Anderson Silva or Roy Jones? who had the better reflexes?

[Ilovepizza]

 

[Winstone]

Silva vs widman

 

[brainwash]

Roy Jones would hit Silva so fast that Silva would forget that he doesn't know English.

 

[Otto!]

Both impressive for sure. I also remember a video of young Mike Tyson and thinking how fast he was for a guy that size.

 

[91 seconds]

RJJ had some of the best ever in a sport that's encompassed 3 centuries.

 

[Reach4theSky]

Is this even a question..?

 

[Cooliox]

Roy Jones made world champions look like amateurs, and he did so across multiple divisions all the way up to HW.

Anderson looked good against Forrest Griffin

 

[LouisBolanos]

This is like comparing Usain Bolt to an equally dominant Paralympic 100m gold medalist and asking who's faster.

RJJ was going against guys 2x as fast as Silva's opponents.

Boxers = A-B level athletes. MMA fighters = D level athletes. Silva is a C among a sea of Ds, Jones was an A in a sea of Bs

 

[oldschoolmmafan]

 

[POWER2]

Purpose of this thread:

Things you ask yourself to understand events that never took place ten years ago.

 

[accolyte1022]

Stick to eating pizza.

 

[moreorless87]

Roy Jones made world champions look like amateurs, and he did so across multiple divisions all the way up to HW.

Anderson looked good against Forrest Griffin

Pretty much, all Andersons showboating was against mentally beaten sloppy opponents, when he tried it vs Weidman he got KOed.

The whole matrix hype to me was always a bit of a myth, Silva was not ever really THAT great a boxer even by MMA standards. I mean he was good but I don't think close to the best we've seen, his ability to slip punchs when moving forward vs fresh opponents was actually not that good.

What made Anderson great was a combination of very creative and power offence plus extreme toughness.

 

[MikeMcMann]

Roy Jones made world champions look like amateurs, and he did so across multiple divisions all the way up to HW.

Anderson looked good against Forrest Griffin

^This.

Roy would make Anderson look like Forrest Griffin, seriously.

 

[kingghidrah]

Next question: who was the better wrestler, GSP or Dan Gable ?

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

Roy Jones is on a whole different planet when it comes to timing and reflexes than Anderson Silva is.

 

[revoltub]

Roy Jones is Ryu

Anderson is Dan

 

[MusterX]

Well I came in here to demand to know WTF OP is smoking but it appears you guys got this.

 

[revoltub]

Roy Jones is on a whole different galaxy when it comes to timing and reflexes than Anderson Silva is.

Slight edit

 

[moreorless87]

I would point out Forrest in that fight showed some of the worst boxing by a high level MMA fighter I'v ever seen, mechanical lefts and rights leaning forward with his chin out, just awful technique way behind even his own normal standard.

 

[MikeMcMann]

Pretty much, all Andersons showboating was against mentally beaten sloppy opponents, when he tried it vs Weidman he got KOed.

The whole matrix hype to me was always a bit of a myth, Silva was not ever really THAT great a boxer even by MMA standards. I mean he was good but I don't think close to the best we've seen, his ability to slip punchs when moving forward vs fresh opponents was actually not that good.

What made Anderson great was a combination of very creative and power offence plus extreme toughness.

I am going to disagree with this a little, not a lot.

While Anderson did not have great boxing he did have great MMA striking. Elite actually. And with MMA being such a young sport during his run (and still) we had so many guy who got by with toughness but who had very little skill.

He demonstrated his "matrix" skills against literally the slowest and most flat footed of his opponents and guys who could be easily baited and mentally broken. Guys known for grit and toughness but arguably not an ounce of speed or reflexes in their athleticism. Leben, Forrest, Bonnar and even Franklin, while a better more rounded fighter than the others, was very slow and flat footed.

As you pointed out when he actually fought someone who had good discipline and reflexes and who could actually adjust and not just fold when taunted we saw Weidman light him up. Literally Anderson struggled to land a single blow while Weidman landed almost all of his eventually KHTFO.