Anderson, Ideals and Atychiphobia

by Jordan Breen (jbreen@sherdog.com)


19054
Anderson Silva is a great fighter.

No, I know, that's not a startling revelation, let alone an interesting one. After his three-minute mauling of Forrest Griffin on Saturday night, the ever-fickle MMA public has decided that Silva is to be celebrated once again, and in the strongest of terms.

That's to be expected after a performance with such a violent and skillful aesthetic. Griffin threw 35 strikes at Silva's head and landed literally one. Silva knocked Griffin on the mat three times. In case you're not mathematically inclined, that means Silva actually knocked Griffin down triple the amount of times that Griffin even touched his face. However, what's been overlooked in discussion of Silva's superlative skills is his equally lofty accomplishment.

Silva's complete sonning of Griffin is not just a technical sign of the times or an acid test that portends a successful light heavyweight run. It's actually set a particularly impressive standard for pound-for-pound achievement: With the victory, Silva has become the first fighter in this sport's short modern history to defeat top-five opponents across three weight classes.

Of course, Silva became a superstar when he became MMA's first pantheon-level middleweight. However, long before he ever eviscerated Rich Franklin, even before his Pride tenure, Silva was one of the sport's best welterweights. Eight years ago, he rolled into Osaka and took the Shooto world 168-pound title from Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, who was widely seen as the sport's top pound-for-pound fighter at the time.

In fact, on the back of that victory, Silva was actually slated to make his UFC debut at UFC 34 to face then-champ Carlos Newton. The exclusive deal that Zuffa wanted for Silva didn't jive with "The Spider," though, or his Chute Boxe handlers, who wanted to keep doors to Pride and Meca Vale Tudo open. Just think how radically different history might be if Silva got into the Octagon in '01 and Matt Hughes didn't unconsciously powerbomb his way to glory. Maybe there's a Marvel Comics-style "What If?" concept brewing.

Nonetheless, it is strange that the victory over Sakurai gets glossed over historically when it was Silva's first great moment and it is an accomplishment that stands the test of time. How often does any fighter dethrone the pound-for-pound king? Surely when Silva loses, the world won't forget about it in eight years -- at least I hope not.

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atychiphobia is the fear of failure incase anyone is wondering.

I don't really understand why a writer would put something like that in a headline when he doesn't even come close to discussing it in the article.

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Posted by Aether

atychiphobia is the fear of failure incase anyone is wondering.

I don't really understand why a writer would put something like that in a headline when he doesn't even come close to discussing it in the article.

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Because Jordan Breen is obviously a failed English literature professor who could only get a job at Sherblog, so he uses as many large useless words as possible.

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Posted by Aether

atychiphobia is the fear of failure incase anyone is wondering.

I don't really understand why a writer would put something like that in a headline when he doesn't even come close to discussing it in the article.

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Perhaps the fear is implied...on a couple of occasions, he does reference the relationship between failures (or the lack of) and perceived greatness.

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Posted by Aether

atychiphobia is the fear of failure incase anyone is wondering.

I don't really understand why a writer would put something like that in a headline when he doesn't even come close to discussing it in the article.

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He kinda does.

"In fightsport the ultimate goal is to collect the most prized scalps more so than living in fear of losing your own. I think it can only breed positive expectations from athletes if the MMA world sees a pound-for-pound alpha dog who is great for accomplishment's sake, rather than the scantiness of his loss column."

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Posted by xdanish020

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Posted by Aether

atychiphobia is the fear of failure incase anyone is wondering.

I don't really understand why a writer would put something like that in a headline when he doesn't even come close to discussing it in the article.

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He kinda does.

"In fightsport the ultimate goal is to collect the most prized scalps more so than living in fear of losing your own. I think it can only breed positive expectations from athletes if the MMA world sees a pound-for-pound alpha dog who is great for accomplishment's sake, rather than the scantiness of his loss column."

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I think that mentality is an unfortunate side effect of boxing.

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Posted by grappler0000

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Posted by xdanish020

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Posted by Aether

atychiphobia is the fear of failure incase anyone is wondering.

I don't really understand why a writer would put something like that in a headline when he doesn't even come close to discussing it in the article.

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He kinda does.

"In fightsport the ultimate goal is to collect the most prized scalps more so than living in fear of losing your own. I think it can only breed positive expectations from athletes if the MMA world sees a pound-for-pound alpha dog who is great for accomplishment's sake, rather than the scantiness of his loss column."

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I think that mentality is an unfortunate side effect of boxing.

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Do you mean the fear of losing? Because there is definitely a lot of that in boxing. It is one of the great things about mma that a fighter is judged more on who he has beat rather than how many times he lost.

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Posted by Darnok

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Posted by Aether

atychiphobia is the fear of failure incase anyone is wondering.

I don't really understand why a writer would put something like that in a headline when he doesn't even come close to discussing it in the article.

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Because Jordan Breen is obviously a failed English literature professor who could only get a job at Sherblog, so he uses as many large useless words as possible.

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So bitter, Darnok. Why so much hate for a fellow canadian?

Just because you can't read big words doesn't mean they are useless.

I guess, in a way he come close to discussing it, but not really. A phobia is specifically an irrational fear, not just any fear in general.

It doesn't really matter, but it's pretty bad form as a writer to incorrectly use an obscure word in a headline and then not reference or explain it in the actual article.

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Posted by ncordless

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Posted by Darnok

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Posted by Aether

atychiphobia is the fear of failure incase anyone is wondering.

I don't really understand why a writer would put something like that in a headline when he doesn't even come close to discussing it in the article.

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Because Jordan Breen is obviously a failed English literature professor who could only get a job at Sherblog, so he uses as many large useless words as possible.

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So bitter, Darnok. Why so much hate for a fellow canadian?

Just because you can't read big words doesn't mean they are useless.

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Just because you disagree with what I say, doesn't mean you have to attempt a petty insult.

Wasn't the fuy who wrote this the same guy on Sherdog that wrote an article about how he disagreed with Sherdog's P4P list cause silva was up there? Now he writes this? I dunno, maybe I'm thinking of Rossen.



I hope I have my writers confused, but I expected alot of fans who doubted him after the last 2 fights to jump back on the bandwagon, but If Breen wrote both articles, THen I guess I have to shake my head at him

take out 50 useless words and this article may have been a good read. why do you have to try to overcomplicate things by trying to use big complicated words and sound smart when they are pointless in getting your point across?? this was garbage IMO