Anderson Silva: Why Spider Silva Can't Beat Georges St. Pierre

Before I get into it, let me just state one thing.

I have already heard the rumor that Silva cracked a rib during the first round.

However, let us all realize that this is not verified yet, so I will precede under the notion that this is nothing more than a rumor as of writing.

I am also aware that he supposedly fought against doctor’s orders, but the exact details of this situation are not available yet either.

With this being said, I am sure the headline caught the attention of many fans.

The reason I believe this to be the truth is the fact that Chael Sonnen exposed Anderson Silva as a very human and beatable fighter.

Fans have been aware that Silva is not a great wrestler, and therefore susceptible to the takedown.

This was probably best exhibited during the early moments of his encounters with both Nate Marquardt and Dan Henderson.

Silva has been so successful do to his extremely potent combination of mostly Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and boxing.

As other writes have noted, Sonnen has written the blueprint to beat Silva after Saturday night’s fight.

The biggest requirement to squashing “The Spider” is being an excellent wrestler. Obviously, this eliminates a number of fighters within the middleweight division.

Nevertheless, Sonnen showed the fans how effective wrestling can be within the confines of the Octagon.

The best examples of Silva being helpless against Sonnen were when Silva went for a body kick and Sonnen grabbed his leg and exploded into a double leg takedown.

The other moment that sticks out in my mind is when Silva actually had Sonnen on his back, but Sonnen managed to squirm into a position where he could grab Silva’s legs and essentially hit a double leg takedown reversal.

Sonnen was also exceptionally dominant from the top position throughout the fight. This comes from having great balance and presence of mind as a wrestler.

Also worth mentioning is that Sonnen is notorious for being as conditioned as anybody in MMA, while Silva’s stamina has come into question in recent fights.

So the point to take home here is that being conditioned and ready to go five rounds should give a challenger another advantage against Silva.

While Silva did enter the fight with injured ribs, it is unclear how bad it was or what happened to worsen the injury during the fight.

It is hard to say this did not affect the champs stamina, but there is simply not enough information right now to give this factor weight it deserves.

Now as everyone knows at this point, Sonnen blew it and got tapped out with a triangle choke that came out of nowhere in the fifth round.

At the moment, one can argue both ways about this outcome.

One point of view is that Sonnen got caught, and given a rematch, he will just be smart enough not to get caught again and finish off the champ.

The opposite field of thought is essentially that Sonnen got extremely lucky and caught Silva on his worst night, and was basically able to exploit an injury.

Let us say the latter is true, other information needs to be taken into account as well.

For one thing, Sonnen, for some nonsensical reason, refuses to regularly train jiu-jitsu. His entire game relies solely on wrestling, more or less.

Therefore, he is quite vulnerable to submission specialists. For those who would like to argue that point, eight of Sonnen’s eleven professional losses have come via submission.

Another fact worth knowing is that a common opponent between the two fighters is Nate Marquardt.

Silva dominated Marquardt in their meeting, winning by TKO at the end of the first round.

Meanwhile, Sonnen defeated Marquardt by a unanimous decision.

While Sonnen was certainly in control, Marquardt was never truly out of the fight until time expired.

The point here is that, as everyone agreed prior to their meeting, Sonnen should be nowhere near Silva’s level.

Marquardt is the only respectable opponent Sonnen has defeated.

When he faced Demian Maia, he also got beat with a triangle choke.

I doubt anyone reading this is not familiar with what happened when Silva faced Maia, but the long story short is that Silva embarrassed Maia in just about every way possible.

The fact that a fighter of Chael Sonnen’s ability came so close to beating Silva is not a good sign for the Middleweight champion.

Readers should acknowledge that perhaps Sonnen truly has stepped his game up this significantly, and that the revenge factor will be all it takes to defeat Silva next time.

However, let us just say for arguments sake, that when the rematch takes place, which is inevitably will sooner or later, Silva dominates Sonnen.

Fair enough, that is what was supposed to happen the first time anyway.

Vitor Belfort is going to be the challenger in the near future, whether it is before or after Sonnen’s rematch.

Belfort’s credentials are not considerable higher than Sonnen’s in all honestly, but I cannot see him getting tapped out since, like Silva, he is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt.

He mainly trained under Carlson Gracie, one of the most respected names in the business.

Therefore, he has only been submitted once in eight professional losses.

Still, “The Phenom’s” odds of beating “The Spider” are not great. He is not a wrestler, and while his striking is far superior to a guy like Sonnen, Silva has had pretty much not trouble of disposing of heavy hitters in the past.

So finally, this leads us to the dream match fans have been calling for, Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre.

This fight would likely require St. Pierre to bump up, as Silva is very light framed and would probably be incredibly emaciated if he dropped down to welterweight at 170.

Regardless what weight class the fight is in, Silva should be terrified of the Welterweight Champion right now.

Georges “Rush” St. Pierre could easily be the most well rounded fighter in MMA right now.

His wrestling is superb; GSP is even considering trying out for the 2012 Summer Olympic Wrestling team.

He is another MMA fighter with a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but is also a third-degree black belt in the stand up fighting martial art of Kyokushin.

Rush is also a regular practitioner of Boxing and Muay Thai, so he is really not lacking in any aspect of MMA.

St. Pierre has also proved to be a cardio machine throughout his MMA career, never tiring matches and known to be absolutely relentless in the octagon.

If Silva has had trouble against skilled wrestlers, he will certainly get picked apart by a guy who has shown to be the total package.

Do not be surprised if Silva ducks GSP a few months down the line.

If Silva wished to keep his win streak, and in all likelihood his title, in tact, this is a fight he will want to avoid.

Do not be shocked if this turned into a Mayweather-Pacquiao type of fiasco, because there is no way Anderson Silva could beat Georges St. Pierre right now.