Just caught the Silva/Sonnen fight... No im not saying he's shot,but it seems age is catching up with Silva. Keep in mind I haven't been keeping up with what happened in the fight and watched a recorded version of the fight. when silva stepped in, i couldnt help but notice how he's so much looking his age in terms of facial features, etc. I thought I hope this doesn't mean he will pull a Roy vs Tarver on us. He looked like and reminded me of when Jones came down in weight to fight Tarver in his first fight; simply not like himself. And, very similarly, he was fighting a guy who wasn't intimidated by his aura or image and really believed to be the chosen guy to destroy him. the fight begins and right off the bat he's getting hit with punches he normally would use his reflexes to dodge. As we all know, reflexes is one of the things that tend to go out the window with age. He looked lethargic, slow, and simply like a shell of what he usually looks like. This has nothing to do with Sonnen as I think Anderson would have performed just as bad and and would've potentially been ko'd by a couple of other fighters by the way he performed on sat night. Anderson lucked out Sonnen isn't a huge puncher.
it could also be that no opponent in recent times has pressed him the way sonnon did, and maybe in silvas head he saw this as another cake walk which most of us saw it like that too. i believe the truth lies Inbetween our hypothesis's.
anderson always got tagged, but he basically got dropped by a guy who doesnt posses power. thats the real indicator, dan henderson hit him leben hit him forest griffen landed but all those shots had no effect. I would have to see another fight by anderson before I could say for sure but it is possible that at the age of 35 his skills are fading. Anderson is 35 now. remember when silva wanted to retire at the age of 35. http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=7367&zoneid=4 Apperently silva just signed a 6 fight contract with the ufc and now has 5 fights left. He will probably be 38 by the time his the contract is up.
The first shot Sonnen hit Anderson with just hurt him more than we knew, and more than Anderson knew. That is why it looked like Anderson "let him" hit him with those 2 punches, but really I think Anderson wasn't aware of how hurt he was and thought he could easily doge them. He was too hurt though, and couldn't dodge them.....downhill from there.
The thought had crossed my mind. But I don't think we can just judge it on this one fight. We'll have to see what he brings next time out. Hopefully he is sharper and brings his A game.
When given distance for brief moments Silva has a field day. Sonnen has a driving take down so even when Silva is about to pull off a flashy move, Sonnen keeps driving.
