Anderson Silva fighting stance...

Frode Falch

Frode Falch

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I have been thinking alot about Anderson Silva lately. So i want to start a discussion about his fighting style. And with focus on his fighting stance. What do you think about it?

I have watched him fight since his pride and cage rage days. And i think he was at his most technical clean style at his cage rage champion days, and up to his rematch against franklin.

Back then he would come out with a high guard MT inspired fighting stance. He would use small but slick footwork to feel out the other guy, before getting into a agressive counter mode.

Then he started to get more and more fancy.. And it worked for him because of his unique way of staying cool during fighting, his timing and almost endless toolkit of strikes..

But i really miss the more textbook clean Anderson Silva.. IMO what was more badass to watch.

What do you guys think?

SilvaFryklund099CR16.jpg
 
i remember how technical he was against lee murray, I wonder why he changed from that when it was working so well for him. Maybe he was trying to stay ahead of the game
 
Never was a fan of loose and lazy Anderson Silva. His showboating and clowning had me lose all respect for him. Now i just hope he gets KTFO over and over again.
 
Too bad he has never faced a high level kicker. I think a 185 lbs Jose Aldo would be a tough match up for The Spider.
 
I'm a fan of his old stance/style. I guess it would be more of a conventional Thai stance (more weight on the back foot, slightly more square). It's been awhile since I've seen his older fights honestly. I do remember seeing the reverse elbow ko of Tony Fryklund and being amazed. It was such an odd yet novel way to throw an elbow.

The Silva that demolished Leben and Franklin was unstoppable. I guess Silva hasn't had to use it in awhile because he hasn't been challenged, but his use of the clinch (Thai Plum), especially in his fights with Franklin, was nasty. One thing you rarely if ever see in MMA is the use of the clinch and it's a shame. Franklin had no clue how to deal with it and I'm sure if Silva used it against Weidman (instead of clowning around like a guy who didn't want to be there), Weidman would've had a difficult time dealing with it as well.
 
This is how Rich Franklin himself talks about how Silva's clinch felt like:

Franklin: If you and I clinch, I grab the back of your head and just pull your head straight down. Your natural reaction is to pull your head back up. Anything that I do to you in a fight, whatever I do to you, your reaction is to resist that. Naturally. It'll always be that way. If I'm going to push you, then your reaction is to push back into me so you don't lose balance.

And the thing with Anderson in the clinch was, Anderson was manipulating it. He was all about spinal manipulation. He would bend your spine to one side. As soon as you start fighting it, if he wanted to bend you to your right side, instead of fighting you and saying, I'm going to bend you to your right side, he would take the resistance you were giving him, as you were trying to straighten yourself up. He used that to bend you opposite way. So it's as if you're helping him achieve his goals. By the time you realized it, you're completely on the other side and you're fighting to get back your equilibrium again. But he's just letting you.
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Franklin: When I went into the first fight with Anderson, because I'm a physically larger person than he is, I knew I would be stronger than him. So the idea in my camp was, because I'd seen him clinch in all his fights before, if he tries clinching with me, I'll welcome that all day long because I'm going to eat him up in the clinch. Before I fought him, I was so arrogant to think that.

We basically just overlooked clinch work in my first camp. And then I got into the fight. And with Anderson, it wasn't about strength as much as it was about his timing and keeping me off balance, all that kind of stuff. I always felt like I was completely out of position and working twice as hard as him.
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Franklin: I'll just say this. I don't know if I remember experiencing this or if I just remember watching the film of it happen to me, but there was a point in time, Anderson kneed me in the body. He bent me over, I think I was manipulated to the side, and he tried throwing a knee to my head. It didn't really land flush, but then he threw a knee to my body. When he hit me in the body, it completely took everything out of me. And then I think he manipulated me to the other side and he kneed me hard in the head.

You could see on my face the point of where, mentally, the switch had flipped -- as if I had mentally given up. I was defeated in that fight before the fight ended.

When I saw that ... it's just one of those things where you put your head down. You kind of shake your head. Because I've seen it happen so many times to my opponents when they're standing across the cage from me. There's a point where somebody will look defeated and you know, okay, I got this guy now. I saw that look in my face, and it's a really disappointing feeling.
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Jack Slack has cool breakdowns on Silva and he has one of his evolutiona s a fighter. He doing the fancy stuff as an anti wrestler tactic in PRIDE he also fought more textbook but he got taken down more often.
Fighting with your hands down makes it easier to stuff takedowns and the clowning is to get opponents to open up but of course it has it's downsides
 
I never bought the whole "hands down is his takedown defense" thing..
 
