The Two Samurai

Rich Franklin is a smart man.  He has a degree and has worked as a teacher, helping to mold the minds of the youth of our nation.  Nothing he's done in any of his pre- or post-fight interviews has done anything to dispel this.  Now don't get it twisted, I'm not here to attempt to dispel this myself.  I do have a couple questions though.

Saturday night saw a much anticipated rematch between the former UFC middleweight title-holder and the current one.  Anderson Silva holds the belt with a tight Muay Thai grip and it may never see another waist this decade.  I hear Dana White is getting it permanently fitted so he doesn't have to fiddle around at the back end of another man like a quarterback with a wandering eye anymore.  I also tend to think that Mr. White will blow a coronary if he ever sits at a desk long enough to tabulate what he's paying "Spider" Silva per minute.  But I digress.  

Silva delivered an onslaught of strikes to a bewildered Franklin that had the teacher with the Master's degree scratching his head and left him in a dazed puddle on the canvas.  Pi doesn't figure as hardly as how to beat Anderson Silva with the way he's fighting right now.  Another full step ahead of that is how to beat him in a stand-up battle.  I haven't seen outright domination like that since........well, since the last time these men fought.  Franklin deserves a ton of credit for doing better this time.  He himself thanked the G-o-d for keeping him safe in that Octagon Saturday night, "because this guy is an animal" was  left unsaid but I saw it in his eyes.    

What I don't get is why.  Why did "Ace" come in to this fight with the same exact game-plan?  Sure the Brazilian has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu from one of the baddest submission men on the planet to go with his phenomenal striking but still I have to think that is the weak link and Rich has a strong ground and pound game.  But, no.  Did he work on his takedowns in preparation for this strategy?  I didn't see a shot so it's impossible to say definitively but I would guess no.  Did he work on his movement, using angles to come in differently and move away before getting caught?  No, okay then surely he tightened things up a bit.  Hands closer together, maybe a little higher, I mean it's not like Spider Silva is going to take him down is it?   If not, than that lower handset, frequently used by MMA fighters, just isn't necessary.

Is it possible Rich Franklin's only preparation for their second fight was to work on defending the clinch better?  That's the only improvement I saw after watching the fight a couple of times.  I know it's easier to sit here and second guess than it is to fight but that's my job.  I know sweet, right?  

I'm only being this critical because I was cheering for Franklin to win.  He's easy to cheer for and is a great ambassador of the sport.  It just looks like he decided that he could fight `his fight', not changing the gameplan a bit and pull off the win and that's not the Rich Franklin I have come to admire.  I think Silva is a great man and a great fighter but I admit to showing bias toward the former champ.  Not that it is a big deal because the two guys are mirror images of each other in terms of their personalities.  The biggest difference right now seems to be in their fighting and it will be interesting to see if Ace now moves up to light heavyweight where he started, now that there's a new sheriff in town and he's here to stay.  

There are two guys on the current UFC roster that do own wins over Anderson Silva so it's no guarantee that he'll hold the belt forever but of the two only Ryo Chonan seems the viable contender as Yushin Okami's win was via disqualification and Franklin himself made the Japanese punisher look very, very mortal in their fight.  So, should Chonan string together some wins, which would be tough given his first fight is against Karo Parisyan, he is a logical choice to fight Silva.   But, barring some unforeseen surprises, there really doesn't seem to be a whole lot of danger to Silva.  In fact just one fighter comes to mind and he came to mind as soon as I saw one MMA blog proclaiming Silva U-N-D-I-S-P-U-T-E-D champion after this last fight.  Quinton Jackson did not get to lay claim to that until after he beat the Pride reigning champ, so why should Silva?  Oddly enough it's the same man.  Dan Henderson had been the champion in Pride at 185lbs and his recent loss to Rampage does little tarnish the massive amount of respect he gained by beating Wanderlei Silva, one of the baddest men on the planet.  

Silva against Henderson is interesting because Henderson would most likely look to accomplish what Franklin pretty much neglected to, namely the ground-game.  Hendo has solid stand-up and a bone-crunching right hand but it would also seriously be wrong to stand with a guy like Spider Silva.  It wouldn't be the prettiest fight but one that the Olympian can win, maybe even should.  

But enough with the future, let's enjoy the present.  Silva is a great champion who shows honor, courage and respect in the ring and I can't imagine a better champion.  The language barrier is a bit of a problem.  Still though, this is a man that we can respect and even our kids can respect and in these days of spoiled athletes with big mouths that's a beautiful thing.  Damn I love MMA.