When Anderson would drop his hands and invite his opponent to punch him in the face….

[Skarsgard]

No. His fights with Leites, Maia and Cote turned him into a much-hated figure in MMA. It was right at the time started pushing for "Anderson Silva money" and fans were legit wondering if he was fighting badly to put pressure on the UFC. You obviously don't think three lousy fights would be enough to tank him, but when he's refusing to engage and, instead, pretending to hide behind the referee and fucking around on an air guitar, it was more than enough for fans to turn on him. Like i said, it was so bad that Dana apologized to him and said he owed it to the fans to make it up to them.

Silva didn't become much-beloved until later.

The Cote fight was fine, I really didn't understand the complaints. Cote was gunshy and clearly just in to survive rounds to prove a point. We've seen much worse before and after.
The Leites fight was awful because he would flop to guard and fall over on half of a shot every time Anderson would move forward to engage.
No excuses for the Maia fight. That was dogshit and 100% on Anderson.

As for Dana's response, fuck that diva. He throws fighters under the bus at any given opportunity.

 

[stacrafty]

Yea bro, after dominating the MW division for almost a decade, Weidman finally caught him. It’s not us ignoring that fight it’s you haters trying to define his career by that one moment. Y’all had to wait almost 10 yrs to see Anderson lose so now that it’s been 10 yrs since you won’t let it go.

The very same sentence you praise him for dominating... but won't acknowledge the style that enabled it was very high risk..

But it sure made some awesome moments.

 

[YoyoDS17]

That sh** is legend and was super effective at captivating an audience at the bar. I remember when Anderson would do this during a fight and everyone at the bar would just be glued to the tv screens. You could hear a pin drop.

GOAT. ufc will never be the same without him

 

[lweiberg]

DPOS

 

[YoyoDS17]

Bonnar softened the chin up and Chris shattered it

Supposedly in his training he’d let heavy weights (JDS?) throw haymakers at his chin. There is something that explains this online.

 

[YoyoDS17]

DPOS

Thjs is pre USADA weidman hahahaha

 

[ElLunico]

I remember watching this in shock. It was just surreal watching Anderson get finished.. Nobody made opponents look so out of his league mire than Anderson.

In some of his fights he looked like a dad play fighting with his son. The Forrest Griffin demolition job is still the most embarrassing beatdown. I mean he just made Griffin look like a fool

 

[Minnja]

lol what? Anderson was already a few yrs into his UFC career before he had a boring fight. From his first UFC fight (vs Leben) to his rematch vs Weidman (8 yrs later) Anderson only had 2 boring fights- vs Leites and Maia. All his other fights during those years were great. Anderson’s fights were always so epic that when he finally had a boring one, it was shocking for fans.

Nah, he's right. Anderson was hated by hardcores for replacing Fedor on the P4P lists on MMA media sites and then for the Cote/Leites/Maia fights. It's why Chael was able to generate so much interest by using that as the fuel to hate on Anderson. There were legit lot of people who became fans of Chael because they disliked Anderson.

Anderson is still my favorite fighter of all time. Like people have said, his fights had so much tension and he'd deliver almost every single time. Even in his bad fights you can find funny moments in them that are more memorable than your average MMA fight. You legit had no idea what was going to happen in an Anderson fight even when he was the massive favorite. His highlight reel remains to be one of the greatest of all time and a vast majority of them were during his reign as champion which is also wild.

 

[lweiberg]

Thjs is pre USADA weidman hahahaha

Against a pre-USADA Silva.

 

[BigOlJeet]

I remember when Forest fought Anderson.... everyone at the bar was like WTF!! how did he perfectly dodge all those punches and then knock him out with a jab.... Prime Anderson was phenomenal.

especially after Forest was toe to toe with Rashad and Rampage, and then a MW comes up to LHW and wipes the floor with Forest

I remember getting so excited for an Anderson fight, it was like, damn what awesome move is he going to do to his opponent today?

Modern day Sherdoggers weren't around to watch prime Andy, only through Wiki and the tail end of his career tops.

 

[lefthighkick01]

Modern day Sherdoggers weren't around to watch prime Andy, only through Wiki and the tail end of his career tops.

Yeah, I feel sorry for them... Anderson gets heaps of flack for "dominating a weak division" , however I just think he was that technically superior and talented that Prime Anderson would do the same to this day MW div and even LHW aswell imo.
every fight was amazing to watch!

I remember when Anderson , Shogun, wanderlei and the nog brothers were all training together at Chute Boxe, they all said Anderson was the best fighter in that camp by far.

 

[Ibm]

only Anderson could do that. No one yet has matched Andersons striking.

