[Scrotumlock]

Unfortunately when a fight is stopped by TKO you never know how close to a full KO the victim was. Wandy's Kondo fight could have been stopped by TKO when he knocked Yuki down and went for the stomps. It didn't and a few seconds later and he was completely out. Same goes for Randleman and Crocop. Mirko was still awake after getting dropped. But it only took a few more shots and he was in dream land.

When you get badly rocked (like Fujita did), you can't defend properly anymore in terms of covering up, rolling with the strike, or just plain being ready to get hit. You can get KOed very easily at this point... although sometimes you do pull through (primarily by your opponent not taking advantage fast enough). With Fujita stumbling around on his knees and Wandy's love of soccer kicks and face stomps, I'd bet that he could have truely KOed Fujita given 30 seconds more. Thankfully there are refs to make these decisions and rather than suffereing brain damage we'll get to see Fujita fight another day.

So Silva is correct when he says any fighter can be KOed; that's true. But I think he's overestimating himself when he implies that HE is good/powerful enough to predictably do it to ANY fighter. Personally I think it would take someone with Crocop's ability to KO Nogeira, but it's also true that a guy can get a lucky punch in. Silva himself has been dropped by a number of such lucky punches.

Of course, what do you expect the guy to say? "Uh, Nog's to tough for me to KO so my stand-up game is useless. I can't submit him either, and he's bigger than me so he'd dominate the ground. Maybe I'll win a decision if I'm lucky"? Of course he has confidence and wants to go for the KO and give the fans a real show. That's just the way he is. We'll see how accurate his predictions are in a couple days.