It's hard to rate Anderson Silva's striking skill when his resume as a striker is so thin.

[FraudGoat]

I'm not talking about how good his striking is relative to modern MMA, or even how good he is as a striker. But just his resume as a striker.

Remember in one of Joe Rogan's podcasts where he had a couple of good Muay Thai fighters watching the Silva Franklin clips? They were laughing at how clueless Rich Franklin was in the clinch and how he didn't even know the basics of it. And Franklin is like 2nd best striker Silva has ever beaten in his prime.

And that's the problem, Most of the guys Silva has fought in his prime simply aren't that developed in striking. And he has never fought a wide range of different strikers either. Like who's the best range striker or kicker he has fought? Someone who is competent at range and tries to attack his legs instead of headhunting? The only one I can think of is Patrick Cote. And he was having good success just staying at midrange and blasting Silva with leg kicks. But then his knee blew out. It's only until the end of his career that we see him fight well-educated and truly competent strikers who try to exploit his weakness. But by then it's meaningless to evaluate

 

[puppybird]

Silva fought Adesanya, he’s not bad at that striking stuff

 

[TheBulletwithWings]

As much as I hate it when it happened. He took out Vitor with a kick to the face.
Vitor is a very good striker.

 

[Intermission]

Silva fought Adesanya, he’s not bad at that striking stuff

And he lost to Jake Paul

 

[ThaiSexPills]

No it’s not. Who else won a belt and did that to people? Nobody. There has never been a more dominant striker than Anderson in his prime. Period.

Even 10 years past his prime, on the downswing of his career after his reflexes and speed were mostly gone, he could hang with Adesanya. Hell, old man Silva almost folded DC who was the current LHW champ on super short notice without even a training camp.

People have already forgotten how truly amazing he was. Sad

 

[Wormwood]

Silva beat Chavez…who is not the best boxer, but a boxer nonetheless.

 

[FraudGoat]

No it’s not. Who else won a belt and did that to people? Nobody. There has never been a more dominant striker than Anderson in his prime. Period.

Even 10 years past his prime, on the downswing of his career after his reflexes and speed were mostly gone, he could hang with Adesanya. Hell, old man Silva almost folded DC who was the current LHW champ on super short notice without even a training camp.

People have already forgotten how truly amazing he was. Sad

He wasn't hanging with Adesanya, he was losing and losing badly at the end. Adesanysa was a few leg kicks away from a TKO. The best thing you can say is that Adesanay didn't immediately blow him out of the water. But that was never Izzy style, especially against guys who's not running at him.

"There has never been a more dominant striker than Anderson in his prime. Period."

Not even going to debate about the validity of this statement. Considering the main point of my post is that he hasn't fought many competent strikers.

 

[phillystyleswag]

Well he had wins over Henderson, Belfort, Sonnen, Griffin, Franklin, etc and one of the longest title reigns in UFC history. I think his striking was pretty good.

 

[Intermission]

Silva beat Chavez…who is not the best boxer, but a boxer nonetheless.

A Chavez who didn't care

 

[Hdfi]

In terms of "MMA striking" he was very good and super creative but you're right, he does not have major credentials as a striker outside of MMA and he looked like shit against Jake Paul (Silva was 70 years old, though).

 

[FraudGoat]

Well he had wins over Henderson, Belfort, Sonnen, Griffin, Franklin, etc and one of the longest title reigns in UFC history. I think his striking was pretty good.

Yeah, rich franklin... a "striker" who didn't know the basics of defense in the clinch. Which is why i use him as an argument.

"Henderson, Grffin, Belfort, sonnen."

This is just proving my point. Hendo is a dangerous puncher sure, but my dude is literally the definition of a one-dimensional on the feet who only throws overhands at his opponent's head. And maybe occasionally inside leg kicks to set it up.

No one would consider Hendo a good boxer or someone who presents a challenge for silva on the feet.

Same with Belfort, he's dangerous, fast, and explosive in blitzes. But he's so limited on the feet and is also a headhunter. It's a big stretch to even call him a good boxer since good boxing is far more than fast and explosive punches.

 

[phillystyleswag]

Yeah, rich franklin... a "striker" who didn't know the basics of defense in the clinch. Which is why i use him as an argument.

"Henderson, Grffin, Belfort, sonnen."

This is just proving my point. Hendo is a dangerous puncher sure, but my dude is literally the definition of a one-dimensional on the feet who only throws overhands at his opponent's head. And maybe occasionally inside leg kicks to set it up.

No one would consider Hendo a good boxer or someone who presents a challenge for silva on the feet.

Same with Belfort, he's dangerous, fast, and explosive in blitzes. But he's so limited on the feet and is also a headhunter. It's a big stretch to even call him a good boxer since good boxing is far more than fast and explosive punches.

He’s an MMA fighter first and foremost. You could make this argument about any fighter that isn’t Pereira, Izzy, etc and doesn’t have a long history of striking sports outside of the UFC. His striking was very effective in MMA which is all that matters.

 

[ThaiSexPills]

He wasn't hanging with Adesanya, he was losing and losing badly at the end. Adesanysa was a few leg kicks away from a TKO. The best thing you can say is that Adesanay didn't immediately blow him out of the water. But that was never Izzy style, especially against guys who's not running at him.

"There has never been a more dominant striker than Anderson in his prime. Period."

Not even going to debate about the validity of this statement. Considering the main point of my post is that he hasn't fought many competent strikers.

