‘‘Magic is sometimes very close to nothing at all’’

The quote in the title is taken from the 2006 documentary film ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’ which follows the French Footballer, first name Zinedine, over the course of a entire match between Spanish teams Real Madrid and Villarreal. The camera stay exclusively on the French legend while the viewer, whether they are a fan of football or not, begins to appreciate the technical skill that the man exhibits in his delicate touch and footwork. However Zidane’s match ends early as he is sent off the pitch following a brawl, what could be seen as an anti climatic ending instead carries great poignancy as it was these occasional lapses in Zidane’s self control that marked his great career. He would later be famously sent off in a World Cup final after be being goaded into attack by the mediocre defender Marco Materazzi. It was to be his last ever professional game, which his country would go on to lose on penalties to the much less deserving Italy. It’s in these cases that we would be shown the ‘nothing at all’, all of Zidane’s ‘Magic’ that he graced us with us with would be temporarily forgotten as we instead saw a hunched, sombre figure forced to exit the football field that he had effortlessly conquered on so many previous occasions.

Although these exhibitions of aggression do little diminish the memory of Zidane’s career as he had triumphed on the world stage before, his brace of goals against Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final had won France their first ever Trophy. Zidane’s France would go on to win the European Cup two years later, cementing their status as the best international team in the world. Zidane would also experience great success at club level winning the Champions League with Real Madrid in 2002. In the match against German side Bayern Leverkusen, Zidane struck a sensational volley to give Madrid the win. This is perhaps the best example of the Magic of Zidane. In what was a close technical affair, finding himself unmarked inside the German teams penalty area, it took a split second of brilliance by Zidane to win the match. Managing to strike an awkward looping ball from team-mate Roberto Carlos into the top corner of the Leverkusen net, with what was considered his weaker left foot, was a true moment of genius and technical skill by the French Midfielder.

If there is one man in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts capable of producing such moments of magic, his name is Anderson Silva.

The Brazilian Muay Thai specialist experienced sporadic success through out the start of his MMA career. Anderson showed glimpses of his future brilliance in wins against highly ranked Welterweights Hayato Sakurai and Carlos Newton. Sadly these wins were marred by disappointing submission losses to unheralded Japanese fighters Daiju Takase and Ryo Chonan in the giant Japanese promotion Pride Fighting Championships.

Silva’s career benefited from move up to middleweight where his technical striking game experienced an increase in power. This increase in offensive ability led to Anderson capturing and defending the Cage Rage title. Perhaps Anderson had found his level as the champion of a B-league British promotion where Anderson could pick off one dimensional brawlers such as Curtis Stout and Jorge Riviera.

Anderson would then attempt to make one last go at the Welterweight weight class in the Hawaiian promotion Rumble on the Rock’s 175 lb Tournament. Despite being considered the favourite to win the entire tournament Anderson would be disqualified for a petulant kick to his opponent Yushin Okami. This would be the last time he would ever fight at welterweight as well as the last fight he would ever be defeated.

Silva would return to Britain to defend his middleweight belt against Tony Fryklund. His opponent was coming into the fight having lost three out of his last four fights, despite the bout being a complete mismatch the mixed martial art world was about to witness for the first time the creative genius of Anderson Silva. Inspired by a move he had seen in the martial art action film Ong-Bak, Anderson would perform a backwards elbow uppercut to the jaw of Fryklund instantly ending the fight. Silva had been instructed by his trainers not to bother practising the move since the world of actual fighting is far removed from the fantasy of action movies. Anderson saw potential in the strike and instead practiced the move in his spare time, by having his with hold a pillow for him to perform endless repetitions until he had perfected the movement.

The stunning knock-out against Fryklund instantly garnered Silva a multi fight contract with the American promotion The Ultimate Fighting Championship. The UFC had recently become the biggest promotion in the world following the decline of Pride FC. This would be Silva’s second time fighting in a large promotion and once again there was a chance that his flashy technical striking game would be nullified by more well rounded fighters. Silva had been training other areas of his sport in preparation for his return to the big leagues, gaining black belts in both Brazilian Jujitsu and Judo. Neither of these accolades would come into play during his first fight in the UFC.

Anderson would fight the Brawler Chris Leben in his debut at the event Ultimate Fight Night 5. The American Leben was carrying a 5 fight win streak in the promotion and was known for his devastating power and ability to take punishment. However Leben’s aggressive style and inclination to take punches to land his own would play directly into Silva’s Counter striking style. The fight would last a total of forty-nine seconds with Anderson landing 100% of his punches and kicks.

