How would a prime Tim Sylvia fair in the modern HW landscape?

Sylvia would do fine. He wouldn’t be champ, but he would more than likely be top 5. Too bad the noobs don’t know Silvia destroyed Ricco when Ricco was The Man.


You realize Sylvia had back problems and was a shell of his former self?

Fuck no I don't know that.

But Mercer was literally 50..

Didn't he fight Fedor in his fight prior and was top 10 when he fought Fedor?
 
Sylvia would do fine. He wouldn’t be champ, but he would more than likely be top 5. Too bad the noobs don’t know Silvia destroyed Ricco when Ricco was The Man.


You realize Sylvia had back problems and was a shell of his former self?
Ricco was amazing. I was always hoping for a comeback, and at one point it really looked like he was making headway back into the UFC. It's too bad really, he could have been one of the greats..
 
With USADA around Sylvia gets rekt against any top 5 middleweight and 90% of LHWs, probably only has a lucky punch chance in HW.


Pretty much this. Maybe he gets lucky against chinny Reem or AA a time or 2, but a significant underdog to the top 12. Maybe he cracks the top 15.
 
Actually, no.

He beat/schooled Valentijn, another tough mofo at that time, and by heel hook no less (Valentijn was quite good at it)

Remember> Valentijn could be considered a ranked win in 2001:

Stephen Quadros Top 10
Last Updated Friday 6-1-01
HEAVYWEIGHT 205 lb and up (93 kg and up)

1. Mark Coleman
2. Igor Vovchanchyn
3. Rodrigo Nogueira
4. Randy Couture
5. Kazuyuki Fujita
6. Heath Herring
7. Pedro Rizzo
8. Semmy Schilt
9. Valetijn Overeem
10. Tra Telligman



His loss to Aleks Emelianenko was a close one, split dec.

And at the tail end of his career, he lost to Kongo (majority dec) and dec loss to Sylvia, while being severely undersized
(in that transitional era, he could no longer be realistically considered a legit natural HW)

imo his skillset was worth noting: interesting mix of sheer violence on the feet coupled with a legit submission game, mostly leglocks.

Good fighter.
Quadros top 10 as a ranking source

<mma4>
 
Pretty much this. Maybe he gets lucky against chinny Reem or AA a time or 2, but a significant underdog to the top 12. Maybe he cracks the top 15.

We’re talking about Tim at his best. That one already beat the best version of Arlovski twice. Yes, there is always a chance that anyone can KO Overeem. Struve is a joke. Tim will make him look sillier than Buentello did.

JDS, Hunt and maybe Ngannou beats Tim if he doesn’t continue fighting the way he did against Lewis. Blaydes could beat him too but I’d have to see more. Tim hasn’t fought great wrestlers but Blaydes hasn’t fought any great wrestlers to prove himself either.

I’m not convinced on Lewis. I think Tim could beat him.
 
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I also see huge bias on here. Using USADA to delegitimize past fighters yet slobbering all over Jon Jones’ Bone and Yoel Romero’s Soldier of God.
 
Not sure why that's sad, as Mercer was a boxing gold medalist. Why would anybody's boxing in the UFC be on the same level?

......Just to clarify, you are asking me why it's sad that no one in the UFC's boxing is on the same level as a 50 year old, obese, punch drunk Ray Mercer who hadn't won a menaingful fight since the 1990's?

You need me to explain why that is sad?
 
......Just to clarify, you are asking me why it's sad that no one in the UFC's boxing is on the same level as a 50 year old, obese, punch drunk Ray Mercer who hadn't won a menaingful fight since the 1990's?

You need me to explain why that is sad?
Just because he's 50 and overweight doesn't mean he's suddenly lost all the training and muscle memory he'd attained over the years, in fact Mercer was handling his own against younger boxers in 2008, a year before he fought Tim Sylvia. He's a master in his own sport dude, of course he's better than MMA fighters in the dimension of boxing.
 
I think Timmeh competes with any HW on the roster today. Not because he was special, though I think his legacy is underappreciated. It's just that today's HW roster sucks ass. Not bashing, but it is what it is.

Agreed.

HW has had a special fighter or two in mma’s exists, other then that... It tends to be the weakest division. Of course, This has to be taken with perspective - I always hear this comment said and feel like it discredits the HW fighters.. Point is..

Timmeh would be just fine in today’s HW scene. Would he win 2 HW world titles? Eeh... probably not. But he would be a top-10-ish HW and probably still gets a crack at the title at some point. If you are a top-10 Hw and win 2-4 fights in a row, you could easily be knocking on the door of a title shot. Just a few years ago many fighters that were in the top-10 back in 2005 where back in / still in it or hovering around it in 2014/15..

I think good ol Timmbo would be just fine..

Now... If we stuck Jens Pulver in today’s LW scene, or even FW/BW... I think he could win some fights, but he is not going to win a world title.. in my opinion..
 
Just because he's 50 and overweight doesn't mean he's suddenly lost all the training and muscle memory he'd attained over the years, in fact Mercer was handling his own against younger boxers in 2008, a year before he fought Tim Sylvia. He's a master in his own sport dude, of course he's better than MMA fighters in the dimension of boxing.

Handling his own against who? He was losing and struggling against unranked bums and hadn't had a legit win since the 90's!!

Again, if a 50 year old, obese, punch drunk Ray Mercer is on a different level to the entire UFC roster in regards to punching then there's no more to be said on the matter.
 
Agreed.

HW has had a special fighter or two in mma’s exists, other then that... It tends to be the weakest division. Of course, This has to be taken with perspective - I always hear this comment said and feel like it discredits the HW fighters.. Point is..

Timmeh would be just fine in today’s HW scene. Would he win 2 HW world titles? Eeh... probably not. But he would be a top-10-ish HW and probably still gets a crack at the title at some point. If you are a top-10 Hw and win 2-4 fights in a row, you could easily be knocking on the door of a title shot. Just a few years ago many fighters that were in the top-10 back in 2005 where back in / still in it or hovering around it in 2014/15..

I think good ol Timmbo would be just fine..

Now... If we stuck Jens Pulver in today’s LW scene, or even FW/BW... I think he could win some fights, but he is not going to win a world title.. in my opinion..

This guy gets it. The lower weight classes have evolved leaps and bounds. LW and WW is close because those divisions have always been deep.

HW, though, has always sucked. Even though we have bigger HWs now, they are certainly less skilled. Big Tim fits right in with today’s crop of HWs.
 
I think he loses to Stipe but KOs everyone else

Way too tall for Cormier, DC would be punching vertically upwards while Tim would knee/uppercut his head into the 5th row.
So Randy can rag Timmy for 25 minutes but DC can't?

I also have Timmy over Stipe if we're talking about prime Timmy. I highly doubt Stipe is comfortable fighting guys taller and longer than him. (He usually has those advantages)

No version of Timmy beats any version of Reem.
 
So Randy can rag Timmy for 25 minutes but DC can't?

I also have Timmy over Stipe if we're talking about prime Timmy. I highly doubt Stipe is comfortable fighting guys taller and longer than him. (He usually has those advantages)

No version of Timmy beats any version of Reem.


Completely disagree. Stipe murders Tim. Tim could conceivably crack Reem's chin.
 
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