UFC 112: Anderson Silva confirms he is the world’s best MMA showboat and clown

(Image from centurymartialarts.com)

BJ Penn gets dethroned as lightweight king

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva could be bipolar. He certainly fights like he’s got split personalities. One round he looks like he’s indeed the best mixed-martial-arts fighter in the world, the next round he acts like he’s auditioning for The Last Comic Standing with his fists.

Yesterday, Silva gave detractors another reason to put him down. While he successfully defended his title against fellow Brazilian Demian Maia, he did it in such an eccentric manner. Silva showed flashes of his brilliance with quick and accurate strikes with his hands and feet but he suddenly decided to ham it up with rubbery torso swaying, doing circles with his arms, going down low with his hands nearly touching the canvas, and running circles around Maia.

At one point, Silva even hid behind referee Dan Miragliotta, who stepped to one side and pushed Silva by his shoulder. Miragliotta actually stopped the fight in the fifth round as Silva did everything to avoid making contact with Maia and warned the champion he would deduct a point from him if he kept literally running circles around the frustrated (and by then battered) Maia.

This latest weird episode in Silva’s UFC career is not that surprising in light of what he did in UFC 90 against Patrick Cote. Silva also avoided fighting it out with Cote in a good part of the match.

Yesterday was Silva’s most bizarre behavior in the UFC. He was not only weird, even worst, he was arrogant and haughty. After connecting with some good punches and kicks on Maia, he seemed to have decided he had done enough to show his superiority and kept on shouting and taunting with gestures at Maia to attack him.

Later in the fight, the crowd had enough of Silva’s shenanigans by chanting Maia’s name and then GSP’s (Georges St. Pierre). Silva said pre-fight that he would drop to 170 pounds after the Maia fight to challenge GSP for the welterweight crown. That is the fight many MMA fans would love to see, hoping that the excellent (some even believe is even the better fighter than Silva) Kyokushinkai black belt would be the first UFC warrior to put Silva in his place.

It is obvious all this talk about Silva being the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter has gone to the Brazilian’s bald head. Rock stars are constantly warned not to believe in their own press release because it would mess them up. Someone should give a similar warning to Silva.

In the co-main event, BJ Penn, another Top 10 PFP MMA fighter, got his lightweight belt snatched by challenger Frankie Edgar. This fight is one proof of the necessity of scoring judges. A fan’s passive view of the fight would create the impression that Penn did enough to retain his title. Sure, Edgar was the more active of the two if you see his prancing and dancing and faking as evidence of being more active.

But it did appear that Penn was the more accurate striker and he did manage to stay on his feet most of the fight. Edgar took him down twice. The first time Penn almost instantly got back up and the second time he got Edgar in his guard and got back on his feet without Edgar doing any damage with strikes or submission attempts.

The scores were 50-45, 48-47 and 49-46 for Edgar. OK, granted that the fight was close and the judges, whose business it is to keep close track of the fight and score it accordingly, actually saw Edgar had the edge and he deserved to win -- but casual observers, those who take their eyes off the fight to say to a friend Did you see that? or get up from the sofa to get more beer from the fridge could not be blamed for believing that Penn should have won.

Penn seemed he controlled the fight and whenever he hit Edgar, most of his strikes appeared solid and were more numerous. Anyway, Edgar won and that’s how the judges saw it. Even Penn touched Edgar on the head after the decision was announced. Too bad Joe Rogan did not get Penn’s opinion post fight.

As to the welterweight match between two grizzled veterans in Matt Hughes and Renzo Gracie: Wow! Hughes still got it. He can still bang and he still has most of his wits about him. Never did Hughes try too many times to take down Gracie and do his patented ground and pound. He knew too well that Gracie is better than him technically on the ground so he did more striking than takedowns.

Those leg kicks Hughes landed on Gracie’s left leg did their job. They took out Gracie’s base and he came in close to punch him out. TKO win in the third round for Hughes. But lest Hughes start believing he can capitalize on that win to get back on the title hunt, someone please remind him that he is 36 years old and that his best years are behind him. Knocking out someone seven years older than him and fighting guys 10 years younger than him are too different things.

In another middleweight bout, Mark Muñoz showed why he is called the “Filipino Wrecking Machine.” After Kendall Grove pummeled him and almost submitted him twice, he caught the six-inch taller fighter with one heavy punch and added several more heavy punches to force the referee to stop the punishment in the second round.

Another Filipino, Brandon Vera, hasn’t had much luck in the UFC lately and still another Filipino, Phillipe Nover, did not have his contract with the UFC renewed -- so it is now up to Muñoz to carry the Philippine flag in the world’s foremost MMA promotion.

If Muñoz can improve his defense (meaning, he gets hit less) and learns some submission techniques, he will be a meaner stud and could be one of the five best in his division.