Three Questions About Anderson Silva's Future

Since Anderson Silva’s epic championship tilt with Chael Sonnen, a slew of ideas have surfaced within the MMA community concerning the UFC Middleweight Champion’s current position in the sport.

There are three questions of particular interest which have generated no small degree of discussion, and which I will address here.

1. Will this fight negatively affect Anderson Silva's confidence in future match-ups?

I do not pretend to know what transpires in the champion’s head.

However, to those observers who seem convinced that the lopsided nature of the first 20-plus minutes of UFC 117’s main event must have shattered Silva’s confidence, I feel obligated to ask myself: could any outcome have provided a better confidence boost?

Silva took a beating for almost 24 minutes. Sonnen threw everything he had at the champion, and yet Anderson survived.

Not only did he endure Sonnen’s onslaught, but he came back to win in dramatic and convincing fashion.  One would think this is a moral victory in the mind of the winner to say the very least.

2. Was this bout a sign that Anderson might be fading?

Injuries aside, to say that Chael Sonnen's sheer dominance of the vast majority of the fight was due to Anderson's fading ability rather than Sonnen's own skill set is unfair.  

I will say that the struggle the champion went through to achieve victory here speaks much more of Chael Sonnen than it does of Anderson Silva. 

Chael Sonnen was able to achieve success where other recent challengers to Silva's title failed because he was able to utilize his considerable wrestling skills, an area where Silva has seemed somewhat wanting in the past.

Chael Sonnen brought something to the table what we already knew, or should have already known, would give Anderson Silva problems.

Since his 2008 victory over Dan Henderson, it has been argued again and again that Anderson had not faced another fighter with the skills to threaten him at the weakest facet of his skill set: wrestling.

That is, until he faced off against Chael Sonnen.

Sonnen was able to not only put Anderson on his back seemingly at will, but was even able to land punches on Anderson in a way many thought even less likely than for the challenger to have any considerable success at all. 

Sonnen was able to damage Silva and put him in serious danger in a way not seen for several years.

3.  Is Anderson Silva still the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world?

The pound-for-pound discussion will likely always be subject to controversy and disagreement.  However, one criterion for pound-for-pound consideration, which anyone can agree on, is defeating the best opposition in the world.

Chael Sonnen was arguably the most clear-cut challenger to the middleweight mantle of mixed martial arts since Anderson Silva was matched up against Dan Henderson over two year ago to, unifying the UFC and PRIDE titles.  There is not a better qualifier for being a top pound-for-pound fighter than defeating the number one contender.

He was battered and handled for almost the full 25 minutes of the fight, and yet Anderson Silva rose to the occasion at the very last moment and achieved victory in what seemed to be the most unlikely fashion.   

For those of us who did consider Anderson Silva to be the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world leading up to this fight, I see no reason not to continue to do so.