Fighter Breakdown: Anderson Silva

Name: Anderson Silva

Nickname: The Spider

Weight class: Middleweight, light-heavy weight, and formally welterweight.

Martial Arts background: Silva initially started training in Tae Kwon Do at the age of 14, obtaining his black belt four years later. He's also obtained a black belt in Judo, and more recently(2006) obtained a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under famous heavyweight practitioner Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria. Despite his grappling credentials, he is most famous for his elite MMA oriented Muay Thai.

Striking breakdown: As a southpaw, Anderson has a general advantage over orthodox strikers who don't train with other southpaws, although he's just as effective with an orthodox stance. Silva has demonstrated a tremendous amount of power in every strike he throws, easily knocking out fighters with renowned chins (Chris Leben, Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt, Forrest Griffin...the list goes on). Along with this, Silva has shown a very creative side, performing various knees, kicks, and punches that would normally be suicide in the stand-up game - yet get away with it unscathed. When not showing off his creative single strikes, he can normally be found in the Clinch, where a vicious combos of knees more often than not result in the immediate TKO of his adversaries. He is considered by many to be the best pure striker in MMA.

Grappling breakdown: Although most of his fights are stand-up matches, when it goes to the ground, he's almost always comfortable. He's demonstrated submission escape and execution abilities, most notably against Travis Lutter, where he escaped an armbar and later locked him in a triangle choke to obtain a victory(This is made more impressive as Lutter is a BJJ blackbelt himself). He tends to end up on the bottom on the ground, where he utilizes his long legs to put opponents in a body triangle. Silva has also submitted Dan Henderson with a rear-naked choke.

Strengths: The biggest and most referred to (as well as visually impressive) strength that Anderson Silva has is his elusiveness. There are moments in the middle of fights where it appears he's dancing, avoiding strikes such as headkicks, punch combinations, and etc using nothing but head movement. He does this with an incredible sense of timing, which is perhaps unrivaled in MMA today. His Muay Thai clinch and striking in general is also renowned; it's gotten to the point that when other strikers brutally TKO their opponents, one may call it "Playing Anderson Silva." His tremendous power and skill make him a very dangerous striker.

Weaknesses: Anderson Silva is great at many things, but wrestling is not one of them. Dan Henderson was able to take him down (albeit Henderson is a former olympic wrestler), as was Travis Lutter. Although his scramble ability in general is up to par, any excellent practitioner of the art may be able to give him trouble. He's also shown vulnerability to very rapid submission attempts, most notably done by Ryo Chonnan, who submitted him with a Flying Scissor Heel Hook. Before it happened, if you asked a submissions expert if that move could work in modern MMA, they would say "Never."

Game Plan: The Spider tends to wait out the first minute or so of a round as to guage his opponents timing and reactions. Once he does so, he'll begin a more aggressive campaign, and although he'll have flashes of offensive brilliance, he is predominately a counter striker. If the opponent refuses to engage, Silva will likely come in with a "crazy" strike to prompt action. If the fight ends up on the ground, he appears to "go with the flow" and deal with whatever happens. This is most likely done to maximize the chances of the fight being stood back up, where Silva will have the biggest advantage.

Notable wins and losses:

The two victories over Rich Franklin were significant because he won, and then defended the Middleweight championship. Franklin was essentially unstoppable at 185, and Anderson whipped him around like a rag doll.(twice)

An olympic wrestler with a strong chin and a big right hand, as well as a former champion of PRIDE in two weight classes, Dan Henderson was considered the man to conquer the spider. Dan won the first round using his wrestling, a notable weakness of the spider, but couldn't do much else besides hold him on the ground. In the second round, Henderson attempted to stand with the Silva, which lead to him being peppered with strikes. In order to avoid being TKO'd, Dan tried to bring the fight to the ground. Once it got there, however, Anderson acquired a dominate position by taking Henderson's back and submitted him with a rear naked choke.

Ryo Chonnan. Flying Scissor Heel Hook. What else needs to be said? Anyone that questions the beatability of The Spider need only look back to this match, where Ryo proved that even the #1 Pound for Pound fighter in the world can look awfully mortal when tapping out in severe pain.

Speaking of being the number one pound for pound fighter: Forrest Griffin. Anderson Silva made the former Light-Heavyweight champion look like a 12 year old kid that just started training yesterday. The fact that Silva's speed, KO power, technique, etc translates into a weight division 20 lbs heavier than his home is a scary thought, especially when he can easily destroy the former champion of said division. Many people thought that Georges St. Pierre and Fedor Emelianenko were ahead of Silva in the pound for pound rankings. Fewer people hold that opinion now.

Future: Several people want to see Anderson take a run at the 205 championship belt, which is something that will never happen so long as Lyoto Machida holds it. (Anderson and Lyoto are friends outside the cage.) With the latest contenders for Silva at 185 being nothing more than recycled past victims at this point, there is little interest for the king in his own division. With only a couple of fights left on his contract (Silva has stated plans to retire once his current contract expires), the most likely path for the Spider is 205 super-fights. If Vitor Belfort dominates Rich Franklin, maybe we'll see The Phenom vs The Spider.