Afrothought Salutes: Anderson Silva

Anderson “The Spider” Silva

Yep, I had to do it. If this dude’s not bad, then you just don’t even know the meaning of the word. This weekend, Anderson Silva fought top Light Heavyweight Contender Forrest Griffin in the UFC. Now say what you want about Forrest, but the guy can fight. He may not be Top 10 (in my opinion he’s not), he may be drastically overrated, but he’s above the halfway point of the division. For those who don’t understand or are aware of what exactly happened Saturday Night, let me set it up.

Anderson Silva is currently the reigning UFC Middleweight Champion (185 lbs). He’s basically demolished everyone in his path for the last several years and has only be truly defeated three times before. His highlight reel is one of the most jaw dropping in MMA. What makes this more fascinating is that the people he humiliates are top of the line contenders and is somehow able to make them look like they don’t belong in the cage/ring with him. Furthermore, the guy has a career striking accuracy is much higher than anyone’s in the sport.

Over the course of his career, Silva’s average striking accuracy per-fight is an even 70%. To give some context, the average fighter’s accuracy is around 35%, and Silva’s opponents’ accuracy in their fights against him is 24%. That means Silva is twice as accurate as your standard fighter and nearly three times as accurate as the people fighting against him. His footwork and technique are such that not only does he connect, he also makes his opponents miss. – Yahoo! Sports

You know you’re a bad moFo when you knock someone out while you’re backpedaling with your WEAK hand. You know you’re a badass when you can stand 1 foot from your opponent with your hands at your side and not only not get touched, but somehow manage to dodge everything that is thrown at you. Seriously, I’m not even gonna talk too much about this cuz words don’t do it. Just watch the video.

Blame Dana

Silva is not Fedor. Nor is Fedor Silva. People needa stop comparing the two. Silva’s said 1000x he’s not #1 and Dana keeps shoving it down everyone’s throats and bashing Fedor because:

1) He’s not fighting the best of the best
2) Fedor won’t massage Dana’s balls and join the UFC

as for #1, Silva is not facing the best guys either. I think we both agree that Leites was a HORRIBLE challenger, we knew that going in. And I think that Leites greatly exceeded everyone’s expectations with his amazingly garbage ass performance. Dude wasn’t even at the post-fight press conference. Cote i’ve NEVER liked either.

No, Silva didn’t do wat everyone wanted him to do (Silva…Smash). But as long as the ENTIRE MMA community wants to compare him w/ Fedor, when was the last time you’ve seen a challenger for Fedor’s title just fall on the ground 1000x or just run away from him the ENTIRE fight. Leites only landed 17 strikes, less than 25% of his total shots whereas Silva landed 104, 70% of his shots.

If you want the fight to goto the ground, go for the takedown or jump guard. No fighter in MMA will come inside a persons guard unless he was taken down (ur pulled into guard) or his opponent got knocked down. Tha’s how MMA WORKS! If Fedor was fighting Leites and Thales just sat down in the ring. Fedor would look at him like “WTF?” too. Tha’s the most redickulous mess ever.

Even when Silva was in Thales’ guard, he got out EASY more than once. When Silva was on his back, he was controlling this dude. What does this say? Silva is a STRIKER, w/ some damn good Jiu-Jitsu, but at the end of the day, I think anyone would be frustrated if ur stuck in an organization w/ a president who’s using u as a marketing tool when you’re CONSTANTLY saying U ARE NOT the #1 P4P.

I just want him to Fight GSP (if he beats Alves), kick HIS ass, and move up to 205. Cuz the 205ers aren’t gonna pull that same kinda crap Cote and Leites did. Most 205ers are pretty scary. 185 has went to the s*** tank like the Heavyweight division did a few yrs back. Thank goodness, that ‘s changing now (hopefully).