FanPost

The MMA Breakdown Presents: 'A Breakdown in Brazil'

 

 This Saturday, August 27 2011, UFC 134 will go down in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event will see longtime UFC Middleweight king, Anderson Silva, go head to head with the last person to hold a victory over him in Japan’s own, Yushin Okami.

 

All the talk leading up to the fight references the now infamous first bout between these two where Anderson received a disqualification for hitting Okami with an up-kick while Okami was grounded; a move still illegal to this day. On the UFC’s own Countdown show, they showed Anderson talking about the incident; claiming his understanding of the rules was not clear, thus, when he saw the opportunity to use the technique, he did so. And with a high degree of success; Okami was unable to continue, which resulted in Anderson losing via the aforementioned disqualification.

 

Since that night, Yushin Okami has gone on to win 12 out of 15 fights; with his only losses coming at the hands of Jake Shields, former Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin, and former Middleweight contender Chael Sonnen. On the other hand, Anderson Silva has won 15 straight fights, broken nearly every UFC record and stands today as the best MMA fighter in the world.

 

Sound like a tall order if you’re Mr. Okami?

 

With all the accolades and the records that Anderson has conquered in his career it’s easy to look over this match up and assume Anderson will do what Anderson does, and win this fight. It’s only when you take a closer look that you see all the parts at play in this fight.

 

One very notable detail is that Yushin Okami has been training with Chael Sonnen for this fight, and every other fight he’s had since he fought Chael in Ocotober of 2009. Reason for its relevance? Aside from a few arguable rounds with Dan Henderson and Demain Maia, Chael Sonnen is the only person to take a round away from the Brazilian Champion. Of course, you cannot mention that fight without also mentioning that Anderson and his team claim that the Champ was not 100% that night, and entered the ring with a possible broken rib. If that’s the case, then his fifth round triangle choke that won him the fight is even more spectacular than it already seemed.

 

With all that said, we cannot discount the success Sonnen had in that fight. The fact is, he had the only game plan that worked against the Champion, and we can assume he’s passed this knowledge onto his new teammate in Yushin Okami. The one question that remains is if Yushin is capable of doing what Sonnen did.

 

When it comes to wrestling credentials, Sonnen dwarfs Okami. That doesn’t mean Okami cannot adapt, as we saw inklings of in his fight against renowned wrestling Middleweight in Mark Munoz last August. Okami showed a nice sprawl and a little success in offensive wrestling. But the area we’ve seen the most progression in Okami’s game is in his stand-up.

 

In past years Okami was always critized as being a “one-handed fighter”. His southpaw stance lent him to being able to get away with laying out left hand after left hand. In past years Okami has gotten away with this purely because his style was mainly based around wrestling and overpowering in clinch situations. In recent fights he’s shown that this is not the case. His technical boxing has stepped up, and where we’ve seen a greater improvement is in his timing. Okami isn’t the fastest puncher in the world, which is why much of his career he’s been seen counter punching. That style will be much more effective with improved timing.

 

But one has to think, if Okami’s game plan is to stand up with Anderson, he’s going to go down just like all the ones before him. If world class fighters like Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort can’t get it done on the feet, who will? Probably not Okami.

 

It appears that to have success against Anderson, you need to get him on his back or against the fence, and then keep him there, while doing damage and also avoiding submission attempts.

 

The question is, can Okami do all those things? Was Anderson Silva not himself against Chael Sonnen because of a rib injury, and was that the only reason Chael had any success? Or was Chael’s style of pressure mixed with wrestling actually on the right track to a winning game plan against the longtime UFC Champion? And finally, can Okami implement the same plan with the same level of success this Saturday at UFC 134, when the UFC comes to Brazil for the first time since October 16, 1998.



FanPosts are user-generated content that do not reflect the editorial opinions of MMAmania.com nor its staff.