Poatan is THE best UFC striker ever.

[Mind Mine]

He is extremely big and has a ton of power but not only have I not seen any particular skill that sets him way ahead of elite strikers he has been KOed stiff early in his run which was EXTREMELY fast tracked. Great fighter but nope I don’t agree

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Jones is better. He doesn't get many KOs, but that's because he doesn't have as much power in his punches. But he'll go anywhere with anyone, even (or rather, especially) when that's the other fighter's specialty. His dirty boxing against Glover is probably one of my favorite examples of striking in any of his fights. Plus, Jones is incredibly solid defensively, which is an aspect people tend to forget when they talk about "great striking."

To reiterate - Jones makes a point to beat his opponents at their own games, and is so dominant that people here will consider a 50-44 fight a "win" for his opponent, simply because they weren't finished. And much of that comes from his incredible striking.

Jones had the TDD threat always in his pocket to make his standup always work

Nobody wants bottom position on Jones, thats a death sentence

 

[Foppa21]

He's close for sure. I think it's still debatable at this point but if he KO's Ank it becomes less debatable

Misread it. "Why's he fighting Jon Anik? What's Anik ever done to him?!?!"

 

[RoyJonesJr]

anderson was 45 and had 20 ufc fights by the time he fought bisping and weidman lmao

Alex has 40 fights and is 37, Silva had his first KO loss @ 38 against Weidman


But like I said, it could be receny bias. But losing to Izzy & dropped for a second against Khalil is not a bad look

 

[DestinedAussie]

CM punk disagrees

 

[Gamer007]

Strait out of a fuckin movie, how quickly they forget....

Even after fighting over a decade past his prime, statistically in the UFC Anderson is on par and even superior in some respects to Alex Pereria right now. If you look at the data from Silva's prime years, his striking defense and accuracy were out of this world. We have not see anything like that before.



If you take the first 17 fights of Andersons UFC career, before he broke his leg:

Anderson Silva - 17 fights

• Overall Total Strike Accuracy: 69.2%
• Overall Significant Strike Accuracy: 67.0%
• Overall Striking Defense: 76.4%
• Strikes Landed per minute 4.25

Alex Pereira - 10 fights

• Overall Total Strike Accuracy: 61.4%
• Overall Significant Strike Accuracy: 60.1%
• Overall Striking Defense: 59.1%
• Strikes Landed per minute 5.45

These percentages are averaged across individual fights, meaning each fight contributes equally to the final percentage. This reflects true performance across different opponents and fight scenarios.


Alex Pereira is an offensive juggernaut, but Silva is the most efficient, accurate, and defensively sound striker the sport has ever seen. His precision allowed him to dismantle legends with minimal effort, his defense made strikers look amateur, and his ability to read, react, and finish fights remains unmatched.

The gap is bigger than many would have you believe. Imagine someone who is better than Alex at striking, yet also better than Alex in almost every other possible aspect of MMA as well. This made Anderson so much more dangerous, his GnP alone is legendary.

 

[thecoldbloodedone]

Alex Pereira is up there, very efficient powerful style for MMA who is in his prime and has good ringcraft/IQ.
He is probably the most dangerous striker right now, although his performances with Jan Blachowitz and 2nd fight with Izzy show he isn't unbeatable on the feet.

MMA has era's that evolve at a faster rate than other combat sports.


Other MMA fighters in their prime that could be comparable:
Jose Aldo, TJ Dillashaw, Max Holloway, Israel Adesanya, Remegius Morkevicius, Anderson Silva.

Future prospects for best strikers in their era: Artem Vakhitov, Illia Topuria. Probably some other bantamweights out there but I'm barely following these days.

 

[Preston broadus]

Probably but I wouldn't bet against a prime Anderson silva If they fought

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

At least the most dangerous in UFC

I think he could KO prime Andy but maybe its recency bias

Prime Anderson wasn't Rountree, Hill and Jiri and was a lot better than Jan who Poatan couldn't even really hurt.

