Silva punches Chael Sonnen during their UFC middleweight championship bout at UFC 148 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 7, in Vegas. Photo by Donald Miralle/Zuffa LLC/Publicity
How do you manage to forget about UFC 148 and the last “fight of the century”, in that already distant first weekend of July? One of the ways is by putting the lessons learned on the paper and moving on. After all, we have more UFC this weekend, the UFC Rio with Jose Aldo vs Erik Koch is set for October 13, and much more.
Behold the most valuable of what we have learned with Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen.
1. THE TOUGHEST OPPONENT IS THE ONE WHO BRINGS MORE GLORY
At our daily Jiu-Jitsu training, we all tend to circumvent the toughest opponent, that mate who complicates your game the most. It is common practice, and even human, look for the most comfortable path. But it is the mate closest to your level that will make you develop your qualities and correct your mistakes. Anderson has almost taken this way, in UFC. He tried to avoid Chael Sonnen for many reasons. When the fight went on, Anderson had to overcome his own techniques. In the second round, he fought like a beast, avoided the lethal takedown by his archrival and defeated an enemy who gave him even more projection.
2. CLASS IN DEFEAT
Like Chael Sonnen said to Dana White in the locker room, losing a title fight in the UFC is not so bad: “If this were the Olympic games, it would be the silver medal, not bad”. Chael, who gave several lessons on how not to behave before the fight, has done what most fighters can’t do after being defeated: not giving any excuses.
3. JIU-JITSU IS MENTALLY BREAKING THE OPPONENT
What’s the use of mounting your opponent and letting him comfortable? Chael Sonnen and Anderson have proven to us, at UFC 148, that Jiu-Jitsu is not only about being in the dominant position. But being in the position that most bothers, and hence mentally breaking the opponent. Smashing is all about it: make your opponent who desired the victory suddenly desires to run away from the mat.