The win would propel Anderson into a immediate title shot against the current UFC middleweight belt holder Rich Franklin at UFC 64. While Franklin had been successful in his career dominating fighters who had basic stand up with his varied southpaw attack, against the left handed Silva he no longer held this advantage. Also Franklin’s kickboxing didn’t operate on the technical level of Silva’s, as Anderson was able to capture the title with his devastating offence of knees in the clinch. For the third successive fight Anderson would defeat his opponent within the first round.

Anderson Silva would defend his newly crowned title as the best middleweight in the world a UFC record of nine times. These included a unification match with pride middleweight champion Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson. A rematch with the stubborn Franklin which once again ended in a stoppage win and a first round destruction of the well rounded Nate Marquardt.

However Anderson’s performances weren’t always exciting. A brief trip to light heavyweight to knockout the highly powerful albeit flawed kick-boxer James Irvin, was followed by two infuriating performances against Patrick Cote and Thales Leites. In both fights Anderson seemed distracted and showing no signs of his usual killer instinct. Relying on a freak knee injury to Cote in the third round of their clash, as well as a even less aggressive performance from Leites to win a lopsided judges decision at UFC 97. While still the champion, Anderson was beginning to damage his reputation as Mixed Martial Arts answer to Mike Tyson.

The enigmatic persona of Anderson did little to help the American fans sympathise with the Brazilian. Silva seemed content to play around with his opponents, throwing flashy unorthodox strikes in his fight against Leites such as a ineffectual jab to the thigh and a stylish but tame Cristiano Ronaldo-esque cross footed leg kick. Fans were unhappy with Andersons perceived lack of interest in fighting to the best of his abilities to end the fight for their enjoyment. The main argument against Silva was that if he wants to show how much better he is than his opponent why not take them out quickly, as opposed to dragging the bout on for the duration of five rounds.

Anderson Silva was beginning to fall into the same trap as the brilliant boxer Roy Jones Jr, whom likewise possessed superb technical talent along with speed and head movement. Jones was so much better than his opponents during the prime of his career that he used to toy with them to the extent of taking all the excitement out of the fight. However much like Jones’s ‘hands behind his back’ knockout of Glen Kelly, when Anderson delivers to the best of his abilities, he is spectacular.

UFC President Dana White, much like the fans, was looking for away to both punish Silva for poor pay per view performances as well as finding him an opponent that would force him to fight. He decided on making Silva return to light heavyweight to face the always game former title holder, Forrest Griffin. On paper Forrest would be the bigger, stronger man and would be able to push Silva in all areas of the fight. That was what was expected, however in reality the distance between the two in both speed and technique would result in one of the most sensational knockouts in the history of mixed martial arts.

The performance that Anderson Silva gave at UFC 101 in Philadelphia surpassed every single fight he had prior. In destroying a former champion in less than one round we finally saw the full extent of his brilliance. Anderson started the fight calm like he does in most fights, using the first minute in a similar vein to Floyd Mayweather, letting his opponents give away their game by making them move. Forrest Griffin plays along accordingly, letting Silva get a measure of his range and his timing, from this point Silva has the victory in the bag. Silva begins to come at Griffin more aggressively and with his first significant attack of the fight he lands a right hand that drops Forrest.

Silva allows Forrest back to his feet knowing that he will now try to repay the knockdown. The punch all though not devastating has taken some of the power out Griffins legs, this adds to already monumental gap in speed between the two fighters. It is at this point Anderson begins to relax, he can see every one of his opponents attacks coming from miles away. He is so comfortable that he decides to drops his hand, inviting the already incensed Griffin to throw punches towards his exposed jaw line. Silva begins to dodge these oncoming combinations like they have been choreographed, weaving left and right, in and out, griffin is unable to hit his target. Silva fires back with a short left straight that returns Griffin to the canvas. A third knockdown moments later forces Griffin to raise his hand while lying on cage floor to wave off the fight, as if to say ‘no mas’ akin to Roberto Duran in his defeat to Sugar Ray Leonard. In what was supposed to be one of the biggest tests of his career, Silva had won with remarkable ease.

Once again the pendulum of public perception would swing back in Silva’s favour, and once again he would disappoint. The UFC’s worldwide growth had led them into more diverse international markets, their first show in the middle east was to be held in Abu Dhabi. Who better than the great Anderson Silva to headline this event.

