Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen Prediction Introduction: Anderson Silva looked shameful in his last fight against Demian Maia, attempting all types of trickery seemingly designed to embarrass, not defeat his adversary. On the other hand, Chael Sonnen looked great in his most recent bout against Nate Marquardt. Does that mean Sonnen will be favored in their upcoming UFC 117 encounter?
Hell, no. Silva is widely considered the best pound for pound fighter in the world today, and for good reason. He hasn't had a close fight in a very long time. Still, Sonnen has been talking a good game and seems confident. Will that translate to an upset victory?
Keep reading to find out.
What Anderson Silva (26-4) brings to the table: Silva may be the most proficient and deadly striker in the history of MMA. He's laser accurate with his strikes and is as diverse as they come. In other words, he's a killer in the clinch with knees and elbows, and from a distance with kicks and his hands. What's more, he's a black belt caliber Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner with a tremendous guard that benefits from amazingly long legs.
If there is a relative technical weakness in Silva's game, it's that his wrestling is not well-above average. He can be taken down. Of course, that's only a relative weakness, as taking him down isn't easy to do either. In addition, he hasn't looked as great as usual in recent middleweight bouts, such as his last fight against Demian Maia, which has some wondering if he's motivated to fight in the middleweight division anymore.
What Chael Sonnen (24-10-1) brings to the table: Sonnen is an outstanding wrestler with excellent cardio. That means his takedowns, takedown defense, and ground control skills are great. Further, he has solid stand up.
Sonnen's weaknesses are that he has been caught by some excellent submission fighters. In addition, he tends to win most of his fights by ground and pound-like decisions, not stoppages.
By the way, Sonnen is one of the best trash talkers in the game today. Most would think that has little to do with this contest, but they may be wrong on that gront.
Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen UFC 117 Prediction: First thing's first: This is a five round fight. From the perspective of cardio, both fighters should be prepared. Sonnen will be ready because he always is, whereas Silva will be ready because he's a professional and....
Yep, all of Sonnen's trash talking may backfire here. Rather than get in Silva's head, as he's likely trying to do, he may be motivating his adversary. Remember when everyone out there kept saying that Griffin would make Silva fight a tough battle at UFC 101- didn't happen, now did it? Nope, Silva was motivated to destroy his adversary and dispatched of him quickly.
Motivation plus the fact that his opponent doesn't have great finishing skills probably spells trouble for Sonnen here. Remember that at the start of every round, both fighters will be standing. Granted, Sonnen does have some excellent wrestling; he could control things all the way to the bell in every round. But guess is that he'll have some difficulty maintaining his ground and pound due to Silva's laser guided strikes. And even if Sonnen does put him on his back, it's not like "The Spider" isn't dangerous there as well.
Expect a fight similar to the Silva-Dan Henderson battle. Sonnen may look good in spurts due to his wrestling. But eventually, it seems, Silva catches just about everyone on his feet. Sonnen probably won't be able to maintain what he needs to do to win throughout.
Anderson Silva defeats Chael Sonnen by TKO in round two.
