Honestly Silva had a very impressive run, in his prime, most times Andy made the opponents look like they didn’t belong, save a few fights like Chael 1 or Maia, where he was injured or off. Anyway when Anderson looked like he actually felt threatened by his opponents, he would make highlight reel short work of them, Leben, Franklin fights, Sonnen 2, Vitor, ect. Initially when Anderson failed his test, I thought he was one of the undisciplined few to get caught, that being said, I’m not naive and imagine that most of them are on something. Now when I look backwards, I chalk it up as he was coming back from a nasty injury (Weidman and McGregor), yet Andy wasn’t a habitual offender, IIRC USADA cleared him of another violation.
Aldo had a similar run where he was making the opposition look like they just couldn’t hang, from the Mike Brown WEC title fight, up to the first Mendes fight, Aldo looked absolutely unstoppable. He had the motorcycle wreck that forced him out of UFC153, details were always sketchy, but we knew it was his leg and he never looked the same. Gone where the dangerous low kicks, and he just didn’t ever appear as explosive and his mobility wasn’t quite as good. He still went on to defend his title 4 more times, 3 decisions and the technical KO of KZ, but he would clearly slow down in the championship rounds, I’d wonder if that injury effected his conditioning in the long term.
Both men were untouchable in their primes, but Silva’s prime was a good bit longer, although Silva did have fights where he looked beatable. That being considered, Silva moved up to fight top 5 opponents, while Aldo moved down in search of another belt. I’m going to give Andy the slight edge for that reason, beating Griffin and then Bonnar short notice was impressive. As an Aldo fan I always wondered what would’ve happened if Aldo was able to move up without vacating his belt…? Unfortunately we will never know.
