Was Anderson Silva popular back in the day?

AdamWarlock

AdamWarlock

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was watching old ufc videos on youtube and saw sean said you can hear rat fuks in a anderson silva fight because the stadium was so quiet

I would thought given anderson silva's fight style and different kos he'd be the most popular ufc star?

between him and gsp, he was more loved?
 
he def wasn't the most popular, to me, it seemed like the UFC was trying to force hype him up. instantly after beating chris leben, suddenly he's P4P #1, when in reality at that time it was always Fedor. Just seemed like marketing to drum into the heads of casuals at that time. He had great exciting wins, but couldn't talk on the mic, had a voice that didn't match the brutality, and performances like the Maia fight, didn't help his popularity at all. Now he's regarded as a super star, however back then, the truth was somewhere in between. IMO.
 
He was a superstar, they didn’t coin the term Anderson Silva money for no reason
 
Yes.

For a while that "Anderson Silva money" was a meme here
 
After the Chael fights he blew up and was pretty popular for a few years. Before that he was below GSP and Penn. Belfort is huge in Brazil and when Anderson beat him gained a lot of Belfort's fans. He started getting burger king sponsorships after that.
 
Killer Kadoogan said:
he def wasn't the most popular, to me, it seemed like the UFC was trying to force hype him up. instantly after beating chris leben, suddenly he's P4P #1, when in reality at that time it was always Fedor. Just seemed like marketing to drum into the heads of casuals at that time. He had great exciting wins, but couldn't talk on the mic, had a voice that didn't match the brutality, and performances like the Maia fight, didn't help his popularity at all. Now he's regarded as a super star, however back then, the truth was somewhere in between. IMO.
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Lol he wasn't instantly p4p 1 after beating Leben, I don't even think he was favorite when he fought Rich Franklin the 1st time
 
Anderson didn't become a super star until the first Chael Sonnen fight.

Before that, I would easily say that GSP was more popular. Strangely enough though, Dana always seemed more than happy doing business with Anderson and seemed to value him more, promoting him as the #1 P4P. Anderson did lose Dana's support after the Maia fight, but after that their relationship has seemed rock solid to this day.
 
You guys aren't even trying anymore.
 
Pierced7681 said:
He didn’t really sell big ppv numbers until Chael, but yea he was popular
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at the height of his popularity he was about even with Izzy, which is madness to me considering he finished 14 out of his first 16 UFC fights. Definitely should have been a bigger star than Izzy.
 
If he spoke more English he would have been a bigger star in the US. In Brazil, he was probably a rockstar. For a few years anyone who was a fan of fighting was finding time to tune into his fights.
 
AdamWarlock said:
was watching old ufc videos on youtube and saw sean said you can hear rat fuks in a anderson silva fight because the stadium was so quiet

I would thought given anderson silva's fight style and different kos he'd be the most popular ufc star?

between him and gsp, he was more loved?
Click to expand...
GSP had more star power. I think partially, because he had better dance partners. His competition at the time was unmistakably higher, and the people recognized him for it. Plus he really had no real controversies. Sure people started to get on him about not finishing fights, but he never had snoozfests like Anderson did with Maia, Leites, or Cote.
 
AdamWarlock said:
was watching old ufc videos on youtube and saw sean said you can hear rat fuks in a anderson silva fight because the stadium was so quiet

I would thought given anderson silva's fight style and different kos he'd be the most popular ufc star?

between him and gsp, he was more loved?
Click to expand...

Is water wet?
 
FlyingDeathKick said:
at the height of his popularity he was about even with Izzy, which is madness to me considering he finished 14 out of his first 16 UFC fights. Definitely should have been a bigger star than Izzy.
Click to expand...

He was hard to promote in some ways, he lived in Brazil and didn’t speak English in the early days. When he moved to the states and started speaking English his career saw an uptick.
 
Subjective question, yes he was but not like chuck or GSP . After the Forrest fight he did get that invisibility love. If he spoke English,he would have been more popular
 
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