Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, will do battle with Stockton slugger, Nick Diaz, this Saturday night (Jan. 31, 2015) at UFC 183 inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After reigning over the middleweight division for the better part of a decade, Silva tasted defeat for the first time in his UFC career at the hands of Chris Weidman. His second bout with Weidman resulted in a shattered shin, an injury that took "The Spider" out of competition for just over a year.
Now, he returns.
In his first non-championship bout since his Octagon debut against Chris Leben, Silva will take on Nick Diaz, an exciting name that should play perfectly into Silva's style. It's certainly a high profile bout, but it's also one that primes Silva for a successful return.
Let's take a closer look to see if "The Spider" still has it.
Striking
Silva is a master counter striker. Perhaps the finest kickboxer in the sport's history, Silva has developed a deep arsenal of techniques over the years, stemming from different martial arts like boxing, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Doe, and even Capoeira.
For the most part, Silva's approach to fighting is pretty predictable. Utilizing dangerous outside kicks, occasional straight punches, and even taunts, Silva attempts to get his opponent to attack him. Then, Silva accurately and viciously picks him apart with counter shots.
While Silva is looking for the counter, he's quite a patient fighter. He keeps himself in position to counter at all times and then waits for his moment. By staying calm and not trying to immediately counter each of his opponent's strikes, Silva's accuracy stays high and his opponent is likely to gain confidence after not getting initially countered.
To effectively counter, Silva has to control the distance. If his opponent is getting inside his boxing range on a consistent basis, then Silva's counter punches will not work particularly well. Instead, Silva looks to mark up his opponent with dangerous kicks. Essentially, this forces his opponent to either try to close the distance and risk his counters, or lose rounds without trying.
Silva has quite a large arsenal of kicks that he fluidly mixes into his game. Whether it's the usual roundhouse kicks, side kicks, teeps or oblique kicks, Silva is frequently looking to damage his opponent from the outside.
Though Silva's kicks are largely a motivator, intended to make his opponent engage, they can also finish the fight in sudden fashion. For example, Silva's brutal front kick to the jaw of Vitor Belfort was an excellent solution to the duel of counter punchers. Plus, it was so influential that front kicks are now common in the tool box of even average strikers, though few throw them as well as Silva.
It may not be relevant to Silva's counter-striking game plan, but Silva will mix his kicks into combinations when he goes on the offensive. It's fairly rare, but Silva is quite good at slipping a hard kick into the middle of his punch combos.
Once his opponent decides to engage Silva with boxes, the fight is usually over. The Brazilian will counter his opponent's strikes with extreme precision, often interrupting their combinations with a potential fight finisher. Overall, Silva's ability to come out of slips and rolls with punches is pretty incredible.
In addition, Silva loves to counter his opponent's jab. Since many mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters are predictable with their combinations -- they'll always start their combo with a jab, often without a feint -- Silva can usually tell when his opponent is starting to jab. As his opponent extends their jab, Silva will slip and come over the punch with his own jab, which can connect with serious force.
Finally, Silva has a very deadly clinch game. It may not have served him well in his last bout with Weidman, but if he's looking to bring it back, that's still a major game changer for other opponents, such as Diaz.
Silva really likes to work from the double collar tie. After securing the grip, Silva breaks his opponent's posture and easily muscles him around. From there, Silva can deliver devastating knees into his opponent, while his foe is trapped in "The Spider's" vice grip.
From inside the clinch, Silva does an excellent job at mixing his targets. While delivering crushing knees to the solar plexus, Silva will suddenly yank his opponent around and aim for the general face area. Most of the time, Silva simply digs into whatever his opponent is not defending.
Speaking of, Silva does a really great job at targeting his opponent's solar plexus with knees outside the clinch as well. Against both Stephan Bonnar and Chael Sonnen, Silva absolutely pasted his foes with brutal knees aimed at a specific target. For both men -- legitimately tough fighters -- it left them curled up on the ground, struggling to breathe.
