Machida was better than Anderson?

[OmegaRugal]

Both legends. Machida's lack of chin and cardio though held him back. He was the better anti wrestler of the two but he still lost close decisions to wrestlers.

In a straight up fight between the two, i believe Silva wins by KO in their prime as it would be a standing fight 99% of the time.

 

[OmegaRugal]

That’s far from the truth. Getting a title shot in LHW division in that era was 10x more difficult than in MW.

No ... he is correct.

LHW was incredible ... then Jones came in ... all the sudden tons of fans claimed Jones was feeding on old vets.

Jones leaved LHW ... all the sudden LHW is awesome again.

Mighty Mouse dominated his division. People say he fighting cans. Mighty Mouse gets traded and Cejudo retires ... all the sudden flyweight is filled with talent.

Dominant fighters make divisions look weak in thr minds of many (not all but many) fans.

 

[pankrat]

Top 15 in January 2010. Notice how almost half of top 15 in MW isn’t even in the UFC.

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Not sure how whoever was ranked #7-15 downplays Silva competition when he was beating the #1-4 ranked fighters. By stoppage, to be more precise.
Also Vitor Belfort in the 1st round, who went 4 rounds with the LHW champ Jon Jones a year later.
And not sure why Okami isn't in those ranks, but he beat #3 Marquardt that same year and would've been favoured vs #6 Filho and probably #5 Shields too considering their 2006 fight.

 

[Reign009]

Relative to the two divisions that pertain to this discussion, both the depth and quality of talent at 185lbs was far more shallow than 205lbs. Furthermore no division improved more from the Strikeforce merger than MW, it was the WEC LW equivalent. Why? Because that shit was shallow.

You're still just saying that it was lacking though.

Do you have anything substantial to back this up?

 

[MMAProfessional]

I felt machida had to fight tougher guys

Anderson at MW was bad. Anderson for sure fought great dudes but many duds. Is Cote, Maia, Lutter, Leites really high level fighters? Not really. Still looking back thinking how bad Dana criticized Anderson's "bad" fights and what Israel does not is laughable. Also Anderson ran out of fighters at MW so took decently tough fights at LHW just to have someone to fight. James Irvin was dangerous at the time, Bonner was a top LHW and Forrest was a former champ. Silva took those because his division was stale where Israel waits and says people need to stand out to fight him. THe old guard were a different breed man.

 

[Georges Hefner]

No ... he is correct.

LHW was incredible ... then Jones came in ... all the sudden tons of fans claimed Jones was feeding on old vets.

Jones leaved LHW ... all the sudden LHW is awesome again.

Mighty Mouse dominated his division. People say he fighting cans. Mighty Mouse gets traded and Cejudo retires ... all the sudden flyweight is filled with talent.

Dominant fighters make divisions look weak in thr minds of many (not all but many) fans.

Remember when Anderson fought a bunch of non title fights when he was champion? It was because there wasn’t anyone at MW that had the resumé to warrant a title shot

 

[oscerthegrouch]

This was one of the fights everyone wanted to see but it never had a hope in hell of happening.

it would been ugly both counter strikers.. it would been worst the Maia vs spider

 

[OmegaRugal]

Remember when Anderson fought a bunch of non title fights when he was champion? It was because there wasn’t anyone at MW that had the resumé to warrant a title shot

And what did he do in those fights ... absolulely embarassed 1 fight removed LHW champ Forest Griffen. Same Forest who finished Shogun and beat Rampage back to back.

 

[HuskySamoan]

You're still just saying that it was lacking though.

Do you have anything substantial to back this up?

This is a pretty subjective thing, but I think the fact that when the Strikeforce MW roster joined the UFC they washed out most of the top 5 in quick fashion Jacare, Rockhold, Brunson, Yoel, Kennedy, Mousasi. The division has always been shallow, there's just a lot less talent after 170lbs in MMA in general.

 

[Th3Sav4ge]

in a head 2 head machida most likely outpoints him.

no he was not as highly regarded in his respective division in comparison to his peers.

anderson silva was to middle weight what jon jones was to LHW

 

[Captain Herb]

Who knows what would have happened, they were good friends, trained together, knew everything about the other's style but if I had to guess, I'd say Machida would take a decision over Anderson and it might have come down to grappling.

 

[Georges Hefner]

And what did he do in those fights ... absolulely embarassed 1 fight removed LHW champ Forest Griffen. Same Forest who finished Shogun and beat Rampage back to back.

That Shogun win was impressive. But Rampage definitely got robbed by UFC darling TUF winner Forrest Griffin.

 

[OmegaRugal]

Remember when Anderson fought a bunch of non title fights when he was champion? It was because there wasn’t anyone at MW that had the resumé to warrant a title shot

Also remember when GSP faced Matt Serra who had to earn his spot back into UFC in an Ultimate Fighter for old vets? Remember when GSP faced a chubby LW ... twice.

Remember when Jones started facing MWs?

Thats what happens when u clean out the division and are active as a champ. Silva at least when to LHW and dominated.

 

[Black Blood]

Nah, Anderson was better.

 

[Mind Mine]

Machida had every opportunity to move down and press that issue. It also comes down to who is champ. Neither likes pressing forward and being the challenger kinda forces them out of their game. Far too many variables to make a call but it would go back and forth if they fought multiple times

 

[djacobox372]

Silva is 4 years older than Machida, so your apples to apples comparisons are still apples to oranges.

 

[mmacrisis]

Sorry but Machida was no where near as dominant as Silva. We can sit here and argue the talent of the divisions but Anderson was a killer, period. Machida was good but not a killer and had a single skill that once you got past it he was done (Jones choke)..... Anderson was brutal in all aspects of the game.

 

[Nobru]

potential a double TKO fight between two of the best counter punchers MMA has witnessed

 

[Mike]

You're still just saying that it was lacking though.

Do you have anything substantial to back this up?

That was the consensus at the time though. Literally nobody was saying mw was more stacked than lhw or ww.

 

[pankrat]

That was the consensus at the time though. Literally nobody was saying mw was more stacked than lhw or ww.

Not sure what correlation you think there is in that argument but the consensus was also that Silva was #1 p4p, over any WW or LHW

- Official sherdog p4p rankings:

2012 - Silva #1
https://www.sherdog.com/news/rankings/Sherdogcoms-PoundforPound-Top-10-45047

2011 - Silva #1
https://www.sherdog.com/news/rankings/Sherdogcoms-PoundforPound-Top-10-36383

2010 - Silva #1
https://www.sherdog.com/news/rankings/Sherdogcoms-PoundforPound-Top-10-23166

2009 - Silva #1
https://www.sherdog.com/news/rankings/Sherdogcoms-PoundforPound-Top-10-17145

2008 - Silva #1
https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/GSP-Moves-Up-P4P-List-But-Not-to-Top-12459

It was so because Silva was not beating preliminary card MWs but legitimate top contenders, as much so as those in any other division