Which victory of Anderson Silva was the most impressive?

[surgeyou1]

Forest. Not that he was the toughest opponent but how easy he made it look.

 

[HavokHarmon]

Glad to see so much love for the Forrest fight, I feel like that one’s been downplayed a lot in recent years. Forrest was basically the #2 guy in the world a weight class up and despite having lost his last fight there were big questions about Silva’s motivation after a lackluster showing against a guy in Leites who most thought should have been light work for the spider. Griffin was substantially bigger and had proven his mettle against some of the best light heavyweights in the world when he upset Shogun and Rampage back to back.

It’s really hard to overstate how impressive that win was at the time.

 

[orca]

forrest griffin
the man strangled the number 1 LHW on the planet in shogun
andy went up at LHW
fought him like hes a nobody

lol no doubt in my mind andy could become a 2 divisional world champ
if he wanted to

unreal

 

[RichardHarrow]

i went with Chael... tho my first thought was Belfort there was bad blood and you could see and feel it that kick was crazy tho Forrest fight best gif wise.. Monday quarterbacking it Forrest has said he was on something the night before for his anxiety ( dont have time look for it) 90% he said he was on dowers.. or something before the fight... kinda takes away shine for me... Henderson was great one too Dan was still a killer..



found it ... Forrest Griffin admitted to failing his post-fight drug test after taking the drug Xanax before his UFC 101 matchup with Anderson Silva. Griffin said (via MMAFighting.com), "I had a doctor's prescription, I was just, I didn't do it before the fight, I did it the night before, I was nervous and I couldn't sleep."

Xanax ? Well at least he was probably calm during the ass beating.

 

[RollSonnenRoll]

Sonnen cause his levels of juicing were above what the meter could count
Andy was juiced too but uncle chael had a gas tank for 15 rounds that night

Must've been a low day!

 

[RollSonnenRoll]

I'm saying Vitor. Vitor was the closest Andy ever fought to an equal in terms of standup. Vitor had the speed, power and ability to put his lights out. He had every right to be cautious and counterpunch. Nope, walked right up to him and front kicked him in the face.

 

[Dave Poodle]

Glad to see so much love for the Forrest fight, I feel like that one’s been downplayed a lot in recent years. Forrest was basically the #2 guy in the world a weight class up and despite having lost his last fight there were big questions about Silva’s motivation after a lackluster showing against a guy in Leites who most thought should have been light work for the spider. Griffin was substantially bigger and had proven his mettle against some of the best light heavyweights in the world when he upset Shogun and Rampage back to back.

It’s really hard to overstate how impressive that win was at the time.

It's because of the details about Forest that came out later. He was still suffering from the Rashad TKO, had been knocked out twice in training, was having panic attacks and on Xanax. There were quite a few calling it fixed at the time. No knock on Andy, he put on a display as he should but given the circumstances I'd put his masterclasses against Franklin, Leben and Hendo way above that

 

[ChessJitsu]

I think Hendo in terms of legacy value

 

[HavokHarmon]

It's because of the details about Forest that came out later. He was still suffering from the Rashad TKO, had been knocked out twice in training, was having panic attacks and on Xanax. There were quite a few calling it fixed at the time. No knock on Andy, he put on a display as he should but given the circumstances I'd put his masterclasses against Franklin, Leben and Hendo way above that

I think it has more to do with the ease with which Silva dominated him. He beat Forrest so badly that it went beyond “Silva looks great” right into “Forrest looks horrible” territory.

Even before the Xanax stuff came out (which honestly doesn’t matter to me, he took a Xanax the night before so what lol) people immediately went into talking about how Forrest was tailor made for Silva’s style. Overnight he went from being a huge test to a lamb being led to the slaughter.

I think if Silva had had beaten him in a tough, competitive fight where he finished Forrest in the 3rd or so he would have gotten more credit than the way it went down, even with all the other variables you mentioned being the same. I think Silva won so decisively that it took stock away from Forrest and thus made the win appear worse than it otherwise would have.

 

[Rob Rain]

Sonnen 2

 

[BabyBlue_Bomber]

Griffin, in my opinion…

Griffin was just one fight removed from being the 205 Champion, in a fight where he was doing well, and known for his durability…

Rampage failed to stop Griffin with 25 minutes to work with, and Silva did it in under a round. I was extra impressed with the result because I picked Griffin to win as well.

 

[BowserJr]

Tony Fryklund, then Leben,
then Rich, then Lutter,
then Nate, (rich again),
then Hendo, then Irvin.

All finished. So that answer, was Tony. If you missed it at the time, the answer is Leben.
Don't care for how people shit on Leben, he was 15-2 going into that fight.
That shit was wild.

Right after that elbow on Tony.
He then broke Rich's face.
Lutter, Nate, Rich, Hendo, Irvin

Most impressive streak of finishes (not bullshit wrestling decisions).
Tony, upward elbow.
Leben, 100% accuracy, 0% damage received.
Rich, broke the champs face.
Lutter, losing to bjj guy and chokes him from bottom.
Nate, fuckin round 1.
Hendo, fuckin round 2.
Irvin, round 1.

People can shit on Irvin, but got to spar/train with James and he was an animal on the feet.
Silva went up, and just ended the guy.

These days it is revisionist history about Leben, as if he was not 15-2 and impossible to KO.
He lost 2 decisions, and only seemed to get stronger the harder you hit him.

By the time Silva got to Forrest, he was already cemented in history.

I glad I witnessed this man's body of work in real time. Honestly don't think we'll ever witness anything close to what he did

 

[Area809]

Considering Henderson is the best fighter on that list, I’d say it’s him.

 

[Simple Southerner]

Hendo especially at the time it happened

Lol at ya voting forest he was so average yea he was the lhw champ for a bit so what

 

[Memnok]

I voted Leben, he was a tough match up for anybody. Block head and knockout power for days, says he’s gonna send him back to Japan where the competition is easier.
Anderson shows up and says, hold my beer. Absolute destruction in round one, I’m pretty sure Leben never landed a shot.

Agree, of course I had seen Anderson fight in Japan before this fight but I genuinly thought Leben would give him a lot of problems with his chin and his will to take a punch or two just to give one. I definately thought Leben would crack him at some point of the fight.

 

[pankrat]

It's because of the details about Forest that came out later. He was still suffering from the Rashad TKO, had been knocked out twice in training, was having panic attacks and on Xanax. There were quite a few calling it fixed at the time. No knock on Andy, he put on a display as he should but given the circumstances I'd put his masterclasses against Franklin, Leben and Hendo way above that

I think it has more to do with the ease with which Silva dominated him. He beat Forrest so badly that it went beyond “Silva looks great” right into “Forrest looks horrible” territory.

Even before the Xanax stuff came out (which honestly doesn’t matter to me, he took a Xanax the night before so what lol) people immediately went into talking about how Forrest was tailor made for Silva’s style. Overnight he went from being a huge test to a lamb being led to the slaughter.

I think if Silva had had beaten him in a tough, competitive fight where he finished Forrest in the 3rd or so he would have gotten more credit than the way it went down, even with all the other variables you mentioned being the same. I think Silva won so decisively that it took stock away from Forrest and thus made the win appear worse than it otherwise would have.

The Xanax thing is one of the lamest, stupidest lines of arguing ever established in sherdog, which is saying something.

In a sport where fighters almost always go into fight dealing with injuries, now we want to downplay a win because a guy took sleeping pills (as if it was even that uncommon anyways). Super retarded and definitely not something Forrest himself would use as any sort of excuse for his loss.

 

[Sweater of AV]