Wanderlei César da Silva was never that good or my friend

He absolutely was elite and arguably the number 1 205er on the planet for a while (Chuck was there 2 but UFC was considered number 2 back then, like with Bellator/PFL now).
Beat Hendo
Beat Rampage 2x
He put an end to Sakuraba's tear, even if he was a class heavier it was still crazy when it happened, Saku was a big favorite the first time.
Went to a draw with a new-to--MMA Cro Cop with rules that heavily avantaged the Croatian; still in the minds of most of the fans, Wand would have easily taken the nod had there been a decision... despite also taking a lot of damage to the midsection.

Beat Yoshida in his Gi twice, even though the second was a close decision, pretty much a draw in my mind. Yoshida was super tough and beat some big names, their brawls became legendary.

Late in his career he KO'd good top 15 guys like Cung Le, Keith Jardine, Stann, won decisions over Bisping

Shame about that Bellator stint though

Wand was still absolutely elite and 'til 2005 when it looked like Shogun was going to surpass him, even Chuck fans had Wand at the number 1 spot because of that pesky MMAth with Rampage
but some clapped back with Tito, but "muh green wandy no BJJ yet"
 
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Bait thread, and not a really good one.

Sure, but we do weirdly see this attitude in various ranking threads

And looking at his record in the UFC I can understand, he was one of those guys were you had to be there to understand the hype about him

For some you can look at their record and go "ok he's obviously very, very good" but with Silva, as we used to call him before that damn Spiderman moved on to this forum, he was the guy you put a fight of to convince your friend that MMA isn't some WWE bullshit
 
Prove me wrong

He banged and wanged with crazy hooks and had a good chin and I don’t care what he did to Rampage
He just wasn’t that good
Was he a savage? Yeah
Was he an elite fighter?

Nope

At least offer an argument.

What proved he wasn't an elite fighter?
 
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Prove me wrong

He banged and wanged with crazy hooks and had a good chin and I don’t care what he did to Rampage
He just wasn’t that good
Was he a savage? Yeah
Was he an elite fighter?

Nope
It ain't about technique bro.

Wand was a warrior

He beat people with superior technique because he was a god damn viking savage.

People who don't understand fighting think it's all about technique. No.

Technique gets overcome all the time by savage wills and this has been the case since old boxing times.
 
For his time he was good. Of course he would suck in the modern era, most fighters of that era would. He is very undersized for current 205ers. The sport has evolved and a lot of the greats are very mediocre compared to present day fighters. Matt Hughes is a great but no one talks about him because he is mediocre compared to the fighters we have now.
 
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