Anderson Silva’s late submission victory over Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 is the greatest fight in UFC history, in my opinion. The opinion of mixed martial arts fans is all over the map.
Yahoo! Sports readers have their say in this week’s edition of the MMA mailbag, which we’ve changed from a weekly feature to an occasional one
‘Nothing to be proud of’ for Silva
Anderson Silva may have submitted Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 on Saturday and gotten another win, but that fight was nothing to be proud of for Anderson. I’m an Anderson fan, and I’d bet money he’s disgusted with his performance. He’d been acting like Sonnen had got into his head for months now and clearly seemed unwilling to reveal his true feelings against Sonnen during the pre-fight buildup for fear of being humiliated if he actually lost. It almost seems like he knows he only has a few fights left and he’s trying to “not get knocked out” rather than take any chances. I’m not sure if he’s getting old or just doesn’t have his heart in it anymore, but it might be time for him to retire before he gets hurt. I realize Sonnen was a poor style matchup and fought a great fight, but no one expected Anderson to be humiliated like that for 4½ rounds. Getting dominated for an entire fight and barely pulling it out with a single (lucky?) move at the end does not prove you’re the better fighter, it usually proves the opposite – that the worse fighter (that night) got lucky. Silva’s best days are over and Saturday’s “win” was hardly a victory (please stop believing all of Dana White’s propaganda). I just hope he can see the writing on the wall before it’s too late.
Randy Anderson
Atlanta
I couldn’t disagree more, Randy. It would have been easy for Silva to throw in the towel, figure he’d been beaten and try to come back on another night. He overcame adversity. He was facing an opponent with the perfect style to defeat him and that opponent went out and fought the fight of his life. The fact that Silva managed to keep his composure considering the duress he was under and then pull off a submission like he did speaks to his greatness as a fighter. He wasn’t on top of his game for much of the fight, but he still showed heart and courage and found a way to win. To me, that speaks volumes about him as a fighter
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