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Originally Posted by BGDDYKWL
I understand what you're saying, and I've heard others echo similar sentiments. I can't say I agree though and here's why. Sonnen is an entirely different animal than anyone Silva has faced in the past. And this is coming from as big a Dan Henderson fan as you'll ever find. Henderson is nowhere near the MMA wrestler that Sonnen is. It isn't even close. Also, Sonnen is much bigger than Henderson. You could see in the standup exchanges that Henderson was at a huge reach disadvantage against Silva; that wasn't the case with Sonnen.
IMO no matter what version of Silva walked into that cage he was getting put on his back whenever Sonnen wanted him there. Now, that being said, was I worried about Sonnen getting caught either before or while he was shooting in? Absolutely. Could that happen in a rematch? Sure. But there's no way we'd ever see something like a full round go by (standing) with Sonnen unable to take Silva down.
This says a lot coming from me because GSP is on an entirely different level from everyone IMO, but I think you could argue that Sonnen's MMA wrestling is even as good as his.
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Well firstly, I don't think anyone's MMA wrestling can touch GSP's but I get what you're saying.
I'm not suggsting Sonnen wouldn't be able to take Silva down, but no matter how different of an opponent Chael is, I saw Silva taking a more aggressive approach than I've ever seen him take. Each round, he went out an met Chael right in the middle of the octagon, got in some reckless exchanges and immediately got taken down. There was no slow start, no timing from Silva, which has made him such a lethal striker in the UFC. I understand how he needed to lose the "antics", but I think the pressure and criticism forced him to fight a different fight than he should have.