posted February 29, 2008 at 20:30 in UFC / MMA Articles

UFC 82 – Pride of a Champion Odds

Anderson Silva (-140) vs Dan Henderson (+110)

As a sports radio host, I am often asked if I find any similarities amongst the championship caliber athletes I get the chance to meet and interview. There’s so much that professional athletes have in common that you’d think that it might be hard to find a single attribute that sets the haves apart from the have nots. I mean, if you’re making money in a sport, you’ve gotta be pretty damn fantastic at it right?

But there’s one intangible piece of the championship equation that seems to reoccur amongst the best of the best in any given profession. It’s an ethereal piece of the fragile athletic mind that cannot be measured with a stopwatch or a weight bench. Some have called it the “thousand yard stare”, others; “the stink eye”. I’ve never coined a term for it myself, but there’s a supreme confidence that lies within the psyche of a champion that is what sets them apart form the rest of their peers. In MMA we see it at every level.

When Chuck Liddell seemed unbeatable, it wasn’t a style or technique that he had mastered over his competitors. There were certainly better strikers out there, and a lot of better grapplers. But when he stepped into the octagon, there was a look in his eye that told him, and all of us watching, that this guy was just unbeatable. A look, that once taken away, it’s near impossible to get back.  

Look at Quinton Jackson; A very good fighter that for a time could compete…but lacked that intangible component to put him over the top. And now that he has it…or took it…from Chuck Liddell we see an athlete capable of exceeding all the expectations and obstacles that once prevented him from becoming the best. When Matt Hughes was the most dominant UFC Champion in history, there was an air about him of sheer invincibility.

A fighter that has this fire, this untouchable spark, is a gentleman by the name of Anderson Silva. A fighter of incredible talent that has possibly always had that championship fire in his belly, and who performs with such unabashed confidence and skill that it is though his talents transcends his physical abilities, and border on supernatural.

He takes on one of the greatest MMA fighters of our time in Dan Henderson on Saturday at UFC 82. “Hendo” as he’s called, has spent his career fighting, and for the most part beating up on, the biggest names in modern mixed martial arts. A fighter whose submission wrestling and clinch dominated dirty boxing style fits perfectly the mold one could make to defeat Anderson Silva. He doesn’t KO many fighters, he prefers to wear them out for a decision, and he takes tremendous punishment and never backs down. But of all his accolades and championships, there’s is one distinct quality that no arm bar or uppercut can defeat. That’s the Stink eye people, and Silva owns it right now.

Damon Durante is a Pro sports handicapper and host of BetUS Sports Radio. His athlete interviews and sports betting analysis can be found daily at http://radio.betus.com.