That two piece he hit on Vitor after dropping him; the accuracy of the knee on Chael when his back was against the cage; the precision of his precise striking against Okami on the ground to provoke the stoppage are all great examples of this. As is the OP. Anderson truly was a sniper with his strikes when his reflexes and speed were still with him.
He was pretty badass on steroids
I’ve said it before, but if Anderson never came around I think Marquardt could have ruled the division for a while.
He would be in the mix and could grab the belt at some point but I think Franklin beats him more times than not, although it's a very close fight. Similar vs Okami.
Shortly after, Henderson and Sonnen signed by UFC and I think would be favoured to beat Marquardt too. No easy fight for anybody at MW back then.
Anderson Silva himself agreed with you though:
bleacherreport.com/articles/326175-ufc-champ-anderson-silva-nate-marquardt-is-the-heir-apparent
I don't think activity off of the bottom necessarily means it should discount a standup. That's a situation where the ref should know his fighters. Don't stand Big Nog up from guard, but maybe a wrestler who is clearly trying to stall.There was activity down there, even if thanks to Silva. I would understand it if there was stall for a prolongued time but it clearly looked like Big John was waiting for the minimum stop of activity to stand them up.
And its not fair. Its hard to get the fight there to take it away so easily and me as a fan I was also interested on what was going on in the grappling exchange.
yupAnderson's striking accuracy and especially GnP accuracy is insane. Vastly underrated.
I remember there used to be a stat about his GnP accuracy which was something crazy like 80%, I'm not sure if this is still around.
It was on the old UFC page before the ugly redesign and probably before a few of his last fightts.
Gawd, this fight had so much potential.
This is also where Silva's mystique really started to pick up.
Marquardt was one of the few big name "Non-UFC" guys that fought fucking everywhere but the UFC. So to see him come in and get absolutely fucking styled on was crazy. The Hendo fight for Silva had a similar vibe for me, where i was not expecting an absolute beat down.
I don't think activity off of the bottom necessarily means it should discount a standup. That's a situation where the ref should know his fighters. Don't stand Big Nog up from guard, but maybe a wrestler who is clearly trying to stall.
We do know Nate. We know that he always choked in his bigger fights. He was holding on for dear life, which wasn't typical behavior. Anderson was working to create space and escape or get the sub. I think that's what made it seem like it was moving a lot. Either way, it doesn't change much. Anderson probably finds a way to win. He always did back then.Actually because we know Marquardt, it's a very unjustified ref standup imo.
I would not label Nate a staller wrestler, he had a more technical and diversified ground work from his Pancrase background than your average college wrestling based fighter from back then who would just stick head-to-chest and "keep busy" with short punches that go nowhere.
I would rather see the guy on top to take his time but with some goal besides "being busy" from guard, and I was enjoying the ground work in this fight. The average mma fan tends to have short attention span though.
Big John barely gave Nate more than 10 seconds to settle since he went down there with a legit black belt who was himself trying to stall to get the benefit from the referee.
We do know Nate. We know that he always choked in his bigger fights. He was holding on for dear life, which wasn't typical behavior. Anderson was working to create space and escape or get the sub. I think that's what made it seem like it was moving a lot. Either way, it doesn't change much. Anderson probably finds a way to win. He always did back then.
Not to be pedantic, but that is the definition of an opinion, not fact. I think the standup was justified.Apart that it would not change the fact that it was a clearly premature standup by the referee, the claim that Marquardt "always choked in big fights" is one of those sherbro clichés parroted ad nauseum around here.
Marquardt was a multiple times champion in several organizations who also fought in 4 different UFC tittle eliminators and was highly competitive, win or lose, in every single one of them.
Losing a competitive fight to another tittle contender doesnt make you a choker, and if losing to prime Anderson Slva makes you a choker, every single fighter is a choker as well.
Not to be pedantic, but that is the definition of an opinion, not fact. I think the standup was justified.
It's more than just losing the competitive fights. It's the bone-headed moves. Jumping a guillotine when he had Chael hurt. Continuing to back up when Okami is jabbing his face off. I was a massive fan of the guy back in the day. There are more examples from back then that I can't remember, but those stick out.