How to beat Anderson Silva (3 of 4)

Before even stepping into the Octagon, Anderson Silva had the reputation for being one of the most devastating and dangerous strikers in the 185-pound division. Although his clinch is perhaps the sickest in MMA, the only question mark was, and perhaps still is, his ground game.

While the UFC has fed Silva some tough strikers, including former champ Rich Franklin (twice) and bruiser Chris Leben, the truth is, these fighters never stood a chance at defeating Silva. The Champion’s other two opponents fared little better, although they matched up well on paper. While Nate Marquardt is fairly well-rounded, he is best known for his BJJ, kickboxing and kenpo skills, and is the only man to be a seven-time King of Pancrase. Even still, Silva manhandled Marquardt and won via TKO in 4:50 of the very first round.

Silva’s only other Octagon opponent was Travis Lutter, a black belt in Machado Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and world class grappler, having previously competed (twice) in the invitation-only Abu Dhabi World Championships, largely considered to be the highest level grappling tournament in the world. Other than Franklin in his second crack at the Champ, Lutter is the only man to make it into the second round against Silva since April, 2005. Although extremely gassed from cutting so much weight (which he failed to do successfully), Lutter actually looked tough against the then-new Champ; however, Silva turned the tables on Lutter midway through the second round and ended up submitting the Ultimate Submission World Champion and TUF4 winner via triangle choke.

Even though it is largely considered his only potential weakness, Silva’s groundwork has improved significantly since his last two PRIDE fights. The latest (a loss to Ryo Chonan), we’ve already commented on. But before that, on May 8, 2003, Silva was submitted by Daiju Takase (7-11-1). While Takase is a very experience fighter with excellent submission skills, he was largely seen as a low-level can who was fed to Anderson as a stepping stone. While no video is available at this time of the fight, Takase’s rolling triangle choke submission of Anderson has been called “one of the most unique submissions ever seen.” See the picture to the right.

Silva’s only other loss was his very first professional MMA fight—a two-round decision to Luiz Azeredo (11-6, although he was 2-1 going into the fight at the time). Azeredo is also a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioner who holds a win over Naoyuki Kotani (17-7-5) and has been defeated twice by the #1 Lightweight fighter in the world, PRIDE Lightweight Champion Takanori Gomi (one of those fights is shown here ). Azeredo trains at Chute Boxe with Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.