Does Sonnen getting the better of Silva on the feet make you think AS is in decline?

If anything the Sonnen fight proves Silva's greatness to me. He found himself surprised by a challenger who had peaked in time for the title fight but unlike Fedor or Penn was able to move through the gears and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. He was going for numerous submissions throughout the fight and made an absolute mess of Sonnen with strikes from the bottom. And the closing sequence is a thing of beauty - the jab off the back rocked Sonnen and in a flash he had the tight triangle applied. It is incredibly difficult to get a submission in the fifth round when you're tired and both you and your opponent are slippery.

 

I don't see much parallel between BJ and Fedor, one was caught in a sub, the other was dominated for 5 rounds.

While Anderson obviously won the match and showed great focus to stay dangerious for that long I'd say that overall it maybe a worse reflection on him than matches like Fedor/Werrdum and GSP/Serra were on them. In those fights you saw a great fighter lose a bit of focus and get caught in a situation they've previous not shown a weakness in. Anderson on the other hand was dominated for over 20 mins in an area we has shown weakness in previously.

 

The parrallel was that after a sustained period of success they found themselves in a bad spot and couldn't move through the gears quickly enough to avoid defeat.

And no the Sonnen performance was not a worse reflection on Silva than Fedor/Werdum or GSP/Serra...you know why? BECAUSE HE WON THE FIGHT!

 

Silva was not really ever in a position of nearly being finished though was he? indeed besides maybe Lutter I don't recall him being in one since the Chonan heel hook.

The individual result is obviously superior but if I was a potential opponant of either I might well take more heart in Andersons performance. While not as extreme it reminds me alot of Lesnar/Carwin, people were way too keen to try and sweep Brocks weaknesses under the carpet purely because he won the match.

I see a similar kind of parallel in the way he was able to win aswell, exploiting an obvious weakness in his opponants game. Sonnen was afterall leaving openings for subs for a good while before he exploited one and we've seen guys like Filho do so much more quickly in the past.

 

Neither was Penn.

But yeah I agree that it shows a stylistic weakness that could be exploited by others in the division...although probably only St. Pierre actually has wrestling anywhere near the level of Sonnen. Part of me still thinks Silva is crazy enough to have hold back on his striking so he could win with a submission to avenge what Sonnen said about the Nogueiras. Anybody else I'd think that was bull**** revisionism but he was going for so many submissions and seemed particularly delighted to have won with a triangle. Plus the Maia fight showed how far he'd go to prove a point.

 

I agree Penn makes amuch better example although I don't think there was as obvious a weakness as Sonnens sub defence for him to exploit vs Edgar.

I'v never really bought into the idea that Anderson was messing about in his recent fights, he fought the way he did vs Cote, Leites and Maia because he was playing it safe vs potentially threatening opposition IMHO. It was pretty dam obvious that he wanted to keep it standing and KO Sonnen but was unable to.

 

it was a mixture of things. he was probably focused on the TD but not the striking to TD. he would have also been shocked at the tenacity. his rib was injured. chael was a southpaw.

i think he may now be drained at the weight, not sure. his timing at 205 was unreal and very early in the fight too - could be because they were bigger slower guys or because he was much fresher. drying out is no joke.

it is also important to note that chael has a style that can mess you up from the start. same happened to okami and nate. he is so tenacious and so physical so early that even 1 or 2 mins in, you can struggle to be sharp and find your bearings. once chael put him down, he kept him down and when he did get up, he was no longer the same man. chael had already established a rythm and pattern that is very hard to break. your best bet is to use his style against him. once silva accepted this, he went into bjj mode and started using his aggression against him to try and find subs. i know silva pulled out the sub late but he was looking for these opportunities much earlier in the fight. its hard to appreciate how difficult it is to turn a fight your way when you've got a good wrestler doing what he does best - fighting hard, fighting physical and controlling your whole body.

 

He is looking older both in appearance and how he moves in the ring. I mentioned this immediately the Sonnen performance, but if you look at his last performances there is a trend. I would say he is has been on a slow streak of declined which was apparent in the Sonnen fight. I suppose add an injury and an opponent motivated and juiced up and you have a cocktail for a long night.

With that said, he is not shot. He is on a decline however.