Stephan Bonnar’s legacy that he leaves behind in the Octagon will ultimately be that he was on the losing end of one of the most important fights in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, unless he hands Anderson Silva his first defeat in the top-ranked organization.
The Ultimate Fighter season one runner-up’s last big win notched inside the eight-sided cage wasn’t a Bonnar-style classic where he bites down on his mouthpiece, thrusts his chin forward and wings haymakers to line his pockets with an addition $65,000. Instead, it was probably the smartest fight I’ve ever seen him have.
Being paired up with Kyle Kingsbury, another Ultimate Fighter cast-off who was gathering some speed most expected Bonnar to get defeated, instead he completely shut down the American Kickboxing Academy student’s offence and dominated him for the full 15 minutes.
The first round dictated the entire fight, Bonnar was incredibly active with elbows and punches in the clinch and was able to toss Kingsbury down at will. The rest of the fight, the only thing that changed was that Bonnar became more and more dominate.
Takedown. Ground-and-pound. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The fight wasn’t a crowd-pleaser but he did everything he needed to in dispatching a prospect who showed great promise. Tomorrow when he meets Anderson Silva he determines how he will be remembered when he walks away from the cage.