 

[Xanzito]

As much as i am a fan of Poatan... the GOAT has a name.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

Well, no one has been able to outstrike him yet and he's a #1 LHW. He hasn't lost since 2018 and is 19-1. Pereira has a worse record of 12-2 coming into this fight and he's already been KOed in the UFC and rocked even by Khalil Rountree, while Ankalaev hasn't been in serious trouble even once. So what do you think?

You’re being hyperbolic. “Good”, or even “very good” aren’t the same as “incredible”. Your statement is objectively false. Ank doesn’t rank top ten in any of the striking metrics. This includes accuracy, strikes absorbed/landed per minute, and striking defense percentage.

Alex Periera, for example, has a significant strike accuracy of 63% compared to Ank’s 52%. Alex also lands more strikes per minute. Alex has 7 ko/tko’s in 10 fights, Ank has 6 out of 14. See how this works? These are actual numbers that don’t care about your feelings.

You could absolutely say that Ank has better striking defense, although his percentage is only marginally better than AP’s (58% vs 55%). He also absorbs fewer per minute. This is mostly due to stylistic differences though. AP doesn’t really mix in takedowns and is always looking to strike. If you’re always striking, you’re going to get hit more.

Ank’s striking is good, or dare I say very good, but not great or incredible. It’s actually underrated imo. The bathtub boys, of which I’m guessing you’re one, always gush over his wrestling which he baffingly seems to ignore sometimes.

All that said, I wouldn’t even be surprised if he finished Alex with strikes. Takedown threat can really even things up on the feet.

 

[Pilo]

Not sure about that, mate.

Ronda's trainer said she could box with Floyd Mayweather, but we never actually got to see it, so that's one huge unknown there.








"HEAD MOVEMENT! HEAD MOVEMENT!"

 

[TempleoftheDog]

I disagree.

It’s not surprising to see a “BEST EVER” thread from a one year old account. Always needing “their own GOAT/BOAT”.

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Best is very debatable but he's definitely one on the most dangerous

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

Alex has 40 fights and is 37, Silva had his first KO loss @ 38 against Weidman


But like I said, it could be receny bias. But losing to Izzy & dropped for a second against Khalil is not a bad look

alex has 14 fights brother.

 

[Kertol]

Prime Machida was the best striker

 

[RoyJonesJr]

alex has 14 fights brother.

kickboxing brother

with mma thats an extra 14

 

[Local Plata]

Nah.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

kickboxing brother

with mma thats an extra 14

anderson trained at chute boxe. that's like 100 kickboxing fights lmao

 

[Rubios]

Ok, I'm the OP and a huge fan of AS. I'm... well, old enough and been following the sport for long enough.

Obviously AS is a greater MMA fighter and possibly was also a better fighter overall.

Now, let's time travel teleport prime AS to the GLORY Alex fought on.
As K-1 had better talent back then, so it would be unfair.

Do you think peak AS, as good as he was, would stand a chance to become GLORY champ, let alone double champ?

Now, for the lower weight classes:
Just make the same thought experiment, replacing GLORY with ONE/K-1/RISE up to 155.
(GLORY is almost unanimously considered the best promotion for higher weight classes).


Alex is not flashy, seems plodding and lacking defense. But you can't deny his skill.
Just watch his switch kicks or calf kicks with the lead leg.
He makes them look so easy and effortless that seem natural, but they are not. At all. That's what technique looks like.

Besides the KO by Izzy (a great bait setup, BTW), tell me one (more) single time he has eaten a flush shot.*
Sure, he gets hit. Rountree caught him, even with a high kick. But he's always rolling with them, land while he's retreating or hyperextending so lacking any pop.

*The punch that wobbled him in his first Izzy fight was well after the bell. Unintentionally, in my view, but could've been a straight point deduction.

And, yes, he has the best low kicks in MMA ever, and by a mile.