Through a series of surprising results, the middleweight divisions number one contender had become American wrestler Chael Sonnen. However  Sonnen was coming of brutal victory over Nate Marquardt and was deemed to far from 100 percent to mount a challenge to the champion, in stepped Brazilian Jujitsu world champion Demain Maia to take on Silva at UFC 112.

What followed was a public relations disaster for the UFC, as fans were presented with a bizarre stalemate of a fight. A fight in which Silva went from mocking his opponent, to avoiding, to being out fought in the later rounds. While doing enough in the first three rounds to keep hold of his title, Silva had once again alienated all of his fans. UFC president Dana White was so infuriated with Silva that he didn’t even enter the ring to present him with the belt. Anderson’s performances were running hot and cold, occasional ‘magic’ was punctuated by ‘nothing at all’.

Chael Sonnen is a bizarre man. Part hilarious trash talker, part right wing xenophobe, part delusional fantasist, part real life overachiever, he is a man of endless contradictions. Have arrived in the UFC following an equally bizarre win over heavily favoured WEC champion Paulo Filho. In his first fight in the promotion he found himself against the aforementioned Demain Maia, a fight where he was quickly taken down and submitted. He then Began a three fight win streak, beating the then undefeated Dan Miller as well as the perennial number two and three in the division in Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt.

Sonnen’s style relies heavily on his wrestling which he uses to keep his opponents on their back while peppering them with punches on course to winning decision victories. The major downside to this strategy is that it leaves him susceptible to submissions, Maia being his seventh career submission loss and his fifth by way of Triangle (either choke or armbar). However his takedown centric approach would still provide a bad stylistic match up for Anderson,  granting he could avoid all submission attempts that might be thrown at him.

What would be the main event of UFC 117 had received great anticipation from fans and media alike, due in no small part to the constant trash talk by Sonnen about Silva and his native Brazil. Sonnen even went so far to say that Silva’s black belt, which he had received from the highly regarded Nogueira brothers, was like getting ‘a free toy in a happy meal’. Public perception believed that there could be no way Anderson could not want to go 100% percent against a man who had taken every opportunity to insult and discredit him.

While not his greatest performance, Silva’s match against Sonnen would be to this day, his greatest fight.

The fight began quickly with both men’s dislike for one another clear in their body language. Silva was keeping his hands low as to prevent the inevitable takedown that Sonnen was looking for. Anderson managed to catch a kick from Sonnen, which caused the American to turn around and athletically roll out of danger. Suddenly the dynamic of the fight changed, when Silva too concerned about the threat of the takedown from Sonnen, was caught with a hard punch from the challenger. Clearly rocked Silva staggered backwards awhile Sonnen continued his attack. Silva then decides to drops his hands letting Chael land several more strikes to his unprotected jaw. Anderson’s intentions in doing this is unclear and Sonnen immediately senses his opportunity to take Silva to the mat. Once on the ground, Sonnen begins to control Silva and batter him with hard shots from top position. When the action packed round finally draws to a close, it’s clear Sonnen has taken a 10-8 lead on the judges scorecard.

The next two rounds are almost identical with Sonnen continuing his success in getting takedowns and pounding the champion with continued aggression. The fourth begins with Anderson far behind on the scorecards, he can no longer hope of getting a decision in his favour, he is now in a position where he has to finish the fight to retain his championship. We see a brief glimpse of the brilliance of Silva as he connects with a elbow to the jaw of Sonnen which drops him to his knees, but Sonnen continues to press forward and manages to take Silva down to the ground for continued punishment.

Silva begins the fifth round with a sense of urgency, he senses he is about to lose his UFC Middleweight title. He comes out focused on finding that one mistake by the challenger that he can capitalise on, however he walks straight into another Sonnen right hand that rocks him, before once gain finding himself taken to ground. Sonnen is dominating and is now mere minutes away from achieving the massive upset and becoming the first man in the UFC to defeat Silva.

Is this it for the great Anderson Silva? will his stunning reign as the best Middleweight in the world going to come to a crashing end against his most despised rival? Similar to Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final, has he simply ran out of ideas on how to win, leaving him simply to walk away in defeat remembering past glories. Silva’s face is a swollen lump, if Sonnen can hold on then this bout will surely be remembered as the most one sided, sustained beating ever seen in a UFC title fight. All of Sonnen’s talk before the fight will be validated, every racial slur about the Brazilian will go unpunished. Determined mediocrity will win out over true brilliance.

