The biggest difference between Anderson and Izzy is that Andy could actually grapple offense, had a VENOMOUS guard and was a serious sub threat

[ExitLUPin]

Anytime people compare these 2 its always the striking and say theyre same kind of fighter. Or that Izzy is Andy with better TDD. Misses a massive issue.... Grappling offense. Izzy is a okay defensive wrestler. But ALL he does in grappling is DEFEND or get the odd reversal. He never punishes, gets dominant positions himself and is a ZERO submission threat. ZERO. GNP is meh Andy was a sniper. He also has 0 TDs in UFC and Andy has taken down fighters like Nate Marqardt and Shale P.

Izzy could NEVER in his life do the following

Say what you will about their striking Andy was objectively the superior and well rounded fighter. Andy had his holes sure but he was an overall fighter and dangerous everywhere. Izzy was a kickboxer with good TDD. He had ZERO grappling OFFENSE. Biggest difference.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Israel has MUCH better wrestling than Anderson Silva does even if he has much worse BJJ. It's not like Silva is just Israel with a ground game.

So yes, Silva wouldn't have probably gotten submitted by DDP, but it's not like there aren't other aspects Silva hasn't struggled with.

There are a lot of differences between the two than just Silva is good off his back. Silva is just more athletic than Israel. He doesn't have to be technical to fight, Israel does. Silva has knockout power, granite chin, crazy reflexs, and is faster. Israel is a point fighter.

 

[Leinster Rugby]

Also I don't think Anderson ever touched up any dogs so let's not forget that important difference too

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

I'm a big fan of Izzy but Anderson was vastly better better than him.

 

[Koro_11]

Also Anderson was finishing his opponent 90% of the time, his striking was more deadly and he was a mental giant who didn’t get triggered and insecure by every single comment his opponent made.

 

[Greyscale]

I'm pretty sure Izzy can, too. But Spider's biggest success with his grappling came in finishing a dazed Henderson (in the 1st round his grappling didn't help much) and a hail mary in the match with Sonnen, who has 9 sub losses and is particularly weak to triangles and armbars. I honestly didn't see the Lutter fight, which probably involved some grappling as well. But it's not like he could deploy his grappling against some Thales Leites, much less Maia or Cormier. He was forced to resort to his grappling in the 1st Sonnen fight because he was consistently put on his back. And even Dustin Poirier could finish that dazed Hendo with a guillotine after he ate those knees.

All in all, we never really saw easy consistently taken down and controlled on the ground so there was really no need for him to pull off something like Silva vs Sonnen 1.

 

[pankrat]

Israel has MUCH better wrestling than Anderson Silva does even if he has much worse BJJ. It's not like Silva is just Israel with a ground game.

So yes, Silva wouldn't have probably gotten submitted by DDP, but it's not like there aren't other aspects Silva hasn't struggled with.

There are a lot of differences between the two than just Silva is good off his back. Silva is just more athletic than Israel. He doesn't have to be technical to fight, Israel does. Silva has knockout power, granite chin, crazy reflexs, and is faster. Israel is a point fighter.

No, he doesnt have much better wrestling and actually got taken down several times by Vettori, Dricus or Jan, and even Pereira.

Silva improved his wrestling over the years and negated Brunson or Okami's TDs. Israel might be slightly better in that aspect, but not the difference you claim, both because Silva's wrestling wasnt that bad and Israel's isnt that good to pretend there is such gap.

 

[Marko Polo]

Anderson has always been better but that’s no slight on Israel, Anderson was just a one in a life time phenom.

 

[Mammothman]

Israel has MUCH better wrestling than Anderson Silva does even if he has much worse BJJ. It's not like Silva is just Israel with a ground game.

So yes, Silva wouldn't have probably gotten submitted by DDP, but it's not like there aren't other aspects Silva hasn't struggled with.

There are a lot of differences between the two than just Silva is good off his back. Silva is just more athletic than Israel. He doesn't have to be technical to fight, Israel does. Silva has knockout power, granite chin, crazy reflexs, and is faster. Israel is a point fighter.

Sorry mate, that is just not true.

 

[Greg House]

People only compare them on the feet because they were both black tall strikers. In reality, they weren't similar at all. Anderson KO power and striking were on another level. He would hurt people just by touching them. He Ko'd Forrest with a Jab, let a puncher like Rivera hit him over and over in the clinch and had some seriously creative knockouts with strikes like that elbow uppercut and we never really saw a front kick to the face knock out in the UFC until his fight with Vitor.

People that compare them, never saw Anderson. Izzy is just a point fighter with very good technique. Anderson hurt fighters like you've never seen before. They would crawl and wait for the ref to save them like Irvin or Marquardt. You see that on the amateurs where fighters turn their back from the fight sometimes because they've never been hit like that before, except in this case they were elite fighters and had never done that before Anderson or after him. Anderson was very special.

That said, the game has changed so much since 2007. Wrestling in the UFC these days is nothing like what it was back then. The MMA gyms today trained them differently. There are no fighters with bad wrestling in the UFC today, back then, some fighters had ways around it to compensate it like Anderson had with his BJJ guard. So, it's unfair to compare Izzy's wrestling and well rounded game (that is a product of modern MMA training) to Anderson's wrestling because back then the game was different. He did got better by the end as you can see with his fight against Okami, but that was just the game changing and Anderson adjusting to it while aging. He wasn't on his prime anymore by that point.


