oldfan

Technically... he WON his rematch with BJ.

He has W's over BJ Penn and GSP. How many men in the world can say that ?


there is only one

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HitOrGetHit

I won't take anything away from him. He was a great fighter and is deserving of the hall of fame. It's his mouth I'm not a fan of.

Iuanes

I dont really buy into the whole "Silva knows whats coming thing". Maybe Sonnen surprised him in the standup a little, but its not like you shouldnt know what Chael Sonnen is going to try to do to you. And No, Silva's TDD has not been vaunted in his career, in fact, if there is a weakness to the man, it is his wrestling.

Silva will probably be less playful in the standup and um, you know, not let Chael hit him in the face. Also, I imagine he'll try to time a knee with Chael's shot. Depsite this, pending a significant change in Silva's TDD, I still see him fighting uphill most of the fight, and needing to make every shot count (granted he is the most accurate striker in MMA). Of course all of this makes this an intriguing fight, again.

To disagree with Hughes further, sure, no one goes into the cage 100%, but there are injuries and then there are injuries. Broken ribs, I can imagine, suck. And to my knowledge no one in ufc history has gone into a fight with a broken rib. And, to contradict my previous statement, Silva might be a little more effective at stopping Sonnen's takedown.

ASKREN4WIN

So Hughes who was pretty much succesful using primarily his wrestling is saying that Chael cannot win the re-match using primarily his wrestling.

I would say Chael is a better wrestler than Hughes and has better boxing than Hughes did.

Everyone always knows what Chael is going to do when they fight him. Stann knew, Marquardt knew, and Anderson knew. The question is can you stop it and more likely than not you cant.

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Fav Fighters:
BJ
GSP
Askren
JDS
Belcher
Shogun
Fedor
Hendo
Sonnen

cdtcpl

The biggest thing that still sticks out in my mind was Chael's ability to take a punch from AS straight on the chin. I just remember being stunned that Chael didn't even seem to flinch or react. I am sure that AS can KO anyone, but it may take more than a couple of AS's trademark punches to do it, and that is long enough for Sonnen to get his TD.

I am very interested in this rematch just to see how it goes down.

ASKREN4WIN

These are great points. I re-watched the fight the other day and I thought the same thing. Anderson did hit Chael and Chael took them.

Even more noticeable is that a few of the TDs were after Silva attemted a kick so the kicks were leaving him open to TDs.

Bottom line is if Silva wants to hit Sonnen he has to get close and that leaves him open for TD attempts.

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Fav Fighters:
BJ
GSP
Askren
JDS
Belcher
Shogun
Fedor
Hendo
Sonnen

Soojooko

Sonnen been bringing the same flavour for years. What's Hughes going on about? As if Anderson didn't know exactly what Sonnen would come in and try to do. We all knew. And its exactly what he did.

To say, "Anderson will be more ready for it this time than he was last time" is nonsense. He'll be just as ready, tactics wise, as the first fight.

In my opinion, it has everything to do with the alleged injury. Because if Hughes is right, and an injury didn't affect his performance, then Silva will likely lose... which I do not like the sound of. Personally, I'm hanging a lot of faith on the idea that the injury was very real and affected Silvas movement.

And please. None of these "he wanted to sub Chael... this time hes gonna f*uck him up" comments. I dont care what Silva said to Nog in the video. Silva tried to knock Sonnen the f*uck out of several occasions. Trust me. Once the fight got started, Silva wasnt thinking about any of that shit. He just wanted to escape from the endless pounding with a win. Any type of win.

Canadian Psycho

Naturally, you base this magnificent 'knowledge and expecation' on their first fight, where Anderson Silva KOed Chael Sonnen, who had only the slimmest of chances to begin with, with ease. That fight never should have been sanctioned. We all knew and expected that Anderson was going to demolish Sonnen.

Naturally.

HexRei

I agree with Hughes. Chael isn't going to do anything different. He knows he was close to victory and will use the same gameplan. Meanwhile Silva is likely going to train nothing but TDD and effective counterstriking, and will be very ready. Chael will fail. He always buckles in his big fights.

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His helmet was stifling, it narrowed his vision. And he must see far. His shield was heavy. It threw him off balance. And his target is far away.

jonnyg4508

He said something I have been preaching about this fight.

Sonnen can't do much different. Best he can do is get TDs and win a 5 round dec. Anderson has many ways to look at the fight and he should know more about what exactly he has to do. Sonnen basically fought ALMOST his best fight. I think we can see a lot better from Anderson.

I just don't see Andersom losing in Brazil in a soccer stadium. That just wouldn't make sense to me after all these years. Anderson doesn't have the choke gene that Lebron James does. He won't lose this one. Chael is in a tough spot here.