Then it happens, as it inevitably would, Sonnen tires enough for Silva to get his left leg over the American’s right arm. Silva is able to get the triangle choke wrapped tightly around Sonnen’s neck whilst pulling the left arm forward to act as armbar. Sonnen tries desperately to escape by attempting to lift his right leg over Silva but he is unable to get his posture right. With 110 seconds left in the fight, Sonnen taps.

For Silva is was the ‘magical’ comeback which was so close to being ‘nothing at all’ , for Sonnen it was vice versa, a bitter defeat so close to being an amazing upset. Sonnen would later test positive for illegal substances and elevated testosterone levels and receive a year suspension, where as Silva was revealed to have had a broken rib going into the fight, an injury that would have seriously affected his movement.

Anderson Silva went on to defend his title two more times, brutally dispatching top contenders Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami with stylish KO’s. No contender in the UFC has been able to push Silva the way Sonnen was able to. It is ironic that the first UFC fight where Silva was made to appear Human, he also shown to be unbeatable, surviving endless amounts of punishment to pull off a sensational victory.

Combat Sports are littered with performances that were just one moment away from ‘magic’, instead having to be resigned to ‘nothing at all’. An example of this would be David Haye against Wladimir Klitschko. One punch from Haye could have completely changed the fight and the result, instead he subjected to ridicule for not delivering on his pre match boasts.

But I guess the testament to true brilliance is those who can make ‘magic’ out of ‘nothing at all’.

''Dedicated to the Winners and the Losers...''

 On December the 8th 2007 British Boxer Ricky Hatton arrived at MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas in an attempt to win the WBC World Welterweight title from American Floyd Mayweather. Hatton, a natural light-welterweight and multiple world champion was the heavy underdog going into the bout, no boxing pundit or Journalist could, hand on heart, say they favoured the Mancunian to emerge with the victory. Despite his hugely vocal support in the arena that had travelled over from England, despite his undefeated record,  despite a lifetime of hard training regimes and hours spent in the gym, despite there being ‘only one Ricky Hatton’ and regardless of the steel fortitude he brings to every bout, Hatton was going to lose this fight and there was nothing he could do to change the outcome.

‘‘Can it be that it was all so simple…’’

Hatton had experienced great success through out his career due to his bull-like determination and aggression, pressuring and bullying his opponent with hard body shots until they inevitably broke or gave in. His boxing was rudimentary from a technical perspective and a vast contrast to that of his opponent, Floyd Mayweather, who had received the nickname ‘pretty boy’ due to his brilliance in defence which meant he left every fight he entered completely unscathed.

As a defensive boxer Mayweather is comparable through out history with the best of the genre. His ability to avoid damage at close range was similar to that of the great Pernell Whitaker, both men had mastered the principle of hitting with out getting hit, a formula that had lead both men to Olympic medals as amateurs. There was however stylistic differences between the two, where as Whitaker used to dodge punches with magnificent head movement Floyd instead nullified his opponents attack with a technical counter attack and clinch game.

While both boxers made the most of their superb reflexes Whitaker didn’t have the mean streak in offence that Floyd Mayweather exhibited. While he will never be considered a power puncher or a knock out artist, there is a stiffness in Mayweather’s punches which becomes apparent over the course of a fight. As his opponents begin to show to ever increasing desperation in their attacks Floyd just sticks to his gameplan, hiding in plain sight, unable to be hurt despite standing inside arms reach of his aggressor, returning brilliantly timed right hands to his opponents jaw.

Then, when the moment presents itself, after his opponent has become fatigued and frustrated in his vain endeavour of hurting the ‘Pretty Boy’, Mayweather can strike with blistering speed. Turning defence into attack, then quick as a flash, reverting back into the defensive routine that he’s been employing through out the entire fight.

This power can be seen in the comparisons with records of other great defensive fighters, Willie Pep fought a staggering two hundred and forty one times only losing in eleven of these, while his 65 KO’s sounds impressive it only accounts for just over 28% of his wins. Likewise out of Pernell Whitaker’s 40 career wins only 43% have come by way of a stoppage. Comparing the records of these defensive greats to that of Floyd Mayweather’s show the potency in his offence, his perfect record of 41 wins show a KO percentage over 60 %. Mayweather has the type of power that while not blatant in its practice, turns unanimous decisions into TKO’s.