Ps: You can see what I mean in that second gif that you posted right there. He lands one hit on Nate and he just turns over in pain waiting for the fight to stop. He never did that before or after in his career. You see that on the amateurs a lot with bad fighters. Anderson's power was crazy because it didn't look like he put a lot of weight on those punches. Sure, nice reversal and control at the start but Nate wasn't a good wrestler for that to be too impressive, he didn't need to be to be elite in the UFC. Back then it was easy for a BJJ like Nate to get the fight to the ground in the UFC, like I said the game was different back then.

 

[Ube]

maybe. But really, Anderson has a killer instinct that Adesanya never had.

 

[pankrat]

People only compare them on the feet because they were both black tall strikers. In reality, they weren't similar at all. Anderson KO power and striking were on another level. He would hurt people just by touching them. He Ko'd Forrest with a Jab, let a puncher like Rivera hit him over and over in the clinch and had some seriously creative knockouts with strikes like that elbow uppercut and we never really saw a front kick to the face knock out in the UFC until his fight with Vitor.

People that compare them, never saw Anderson. Izzy is just a point fighter with very good technique. Anderson hurt fighters like you've never seen before. They would crawl and wait for the ref to save them like Irvin or Marquardt. You see that on the amateurs where fighters turn their back from the fight sometimes because they've never been hit like that before, except in this case they were elite fighters and had never done that before Anderson or after him. Anderson was very special.

That said, the game has changed so much since 2007. Wrestling in the UFC these days is nothing like what it was back then. The MMA gyms today trained them differently. There are no fighters with bad wrestling in the UFC today, back then, some fighters had ways around it to compensate it like Anderson had with his BJJ guard. So, it's unfair to compare Izzy's wrestling and well rounded game (that is a product of modern MMA training) to Anderson's wrestling because back then the game was different. He did got better by the end as you can see with his fight against Okami, but that was just the game changing and Anderson adjusting to it while aging. He wasn't on his prime anymore by that point.


Ps: You can see what I mean in that second gif that you posted right there. He lands one hit on Nate and he just turns over in pain waiting for the fight to stop. He never did that before or after in his career. You see that on the amateurs a lot with bad fighters. Anderson's power was crazy because it didn't look like he put a lot of weight on those punches. Sure, nice reversal and control at the start but Nate wasn't a good wrestler for that to be too impressive, he didn't need to be to be elite in the UFC. Back then it was easy for a BJJ like Nate to get the fight to the ground in the UFC, like I said the game was different back then.

Anderson's wrestling by 2010-2011 was not so inferior to Israel's.

 

[Domitian]

Anderson also had a much superior game in the clinch. Izzy is great and deserves a lot of respect but when it comes to the MW Goat conversation Anderson is far ahead.

 

[Greg House]

Anderson's wrestling by 2010-2011 was not so inferior to Israel's.

Hard to say because I don't think the wrestling of fighters back then was as good as it is today. But, like I said, he got better at that area as he aged because the game was changing and BJJ alone was not enough to win. An easy way to see this was Okami taking him down easily in 2006 but being easily stopped by him in 2012 even though Okami got much better in those 6 years as well.

In any case, those 3 gifs he posted are all 2007-2008, not 2010-2011. In his prime, he was more one dimensional. But my point was mainly that they were not similar at all on the feet to be claiming that their grappling was the difference. Izzy was just a very good technical fighter, while Anderson was one of the most gifted strikers I've ever seen in MMA

 

[fortheo]

Anderson's wrestling by 2010-2011 was not so inferior to Israel's.

It definitely wasn't better though. His guard and submission game were better, but I do give izzy the edge in tdd and get ups.

This is a really dumb discussion though. Most people agree that silva was the better MW. There's no need to beat a dead horse everytime izzy loses. These insecure Andy fans in here shitting on izzy continuoussly a few fights into his decline are a bit pathetic.

 

[AmonTobin]

Both showed razor sharpness in their primes. Anderson with a much more extensive Jitsu arsenal, more utilization of Muay Thai elbows/knees, more aggressive, and harder single punch. Izzy probably had more versatile punches and kicks. Both susceptible to wrestling and both relied heavily on their reflexes and head movement. Yes Anderson had all kinds of options on the ground, where as Izzy is usually looking for ways to get it and keep it off the ground. Both outstanding fighters and greats in my book.

 

[Lawrence]

When Anderson returns my $50 bucks for the Maia fight, I will agree that he's better than Izzy.

 

[ExitLUPin]

No, he doesnt have much better wrestling and actually got taken down several times by Vettori, Dricus or Jan, and even Pereira.

Silva improved his wrestling over the years and negated Brunson or Okami's TDs. Israel might be slightly better in that aspect, but not the difference you claim, both because Silva's wrestling wasnt that bad and Israel's isnt that good to pretend there is such gap.

People think Izzy TDD is a lot better than it actually was due to poor level of wrestling talent in the MW division for his reign. There was no Hendo, Shale or Chris level grapplers and as you said he's been taken down by much lesser wrestlers. Rob got him down 4 times in the rematch too and Rob has never been known for his offense in grappling. Kelvin is the only fighter he took down more than once. Shit even Okami would have been a better wrestler than all but 1 or 2 fighters he's beaten.

Izzy's TDD is like Wonderboy great on initial shot but relies on distance control from his striking and framing and pivots to keep away. You get in on his hips and the TDD and real wrestling isn't good.

 

[Goatenstein]

Silva fought weaker competition and is a proven PED cheat.

 

[usernamee]

Also when Silva got the read on guys and he started moving out there you could see people shitting their pants