission of the Nights.
• 4 fighters have suffered either their first career KO loss or first TKO (stoppage due to strikes) against Anderson Silva. Chris Leben and Vitor Belfort had their only KO losses against Silva, whilst Chael Sonnen and Nate Marquardt were stopped via strikes for the first and so far only time in their careers.
• 16 knockdowns landed, a UFC record. You know you’re good when your knockdown average is higher than the number of fights you’ve had.
• According to FightMetric, Silva has landed 67.6% of his significant strikes, which are defined as “all strikes at distance and power strikes in the clinch and on the ground.” The next closest fighter on that list is Cain Velasquez at 60.2%!

 

Silva is 37, he’s accomplished everything he could possibly imagine, and he’s clearly not showing any signs of decline. I’m enjoying the ride and even though he’s had his bizarre moments against Demian Maia and Thales Leites, when Silva fights, he normally delivers lots of violence. He’s the greatest fight finisher we’ll ever see and it’s remarkable how he maintains this against high-level opposition.

Who’s next? Who knows? Chris Weidman assaulted Mark Munoz last night as Josh Rosenthal was in a complete trance, and could get the next shot. Hector Lombard, the UFC’s latest signing, has heavy hands and hasn’t lost in ages. Michael Bisping? Give me a break. Alan Belcher is a few fights away from a title shot.

It’s hard to clean out a division, but Anderson has pretty much done that. He is a once-in-a-lifetime talent and there will never be anyone of his calibre and no one will ever reach his level of dominance. I’m 100% certain of this.

An Apology to the Sonnenites

First written on Bloody Elbow

Dear Chael Sonnen’s hardest of hardcore fans,

I’m sorry for last night. What Anderson Silva did was utterly disgraceful and it’s something I never want to see ever again, especially against the unbreakable fast-learner himself, Chael Sonnen. When Yves Lavigne stopped the fight I was sick to my stomach because of the injustice that took place … I’m talking about the legally defended takedown before the legal dodging of Sonnen’s breathtakingly stupid spinning backfist legal knee to the body, the legal follow-up shots on the ground, followed up by Sonnen legally getting clocked by a right hand (resulting in the first knockdown of his Zuffa career), then more legal punches resulting in the stoppage.

It was sickening to see the sight of what occurred at the MGM Grand. Chael Sonnen, as you all know, is the perfect fighter. Joe Rogan even hailed him the greatest trash-talker in combat sports history, which is accurate like a Tim Tebow pass. His submission defense has since been magically patched up by training with Vinny Magalhaes. Sort of like how anyone can go into Golden Glory and leave with the skills of a thousand Badr Haris. His striking, based on his last fight with Anderson, was clearly more powerful and more accurate than the so-called “champion”. And his ground-and-pound? Worst pillow fight of your life, man. Chael’s ferocious ground-and-pound is hailed in some circles as “Bob Ross furiously slamming his paintbrush back-and-forth against the canvas” and it was evident that Silva was having none of this after getting violently clapped in the first 5 minutes en route to losing the first round 10-2.

I hate seeing Chael Sonnen lose as much as you do, especially when Silva also cheated by grabbing the shorts, which is apparently the only way one can stop Sonnen’s 100% takedown accuracy. This completely affected the entire fight and prevented Sonnen from mounting Silva and boxing his ears off. Sonnen was going to finish that fight if not for Silva’s dirty tactics of short-grabbing and being the better fighter. If we ignore reality, Chael Sonnen is the greatest middleweight who ever lived, and I tend to believe this side of the story. As I’ve learned from Sonnenites, facts are the enemy, which is why I’ve wiped out every loss from his record and the failed drug test. I’m retroactively claiming no-contest because Silva resorted to cheating against the wrestling demigod that is Chael Sonnen.

But all is not lost, my friends. Sonnen just needs upwards of 15-20 more fights with Anderson to successfully lay on Anderson Silva for 25 minutes and you’ll have your champion.

Keep your chin up so that Anderson Silva can hit that, too. There won’t be a next time, because there’s no need for us to see Chael Sonnen brutalize Anderson Silva’s skin with fistbumps and noogies.

Sincerely,

- Me.

Legal.

The Dramatic Descent of Tyson Griffin (UPDATED)

It’s June 2012, and Tyson Griffin, aged just 28, is currently teetering on the edge of complete irrelevancy. He’s 1-4 in his last 5. A stark contrast from his days as a lightweight contender and one of the most exciting fighters in the sport. He had the striking, wrestling, grappling, physique — the dude rivals Ben Henderson for “really muscular legs” — and chin to really make a push for UFC gold, but it never materalized. So what happened? Let me take you back a little bit to summarize Tyson’s UFC career…..

UFC Fight Statistics For 1st Quarter of 2012

Between now and April 9th there will be no UFC event. It’s a blast to the stone-age era when you used to wait 6 months between shows, much less 6 weeks. The closest fill you’ll get as far as a UFC fix is simply to watch The Ultimate Fighter Live on FX every Friday night at 9 PM, as it premieres this week. In the meantime, I’ve taken a closer look at some fight statistics for the first three months worth of shows. You can gloss over these numbers after the jump.

UFC 144 GIF OF THE DAY: Anthony Pettis Earns Title Shot With Head Kick KO vs. Joe Lauzon

UFC 144 in Saitama, Japan was a special night for fight fans. Thrilling comebacks from Vaughan Lee (vs. Kid Yamamoto) and Tim Boetsch (vs. Yushin Okami), exciting finishes (Mark Hunt vs. Cheick Kongo and Issei Tamura vs. Tiequan Zhang), all capped off with an epic title fight between Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson, with Henderson the victor and new UFC Lightweight Champion. With any potential rematch between Bendo and Edgar put on hold, the last man to defeat Henderson, Anthony “Showtime” Pettis, will get to rematch Henderson later in the year. Pettis opened up the pay-per-view broadcast against rising star Joe Lauzon, fresh off a stunning submission win over Melvin Guillard. With Pettis just 1-1 since the WEC was merged into the UFC, Showtime knew he needed a highlight reel finish and boy did he provide one.

GIF via Iron Forges Iron

The ultimate irony here is that Pettis beat Henderson at WEC 53 with his infamous off-the-cage kick in December 2010 to become the organization’s final lightweight champ. Pettis was to unify the belt against the winner of Edgar vs. Gray Maynard, but with that fight ending in a draw, Pettis had to wait his turn and fight Clay Guida last June. Guida outwrestled him for three straight rounds and Pettis found himself out of the title picture. Meanwhile, Ben Henderson proceeded to score impressive victories over Mark Bocek and Jim Miller to set himself up for a title shot eliminator against….you guessed it, Clay Guida! Henderson won by decision and now here he is defending the UFC Lightweight Championship belt against the man who took his WEC Lightweight Championship belt.

It should be an incredible fight, much like the first one was, and maybe this is the type of bout that should be showcased on one of the FOX cards.