Stephan Bonnar faces an immeasurable task this Saturday at UFC 153.
Bonnar, whose career can simply be defined as mediocre as best, will fight the greatest fighter of all time, Anderson Silva. It’s a light heavyweight bout, so Silva’s middleweight championship will not be on the line.
But according to Bonnar that doesn’t matter. On UFC 153’s countdown show, Bonnar said this is the biggest fight of his career and beating Silva would be bigger than any belt he could ever win. He’s dead on.
Being the first man to beat Silva in the UFC is a challenge that fighters dream about, and after some rearranging went down heading into this Pay-Per View, Bonnar got the call of a lifetime.
One would believe that he was graced with that call for being in one of the greatest fights in UFC history with Forrest Griffin in the first ever Ultimate Fighter Finale. You know, the fight where Bonnar and Griffin beat each other senseless for three rounds in the first fight card aired on Spike TV. That fight introduced fight fans to a new sport, and the sport is still alive and kicking because of it.
That makes this event with Bonnar vs. Silva special. Here’s one of UFC’s golden boys fighting the greatest champion in the company’s history. But then again, the last time this happened, the results didn’t go so well for the golden boy.
Griffin fought Silva years ago at light heavyweight at UFC 101, and Silva embarrassed Griffin. He not only knocked him out in the first round, but he mentally broke him with his matrix-like moves and pinpoint striking accuracy.
Will Saturday night go different for Bonnar? He doesn’t have knockout power, and his submission game is strong but nowhere near Silva’s level.  He’s never had a career-defining win, and after going 8-5 in his UFC career, to say he’s an underdog in this fight against Silva, really is putting it lightly.
But that doesn’t mean Bonnar doesn’t have a chance. He’s a tough, durable fighter that has never been knocked out. More importantly for fight fans, he always pushes the pace.
That means fight fans should either witness one of two things-another spectacular Silva knockout or the biggest upset in combat sports history.