At the peak of the Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park, 2,300 feet above sea level, overlooking Rio de Janeiro stands the famous ”Christ the Redeemer” statue — a 130-foot concrete sculpture of Jesus Christ, symbolic of the Christian faith that is so strong in the Brazilian city.
At the risk of being blasphemous, the city may have to erect a statue of Anderson Silva for the rabid MMA fans in Rio.
After all, if the aforementioned iconic religious monument is considered one of the seven wonders of the world, you might have to call Silva the eighth.
Not only is the Sao Paulo native a fighting freak of nature, he is almost as prototypical of the deep-seeded roots of mixed martial arts in Brazil as that which the Lord and Saviour is to Bible believers.
And he delivered on Saturday night. The middleweight champion’s win over Yushin Okami Saturday at UFC 134, the organization’s long-awaited return to the birthplace of MMA and the first under the Zuffa banner, was his record ninth straight defence. And his performance left little doubt that he is the greatest champion in UFC history and one of if not the best pound-for-pound fighters ever.
It was eerily reminiscent of Georges St-Pierre at UFC 83 in 2008 — the organization’s first event in Canada. Like Silva, GSP was fighting near his home town, not for the first time professionally but for the first such time in the UFC. Like Silva, he was taking on the last man to beat him — in GSP’s case it was Matt Serra, who had stripped him of his belt in an upset a year earlier.
Like the Bell Centre in Montreal that night, the 14,000-plus at Rio’s HSBC Arena were as loud as you’ve ever heard (from all accounts, even louder) as they cheered on their hero. And after a relatively close first round, both champs took over in the second.
So similarly to how St-Pierre did in 2008, finishing off a downed Serra with knees to the body as he lay on his side subdued late in the second round, Silva got his revenge on Okami, taking care of him with punches as he too turtled up sideways two minutes into the second frame.
According to the FightMetric stats, Silva had only a slight edge in significant striking in the first round, with Okami getting a little more than the champ if you include jabs from the clinch.
But in the decisive round, Silva had a commanding 25-4 edge in significant strikes landed and was 74 per cent in accuracy (vs. Okami’s 25 per cent). And that included two clear knockdowns, eventually leading to the elegant if not emphatic TKO.
And like GSP in 2008, the victory declared a triumphant entrance into a new market for the UFC. Montreal would go on to host many more MMA events on a regular basis, just as Brazil is expected to with possibly four more in 2012. And similar to the way the Canadian debut helped open the door to another of the country’s cities to host a record 55,724 (at UFC 129 in Toronto), the UFC is already planning to nearly double that in another Brazilian city, Manaus, hoping to fill a 100,000-seat arena a year from now.
If Saturday night in Rio was any indication, you can expect them to succeed. And just like GSP also headlined April’s show at the Rogers Centre, there’s a good chance Silva will do the same in August 2012 at the Manaus Convention Center.
To me, GSP and Silva also share another characteristic — any time either enters the cage, I never imagine that either could possibly lose. Even if St-Pierre has had trouble earning finishes, I just don’t picture a way for either of their opponents to ever end up walking out of the cage with the belt.
Silva has repeatedly said (including last night) the best opponent you could offer him would be his “clone.”
Since we’re talking fictitious, how about Jesus himself?
Nah, the Prince of Peace would never fight him. “Live by the clone. Die by the clone.”
But seriously the natural question is who can give The Spider a good challenge at this point? The names bandied about have been: Chael Sonnen, Dan Henderson, GSP and Jon Jones.
A matchup with Henderson was even rumoured last week to be the first for the UFC’s new television deal with FOX on Nov. 12. Personally, Silva’s performance Saturday night should completely erase that notion. Henderson was picked apart as easily as Okami was when they met three-and-a-half years ago and Hendo was still in his prime. The American is now 41 years old.
Jones would represent a really good fight, but I think it’s too soon. There are already too many strong light-heavyweight contenders, so unless Silva wants to move up to 205 permanently (and that’s unlikely since he doesn’t plan to fight for much longer), that may have to wait. You also don’t want to risk derailing the Bones Jones hype train when it’s not necessary.
I’m still VERY interested in a GSP-Silva fight, but the Canadian champ needs some time to bulk up at 185 pounds. He’s always said he has to do it the right way — and the time may be soon to make a permanent move to middleweight, leaving way for his teammate Rory MacDonald to go after the welterweight belt.
In the meantime, I think the Silva-Sonnen rematch has to happen. Imagine the hype that the chatterbox Chael can drum up on his own. And Silva has to erase any lingering objections about that “near-loss.” Anderson won that fight fair and square and displayed what a champion is all about by pulling out a late triangle. But there’s no doubt he was on his way to a dominating five-round defeat, and we had never seen that before from Silva.
Not sure when that can happen, since Sonnen is fighting Brian Stann on Oct. 8. Even if he emerges unscathed, Nov. 12 on FOX would likely be too early.
But UFC 140 in Toronto on Dec. 10 at the Air Canada Centre still needs a headliner.
(Hint, hint.)
Either way, I do hope Silva stays in the game long enough to see a few more super-fights. Call it greedy, but it’s a privilege to continue to watch this iconic wonder do his thing in the cage.