Anderson "The Spider" Silva may be somewhat of an unknown quantity in America but here in the UK he is loved and venerated for his emphatic displays of skill and aggression inside the ‘Cage Rage’ octagon. On the 28th of June Silva makes his UFC debut at the UFC’s UFC: Ultimate Fight Night 5 against Chris Leben. The Cage Rage Middleweight Champion has been signed to fight the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ season one veteran to boost the already deep pool of UFC welterweights. It has been speculated that the winner of this bout will go on the face Mike “Quick” Swick for number one contender status; giving current title-holder Rich Franklin time enough to heal and train for his third title defence since defeating Evan Tanner at UFC 53: ‘Heavy Hitters
But before all you Leben fans get up on your high horses, allow me to do him justice by considering the fight in detail before you chastise me.
The usual way of assessing two fighters who have never before fought each other is to trawl through the rigmarole of looking at their fight records; comparing performances against like opponents and analysing each area of their respective games. To do that in this instance may not reveal very much, because on paper, these two are rather evenly matched; but in the interest of completeness, allow me to summarise the aforementioned…
Anderson Silva has amassed a fight record of 15-4-0, defeating a plethora of world-class fighters along the way- many of whom have fought in the UFC. Against these ex-UFC exponents Silva has a perfect record with tally-marks in his ‘W’ column including wins over: Curtis Stout; Carlos Newton; Tony Fryklund; Jeremy Horn; Hayato Sakurai and Lee Murray.
Chris Leben has accumulated a fight record of 15-1-0, giving the Portland, Oregon fighter an MMAU Statistical Score of 174 - 24 more than Silva. (*See the MMAU ‘Fighters’ Section to find out how these scores have been assimilated*) Leben’s list of victims includes such fighters as: Patrick Cote; Mike Swick and Edwin Dewees.
Although Leben holds a more impressive statistical score, Silva’s level of competition has been much higher than that of Leben, and so statistics are one factor that shouldn’t necessarily be used for the purposes of assessing this fight (although I’m sure all you Leben fans won’t agree). Furthermore, all of the aforementioned victims of Anderson Silva are world-class fighters, some of whom would have little difficulty in dispensing with Leben (although this is likely to be contested by Leben fans also).
The common opponent shared between Silva and Leben is Jorge "El Conquistador" Rivera. Both managed to accomplish a win over the tough Porto Rican in the second and first round respectively; both finished the bout via TKO and both were thoroughly deserving of the victory. The only differential between the two is that Leben needed only the first round to win the bout- Silva required longer.
Although this statistic appears to favour Leben it also goes some way to supporting the point I wish to make…
Silva is my pick to win the bout because he is an A-Class fighter at the top of his game; this same description I cannot give to Chris Leben. Chris Leben is nothing more than a slugger with a ‘puncher’s chance’. In his fight with Jorge Rivera, Leben used what clinch-skills he had to push Rivera away and continue in his sole aim to swing until something landed. Fortunately for Leben, he landed sufficiently in the first round to put an end to the bout.
Silva on the other hand is far more patient and methodical than his American foe. The fact that it took him two rounds to finish Rivera is neither here nor there- it took Rich Franklin nearly three full rounds to achieve the same. Anderson Silva’s skills are far more akin to those of Franklin as both throw dynamic and extremely accurate punch combinations; and not the wild swings of an uncontrolled aggressor such as Leben.
I must concede that I am being over-critical of Chris Leben in order to make my point. Chuck Liddell has been criticised in the past for his sloppy, looping punches, Liddell’s response to which was: “the more I train, the luckier I get”. Chris Leben may use the same adage- but I think that Leben’s luck will run out when he fights “The Spider”. Chris Leben is very good, but until he acquires a more developed ground game or refines his stand-up, he won’t be anything more than that.
I envisage this bout going exactly the same it did when Silva fought Curtis “bang ‘em out” Stout at Cage Rage 14. Stout is of the same ilk as Leben in terms of aggression and punching style and many feared that he would knock Silva out cold. These predictions never came to fruition because Silva out-struck the brawler with technique and speed, and then dominated on the ground. So my prediction is thus… Silva will stand and trade with Leben, where he will be more dominant. One strike (perhaps the now infamous “Anderson Elbow”) will put Leben on his back- Silva will then follow in and finish the bout.
I realise that I haven’t offered much in the way of support for my prediction. I suppose I’m using the commentator’s “I just know” trump-card; but anyone who has seen the back-catalogues of both fighters will say the same.
Many commentators were using a similar vein of argument pre Arlovski vs. Sylvia- I was not one of them. Many, who had Arlovski in such high regard that he had somehow acquired a God-like indestructible status, were left looking foolish when another world-class fighter appeared and toppled Arlovski from his pedestal. I am not taking the same risk in holding Anderson Silva in the same regard because Leben is in no way the same level of contender that Tim Sylvia was. I hope that when (not if) Silva destroys Leben you think of this article- although I’m sure I’ll remind you... I’m not someone who hates to say “I told you so”.
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