8 Reasons Anderson Silva Would Destroy Chael Sonnen in a Rematch

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva is arguably the most dominant fighter in the history of the sport. He recently extended his record 14-fight win streak in the Octagon, which has resulted in a cabinet almost bare of potential challengers.

However, one remaining challenger stands out from the crowd. One that Silva has actually already defeated.

That’s right, I’m talking about Chael Sonnen.

A veteran of the sport, Sonnen has engaged in some epic brawls with some of the best fighters of the past and present. Though he hasn’t always come out on top, Sonnen eventually earned himself a shot at the champion last year at UFC 117. He came in like many others as a massive underdog, but he shocked the world by doing something that no fighter had ever done before him: He completely dominated Silva for the better part of the first four rounds of the fight.

However, as is case for potentially every fight involving Silva, it was over in an instant when the champion slapped on a picture-perfect triangle and choked out his challenger in the waning moments of the contest.

Given that we had never seen Silva dominated like this, though, questions immediately arose—was Anderson Silva exposed? Did Sonnen just make a mistake? Would he win a rematch?

These questions are all valid, but the last question is the truly important one.

To answer it, we need to dig deeper. And these eight reasons will explain why it is my belief that Anderson Silva would crush Chael Sonnen in a rematch.

8. Silva Was Injured in the First Fight

Those who look back at Chael Sonnen’s performance in his first fight with Anderson Silva and predict that he would do the same in a rematch often fail to consider the fact that the Silva we saw that night was not the Silva we normally see.

It didn’t even immediately come out in the media, but after the fight happened we found out that the champion was actually hobbled by injured ribs that kept him from training at a high level and likely worsened them in the cage.

Silva himself is not one to make excuses (and why should he?), so we didn’t even find out directly from him, but the truth remains that we were not seeing him at his best on that night.

Rest assured that in a rematch, he’s going to be at 100 percent. 

7. Silva Won’t Underestimate Sonnen

Some would ask why Silva decided to stay in the fight if he knew he was injured. Certainly a sense of pride would come into play, as Silva is obviously a very dignified fighter who does not want to make excuses. However, the real truth might be that Silva underestimated Sonnen.

When a champion hears his name praised over and over again, it can often be hard to stay grounded and continue to improve. We have seen this happen in the past with many fighters, and although Silva hasn’t seen the slip-up and losses in his fights like others have, his near-loss may have been his version of a slip-up.

Certainly the champion is on notice now that Sonnen is a threat to him, and Silva will come into the fight with his full focus on defending the title. 

6. Silva Knows Sonnen’s Game Plan

Given Silva’s history of keeping fights on the feet, it has to be assumed that his fight camp came into the first fight against Sonnen with the indication that their fighter would be engaging in another stand-up war.

We now know it didn’t turn out like as planned, with Sonnen seemingly taking the Brazilian down with relative ease while successfully controlling the champion’s best skill set with smothering wrestling and relentless ground-and-pound. He was hugely successful in implementing his game plan—something that Silva and his trainers will be well aware of for the next fight.

5. Striking Technique

The whole reason that Sonnen decided to bring the first fight to the ground is that he knew that he couldn’t realistically stand and exchange strikes with Anderson Silva for a full 25 minutes.

That’s not to say Sonnen should be ashamed of his standup—he actually looked pretty good in that fight against perhaps the best stand-up fighter we’ve ever seen—but not even Sonnen would be likely to contend that he has a good chance if he keeps the fight on the feet.

Look for Silva to train takedown defense to the point of physical exhaustion, as he knows that's Sonnen’s only real opportunity of coming out a winner. He’ll do everything he can to keep this fight standing where he knows he can end it at any time.

4. Jiu-Jitsu

If the fight did go to the ground again, as many predict that it would, it would again be a classic battle of wrestling versus jiu-jitsu, as Sonnen would be attempting to implement his bread-and-butter again against the underrated and relatively untested defensive skills of Silva.

Sonnen dominated this battle in the first fight, keeping Silva on his back for the majority of the contest, but as was demonstrated, it only takes one mistake to end a fight. When Sonnen made that mistake, Silva was there to wrap his legs around his opponent’s head and squeeze until he felt a tap.

It should go without saying that Sonnen will be training regularly in submission defense in addition to refining his standup game and continuing to master his wrestling, but the truth is that Silva is just on another level than what Sonnen is going to be able to learn in such a short amount of time.

I’m not going to go right out and predict another submission, but even the threat of a potential submission could be enough to make Sonnen more cautious and thus less aggressive in a rematch. 

3. Testosterone Replacement Therapy

Say what you will about how he got to the high levels of testosterone that caused him to fail a post-fight drug test, but the fact of the matter is that Sonnen was not only at peak performance, he was above peak performance when he fought Silva.

Testosterone replacement therapy is a real answer for real people with real problems—and Sonnen may very well be one of those people—but the original intention of the therapy was supposed to be to get the user’s body back to normal testosterone levels. Sonnen's use of the therapy was not to do that. It was to get better-than-normal results from his training and better-than-normal results in the cage.

Sonnen will be making his first return to the cage after 14 months off when he fights Brian Stann this weekend at UFC 136. UFC matchmakers will be looking to see if cage-rust plays any part in his performance, but there will also be added pressure on him to pass his drug tests with normal testosterone levels.

2. Uncle Chael Lacks a Killer Instinct

There is no doubting that Sonnen is one of the very best middleweight fighters on the planet. His record speaks for itself. Victories over the likes of Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami, Dan Miller and Paulo Filho prove he is very capable of defeating the best that the world has to offer.

However, one thing that has always held him back is his lack of a killer instinct. I don’t mean to say he doesn’t go in with the intention of winning fights—of course he does—but he doesn’t do it in the same kind of way that someone like Silva does.

While Sonnen prefers a more methodical, grind-it-out, control-the-pace and take-a-decision approach, fighters like Silva and others in the UFC have taken a more risky, but often times more convincing approach. Others try to finish almost every opponent that they compete with. Meanwhile, it has been over four years since Sonnen has finished an opponent—and that didn’t even happen in the UFC.

In fact, in 12 career fights in the WEC and UFC, Sonnen has never finished an opponent.

I’ll be the first to say that a win is a win no matter how it comes, but Sonnen’s lack of ability—or lack of desire—to knock opponents out on the feet or submit them on the ground makes it significantly easier for his opponents to take chances against him. When Silva doesn’t have to worry about being knocked out on the feet, we have seen him absolutely humiliate his opponents on his way to countless knockout victories.

Maybe he doesn’t have the physical power in his punches to achieve regular one-punch knockouts, but there is always the opportunity for him to refine his submissions and begin looking to use his superior positioning in fights to finish his opponents off. 

1. Steven Seagal

Just kidding.

...or am I?