What if Anderson had retired after Bonnar?

[AugustBurnsRob82]

I still consider Silva one of the greatest of all time. Would have loved to see him go out on a high note earlier in his career.

The problem is that it takes a certain type of person to fight for a living and those people just can't walk away. It's been mentioned many times before in interviews and other media.

Really sucks seeing a guy like Silva continuing to lose but I understand that people have a hard time walking away from their passion

 

[pankrat]

Yeah people would be talking about how he's clearly the GOAT and there's no way he was ever on steroids.



Indeed, and it should be pretty obvious when you look at his record and see names like Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt, Thales Leites, Patrick Cote, MW Demian Maia, Travis Lutter, and Yushin Omami. Not exactly elite by today's standards.

Franklin, Marquardt, and Maia are legit names, the rest are kind of ehh. Might give Okami some props as well, he’s a tough dude.

The level in NBA has increased since Jordan time, yet he is still widely regarded as the best ever.
Not sure Joe Louis could beat the best HWs of the last decades, yet he is still widely regarded as one of the best HWs ever, if not the best.....

By the way,

 

[ExitLUPin]

You should only judge a fighter by their purime...........Past purime performances are generally only to strengthen a fighters career never to lower it. Its the steroids that hit his legacy the most. I dont think the post Weidman losses carry that much weight. When Anderson was champ do ppl really think Bisping wouldve beaten him? Even if he had Parillo back then it wouldve been more competitive but i dont see it

What if Fedor retired after defending the WAMMA title to Rogers?

31-1-1.......only "loss" was a BS cut stoppage. All of Khabibs only lost 1 round talk. Fedor only lost 1 round in that span to Arona.

What if Hodrigo retired after winning UFC interim title? Man was already a shell of himself with all the surgeries and being blind in one eye when he was in the UFC

31-4-1. Half of his losses to Fedor. Avenged the other 2 losses to Hendo via finish and Barnett in the best HW fight ever via UD right after

Hodrigo is prolly more unfairly rated or underrated in general by the public that any fighter ever. Hes easily one of the GOAT fighters and 2nd GOAT HW and a real claim for GOAT Brazilian with Andy and Aldo. He should be unanimously in everyones top 10 but he rarely is these days but alot of fans now dont know shit about MMA history or his career

 

[Mike]

His legacy should be roughly the same either way, but fans are dumb.

Nah the steroid bust alone hurts his legacy a ton.

 

[WorldWarIV]

He might not be at the bottom of every GOAT lists then, but popping for steroids will do that for you.

 

[Reign009]

People overrate guys that retire too early and underrate guys that retire too late.

You fight long enough, you'll find yourself losing.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

The fighters now are overall better than the fighters in Silva's day, especially as the talent from other parts of the world are brought in.

This is true if we are talking lower weight classes (mostly because the sub LW classes werent even in the UFC until like 10 years ago) but it doesnt really apply to MW. Hendo and Vitor are arguably better than anyone Adesanya has beaten.

 

[Calipwnia]

Legacy is a word that is a similar to reputation. Except reputation is more current while legacy is your reputation viewed by future generations.

it’s a game of perception that should involve not only what you DID but also what you DID NOT do.

in Tennis (another solo sport) Bjorn Borg (Sweden) won 6 French Open titles and 5 Wimbledon titles. But he retired at 26 years old. Nobody calls him the GOAT of tennis even though he was the best player in the world for 5 years.

 

[Ether13]

What if Bonnar retired after Tito?

 

[VinceArch]

Retiring early is a punk move. Great fighters don't quit when things get tough.

Says who? Some guy on Sherdog?

 

[kalabula]

Ppl would be certain that he would tool Izzy.

 

[dre quinn]

Should of at least retired after the Brunson fight. Brunson still legit at this point

 

[Roid Rodent]

Fighters ageing and declining shouldnt influence their past performances. Maybe mma is too new for their fans to realize this, but it's something people in boxing know. Fighters age, get old, decline. A fighter doesnt stay a champion cleaning out his division for 10 years and just start losing left and right for years because other fighters figure them out or caught up with them. Mike Tyson didn't get considered to be a can crusher who was never good because he couldnt beat people outside of the top 10 at the end of his carreer.

 

[Perrichet]

I’m glad The Chris didn’t let him run away or fight Cung Le or Rich Franklin like he wanted

 

[eiyuu]

nobody was hyping weidman as some monster contender

You don't remember all the "Anderson is ducking Weidman" threads from around that time? Especially when Silva took the short notice fight against Bonnar and Weidman was undefeated at MW?

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

You don't remember all the "Anderson is ducking Weidman" threads from around that time? Especially when Silva took the short notice fight against Bonnar and Weidman was undefeated at MW?

Idiots on Sherdog make 10 duck threads per hour. That wasn't going to impact his legacy you are insane if you think it would have

especially when given the context that Weidman fell off of a cliff and will go down as one of the least memorable champions ever (particularly without the Silva fights nobody would remember this fucking guy so to say that would have been a stain on a top 3 GOAT resume is hilariously misguided IMO)

 

[CRuck1980]

He'd be the GOAT, too every fight after that destroyed a piece of his legacy

 

[MCDojoMMA]

Bigger than khabib. Let khabib and Jones fight till age 37.

Look at fedor at age 37

 

[eiyuu]

Idiots on Sherdog make 10 duck threads per hour. That wasn't going to impact his legacy you are insane if you think it would have

especially when given the context that Weidman fell off of a cliff and will go down as one of the least memorable champions ever (particularly without the Silva fights nobody would remember this fucking guy so to say that would have been a stain on a top 3 GOAT resume is hilariously misguided IMO)

Doesn't mean there aren't enough Anderson haters to propagate that hypothetical ducking into a black mark on his legacy if he retired prior to fighting Weidman.

And, unfortunately, the Silva haters now use Weidman's "falling off a cliff" as "proof" that Silva wasn't any good if he lost twice to a guy who fell off so horribly.

 

[PunchKicker]

Likewise, GSP avoided that fate by stepping away from the sport at age 32. If Fedor had done the same, he’d have retired after Arlovski.

Thats why Fedor and Silva are much higher up on the GOAT talks because they didn't quit when they felt a physical decline. The better question is, could GSP have been the WW champ at 37 or 38 (time Silva lost his belt) or Khabib? I'm not so sure. Same for Jon.