Would Fighting A Prime Anderson Silva even have been a good idea for GSP?

GiSP said:
Silva vs Chael the first time without a Hail Mary sub by Silva.

50-45 all day, everyday. Anybody that thinks otherwise has lost their marbles.

Too bad Dana scuttled it.
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Gsp vs Serra the first time without the tapping to strikes because Georges gets knocked out cold.

KO win for Silva all day, everyday. Anybody that thinks otherwise has lost their marbles.

Too bad Georges never pushed for Silva the same way he pushed for Ping years and years later.
 
Prime Matrix level Silva would blow up GSP.
 
TheAmericanGazelle said:
Haters will hate because that's what they do, but they don't really matter.

I think most rational and reasonable fans would say GSP is in the cluster at the top for GOAT, but not wildly different than Silva, Jones, and Fedor (and maybe Aldo?) even if they have him in the top spot.

Beat Silva at 185 H2H prime to prime (or close) would have done a lot for those types of people in separating him from the other Mount Rushmore types.
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People would have said that Silva wasn't that good or that MW wasn't as good of a division.

Trust me, no GOAT candidate is on lock. No matter what a fighter does there will always be people who will favor someone else.

Personally, I think GSP has done enough to close the discussion but some people still seem to think not.

- Silva got busted for PEDs twice and has nearly double digit losses.

- Jones got busted for PEDs twice

- Fedor fought weak competition for a huge chunk of his career.

- Aldo, really?
 
Sansnom said:
People would have said that Silva wasn't that good or that MW wasn't as good of a division.

Trust me, no GOAT candidate is on lock. No matter what a fighter does there will always be people who will favor someone else.

Personally, I think GSP has done enough to close the discussion but some people still seem to think not.

- Silva got busted for PEDs twice and has nearly double digit losses.

- Jones got busted for PEDs twice

- Fedor fought weak competition for a huge chunk of his career.

- Aldo, really?
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Yeah, I'm not denying haters can always find an out. I'm more talking about among reasonable and fair fans who can have favorites but still acknowledge the greatness of other fights.

IMO, there are enough moving parts that reasonable fans can have slightly different answers depending on what they value the most in a fighter (in-division dominance, finishes, prime vs. career performance, being the best fighter in absolute terms not P4P, etc...).

And regarding Aldo, I wouldn't personally vote for him over GSP, but I don't think he's amazingly far away from those guys either. He was undefeated in his first 15 fights in the big leagues at his weight class, won 10 title fights, and is still putting together high quality wins (Edgar, Stephens, Moicano) long after his prime even if he isn't the current best in his weight class.
 
At WW GSP would have been the rightful big favorite.

At MW Anderson would have been the rightful big favorite.


I would say GSP would have had the better chance to get the upset though. Chael laid out the game plan to a dominant decision victory. GSP is a much more skilled Chael, with Chael only having size on him. So that is the question. Would the size difference be too much to overcome??
 
Steven_Universe said:
But he’s the GOAT without this victory. He had everything to lose and not much to gain.
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Disagree. It would have been his highest grossing fight and would probably eliminate everyone else from the GOAT discussion if he won. If he lost, he could always chalk it up to the size difference.
 
GSP would have never fought Silva. He only took fights where he was 100% sure to have everything in his favor.
 
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There’s a reason why Anderson was terrified of Jones but kept calling out a WW. Size matters
 
GSP > Anderson even if he lost. And no, not because of PEDs. Because, "so what?" that he lost to a bigger man.
 
- GSP lost to Serra
- GSP left after Hendricks
- GSP fought Bispin promissing to defend the belt and skiped town again



Sansnom said:
People would have said that Silva wasn't that good or that MW wasn't as good of a division.

Trust me, no GOAT candidate is on lock. No matter what a fighter does there will always be people who will favor someone else.

Personally, I think GSP has done enough to close the discussion but some people still seem to think not.

- Silva got busted for PEDs twice and has nearly double digit losses.

- Jones got busted for PEDs twice

- Fedor fought weak competition for a huge chunk of his career.