 

[HHJ]

Nah, he's right. Anderson was hated by hardcores for replacing Fedor on the P4P lists on MMA media sites and then for the Cote/Leites/Maia fights. It's why Chael was able to generate so much interest by using that as the fuel to hate on Anderson. There were legit lot of people who became fans of Chael because they disliked Anderson.

Anderson is still my favorite fighter of all time. Like people have said, his fights had so much tension and he'd deliver almost every single time. Even in his bad fights you can find funny moments in them that are more memorable than your average MMA fight. You legit had no idea what was going to happen in an Anderson fight even when he was the massive favorite. His highlight reel remains to be one of the greatest of all time and a vast majority of them were during his reign as champion which is also wild.

I dont recall Anderson being a hated fighter anymore than any other long time dominant fighter who crushed hopes and smashed dreams.

 

[pankrat]

Nah, he's right. Anderson was hated by hardcores for replacing Fedor on the P4P lists on MMA media sites and then for the Cote/Leites/Maia fights. It's why Chael was able to generate so much interest by using that as the fuel to hate on Anderson. There were legit lot of people who became fans of Chael because they disliked Anderson.

Anderson is still my favorite fighter of all time. Like people have said, his fights had so much tension and he'd deliver almost every single time. Even in his bad fights you can find funny moments in them that are more memorable than your average MMA fight. You legit had no idea what was going to happen in an Anderson fight even when he was the massive favorite. His highlight reel remains to be one of the greatest of all time and a vast majority of them were during his reign as champion which is also wild.

There were indeed plenty of Fedor and GSP fanboys butthurt for the wide recognition as p4p best Silva was getting from MMA community and media.
We still see them around on here to these days

 

[Cartiac]

That sh** is legend and was super effective at captivating an audience at the bar. I remember when Anderson would do this during a fight and everyone at the bar would just be glued to the tv screens. You could hear a pin drop.

Your bars went silent? It was the opposite for me, but you're right about the fact that when Silva fought, people weren't doing anything else, they were glued to the fight.

I went out a lot for Silva fights. You could hear audible "ooooOOHHHHs!!!" in the bar. People couldn't help it.

Never seen so many fans physically get nervous during a fight like when Silva would go Matrix mode.

Vividly remember going out to the bars to watch Anderson as well. It was definitely a unique experience with crazy excitement leading up to the fight and then everyone in the packed bar getting entirely focused on watching Anderson fight.

Anderson brought a combination of extreme MMA fighting skill, brutality, dominance and showmanship that had never been seen before or really ever since. Truly a legend of legends.

 

[moreorless87]

Until Weidman caught him and made him look silly...

Although I think Weidman's camp clearly had done the work to counter it, Chris didnt plant his feet and star throwing he carried on moving until he was squared up then he throws in that little backfist to mess up Silva's timing.

I would say as well that was a bit of a desperation move by Silva in that fight as well, normally he saved the showboating until he knew his opponent was beaten mentally and woudl react badly to it in a way he count potentially counter.

 

[pankrat]

Yeah, I feel sorry for them... Anderson gets heaps of flack for "dominating a weak division" , however I just think he was that technically superior and talented that Prime Anderson would do the same to this day MW div and even LHW aswell imo..

I don't know about that because it gets too much into fantasy match up. I'd say taking Adesanya to a close fight even at his age, mileage and injuries (excuses that often work for Fedor's decline, and rightfully so) suggest so.

Anyways, for damn sure the competition Silva beat in his prime wasnt inferior to that of anybody in such era, as GSP fanboys pretend.

I remember when Anderson , Shogun, wanderlei and the nog brothers were all training together at Chute Boxe, they all said Anderson was the best fighter in that camp by far.

 

[otro]

Love him or hate him he gave us some of the most epic fights in the entire org.

I chose to see the good and the happy times I had watching and discussing his fights.

Calling him out for having boring fights or finally getting caught after a decade of using the most daring tactics used in the ufc, ever, is disingenuous but I guess haters gonna hate.

 

[DestinedAussie]

Your bars went silent? It was the opposite for me, but you're right about the fact that when Silva fought, people weren't doing anything else, they were glued to the fight.

I went out a lot for Silva fights. You could hear audible "ooooOOHHHHs!!!" in the bar. People couldn't help it.

Never seen so many fans physically get nervous during a fight like when Silva would go Matrix mode.

The expectation he created was crazy. Even when he was literally doing nothing and not even striking you always knew you could be seconds from magic. If somebody did that consistently now as a champ they would be bigger than Conor.

 

[Marko Polo]

Rememeber when Andy finished downloading his opponents information and he’d start to ever so slowly build up his urgency, and you’d see his fists start to shake