Personally I think Anderson wanted to get koed for a while now... Also I never thought that highly of him, people fall for his stupidity and walk into traps.
 
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I like his boxing stance better...right foot forward
 
And clearly, Anderson wasn't trying in his last fight. He didn't take that seriously at all. I give Chris no props for that KO.
 
Frode Falch said:
I never bought the whole "hands down is his takedown defense" thing..
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Nah it really makes sense. Just wrestle with someone even for fun if you have your hands down you can get underhooks all the time which makes a huge difference if you don't have a great (probably even if you have I don't know exactly don't wrestle) sprawl and Anderson doen't have a great sprawl. Crocop had a great sprawl and even he held his hands different after a few years of MMA in the first years doing MMA he fought more out of a kickboxing stance but slowly he also changed (and his striking got worse). And which is somethign Jack Slack said I don't know if that really is such a big difference but it could be. Anderson is tall and lanky guys like Crocop are short (for their divisions) and stocky so even if they fight with their hands up they have more time to get under their opponent to defend TDs their opponents needed also more time to change levels against them. Guys like them have an easier time being aggressive strikers moving forward and just sprawl when the other guy shoots for a TD. Anderson has a worse sprawl and is tall an lanky so he is better off as a counter puncher which is also one of the reasons he keeps his hands down. He probably noticed that most MMA fighters have very basic striking so he started keeping his hands down knowing that he would still be able to defend himself against their sloppy strikes and that they would lean and reach trying to hit him and had all around sloppy technique whether it was footwork or punching technique.
But yeah having your hands down makes a big difference in TD defence
 
thugpoet said:
Personally I think Anderson wanted to get koed for a while now... Also I never thought that highly of him, people fall for his stupidity and walk into traps.
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simple assessment, but correct; he is kinda like sakuraba on the feet, he showboats.. sets traps..creates openings and then takes advantage of them. If you can ignore them, you can be very successful; the thing is most people (as forrest griffin said) they get a taste of success and then open up, even if silva counters (initially they feel they can take it as bonnar said). Then anderson lowers the boom at the right moment..

in this last fight he didn't counter immediately, he kept slipping/defending/rolling; he didn't fire back, which he usually does he was just defending and potshotting, he wasn't countering. Which he has done before but usually he is on the move, not standing right in front of the opposition.

i can't say its stupidity people bait people all the time, he is just very good at it; it's happened to the best mma guys..best boxers..best kickboxers..he just figures guys out pushes their buttons then takes them out.

that being said he has the skills to fight straight up and ice people; i think the reason he went to this new style is because it gives him more opp to actually strike, guys known as devastating strikers, people try to tie them up and take them down due to their danger on the feet. Anderson backing up and showboating and baiting makes guys feel comfortable pressing on the feet, or even opening up on the ground; which gives him opp to get subs/get back to his feet.

i think it allows him the best opp to land off w/out getting controlled...taken down by his opp; it also allows him to have guys come to him, rather than anderson having to chase guys down..
 
If he comes with his hands help up high like a thai boxer and goes for that clinch, he's spending the fight on his back for five rounds.
 
I think what many of you need to realize is that every fight is different and it never plays out the same way even against the same opponent. Anderson changes up his stance and strategy in every fight because he has to. it wouldn't serve him well to rigidly stick to a "textbook" muay thai stance or a boxing stance with hands ups. every opponent presents a unique problem so one must always be willing to adapt to overcome the problem.
 
Bay Area said:
And clearly, Anderson wasn't trying in his last fight. He didn't take that seriously at all. I give Chris no props for that KO.
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I kinda agree. but try saying that in the UFC forums.. :redface:
 
No where did you get that from.. I guess you came from the UFC forum?
 
Roads55 said:
i remember how technical he was against lee murray, I wonder why he changed from that when it was working so well for him. Maybe he was trying to stay ahead of the game
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You saw that in his fight against Chris Leben, too, but once he started building a name for himself as a striker in the UFC I think he started believe in his own hype. There's also that intimidation factor that could easily be capitalized on like "Oh, shit it's Anderson Silva. I better be careful with what I throw."

Ironically though, he's a much better striking because of that intimidation factor around him. Earlier in his career, when he was actually trying to strike, he was on the same level of an Edson Barboza or w/e. If you watch his striking/boxer matches you'll see he's not THAT great of a striker.

As far as his stance goes, he probably has one of the best striking-centric stances for MMA. He mixes boxing with Muay Thai well.

I still see a halfway-competent boxer with good takedowns beati--oh wait...
 
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