This is the first episode of the new show produced by Jay-Z and it is about Sport's(MMA?) Rivalries. The first episode is about Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen: [YT]KkOEi52lQrc[/YT]
You can thank Silva's weak wrestling for this "rivalry". Let's be honest here, Cheal Sonnen is not a great fighter, not even close. The guy has 14 losses for a reason. It wouldn't even be a stretch to call him a low tier fighter considering he has a losing record at LHW. The thing is that his biggest strength was Silva's biggest weakness, thus he was able to almost beat Anderson, and then build up his persona around almost beating Silva, being the "champ", holding a fake belt, etc. Anderson Silva made Chael Sonnen what he is today. No elite fighter should ever struggle with a Sonnen caliber fighter. It just happens that MW used to have a non well rounded champion. Sure it was great for business and all. I'm sure lot's of kids were very excited about the rematch. Fight wise though, it was mediocre at best. It wasn't elite vs. elite. No Ali vs. Foreman or Fedor vs. Nog. Just a great fighter with a sticking weakness vs. a low tier fighter who matched up well with him, nothing else.
Chael Sonnen was ranked number two in the middleweight divison for years, has 6 top 10 wins, and gave Anderson all he could handle. He's a very, very good fighter.
It still makes me uncomfortable to hear Anderson preaching respect. He's p4p the most disrespectful guy I've ever seen compete in the sport.
And Michael Bisping was ranked #4 MW, without ever beating a top fighter :icon_idea Yes, MW used to be terrible. Sonnen was just another fighter enjoying the benefits of that.
Except Chael beat multiple top 10 guys, unlike Bisping. Sounds like you're looking for any illogical justification to hate on Chael
Your bitterness is showing. Fun Fact: Silva/Sonnen 2 was the first million buy ppv MMA card that didn't feature Brock Lesnar.
I already told you how rankings worked at MW. Let's just say that becoming top 10 wasn't that hard. Again, Chael was just enjoying the benefits of fighting in a weak division. He dropped to MW because he couldn't hang at LHW.
That you're an idiot. Every great fighter with enough fights losses eventually. Fighters are also capable of improving over time.
It's always funny seeing Claude trying to discredit Anderson and the MW division considering the reason Fedor left the US.