- Aldo, really?
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TheAmericanGazelle said:
Not much to gain?

His legacy would have been locked as the GOAT now if he had taken that fight and won, as opposed to being "one of the guys" in that discussion.

If you want to say the risk/reward tradeoff argues against taking the fight that's one thing, but there definitely was a lot to gain on the table.
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And a lot to lose. You can't eat legacy, as a lot of once famous athletes who are now completely broke will tell you -- even guys like Allen Iverson, who was much more famous than any MMA fighter (or any five of them combined) can end up broke and without any source of income.

Fighting Anderson and getting injured (more likely when you fight a bigger guy) is arguably an unnecessary risk. Put it this way -- it was exactly the same calculation that Anderson had wrt Jones, and he too decided it wasn't worth the risk of a career ending injury.
 
Anderson ducked GSP by his performance in the Maia fight, he knew Dana would scrap the fight.
 
GSP and Anderson were both Great, but as weight class suggest, Anderson was bigger

GSP did smart choice, like Anderson did'nt fought Jones, like Jones staying away from HW
 
DespicablePeep said:
- GSP lost to Serra
- GSP left after Hendricks
- GSP fought Bispin promissing to defend the belt and skiped town again
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- GSP avenged all his losses
- He left after Hendricks, So?
- He beat Bisping and vacated. So? Bisping was just the cherry on top.
 
AnotherOldGuy said:
And a lot to lose. You can't eat legacy, as a lot of once famous athletes who are now completely broke will tell you -- even guys like Allen Iverson, who was much more famous than any MMA fighter (or any five of them combined) can end up broke and without any source of income.

Fighting Anderson and getting injured (more likely when you fight a bigger guy) is arguably an unnecessary risk. Put it this way -- it was exactly the same calculation that Anderson had wrt Jones, and he too decided it wasn't worth the risk of a career ending injury.
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I don't disagree with much of that (maybe how much credit he would lose in fan's eyes with a loss...I'm not sure it would be that severe). Reasonable arguments can be made for it being a suboptimal risk vs. reward choice. But he definitely had a lot to gain with a win. It would have sealed the door shut (to date) on GOAT talks. Ditto with Anderson beating Jones (although those odds would be much lower).

I honestly would have done pretty much exactly what GSP did over time in his situation (at least pre-retirement), given my personal makeup, so I don't fault him for that at all. I get it.
 
DespicablePeep said:
- GSP lost to Serra
- GSP left after Hendricks
- GSP fought Bispin promissing to defend the belt and skiped town again
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Anderson lost to 4-7 Takase, Chonan and numerous other fighters

Anderson has been busted for PED’s numerous times

Anderson lost to Bisping
 
TheAmericanGazelle said:
I don't disagree with much of that (maybe how much credit he would lose in fan's eyes with a loss...I'm not sure it would be that severe). Reasonable arguments can be made for it being a suboptimal risk vs. reward choice. But he definitely had a lot to gain with a win. It would have sealed the door shut (to date) on GOAT talks. Ditto with Anderson beating Jones (although those odds would be much lower).

I honestly would have done pretty much exactly what GSP did over time (at least pre-retirement), given my personal makeup, so I don't fault him for that at all. I get it.
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I agree he and Anderson had a lot to gain, but their careers were worth tens of millions, and at that point it becomes a business decision. I suspect both had their financial advisers telling them it wasn't worth the risk (not of a loss, they could bounce back from that, but of a bad injury -- concussion or otherwise -- that would drastically limit, or even halt their earnings).
 
Probably should've of.

But still to this day I think GSP just had too much respect for Silva and what he was doing at MW and really didn't want to rain on his parade.

P.S.: After the first Chael fight I don't know what the hell Silva could've done to stop getting just GNP every round against GSP outside of great combination to put GSP down. GSP's stand up is light years better than Chael's and GSP's takedown percentage and control is also better than Chael's. I honestly think it would've been kind of boring match overall with GSP winning every round.
 
Gsp feared him back then and gave 1000s of excuses. If he though it was a bad idea idk who elses opinion would matter more
 
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