What’s left in Wanderlei’s tank?
Posted by Bryan Belangia on February 19th, 2010
As Wanderlei Silva prepares for his first fight in the UFC at 185lbs, that’s the biggest question. Silva has now lost 5 of his last 6 fights and has only one win since returning to the UFC. The losses though are nothing to get down about. Many fighters have fell to the hands of Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, and Rich Franklin. The test that he faces now is much different.
By now you’ve likely seen glimpses of Silva’s training routine which rivals that of even the most in-shape MMA atheletes. But cutting the additional 15lbs from what he normally cut while fighting at LHW is a task that a lot of atheletes struggle with initially when dropping to a lower weight class. We saw a small glimpse of this in the catchweight 195lb contest against Rich Franklin. It was an extremely close fight-one that I actually scored for Silva, but his cardio seemed to suffer a bit and likely contributed to the decision loss as he was visibly exhausted in the last two rounds of the fight. That fight occurred eight months ago though and on the surface that seems like ample time to get the body acclimated to the additional weight cut.
In Silva’s first fight back in the UFC, he seemed back to his old form while slugging it out with LHW great Chuck Liddell for three rounds in one of the most memorable UFC fights to date. He bounced back from the defeat with a dominant knock out of the unorthodox Keith Jardine only to get flash KO’d in his next fight out against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The decision loss to Rich Franklin I believe tells a completely different story-one of still being hungry and still willing to leave it all in the cage.
From afar, it seems the matchup with Bisping is tailor made for Silva. Bisping hasn’t faced a lot of powerful strikers and the last one he did face put his lights out. Both will look to keep the fight standing but likely with different tactics. Silva will once again be the agressor with Bisping on the defensive looking to land punches and get out of the way. Speed is the key, and if Silva can at least retain what speed he did have, the fight will go his way, otherwise Bisping will be quicker to the punch and Silva’s chin will again be tested.
This fight against Michael Bisping is more of an entry exam to the MW division for Silva. A loss to Bisping proves what many already believe-his best days are behind him and it’s likely time to hang it up, while a win will show that he’s still got something left-the desire and perhaps the ability to become a champion once again.