Last night the most dominant champion in the history of UFC Anderson Silva looked mortal. He should because he is mortal. Any time any man can be defeated in the UFC, case in point as much as Chael Sonnen controlled the fight with Silva on his back trying to pound his way to victory no fighter is ever safe as all fighters world class skills.
In UFC 116 two great examples of how a fighter can come from the brink of defeat to victory was exemplified by Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar and Middleweight Chris Leban. Lesnar was pounded in the first round by heavy handed knock out artist Shane Carwin. Carwin's game came apart in the second round as he has never fought past the first round knocking out all of his opponents in the first round. In the end the victor or champion was bloodied with cuts around both eyes and the defeated has no scratches whatsoever as he was forced to tap out as the python like biceps of Lesnar choked off the air supply for Carwin.
A great example of a beaten opponent was rock headed Chris Leban was locked in a leg scissor like choke against Yoshiro Akiyama until his head was purple. It took a full round and intermission just for the color to come back to Leben's head. In the third and final round two gallant fighters exchanged punches while Akiyama took Leben to the mat and despite having the dominant position he was still crushed by Leben punches and elbows from the ground. Instead of putting Leben away in the final round with the superior position of on top it was Akiyama that was forced to submit.
That is the UFC in a nutshell it does not matter who has the dominant position in a fight it all matters that until someone taps or the final second runs off the clock or a fighter is incoherently knocked senseless all fighters are dangerous when it comes to championship level fighting. In Anderson Silva's case, yes he is the most dominant fighter in UFC history, he is the King of the middleweights, he can fight guys bigger than him as he knocked out former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin but as long as he is in the ring each and every fighter is dangerous. This is not new to UFC fights. In the early years of UFC fighting a former neighbor of mine in Huntington Beach, CA Kimo was physically superior to Royce Gracie and despite being all over the the Brazilian Jui Jitsu Hall of Famer in the end it was a Gracie choke that ended the fight as the smaller Gracie fought his way to victory off the ground.
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