Media How GOOD was Anderson Silva Actually?

[cooks1]

Two types of GOAT's thus far in MMA, the ones who can keep a huge win streak going in a super dominating, but for lack of a better term, safe way ie. GSP and Jones. And then you have guys who can keep a huge win streak going in an absolute reckless, risky fashion ie Anderson and Fedor. There was pretty much no question that Anderson was going to shit on whoever he was fighting, and in a savage way, for almost a decade. So he was pretty damn good. The lack of competition argument is ridiculous.

Agreed. Anderson, Fedor, and Hughes are the GOATS. # of title defenses be damned. True warriors.

They ruled for a long time. And they ruled by finishing. And when their reigns ended they lost by finish.

 

[phoenixikki]

He was as good as prime Mike Tyson. He would constantly win a fight before entering the octagon. It is a huge privilege to have seen him fight live, doing the impossible over and over again.

 

[TheSpider]

Don't pretend that Forrest wasn't the weakest LHW champ in UFC history. Cherrypicked LHW fights. If we're gonna keep it real with GSP at MW, let's do the same with Silva's LHW tenure.

You’re full of shit. James Irvin confirmed that 4 top ranked LHWs (Rashad, Thiago Silva, Vera, Jardine) turned down a fight against Silva before Irvin finally accepted.

Silva didn’t cherry pick his LHW fights. Numerous top ranked LHWs were ducking MW Silva. That’s GOAT shit right there

 

[King.]

I always thought he was the most electrifying fighter in the history of MMA, but now that you mentioned it, and he is no longer champion and hasn't won a fight in the last 15 minutes, and Sherdog in general, is a binary-type situation...

Exactly. These fucking people I tell ya. "He was ok", "wouldn't call him a can" "wouldn't challenge for the belt in the past 5 years if at his prime" ; really?! Did you people ever watch any of his fucking fights? People were fighting scared because he was that fucking good.

He dismantled Rich Franklin twice like no other. The fear in that man's eyes; who was the middleweight champ and a good one at that,nice never seen anything like it since. He utterly defeated all other challengers and did so empathically and in an exciting fashion most of the time. The way be blew through hendo, whacked Belfort when he was still very dangerous, made Forrest look like a child wrestling with his dad and recently still could somewhat hang with adesanya.

Fucking revisionist history is a fucking thing over here. My opinion is that he was one of the best to ever do it and I consider myself fortunate that I was following MMA when the man was at his peak.

 

[Babaganoosh]

Level of competition is what has to be looked at. Who are his best wins and how good were those fighters? PED usage is a tough one and one of the reasons why I don’t consider him an all-time great.

 

[MixMartialFarts]

There was something special about Anderson Silva fights and the things he did to his opponents that no other fighter has ever managed to re-capture in my opinion.

With the being said.....middleweight was extremely shallow during his reign and the guys he fought at LHW were mostly washed up or journeymen, he had A LOT of dud fights, (Thales Leites, Maia, Diaz) and should have retied a while ago, (him and BJ both kind of tainted their dominant legacies with their late career losing streaks) I don't think Anderson would have been as dominant at middleweight had he been fighting guys like Rockhold, Romero, Adesanya, Whitaker etc. during his reign, we saw what Weidman did to him.

 

[Repusman]

He was a great one-dimensional fighter. Any wrestler with average striking would have beaten him. Chael proved that. His reign existed at the perfect time in evolution of MMA/UFC. Having said that, he is a great fighter and would have beaten the majority of guys in UFC today. GOAT . . . No.

 

[fjodor]

No one in the UFC had / has an aura like prime Anderson Silva. He was scary good with his hands, knees, kicks and ellbows. On top of that he submitted very good grapplers.

 

[MRT]

Don't pretend that Forrest wasn't the weakest LHW champ in UFC history. Cherrypicked LHW fights. If we're gonna keep it real with GSP at MW, let's do the same with Silva's LHW tenure.

the results may not have been a shock, but who expected Silva to ruin Forrest quite like that? or that GSP would choke Bisping unconscious after 4 years off? they were still still impressive wins.

 

[chinarice]

You’re full of shit. James Irvin confirmed that 4 top ranked LHWs (Rashad, Thiago Silva, Vera, Jardine) turned down a fight against Silva before Irvin finally accepted.

Silva didn’t cherry pick his LHW fights. Numerous top ranked LHWs were ducking MW Silva. That’s GOAT shit right there

So is 4 years retired, 2 shot knees, moving up to a weight class you never fought in and finish a guy coming off wins over 2 all-time greats and the undisputed champ back to back to back.

This is also GOAT level shit. (Notice I said the word also)

I await your bullshit response about GSP.

 

[BlessedSoldier]

Idk but there’s a reason he took PEDS

 

[chinarice]

the results may not have been a shock, but who expected Silva to ruin Forrest quite like that? or that GSP would choke Bisping unconscious after 4 years off? they were still still impressive wins.

100% were. I'm not the one who constantly downplays them at every turn. That's what Silva's fans do about GSP's win daily though.

 

[Perrichet]

Overrated. Guy has double digit losses for a reason

 

[Icanseeu]

I am not a fan but he beat top guys Henderson chael Forest Vitor(trt) are legit. He did have a rough go with thales and Mia being a bit boring but he is a atg

 

[Harlekin]

He was the best around....but his opponents were sometimes so bad.
Only one good striker in Belfort with nearly no battle. Franklin wasn't good.
Lost all rounds vs. Sonnen and Weidman
Maia without striking

Overrated by the UFC who wanted to compete with boxing and therefore greated the goat talk.

 

[DustinBeaver]

Level of competition is what has to be looked at. Who are his best wins and how good were those fighters? PED usage is a tough one and one of the reasons why I don’t consider him an all-time great.

For PEDs to be a consideration you would have to believe that everyone else was clean and just happen to have a badly timed case of back acne (rhymes with "Shael"...).

 

[sirtapsalot]

Hes up there with brock lesnar, chael sonnen, josh barnet and on jones.....see what im getting at

 

[Tsar]

He was really good but he was always beatable. His opponents were beat before they came into the cage most of his UFC run. Fought scared

and he goaded most into swinging rather than fighting smart. but he was smart to do that.

 

[Calipwnia]

finishing poor competition is not as good as completely dominating and shutting your opponents out of their game and not letting them even be competitive for a second imo.

anderson only has two top wins, hendo and vitor. everyone else was mid to low competition or even journeymen level.

You can’t make the assumption the competition is poor because a superior fighter is good enough to finish the fight. Just like you can’t assume the competition is good because the slightly superior fighter cannot finish the fight.

 

[Intellidamus]

-UFC record 16 fight win streak (17 overall)
-14 finishes (12 within 2 rounds)
-10 title defenses (should be 11)
-3 1st round LHW KOs (including vs top ranked one fight removed from being champ Forrest)

Anderson Silva is the GOAT

Make up your mind. Thought it was Jones according to you.