Anderson Should have went up and took out Shogun

I think that would have been a great fight that I could see going a few different ways. Wouldn't be suprised if Silva played his counter game and caught an aggressive Shogun but on the other hand if it's Shogun at his A game he always looked badass. A more calculated version of Wand with better kicks. I could see how some might see that not play out well for Silva.
 
Garnet_StrongerThanYou said:
If he wanted to be the goat.

That was his shining moment of opportunity.

Before Jon Jones got in there.

He had a fight at 205 already. He was dominant MW champion.

Instead of repeatedly calling out GSP to come to 185.

He would have been favoured against Shogun who was more or less shot.

It would have been legendary and he could have been the first real Champ Champ.
Click to expand...

I'd agree that to really stake a GOAT claim Anderson needed to move up to LHW in that period in the late 00's and most people at the time wanted to see it after he beat Hendo, guys like Rashad, Machida and Shogun were not IMHO much different in size to him, it was only in the years afterwards that LHW became a much larger division.

Against the Shogun who beat Machida though personally I wouldnt have favoured him, that Rua could I think work him with lowkicks, hold his own in aggressive exchanges and indeed take him down if he got too aggressive.
 
JustOnce said:
Lol obviously no. Do you really think that?
There was a reason why Android wanted to be BFF with jones and wanted to fight GSP
Lmao
Click to expand...

To be fair, he was talking about shogun, not jones. Jones clearly had a better shot against Silva than GSP, but Shogun? That's arguable.
 
LEWIS540 said:
His prime was that exact period between his 4th and 5th losses right? Anything before or after didn't count?
Click to expand...

I don't like Silva, but that's a total misdirection to insinuate a small time. That was a very long time, and yes his prime was during that time. Most fighters have a prime of roughly 5 or 6 years. If you stay undefeated at the top of your division much longer than that, it doesn't mean it was all your "prime", it might mean you were that damn far ahead to stay at the top after slipping a little (see Jones, Fedor).

Personally I feel the Weidman fights (at least the first) were still prime Silva, too... but that's debatable.
 
Last edited:
They were friends. They never would have caught each other
 
Senzo Tanaka said:
Shogun mentioned he'd be open to fighting Anderson at one point. It caused a riff between them because Anderson said he'd never fight a friend. Shogun just saw it as a competitive fight but Anderson is one of those guys that says he'll never fight someone he trains with that is obviously going to kick his ass bad.
Click to expand...
Counterexamples (Of your argument, without the red part): Vitor.
Jim Eagle said:
They were friends. They never would have caught each other
Click to expand...
They were friends, but they weren't that close. They took opposite sides in the Great Chuteboxe Split. Silva brought the bacon but was not really hespected in CB anyways. Shogun said that he'd fight anyone but Wandy and his big bro.
 
Silva embarrassed every Brazilian he ever fought (besides the luiz fight 24 years ago lol), Shogun would be no different. He really hated the idea of fighting people he would consider a friend or confidant, that's why he never tried to usurp Lyoto or Shogun, both great fighters in their own right, but no where near the level of Anderson at the time. If he went and beat the snot out of shogun like Hendo did, he'd be flexing on his training partner Lyoto at the time, not giving Lyoto his chance at redemption.

You can watch them spar around the time of all this going down, Silva was levels above shogun, and certainly that overrated version who beat ancient chuck and coleman for a title shot after losing to forrest.
 
Last edited:
Shogun just knocked out his boy in vicious fashion at the time. I dont think he wanted that smoke.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HHJ
His hesitations are obvious: Considering he trained with Rua and Shogun uses to get the better off him in Japan/Brazil. What he really didn’t know though is his own pharmacist was the best in the world and rua was done those injuries had left him a shell. In hindsight he should have gone up. But rua is such an offensive enigma he could have slept Silva and ruined his legacy so it worked out well for Anderoid
 
Senzo Tanaka said:
Shogun mentioned he'd be open to fighting Anderson at one point. It caused a riff between them because Anderson said he'd never fight a friend. Shogun just saw it as a competitive fight but Anderson is one of those guys that says he'll never fight someone he trains with.
Click to expand...
Came to say all this. I remember when Silva threw a fit when Wand moved down to 185 and mentioned he had title aspirations and the two were brought together by one of the Nogs or something over dinner to squash it haha. Of course he would've easily beaten Wand, but that wasn't the point. His reason for not wanting to fight Jones was because he considered him a friend too. I think Jones would've beaten him and Shogun could've beaten him too, but I think he just didn't like the idea of fighting people he thought of as friends.

Also Shogun wasn't shot when he was champ. Definitely not in his prime, but shot is really stretching it considering how he'd look later. Silva would've been favored, but Shogun would've been a very live dog, especially with him willing to wrestle and Anderson not being some defensive wrestling dynamo.
 
Talon81 said:
I don't like Silva, but that's a total misdirection to insinuate a small time. That was a very long time, and yes his prime was during that time. Most fighters have a prime of roughly 5 or 6 years. If you stay undefeated at the top of your division much longer than that, it doesn't mean it was all your "prime", it might mean you were that damn far ahead to stay at the top after slipping a little (see Jones, Fedor).

Personally I feel the Weidman fights (at least the first) were still prime Silva, too... but that's debatable.
Click to expand...

He obviously learned so much in the 18 months between losing to Chonan and winning the UFC belt, at age 30 no less.
 
Why did my Anderson thread get sent to the lightweights when its much more interesting than this shit thread? Dingbat mods strike again.
 
You guys dont' remember the Brazilians don't fight each other pact going on around that time? Anderson gets bitchy AF everytime he had to face a Brazilian.
 
People trying to judge 2007 by 2021 standards.

It just didn’t work like that then. If you weren’t BJ Penn or Randy couture you couldn’t get a chance at a second belt.
 
Last edited:
I would have preferred to see Anderson go down to 170 to face Georges.

Anderson fought much of his pre-UFC career at 167 pounds and had fought at WW (175) only 5 months before his UFC debut.
 
LEWIS540 said:
He obviously learned so much in the 18 months between losing to Chonan and winning the UFC belt, at age 30 no less.
Click to expand...
18 months is actually quite a lot of time to hone in on your skills and shore up your weaknesses. That said, I don't feel he was even in his prime when winning the belt. As my post before suggested, if a fighter stays at the top of their weight class beyond about 6 years, chances are it is because they were THAT far ahead to be at the top even before/after their prime.

It's weird, 10 years ago I HATED Silva fans with a passion and by extension rejoiced like a MFer when Silva lost, because of how his fans talked about Fedor and the older generations.

I knew that someday he would get the same treatment by newer fans. Here we are, with Silva getting the same revisionist treatment that Fedor got... and it doesn't feel as gratifying as I thought. What surprises me, though, is this coming from an older fan such as yourself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,693
Messages
55,435,035
Members
174,775
Latest member
kilgorevontrouty

Share this page

Back
Top