Rich Hansen's Take
HANSEN: UFC 134 Q&A Session - Anderson Silva, Shogun-Griffin and Minotauro Nogueira
Aug 28, 2011 - 11:45:10 PM HANSEN: UFC 134 Q&A Session - Anderson Silva, Shogun-Griffin and Minotauro Nogueira

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist

Question #1: Can you explain to me just how good Anderson Silva is?

On the MMA Torch Post-Mortem radio show that we did after the Georges St-Pierre versus Josh Koscheck fight in December of 2010, we discussed the topic of who the greater fighter is; St-Pierre or Anderson Silva. It was the first time I was willing to even entertain the question, because I was always of the belief that Silva was the greater fighter. But after his sublime performance against Koscheck, we had a long discussion about that topic.

But even as I was open to considering GSP for the title of best fighter, I knew Silva was in fact the best fighter of his era, if not of all-time. Unfortunately for our listening audience that evening I couldn't quite put into words what it was that separated the two. It wasn't their results, because both have been undefeated (in dominant fashion to boot) for a long stretch of time. It wasn't because of the level of competition each man faced, because both resumes are similar.

Anderson Silva was able to display last night what I was unable to put into words in December of 2010. GSP wins. He's a winner. He's a dominator. He is technically just as far ahead of his field as Spider Silva is of his own field. But Anderson Silva &$^#&@$ crushes souls.

Of Anderson's last 10 victories, eight of those fights were won before Bruce Buffer announced the fight to the paying audience. Only Chael Sonnen and Dan Henderson walked into the cage truly believing they were going to win against the colossus that is Anderson Silva. The other eight men (Yushin Okami, Vitor Belfort, Demian Maia, Forrest Griffin, Thales Leites, Patrick Cote, James Irvin, Rich Franklin) knew they couldn't win, and they were broken emotionally and spiritually before their fights even began. (I might be wrong about Belfort, but I doubt it...)

I don't like the Muhammad Ali comparisons that people make for Anderson Silva, first because they compete(d) in different sports and second because Ali's legend was built not just because of his in-ring flair, but also because of the stances he took on social issues outside of the ring. But in a vacuum, solely factoring in performances in the ring/cage, comparing Silva to Ali is fair. Both men were dominant champions who ruled their domain with precision, skill, showmanship, and Fliehr I mean Flair.

George St-Pierre is a great champion, and people will tell stories and sing songs decades from now about the night they were in the arena to see the great Georges St-Pierre ply his trade for everybody to see. But make no doubt about it. Last night Anderson Silva was able to tell the entire world with no words how he is Muhammad Ali, and everybody else in the sport is competing for the title of George Foreman


Question #2: Did Shogun Rua win, or did Forrest Griffin lose?

Yes.


Question #2A: Oh come on.

Alright fine. If you were to walk up to Forrest Griffin and present him a list of 42 gajillion places in the universe, including the surface of the sun, he would have preferred to be at any of those places more than in that Octagon, against that opponent, in that city, in that environment. Griffin's body was there, and he did the best he could during fight week to try to get his head and his heart to sync up with his body, but it didn't work and Shogun Rua took advantage of this.

As a relatively new father of a little girl myself, I completely understand where Griffin's head was at. I was a useless lump the week before my little girl was born (I set em up, you knock em down), and I was never more than 30 miles away from my wife during that last week. On Saturday night, Griffin was 6,200 miles away. So I'm burying my head in the sand and pretending that this fight never happened.

I'm willfully ignoring the fact that he hasn't looked the same since Anderson Silva ate his soul in 2009. I choose to ignore his quotes about motivation and plateauing. I'm even disregarding the possibility that his biggest victories in the cage respectively were against an injured Rua, a very close decision against Rampage Jackson, and against a Franklin-weight Rich Franklin. Putting all that together, I'm probably being generous in my refusal to write off Griffin's future, but I'm sure that Griffin isn't losing any sleep over my opinions on the subject. The sleep he's losing isn't because of me, but because of that baby who is not going to live by his clock.

As for Shogun, it's difficult to determine how much stock to put in this win. He looked faster than he has in a while, but even at his best Forrest Griffin isn't one of the faster light heavyweights in the history of the sport. Shogun is playing a game of HORSE where he has to 'show me' before I totally buy in. A win against, say, oh I don't know, Dan Henderson, would convince me that Shogun is worthy of another shot at Jon Jones.


Question #3: Was that Minotauro Nogueira's last gasp at glory, or is he a legitimate contender at heavyweight?

There are only two possible conclusions to draw from Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira's victory over Brendan Schaub.

1.) Nogueira is back (or never left). People wrote him off prematurely for losing to Frank Mir while he had a staph infection, and for losing to the best heavyweight in the world (Cain Velasquez).

B.) Nogueira is done, Schaub is not a legitimate opponent, and any top 10 heavyweight would destroy the old man.

In the afterglow of Nogueira's knockout of Brendan Schaub, I couldn't help but think that we've seen this story before. Replace Nogueira with Wanderlei Silva, Schaub with Keith Jardine, and set the dial on the way-back machine to May, 2008.

Wanderlei Silva was on a three fight losing streak, and people were openly asking whether or not he was shot like Bambi. Keith Jardine was coming off a shocking upset over Chuck Liddell, the same Liddell who just beat Silva, mind you. Silva destroyed Jardine, and the PRIDErs were going crazy. The mixed martial arts community saw what they wanted to see, projected what they wanted to see next, and refused to consider that Silva was just as cooked as he was before kapowing Jardine. No one was willing to consider that the beloved Silva would lose three of his next four fights, including a massive KO loss to a relative journeyman.

Step out of the way-back machine and look at the Nogueira fight again. Throughout most of the fight last night, Nogueira looked slow to react and wasn't able to do a lot against the decent Schaub. I picked Nogueira to win the fight last night, figuring that he would grab an arm or a choke after getting outstruck for a round or two. Anyone can get caught, though, and I think that's what happened last night.

Nogueira's next fight is going to be either a title eliminator, or a rematch with the dangerous Mir. I have a very bad feeling about Nogueira's next fight, and I for one would love to see him follow Chris Lytle's lead and walk out on top. Even if I'm wrong and he somehow wins the UFC Heavyweight Title, unless it's in Brazil that thrill won't match the thrill he felt last night.


I'm on Twitter, even though I'm old and don't tweet. Watch me not tweet, @MMATorchRich