What could they have done?

[Mufasatheking]

Really the only argument against Anderson being GOAT is his losses against Chonan and Takase, if he won them then this debate wouldnt be had.

Also if Ninja rua, Lindland, Bustamante and Paulo Filho had gone to the UFC

 

[moreorless87]

I agree. I'll say Silva, was fucking around too much in the second round of the first fight with the Chris. The first round Weidman was beatin him. It's that Chris didn't get flustered or frustrated and timed his shots. The second fight, Chris just showed he could beat AS. Yes, unfortunately the leg break, but Silva was losin.
The second Chael fight, Sonnen made a mistake and Silva capitalized. I think Silva would have done that anyways.

It depends what you mean by "fucking around", if you mean Silva wasn't taking the fight seriously and was arrogantly showboating I'd disagree, if you mean Silva was playing mind games too much then you can argue it was a tactical error but really as I said he didn't do any better without them.

You look at Andersons career for around 2009 onwards and I think the defining feature of it is how successful his mind games were, either in drawing out sloppy standup to counter or to cause opponents to become defensive. Obviously he was incredible good at exploiting the openings these mind games gave him but they were still a massive part of his success.

For me Silva's fall was similar to many other big names, besides any physical decline(that was hard to gauge due to said mind games) the problem was he became too specialised. The same thing can be pointed out with many other greats, Fedor, BJ, Rampage, Chuck etc.

 

[SharkBoy]

it's really simple,

GSP and Anderson would have had to have all their fights at HW


Fedor is GOAT plain and simple.


but if you mean, what would they have to do to change the consensus, I think Fedor could have retired after Arlovski. Or gone to the UFC at that time and fought Couture, Brock and Mir. He was past his prime then, but I think he would have still blasted through those three before JDS and Cain showed up

 

[chaoticmayhem]

AS couldn't do anything about his weak division but he didn't have to move up in weight and fight handpicked opponents, Bonnar actually being retired when he got the call. He could have really challenged himself by fighting one of the contenders.

 

[markg171]

GSP could have gotten 1 more title defence and tied Silva for the record

 

[RiverCity]

Both Anderson and GSP could have moved up a division for a title shot.

 

[edwinmaniac]

AS couldn't do anything about his weak division but he didn't have to move up in weight and fight handpicked opponents, Bonnar actually being retired when he got the call. He could have really challenged himself by fighting one of the contenders.

Forrest Griffin was 1 fight removed from having the LHW title when he fought Anderson