Bad stylistic matchup for Silva. Claudio has elite mat skills but no way to get the fight to the ground; just an utter lack of offensive wrestling game. He has fairly decent power in his hands and showed some heavy leg kicks against Krause, but that's probably because he loads up and throws both like a spaz. Nothing but kill shots. His technique on the feet is... not the best. Not to mention the deficiencies he's shown with his gas tank.
Gunni always has his sport karate roots to fall on. He isn't quite Wonderboy or anything, but I suspect can strike well enough from the outside to land on Claudio while avoiding his power IMO. Nelson has also traditionally looked quite strong in the clinch despite being smaller than many of his opponents so I'm not worried about him getting muscled to the ground. He's also a decentish MMA wrestler compared to Silva. Even if the fight goes to the mat, Nelson is a very credentialed submission grappler himself. While I could see a world where Claudio exploits his own size and technique to control Gunnar on the mat (probably not finishing him, but who knows?) like Maia did, I suspect Nelson would be able to stay defensively responsible and survive those situations -- maybe even turn the tables given Claudio's advanced age and layoff of his own.
