Ant Frosh is a Melbourne-based writer and editor.

In the lead up to Anderson Silva's UFC middleweight title defence against Chael Sonnen, the focus has mostly been on Sonnen's trash talk. It must be said that Sonnen, who has experience working as a real estate agent, as well as in Oregon state politics, is a master of building heat for fights through humorous, if not politically correct, jibes.

The former All-American wrestler at the University of Oregon, has previously derided Jiu Jitsu, with debatably homophobic taunts such as: "Even if I thought I could get a submission, I'm not laying underneath a grown man with my legs spread on world wide TV...I'm a Republican, we don't do that."

In the build up for this fight, he has produced the following sledge: "Anderson, you are going to be on your back more than a pornstar with a mortgage."

While Sonnen might dominate the trash talking, few pundits give him much of a chance of defeating Silva in the Octagon. Silva is with little doubt the greatest middleweight in the modern history of mixed martial arts (MMA), and his abilities seem to increase with every fight. As a striker, he appears to be in a different dimension to his opponents, dancing around them as if they are stuck in slow motion. And on the rare occasion when an opponent has managed to take him down to the mat, he has displayed more than competent jiu jitsu skills, as seen in his victory over Dan Henderson.

While Sonnen is a very accomplished wrestler, as a former US Olympic team alternate, it would appear that he does not have the tools to defeat Silva. Sonnen's got reasonable hands, but superior strikers have been made to look like extras in a Bruce Lee film by the absurdly talented Silva. With Sonnen's Greco Roman pedigree, he does have a chance of taking Silva down to the mat. However, Sonnen also has shown considerable susceptibility to being submitted by guys fighting off their backs.

So while taking Silva down to the ground is obviously a better strategy than engaging in a stand-up battle, it is still far from a safe option. Perhaps, in his training regime, Sonnen should be less concerned about being made to look gay, and spend more time learning some jiu jitsu.

If there is any significant danger to Silva, it is his own boredom. In his most recent title defence against Brazilian jiu jitsu master Demian Maia, Silva appeared to almost show contempt for Maia's lack of ability to pose any danger. Maia has world-class jiu jitsu skills, but he lacked the take-down game to be of any hazard. Unable to take Silva to the ground where he would have had a real chance of submitting him, Maia was forced to duke it out with his rather pedestrian striking capacity. In response to this mismatch, Silva demonstrated more interest in mocking Maia, than he did in knocking him out.

Perhaps a further sign of Silva's boredom is that he has been training with aikido master and (lousy) film actor Steven Seagal. Now, before all the aikido students out there send me hate mail, let me say that aikido is a beautiful art, and I myself have previously studied it for several years. However, it is not an art that is easily applied to the world of professional MMA, primarily because fighters at this level tend to be very good at maintaining their balance. Furthermore, although someone as freakishly adroit as Silva could be an exception to this, aikido is an art that generally requires far more than a few months of lessons to gain proficiency.

It is of course unknown whether Silva is going to attempt to use aikido techniques on Sonnen. It would be nothing short of fantastic if he was able to do this with success. However, the chances are slim, especially given Sonnen, as a world-class wrestler, can be assumed to have excellent balance.

It would be a shame for such a great fighter as Silva to lose his title because his boredom motivates him to engage in unwise experiments.