UFC 134 concluded last Saturday in spectacular fashion as middleweight champion Anderson Silva defeated Yushin Okami by TKO in the second round.
Silva is by far the best mixed martial artist alive and is the greatest fighter of all time. I have said it before and I will say it again, watching Silva is like watching a movie and saying “there’s no way that would happen in real life.”
Silva fought in front of his home crowd in Brazil, and devastated Okami with his lethal strikes. Okami proved to be no match for Silva, and Silva rocked him early with a head kick at the end of the first round. When the second round began, it was all but over.
Silva did his signature hands down chin out and taunted Okami into exchanging with him. When Okami did, Silva would dodge the strikes and counter with some strikes of his own that would send Okami on the canvas.
I do not know how it was for people to watch Muhammed Ali back in the day, but I imagine it has to be something like watching Silva. Except rather than knocking them out with just his hands, Silva knocks people out with knees, elbows and front head kicks. Mixed Martial Arts is a young sport, but it is hard to imagine that there will be a better fighter than Silva. Silva has been so successful in his tenure with the UFC, that it is safe to say Michael Jordan was the Anderson Silva of basketball.
Many believe light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones is the future of MMA and will take Silva’s place once he retires. I am as big of a fan of Jones as anybody is, but there is no way anyone will be able to replicate what Silva has done in the UFC.
He has yet to lose a UFC fight, his knockouts over James Irvin, Forrest Griffin, Vitor Belfort, Rich Franklin and Okami are the definition of highlight reel knockouts and he is cleaned out the entire middleweight division.
As for the rest of the card for UFC 134, the fights were fantastic. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua got his revenge on Forrest Griffin as he knocked him out in the first round of their rematch. Rua looked like he was back to his old face-pounding self, and Griffin looked slow and uncomfortable the entire fight.
The most emotional moment of the pay-per-view came when Minotauro Nogueira knocked out Brendan Schaub in the first round. The crowd went absolutely ballistic when Nogueira pulled off what I would call a huge upset. Nogueira is a legend, but I thought Schaub would be too fast and be too powerful for the icon to handle. I was wrong, and Nogueira picked up a huge victory in front of his family and friends.
UFC Rio was a monumental event as it shows that MMA is taking over the planet. Country by country, the UFC is invading and having huge success. The UFC was so successful in Brazil that they are talking about doing a show in front of 100,000 people there next year.
The UFC’s recent deal with Fox is only going to add momentum to their historic run. The UFC’s Ultimate Fighter reality show will now air on FX starting next year, and the UFC will have a live fight night on Fox in November. The UFC will gain more exposure with the new TV deal and lead to even more success in the future.
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