The dominance, insanity, genius, bipolarism, pacifism and just plain weirdness of Anderson Silva continues to write the strangest story in mixed martial arts. As incredible a fighter as he is, he is also a man of many contradictions.
At times he is an absolute killing machine, obliterating opponents at will. At other times he just moves around the cage like a ballroom dancer, refusing to engage or initiate any offense. He passionately implores his opponents to bring the fight, all while he himself refuses to push the action. They have medications for people with these kinds of extreme mood swings. And these swings aren't just fight to fight, they're minute to minute within each fight.
So what exactly is going on in Anderson's very complex head? I have no 'effin idea, but we can speculate, can't we? There's many ways to look at his bizarre behavior.
•He might just be showing us his compassionate side. It could very well be that he doesn't want to unnecessarily hurt his opponents. Once he has a fight in hand, he just seems to ride the fight out. If you look at his fights with Thales Leites and Patrick Cote, they are very similar to what went on in the fight with Maia. The Cote fight was a bit different and had Patrick not suffered the blown knee, the result might have turned out differently. Ironically, both Leites and the infamous Kalib Starnes lost their jobs in the UFC for exactly what Anderson has been doing. While Kalib's transgression was extreme, a solid argument can be made that Thales' lack of engagement isn't as bad as Anderson's have been, and that Anderson might actually be the real culprit here. After all, he is the common denominator in all these fights. What's interesting is that his compassion doesn't seem to be extended to his non-Brazilian opponents. He completely destroyed Rich Franklin's nose, TWICE, and beat the snot out of Chris Leben, Travis Lutter, James Irvin, Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson and Forrest Griffen. He was much more Cobra Kai than Miyagi-do in those fights!
•Another thing to consider is Anderson's traditional martial arts mentality and approach to fighting. Its obvious that he's had traditional martial arts training. He regularly bows to his opponents, and also bows to the four angles of "the place of the way", in this case, the Octagon. He might very well feel like he doesn't have to destroy his opponents to win the fight. Georges St-Pierre is the same way. He comes from a TMA background as well. He could have easily torn Dan Hardy's shoulder off or broke his elbow in their recent fight at UFC 111 but chose not to, knowing he had the victory well in hand. There's honor in that! Why force someone to have to deal with surgery, rehab and a long stretch of inactivity, when you know you are winning the fight? Of course, the blood thirsty fans won't be happy, but maybe that helps fighters like Anderson and GSP sleep better at night. I have no problem with that, and actually think that in the long run, its better for the advancement of the sport for people to see that kind of compassion. We've moved beyond the "human cock-fighting" tag, and situations like these will only further that.
•Complete and total arrogance might also be playing a role in this. In Anderson's mind, he might be thinking that Zuffa needs him more than he needs them. They aren't going to fire him, regardless of how he wins his fights. He has his contract, and gets paid to fight and paid to win, which he does. He just does it exactly the way he wants to. The only thing he's losing by fighting like this is the potential for the FOTN, KOTN and SOTN bonu$es. I don't think money is Anderson's motivation, so he probably could care less about that. He's making plenty of money regardless.
•Is Anderson only to blame here? I say no. His opponents have to press the action as well. When fighters come at Silva, he fights, there's no doubt about that. If they just sit back and wait for him to initiate action, we will continue to see much more of this. Strategically, that approach to a fight with Anderson isn't particularly smart anyway. That's like waiting for a lion to decide when he wants to eat you for a light snack. No one is going to outstrike Silva (except maybe Machida), so the gameplan has to be to take him down and fight him on the mat. That isn't going to happen if you just sit back and wait for him to pounce. They have to rush him and create something. I know, that's easier said than done, but there's really no other way to beat this guy. Until Zuffa gives him opponents that he actually has to worry about, this could very well be how he will continue to conduct himself. Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen might be the only fighters at 185 to bring the fire out of Anderson. A rematch with Nate the Great might motivate him as well.
•Boredom? When Anderson fights obviously inferior opponents, he seems bored out of his skull. He fights like he's having a regular sparring session at the gym. He knows he can beat these guys and is just going through the paces. To his credit, he at least makes it interesting with his unusual antics. In his 25 minute waltz with Maia we saw everything including:
-capoeira moves
-a variety of different stances
-deliberately kneeling mid round
-screaming at Maia in Portuguese to come at him
-dropping his hands down to his waist and using just head movement to avoid punches
-a myriad of other strange histrionics.
Exciting? No, but interesting nonetheless!
I think if Silva wanted to prove his dominance, he should have knocked out Maia when he had the chance. He could have impressed everyone if he dared to go to the ground with Maia.
ReplyDeleteHe spent so much time almost begging Maia to engage him. The when Maia did engage him, Silva ran. He ran so much that the ref threatened to take a point away. In my opinion, Silva embarrassed himself, the fans and the sport.