Like Water (2011)

As stated in my Warrior review I’m not a fan of UFC as I think the sport is just too brutal. Although the fighters are very skilled it looks way too much like a street fight. Anderson Silva is one of those fighters. He’s from Brazil and has had an amazing career in the MMA as he is able to win his fights very quickly and seems unbeatable. At the time of filming for this documentary he had successfully defended his title 6 times. His last win was controversial as he kept running around his opponent, never engaging in the fight. The UFC president refused to personally put on the belt and told Silva’s manager to do it. With a lot of fans of the sport against him because of it and a new challenger (Chael Sonnen) he has to show why he is the best.

Now this is a documentary that is about Anderson Silva and as a viewer I expect to learn more about him. This documentary only partly manages to do this. We see him at his house in Brazil with his wife and kids and hear him talking about how he hates not being around them for months because he has to train and fight abroad. The rest of the documentary is focussed on his preparation for the fight against Chael Sonnen. Sonnen would be perfect to star as a villain in a movie as he is constantly trash talking and doesn’t seem to have any respect for Silva. The thing is that Silva himself is very focussed and really doesn’t seem to like all the publicity and doesn’t really respond to Sonnen. He also doesn’t like answering questions if they aren’t smart.

Although Anderson Silva is an excellent fighter I didn’t think enough time was spent on his history. The documentary consists out of a lot of training footage. The fight itself is shown as well (look out for Steven Segal who is also present in Silva’s corner). It is brutal to look at, but it does get your adrenalin going, especially since the fight is not as you’d expect it would be.
If you are a big UFC or fight fan you’ll probably love this doc, if not you might want to skip it.

Score: 6

Trailer:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc4fm72kEgc]