Casuals are so annoying. They come in here with zero fight knowledge and shit on undisputed GOAT’s because of revisionist history. You don’t consider guys like Belfort, Hendo, Franklin, Sonnen or Griffin any good than you’re just plain wrong. The whole “he never faced an impossible murderers row of fantasy fights transcending history and weight classes so he sucks” is such a stupid argument and I’ve seen it done on multiple dominant champs. I’ve read all the same takes on Jones and Fedor too. So what? How many champions did what Anderson did to guys in his prime? His aura then was like nothing we’ve ever saw before or after.

The MW division was weak then only because Anderson continually crushed everybody. Nobody could build themselves up because of the boogeyman at the top. Don’t forget he went up to LHW and dominated in incredible fashion there too. What he did to Forrest Griffin stole his soul. Forrest was just LHW champ too.

Boohoo a 40 year old, totally washed fighter who relied on long gone reflexes and speed got beaten by Adesanya. Nobody expected him to win that but his ghost did pretty good considering. What a shame there wasn’t a bunch of mythical striking GOAT’s in there to beat him and show us he sucked right? Lol. Don’t forget he was a legit BJJ black belt with a massive sub threat and this is MMA either. He had so many tools and his striking was top tier. There’s no MMA striker ever who wouldn’t have major issues with him

 

[Mick Dojang]

I remember hearing Anderson is a TKD 4th Dan, so his kicking should be elite (in my experience 4th dan tends to be something like black belt in BJJ in terms of mastery of the style)

 

[markantony20]

I'm not talking about how good his striking is relative to modern MMA, or even how good he is as a striker. But just his resume as a striker.

Remember in one of Joe Rogan's podcasts where he had a couple of good Muay Thai fighters watching the Silva Franklin clips? They were laughing at how clueless Rich Franklin was in the clinch and how he didn't even know the basics of it. And Franklin is like 2nd best striker Silva has ever beaten in his prime.

And that's the problem, Most of the guys Silva has fought in his prime simply aren't that developed in striking. And he has never fought a wide range of different strikers either. Like who's the best range striker or kicker he has fought? Someone who is competent at range and tries to attack his legs instead of headhunting? The only one I can think of is Patrick Cote. And he was having good success just staying at midrange and blasting Silva with leg kicks. But then his knee blew out. It's only until the end of his career that we see him fight well-educated and truly competent strikers who try to exploit his weakness. But by then it's meaningless to evaluate

TS didn’t just poke the hornets nest he played basketball with it.

 

[FraudGoat]

Casuals are so annoying. They come in here with zero fight knowledge and shit on undisputed GOAT’s because of revisionist history. You don’t consider guys like Belfort, Hendo, Franklin, Sonnen or Griffin any good than you’re just plain wrong. The whole “he never faced an impossible murderers row of fantasy fights transcending history and weight classes so he sucks” is such a stupid argument and I’ve seen it done on multiple dominant champs. I’ve read all the same takes on Jones and Fedor too. So what? How many champions did what Anderson did to guys in his prime? His aura then was like nothing we’ve ever saw before or after.

The MW division was weak then only because Anderson continually crushed everybody. Nobody could build themselves up because of the boogeyman at the top. Don’t forget he went up to LHW and dominated in incredible fashion there too. What he did to Forrest Griffin stole his soul. Forrest was just LHW champ too.

Boohoo a 40 year old, totally washed fighter who relied on long gone reflexes and speed got beaten by Adesanya. Nobody expected him to win that but his ghost did pretty good considering.

Classic Sherdog. Always results in calling other casuals when someone criticizes one of their darlings.


Let me ask you this simple question. Is it more embarrassing to mythicize and glaze Silva's striking because he clowns on guys like rich franklin and Forest Griffin? Or is it more embarrassing to point out that Rich Franklin and Forrest Griffin aren't good measuring sticks to determine one's greatness in striking?



"the whole “he never faced an impossible murderers row of fantasy fights transcending history and weight classes so he sucks” is such a stupid argument and I’ve seen it done on multiple dominant champs. I’ve read all the same takes on Jones and Fedor too. So what? How many champions did what Anderson did to guys in his prime? His aura then was like nothing we’ve ever seen before or after."


Simply stating the simply fact that Silva hasn't fought many competent strikers in his prime is not the same as me critiquing him for not beating Ngannou on the feet in a hypothetical matchup.

 

[loisestrad]

Anderson Silva's striking skills were so elite that Steven Seagal tried to take credit for teaching him.

 

[FraudGoat]

He’s an MMA fighter first and foremost. You could make this argument about any fighter that isn’t Pereira, Izzy, etc and doesn’t have a long history of striking sports outside of the UFC. His striking was very effective in MMA which is all that matters.

I'm talking about his resume as a MMA striker. I'm not sure why you think I'm talking about his kickboxing credentials... I couldn't careless about that as they're not that meaningful.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

Well this thread is certainly full of whiney bitches on both sides of the argument.

He was a good mma striker despite not having an extensive striking career outside of mma. His corpse was able to survive Izzy, who was at his peak, when he should have been blown out if he was not that good.

anyhow, my dime store analyzation.

Don't bother replying to me - I won't read it and I don't give a flying fuck what any of you whiney bitches have to say.

 

[Substance Abuse]

When I look at everything in hindsight, everyone fucking sucks. Unless I like them. This thread sucks regardless.