Why didn't the UFC ever pit Anderson Silva against top ranked opponents at LHW?

TFanatic said:
According to a few people including Irvin, 4 LHW's turned down the Silva fight before he accepted. I believe it was Rashad, Thiago, Jardine, and one more that I don't remember.

Inb4 Kneeuinthenutz and his asspain.
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I believe the 4th was Vera. I'm getting old and the memory is going. Silva and Ed Soares were actively seeking a fight with Chuck Liddell before he started losing. They also put it out there he'd fight Frank Mir.
 
Allan__Martel said:
Most I talked with back then said Forest slow sloppy style would make it easier for silva. I supported that theory too. Maybe we should look for the vegas betting line. Just for fun. Do they archive those somewhere?

EDIT: Betting line for the fight was -350 for Silva for +250 Griffin.
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I stand corrected. But in the pros picks, more picked griffin
 
People always try to use that "tailor made" reason to discredit why Silva won his LHW fights, it's pathetic. I guess Weidman's win wasn't that impressive either since Silva's style matches up badly against him. Give credit to Silva, he fought against bigger guys and a former LHW champ in Forest, how many other champs besides BJ have the balls to risk it all and move up in weight?
 
TFanatic said:
According to a few people including Irvin, 4 LHW's turned down the Silva fight before he accepted. I believe it was Rashad, Thiago, Jardine, and one more that I don't remember.

Inb4 Kneeuinthenutz and his asspain.
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I don't know why people keep repeating this point.

Very few top lhw's can or will take a short notice, limited camp fight.

To the TS' question...Anderson and his camp are very smart and cautious when managing his career. They have always been about trying to pick the guys best suited for Anderson who he will face the least risk but get the most credit for. Forrest was the best example of that.

Similarly when Aldo was willing to take a test fight at LW a couple years ago they asked for Sherk but when they could not get him they turned down Florian who wanted the fight. that was not because they thought he would lose to Florian but rather because they knew Aldo fans would promote how he moved up to lw and beat an Ex lw champ similar to how Anderson fans promote that.
 
alrite said:
People always try to use that "tailor made" reason to discredit why Silva won his LHW fights, it's pathetic. I guess Weidman's win wasn't that impressive either since Silva's style matches up badly against him. Give credit to Silva, he fought against bigger guys and a former LHW champ in Forest, how many other champs besides BJ have the balls to risk it all and move up in weight?
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This. The whole "tailor made" thing is BS, pure speculation, and all opinion. Silva has moved up twice, beaten top guys in 3 different divisions and people still act like hes ducking, his opponents are "tailored made", and he picks easy fights. Grasping at straws.
 
Allan__Martel said:
and he was a Tailor made opponent for silva. Rogan admited it after the fight. easy win for the spider.
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Your sig is stupidly short-sighted; Even if you discount everything he's ever done at LHW pre his last fight, the dude just fought Gustafsson, will be fighting Glover next, and if he continues to win, will have to face the new wave of contenders in Gustafsson(again), Cormier, and Phil, none of which are "fading legends" or "middleweights" /furiouslyrustledJJfan :icon_lol:



Interestingly enough, TS, Anderson was supposed to fight Rashad as a plan B at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. Shame it never happened:

SOURCE
 
eiyuu said:
Forrest Griffin had just lost the LHW title when he was matched up against Silva. He was still top ten at that point.
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Griffin is also one of the most overrated and least deserving champions.
 
Always wanted to see Anderson Silva vs Quinton Jackson @ 205 oh well
 
csroster said:
Something about this line of reasoning always rubs me the wrong way.

You may as well say all the opponents Silva dominated were tailor made for him, or all the opponents GSP has dominated were tailor made for him, or Aldo's opponents are tailor made, or Jon's opponents are tailor made.

Isn't the entire idea behind being a dominant fighter that stylistically very few opponents match up well against you?
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No that is false.

not all champs have the same strengths and weaknesses. Stylistically some champs are more vulnerable in an area then others. Anderson has an area of strength and dominance that few other champs can compare to in his striking game. but he also has a corresponding area of weakness that is more exploitable imo then any other champ in his grappling game and vulnerability to a certain type of wrestler that is abundant in every division outside MW (high 5 round endurance, elite bjj defense).

So Anderson has been more vulnerable to bad stylistic matchups then pretty much any champ other then Brock (when it came to a guy who could keep it standing) and his camp has always tried to do its best to steer him around that type of threat opponent.
 
If Forrest was tailor made for Anderson, wouldn't have Forrest also have been tailor made for Shogun?
 
eiyuu said:
He was top 4 ranked at the time, so he was matched against top LHWs, which answers TS' question.:

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Tailor made? That's your opinion, not fact. Fact is, Forrest was top 4 ranked.
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eiyuu said:
No not really, since I'm not the one who started tossing insults first like a 5th grader.
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What insult? You called me out on something I didn't say and then you told me '' my panties are in a bunch'' sounds like youre doing the juvenile stuff here.
 
Allan__Martel said:
Most I talked with back then said Forest slow sloppy style would make it easier for silva. I supported that theory too. Maybe we should look for the vegas betting line. Just for fun. Do they archive those somewhere?

EDIT: Betting line for the fight was -350 for Silva for +250 Griffin.
Click to expand...

You are crazy and so full of shit. Why dont you show me the thread from back then when you said griffin was slow and gonna get knocked out in the first round?

Griffin had just submitted shogun and beat rampage when rampage was on a tear and looking the best he ever has in his career. He was beating rashad 2 rounds to none before getting knocked out.

Silva fought the best LHW in the world who was available and at that time the largest opponent silva had ever fought(no one knew how this element would play out in the fight)
 
eiyuu said:
Forrest Griffin had just lost the LHW title when he was matched up against Silva. He was still top ten at that point.
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Allan__Martel said:
and he was a Tailor made opponent for silva. Rogan admited it after the fight. easy win for the spider.
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Wow, brainiac.
He wassn't until AFTER the fight.

it is easy to see if then, but before the fight, what everyone was speaking was that Forrest was a very hard match for Silva.

WHo would have known he would matrix the poor Forrest?

I doubt that if UFC knew that Forrest would be humiliated like that, they would put him on a cage against Silva.

UFC LOVED Forrest!
 
why didn't the ufc ever do something they actually did do? why???
 
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