by Dave Walsh

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Wanderlei Silva is a name that used to strike fear into the hearts of competitors across the world just a few mere years ago. With absolute brutal dissections of some of the top competition in Japan there was never a doubt about Wanderlei Silva being the king of the 205 division. Quite honestly, after a few chinks in his armor, he looked unstoppable. He took apart everybody that PRIDE had to offer up to him, and sometimes he destroyed them multiple times; fighters like Hidehiko Yoshida twice, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson twice, and arguably PRIDE’s biggest star Kazushi Sakuraba a staggering and scary 3 times. He also defeated Japanese darling Kiyoshi Tamura and ventured up in weight quite a few times putting forth a valiant fight against Mark Hunt and absolutely annihilating the heavyweight toughman Kazuyuki Fujita.

It is fair to say that even amidst of the usual cries of PRIDE fighters being overrated, this fighter being better, this fighter who beat this fighter that beat whomever, Wanderlei Silva was the Axe Murderer. He lived up to his nickname in every way possible. If he knocked you out, it was scary. There wasn’t a question of how impartial the ref was, or if there should have been a few more seconds, you always felt like Wanderlei wasn’t going to leave any questions unanswered. But slowly he began to deteriorate, losing that vicious streak and the devil-may-care attitude that led to so many of his highlight reel knockouts. When Ricardo Arona pulled off that decision win over Wanderlei the questions started, then a while later he went up against the heavyweight threat Mirko Cro Cop and had his head kicked off. From there we saw Dan Henderson knock him out and both him and Chuck Liddell sit back and try not to get knocked out against each other.

I almost feel like I need to re-educate people on Wanderlei Silva, what he once was, and the threat that he could be again if he can pull himself together, as his past few years have done a good job of making him look weak and like he should simply retire.

Then there is Keith Jardine. Keith Jardine is what felt like your standard King of the Cage fighter who got on The Ultimate Fighter and became a star in UFC. Jardine’s record is nowhere near the “Who’s who” list that Silva has, but he does have a few aces in his cap, such as wins over Rampage’s next challenger, Forrest Griffin, and former UFC Lightheavyweight Champion, Chuck Liddell. But of course, with that comes a decision loss to Stephan Bonnar and a really embarrassing, quick knock out by Houston Alexander, whose appearances of late have just proven him to be an extremely spotty fighter.

The argument is that the win over Liddell was really close as well as Liddell was going through his coke, bitches and not training phase after losing the belt to Rampage. While really, Liddell did have quite a rough spot there, and we aren’t even sure if that rough spot is over, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Jardine did actually beat the man that looked unstoppable for a few years. On top of that, the loss to Bonnar has been written off by many as a really bad decision, something that I can agree with for the most part. It was a close decision, and Jardine could have easily taken the decision if it were different judges.

So this fight proves interesting in a few ways; the first being that both men have something to prove. Jardine is looking to prove that his win over Liddell wasn’t a fluke, that he won’t simply be fed to other fighters, that he belongs up on top. Wanderlei is out to prove that he is still the Axe Murderer, a fighter that can destroy anything and anybody in his path with his vicious knees, punches and kicks. On top of that we have two stand up fighters who have shown to be weak against other stand up fighters who like them are aggressive and looking for a quick and fantastic knockout.

You have to think if Wanderlei can’t pull off the win here, the talks of retirement will flare up again, and that he might actually do it. You also have to think that if Jardine can’t pull off the win over Wanderlei his chances of being seen as a serious, top level competitor in the UFC are over. Both have a lot to lose tonight, and hopefully they lay it all on the line.