Defensively, Silva is excellent. For years, most of his opponents failed to land any truly significant blows, as Silva bobbed and weaved around their punches and then landed his own strikes in violent fashion.
Still, relying on head movement and rolling with punches is a dangerous game, and punches slip through against even the best. In Silva's first bout with Weidman, the New Yorker disguised his punches well and caused Silva to roll directly into his left hook, ending the Brazilian's title reign.
Wrestling
Silva generally has very little interest in taking his opponent to the mat. It may be the weakest area of his game, but Silva is by no means a bad wrestler.
Silva may not attempt takedowns very often, but he can hit them. For example, he managed to reverse one of Dan Henderson's clinch throws, an impressive accomplishment considering "Hendo's" credentials. More recently, he managed to double leg Chael Sonnen in the first round of their bout, although he could not control him.
Though he may not look for it using takedowns, Silva's top game is excellent. He stands above his opponent with strong posture and really picks his shots, allowing him to fire straight punches with precision. Not only does Silva rarely miss, but he's usually landing directly on his opponent's chin.
For the most part, Silva relies on his distance control in order to keep the bout standing. Since he's constantly keeping his opponent at the end of his kicks and remains very aware when they move in, it's pretty difficult to get within takedown range.
One excellent wrestling technique Silva has in his arsenal is the switch. When he fought Nate Marquardt, Silva was soundly out-boxing "The Great" for most of the first round. Then, Marquardt shot in for a single leg takedown. As he held onto Silva's leg with his head on the outside, Silva was easily able to shoot his own arm between Marquardt's legs and turn away with his hips. Essentially, this allowed him to turn Marquardt's single leg into his own, thus the name.
In the last few years, it has become apparent that the combination of quality boxing and a powerful double leg can severely threaten Silva's ability to remain upright, with the two weapons combined ultimately proving to be a game changer in the Weidman fights.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ)
Silva has been training under the Nogueira brothers for quite some time and earned his black belt under them in 2006. It's not seen all that often, but Silva has a dangerous guard game that can threaten even talented grapplers.
For the most part, Silva looks to stall from his back. By tying up his opponent's arms with overhooks or grapevining their legs with his own lanky limbs, Silva is often able to prevent his opponent from advancing or doing damage. Then, it's only a matter of time until the referee stands them back up.
Alternatively, Silva will mix in submission attempts from his full guard. He often looks for the kimura, but the Brazilian has only finished the triangle choke. His setup to this choke is nothing extraordinary, as Silva simply controls one hand and tries to stuff the other through his legs. Once the position is locked in, Silva uses his long legs to squeeze as he pulls down on the head.
From the top, Silva has only ever secured the rear naked choke. There's not a whole lot of technique to analyze there, but it's worth mentioning that Silva has a very tight body triangle, which he'll also use to control his foe in guard. Again, Silva's long legs aid him here, as he constricts his foe's breathing while hunting for the choke.
It's not exactly jiu-jitsu, but Silva's ability to strike from his back is topped only by Gegard Mousasi. Looking all the way back to his fight against Travis Lutter, Silva nearly knocked his opponent out with an upkick. Eventually, he trapped his injured foe in a triangle, only to deliver more heavy strikes. Much more recently, Silva used upkicks to discourage Weidman's attempts to pass.
Best chance for success
This bout is really a question of whether Anderson Silva can still compete. If Silva is not a shell of his former self, he should obliterate the blown-up welterweight, one who is plagued with terrible defensive traits. Overall, Diaz's aggressive style of boxing should play right into Silva's hands.
He is a vicious counter striker, after all.
Though it probably doesn't matter either way, Silva should use the weapons proven against the Diaz brothers, such as the low kick. Similarly, he should look to keep his back off the fence, although he'd likely be willingly to eat a body shot or two in order to secure a Muay Thai plum.
In short, fight fans around the world will find out if Silva is still an elite athlete on Saturday night. It's largely a yes or no question, and game planning will likely have very little effect on the result for either man.
Will Anderson Silva return with another knockout victory, or can Nick Diaz defy the odds and earn the biggest win of his career?