Yes I know Erick Silva got scrapped from Machida vs. Romero, but I wrote this damned piece already and by god you will read it.

Upon his entrance to the UFC in late 2011, Erick Silva was considered the next big thing. As of now his UFC record stands at 6-4 with two devastating losses via knock out. And so the MMA community has thrown him on top of the slop heap, dismissing any potential he may have had at age 30. But is it really the end for Erick Silva? His record is indeed spotty but only if restricted to sheer numbers; his losses are, for lack of a better word, impressive.

Silva’s “loss” against Carlo Prater can immediately be scrapped; he hurt his man with a knee to the body and finished him with strikes but landed a few too many to the back of the head resulting in a DQ loss.

The next three losses (in chronological order) were Jon Fitch, Dong Hyun Kim, and Matt Brown. Jon Fitch had only lost to Georges St. Pierre and Johny Hendricks at this point and Silva gave him everything he could handle and came close to finishing him in the second round. He was lighting up Kim on the feet before the South Korean connected with an enormous haymaker. The same could be said about his fight with Matt Brown before he suffered from (what I believe was) an adrenaline dump and was finished in the third round of a brutal fight.

Losing two close fights against perennial top 10 welterweights and being caught by one big punch is far from unimpressive. The fact is that Erick Silva has a lot going for him.

On the feet, Erick Silva can fight from either stance with varying strengths. In his orthodox stance he has a thunderous overhand right while in southpaw he has a rib shattering liver kick and a long powerful left cross.

He also consistently punishes his opponent’s head and body when defending a takedown attempt. But Silva’s powerful striking overshadows his far more impressive ground game.

To date, no one has finished a single or double leg takedown on Erick Silva. While Silva’s earlier fighters are harder to find, what footage is available supports the conclusion.

Jon Fitch couldn’t do it; his first takedown came as a result of Silva choosing to throw a knee against a takedown instead of sprawling and the next two were drags from the clinch (the last one when Silva was utterly exhausted). Kim didn’t even get a takedown; the fight went to the ground when Silva (again) threw a knee against a perceived takedown attempt and instead ate a jab that knocked him off balance. Matt Brown simply threw him to the ground when he was already dazed by a furious barrage of strikes.

Fitch and Kim found it difficult to mount an effective offense once Silva was on the ground. On his first takedown attempt Fitch gained back control and dragged Silva onto his face (ouch?) a couple times but Silva stood up, shook off the choke attempt and went back to business. Kim gained mount against Silva only to spend half the time on defense as he found his knee being attacked.

The further up the MMA ladder one climbs the less useful submission skills from the bottom become and the more important it is to just get back to the feet or reverse position. In a division where fighters like Matt Hughes, Georges St-Pierre, and Johny Hendricks ruled by virtue of a smothering wrestling game, having such an active guard to stand back up is essential. Silva’s guard is good enough that dominant ground fighters like Fitch and Kim had trouble.

That’s invaluable. And that’s not even mentioning how good he is on the ground offensively.

Out of 18 victories, Silva has 11 by submission. A large chunk of these wins are from hurting opponents with his thunderous power and then jumping on them to lock in a submission which is a skill in its own right.

But he has shown against fighters like Mike Rhodes that he is more than capable taking people down and submitting them with traditional grappling. Against both Charlie Brenneman and Jason High he sprawled a takedown and quickly took his opponents’ backs for a submission win.

So with so many skills, what is keeping Erick Silva from being elite? One of the more common answers is that Erick Silva doesn’t have a gas tank, but that is a little disingenuous.

He gassed in his third round with Fitch but Fitch is a cardio dynamo and the fact that Silva survived a back and forth ground battle with the Purdue wrestling star is hardly a knock on his endurance. He slowed down against Kim but was still landing combinations on an opponent who was more gassed than he was (from the mount, of all things!). And while I’m still only a hopeful health professional, I sincerely believe a combination of an adrenaline dump and sheer damage was the reason Silva fatigued against Matt Brown.

A much more valid criticism is Silva’s lack of head movement when punching. This was on full display when Kim, the far inferior striker, was able to knock him out cold simply by slipping to the right as he threw a left haymaker. But this problem has manifested more subtly in many of his fights. Even Josh Koscheck was almost able to connect with a right left combination as Silva threw a punch and only missed because he had misjudged the range.

The bizarre thing is that defensively speaking Silva has good reactionary head movement. While not as dramatic as his younger days in Jungle Fight, Silva is very good at slipping punches on defense. Yet with the exception of his dipping overhand right, Silva’s head goes bolt upright as soon as he throws combinations.

A criticism I personally have is that Erick Silva seems to have abandoned the fighting style that gave him so much success in Jungle Fight.

Silva possessed every single skill I have described above but put them together better. His brutal liver kick still finds a home in the UFC but he usually throws it out with no set up. He used to end combinations with the liver kick to pin the opponent’s guard at his head and mixed in leg kicks for good measure. Instead of throwing knees in the center of the octagon in a defensive manner, Silva actually had a brutal thai plum.

Perhaps age has tempered the Brazilian’s strategy. Another theory is that while Silva is anything but small (5’ 11” and a 74” reach is nothing to scoff at) his size advantage has disappeared in the UFC and he is less and less comfortable being as aggressive as he was.

But Erick Silva has the potential to be a title contender. His offensive and defensive ground game is only surpassed by Johny Hendricks, Demian Maia, and perhaps Carlos Condit. With the importance of body work becoming more and more mainstream, Silva’s liver kick is among the most potent weapons in the division. His defensive head movement puts him above so many fighters who insist on simply covering up.

By simply applying his head movement on his offense as well, using his thunderous punches to set up his kick and resisting the urge to throw a knee against takedown attempts (sorry, he’s not Jose Aldo) Erick Silva will surge into the top 5. Hell with those slight changes Silva would have beaten Fitch two rounds to one and gone on to TKO Kim.

So yes, with no sarcasm whatsoever, I think Erick Silva at age 30 can still be the next big thing.