While the notion that Hatton was always going to lose this fight can of course be debated, and I don’t want to descend the argument into the realm of fate and freewill. Where as the science of who will win a fight is lost somewhere between physical make up and the mental determination of the two men fighting. The theory of who ‘deserves’ to win a fight is a lot more clear cut, as defined by legendary boxing trainer Cus D’Amato ‘‘When two men step into the ring, one and only one deserves to win. When you step into the ring, you gotta know you deserve to win. You gotta know destiny owes you victory… cause you trained harder than your opponent. You sparred harder. You ran farther".

While its impossible to tell who trained the hardest during the course of their training camp its obviously apparent who has dedicated themselves the most to the sport of boxing throughout their life. While Hatton greets inactivity from training as an excuse to eat and drink unhealthily, Mayweather maintains his commitment to the core ingredients that made him a champion, he never drinks, never cheats on his diet, never skips a training session. Every indiscretion Hatton made through out his career just put him a step further away from competing with Floyd.

Another factor in the contest was the styles of the two fighters, Hatton’s brawling versus Mayweather’s defence, while not the complete stylistic mismatch of Hatton versus Manny Pacquiao, where the Brawler versus puncher match up resulted in a devastating second round KO against Hatton. Its needless to say the Mayweather holds the advantage here, as coupled with his speed he will present an elusive target for Hatton and will be able to avoid his strengths enough over the course of a fight to win a clear decision. What would happen instead was the result of aggression versus skill, the pin point accuracy of Mayweather mixed with his ability to defensively smother the would be assault of Hatton.

Hatton, to his credit, starts the fight brightly as he begins charging Mayweather down. He successfully catches Mayweather at an indecision, unsure of which way to go whilst against the ropes causes him to stumble backwards, which elicits a large roar from the English support. Mayweather is completely muted in terms on offensive output in the first round, while this can be interpreted as a result of Hatton’s attack, it is instead the first signs of the technical brilliance of Floyd. He deliberately gives the first round away on the judges scorecard, he does this to present his opponent with a blank canvas on which he lets them present their gameplan. Once his opponent has given away their hand, he then adds a few tweaks to his own gameplan and sets about systematically picking them apart over the course of the fight. The ability to adjust mid-fight  can be seen in other great fighters such as Joe Calzaghe, Sugar Ray Leonard and Anderson Silva.

Both men being effective on the inside inevitably leads to a high amount of clinching from Mayweather. This effectively negates Hatton’s ability to go to the body with his punches in an attempt to wear Floyd down, whom is all the while all the while catching Hatton with Jabs and straights as he plunders forward.

During the middle rounds the contest has descended into Mayweather’s ideal fight, the constant pressure from Hatton makes him predictable, every exchange that sees Floyd’s Punches land and Hatton’s miss widens the margin on the judges scorecard and frustrates Ricky. Frustration is the fuel that Mayweather’s style feeds on, the more wild and erratic Hatton becomes the more obvious his attacks are to Mayweather, the easier they are to counter.

By the 8th round the bout hardly resembles the closely contested battle between two undefeated fighters that pay per view broadcasters worldwide had advertised it. Mayweather has begun rocking Hatton’s cranium with devastating punches. Every now and again Mayweather mixes in a quick left hook to Hatton’s jaw as he comes forward, the majority of these go unmentioned by the ringside commentators as they aren’t as flashy as the straight rights Mayweather is landing. Every clean power shot that connects sends a halo of sweat off Hatton’s head, the concussive effect of this punishment is quickly accumulating.

Hatton survives the round and is surprisingly better in the 9th losing a lot less lopsided round. However at this point it is evident Mayweather is biding his time, looking for the coup de grâce. In the 10th it is Hatton’s valiant ability to still press the action that works against him as Mayweather is able to treat the onrushing fighter in a calm matador-like fashion. Floyd lands a short inside left hook that sends Hatton headfirst into the ring turnbuckle and then tumbling to the floor. Hatton is able to bravely return to his feet only to then be quickly dispatched by the lightening fast combinations of Mayweather that cause him once again to collapse to the canvas just as his corner throw in the towel. Mayweather leaps on to the top of ring post in celebration as the floored Hatton is buried beneath the ringside doctors.

Before the fight took place, the ring announcer Michael Buffer had stated rather bluntly that in regards to the match up being between two undefeated fighters, that ‘Someone’s O has got to go’. Was the result of whom ever in question?