WAINAO ART TEE SHIRT JAN ZELEZNI DEFYING GODS

 The history of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) dates back to the Olympics of ancient Greece. Mixed Martial Arts fights originated as hand-to-hand combat performed as a sport called pankration, from the Greek words pan and kratos, meaning “all powers.” The Greek competitors had only two rules: no biting and no eye gouging. Pankration was a popular event, and the competitors became heroes and the subjects of legends. The teachings of ancient Greek pankration spread to India thanks to Alexander the Great and his habit of recruiting athletes as soldiers because of their strength and combat knowledge. A Buddhist monk traveling through India picked up on aspects of pankration and brought that knowledge to China, where it birthed Asian martial arts such as kung fu, judo, and karate. As martial arts spread, so did the idea of mixed-style competitions. Often a practitioner of one martial art challenged a practitioner of a different one for ultimate bragging rights. These mixed-style competitions took place worldwide for several decades, eventually gaining intense popularity in the United States. When a kickboxer was matched with a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, the kickboxer would realize that he must become more adept at defending takedowns, thus prompting him to train with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters. (Jiu-Jitsu ground fighting incorporates various submission holds and chokes.) From that point forward, competitions were no longer between athletes who focused on a singular martial art but between two mixed martial arts athletes.

It’s hard to pick a guy and say that he’s the greatest but….ANDERSON SILVA is a very good case.
greatness should also be accompanied with having exciting fights. Honestly, it’s hard to conjure up a fighter with better fight film than Silva. Highlight after highlight.

There are many reasons why Silva is the greatest of all time, none of which really articulate how important Silva was to the UFC. How important he was to guys like Jon Jones. There are very few fighters who’s existence allowed the UFC to become a household name. On this list, Anderson is near the top.
The slight edge goes to Silva vs guys like Fedor or St. Pierre. Silva the greatest because of his title defenses. it’s not just the number of defenses, but how long he maintained the belt. Silva defended his belt a total of ten times and even fought up in weight on multiple occasions during said streak and didn’t lose those fights either. Winning a belt is difficult, that’s obvious. Defending that belt is harder.

 

He reigned supreme in the UFC’s middleweight division from 2006 until 2012 and defended his title 10 times which included impressive stoppage victories over Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort. As the sport entered the mainstream more and more, Silva became the poster boy. His elusive style and gentle demeanor coupled with his spectacular knock-outs endeared him to fans everywhere.
For example, iIn a fight that was planned as far back as UFC 108 in January 2010, Silva finally fought a resurgent Vitor Belfort at UFC 126 in February of this year.
Belfort walked into the Octagon with a five-fight win-streak that included four (T)KO’s. After several minutes of feeling each other out, Silva launched an amazing kick that caught Belfort flush and gave “The Phenom” the first straight KO loss of his career.

 

On July 7, 2012: Anderson Silva Defeats Chael Sonnen by Triangle Armbar at UFC 117 . This is arguably the toughest fight of Anderson Silva's career.
Anderson Silva was undefeated at that point and had just no legit rivals in his division. He was reigning on the Mixed mùartial arts for years. However, leading up to the fight, Chael Sonnen was talking a lot of trash, more than anybody. Why? During the previous fight in 2010 SONNEN was on the verge to beat SIlva. He was leading on the judges' scorecards. Unfortunately, in the final round Silva caught Sonnen in a triangle armbar and made him tap out. The fight was considered to be the best fight of the year by many critics. Lnowing that, that revenge was maybe the most anticipated fight ever at that point.

 

From the start, Sonnen quickly took the champion and maintained him in that position. Sonnen kept attacking with ground-and-pound. Silva was credited with zero strikes. Sonnen was clearly dominant and connected with 76 strikes from the top position in the opening round. However, Sonnen was unable to to find a way to finish the match and dethrone the champion. Silva showed that he had a lot of heart and waited for the perfect moment...that moment came when sonnen failed to connect with a spinning elbow strike and tripped. Silva jumped on the occasion to land a devastating knee strike and punches for the TKO at 1:55 of the second round.
After that SIlbva will fight against BONNAR that he will beat and stopped his incredible reign in a surprised loss against WEIDMAN.

MMA has never been a problem....but Silva was !!

 

 

 

To know more about the subject:

 

Mrosko, Gene (14 October 2012). "UFC 153 results: Anderson Silva stops Stephan Bonnar after brutal knee in first round". mmamania.com.
Iole, Kevin (8 July 2012). "Anderson Silva quiets Chael Sonnen, leaving only Jon Jones as a worthy challenger". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
Official UFC 117 Scorecard: Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen (Picture)". 5thround.com. 8 August 2010. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
Silva's apology for UFC 90 anitcs was appropriate". Archived from the original on 29 October 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
Gerbasi, Thomas (3 May 2006). "Anderson Silva: A New Contender Arrives in the UFC". UFC.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2008. Retrieved 6 July 2007.
Ricardo Miguel (October 2007). "Fighter Profile: Anderson Silva". FIGHTMagazine.com. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013.
Rousseau, Robert. "Biography and Profile of Anderson Silva". About.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2011.