The End of Wanderlei Silva

"Good night you princes of Maine, you kings of New England."—Michael Caine, in The Cider House Rules

Well, that was certainly not a good movie, but certainly a quote relevant to the dying career of "The Axe Murder," Wanderlei Silva.

Perhaps the quote should be, "Good night you prince of PRIDE, you kings of the muay thai clinch."

Silva, who was once the most dominating, the most intimidating, the most vicious light heavyweight is now a deflated loser in the ranks of the UFC light heavy elite.

Silva, who destroyed the competition overseas in Japan for five years, has now become what I predict may be the gatekeeper of the UFC.

I will not claim to understand what goes on within Dana White's scheming money-making head, but if I could guess it is that Silva is either out or the guy to beat for new challengers in the UFC.

Silva has shown in his short UFC career that he is not someone capable of hanging with the big boys. To be fair, the guy that first beat him in the UFC, Chuck Liddell, has also shown some serious weaknesses recently.

Perhaps Silva will have to fight to become the ultimate gatekeeper against Liddell.

Silva was aggressive and remains so, and is exciting, win or lose. But it has become apparent that he is suffering the fate of fellow Brazilian Pedro Rizzo.

He has been KO'ed one too many times, and may have developed a glass chin. Silva's amazing recuperative powers have come into question after the three KOs he has suffered in his last five fights.

At one point in his career Silva showed an amazing ability to get rocked and then recover instantly only to fight back and murder the opposition. This ability was displayed in Silva-Dan Henderson I and Silva-Quinton Jackson II.

A few things could have contributed to the more recent KO losses in Silva's career.

PRIDE was notorious for rumors of steroid use among their fighters. Whether Silva was or was not part of this is unknown, but he has appeared much smaller in the UFC than in his glory days at PRIDE, leaving him to be greatly outsized by the opposition.

Silva has suffered the Liddell effect—he has become a predictable fighter, which is easy for fighters to recognize and counter. Silva has an ultra-aggressive style that has him utilizing furious hooking punches and a fearsome muay thai clinch.

Fighters may now be recognizing this and developing specific game plans to counter it. Jackson utilized a perfect counter strategy that allowed him to not only KO Silva but also Liddell.

A long fight career may be contributing to his recent weakness in fighting as well. At 32 years old, Silva is not the oldest guy competing, but he has had more fights than many of the guys in the UFC competing now.

With a record of 42 fights, some of which were under old no rules Vale Tudo, Silva may be feeling the effects of repeated injuries and a tired beaten body.

Finally, he has suffered several brutal KOs against Mark Hunt, Mirko Filipovic, Dan Henderson, and as of recently, Quinton Jackson. I am no medical expert but I can only imagine being knocked out that many times is not good. Something like that may contribute to developing a glass chin.

Something Silva may want to consider is dropping down a weight class. This may help prevent him from gaining gatekeeper status and make him a champion in the remainder of his career.

With no claims he would be middleweight champion, I do believe fighting smaller guys may make him a real title contender. A Wanderlei Silva vs. Anderson Silva fight could be interesting.

They were formerly teammates in Brazil, and were both Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belts, though they have completely different striking styles. Anderson is the technical striker while Wanderlei is the reckless train wreck.

Also, it may be the fight to keep Anderson Silva from seeking retirement and keep a main draw for the UFC within the organization.

I predict Anderson would win, but I think Wanderlei would be more of a challenge than Nathan Marquadt or Rich Franklin.