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WILLIAMS: Anderson Silva's Historic Night
Aug 8, 2010 - 1:51:40 PM WILLIAMS: Anderson Silva's Historic Night

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By: Alex Williams, MMATorch Senior Contributor

With his 11th hour win last night (reminiscent of Julio Cesar Chavez’s last moment knock out of Meldrick Taylor), Anderson Silva unified the UFC and Pride championships. He also moved into an untied first place for the longest winning streak in UFC history. Yet according to the UFC, he accomplished both of these feats years ago. Confused? Let’s review both claims.

Official UFC history has it that Anderson united the UFC and Pride championships when he defeated Dan Henderson in 2008 at UFC 82. That’s true in as far as Henderson was the official Pride belt holder. However, Henderson had lost his lineal claim to the Pride championship when Kazou Misaki defeated him in the quarterfinals of Pride’s 2006 Bushido Grand Prix. With that victory, Misaki became the lineal champion: the man who beat the man who beat the man, etc. Misaki lost in his next fight to Paulo Filho. Filho remained unbeaten until Chael Sonnen defeated him (and, incidentally, fulfilled his promise to his deceased father) in the WEC. Sonnen was submitted by Demian Maia, who was knocked out by Nate Marquardt, who lost on points to . . . Chael Sonnen. When Anderson and Chael collided at UFC 117, it marked the first time in history that the actual, lineal UFC and Pride middleweight championships were unified.

What about my assertion that Anderson didn’t have a solo-claim to the longest winning streak in UFC history until yesterday evening? The organization’s official story has it that Anderson won the honor with his odd injury-induced victory over Patrick Cote. That was Anderson’s ninth straight victory in the Octagon, one more than the the UFC states both Jon Fitch and Royce Gracie were able to put together. Gracie’s actual record, though, was not eight wins; it was 11.

Gracie put together an eight fight winning streak over the course of tournaments at the UFC’s first three events. The eighth victory came in the quarterfinals of the UFC 3 tourny, in a bout against Kimo Leopoldo. Although Gracie bested the much larger Kimo, he was damaged enough in the win that he blacked out on his way to the Octagon for his semifinal match against Harold "If You’re Comin’ On, Come On!" Howard. Royce’s corner (comprised of his family) indicated that their charge couldn’t continue by tossing a towel into the Octagon before the fight began.

Gracie had forfeited his spot in the tournament. An injured Kazuyuki Fujita did something similar when he had his corner toss in the towel just two seconds into his 2000 Pride Grand Prix semifinal bout with Mark Coleman. However, the difference between the two situations is that the Coleman and Fujita fight had officially began when the towel came in. It’s difficult to understand the logic by which Royce could have officially lost a fight that had never started. Certainly, the same standard has never been applied to any other fighter who has ever bowed out of an MMA tourney, including Ken Shamrock that same evening.

If we recognize that Royce never lost to Howard, we see that he extended his winning streak by three in the UFC before drawing with Shamrock. That left his final tally at 11. Anderson tied that record with his points win over Maia, and moved into an unquestioned first place by tapping out Sonnen.

The UFC has its reasons for making the historical claims it does. When Filho first came into the Zuffa fold, he and Silva were teammates and unwilling to fight each other, so the UFC acknowledged Henderson as Pride’s champion (though, interestingly, they were originally going to recognize Mauricio “Shogun” Rua as the true, lineal Pride 205 pound champ before instead acknowledging Henderson’s claim to that title). Gracie was no longer affiliated with the UFC when Silva and Fitch put their winning streaks together. Given the extreme odds against anyone winning 12 times in a row at the highest level of today’s sport, the UFC likely thought it best to truncate Royce’s streak at eight so that others could potentially tie or break it. Indeed, they hyped Fitch’s “tying” Royce’s record and Silva “beating it” with his ninth win as historic events. But we should endeavor to look past the hype and put modern events into the context of the sport's actual history. It makes Silva’s accomplishments, particularly his dozen fight-long win streak, all the more impressive.