Greatest Of All Time: Silva vs. GSP (or anyone else)

[Guest The Beltster]

Anderson Silva is, without question, the greatest MMA fighter EVER. GSP isnt even f*cking close! If he was, he wouldnt have been such a bitch for the last several years and done everything in his power to avoid fighting Anderson, and he wouldnt also 100% completely play it safe in every fight he has.

 

One loss doesnt make somebody go from being the greatest of all time to not the greatest of all time over night. Come on.

[Guest John Hancock]

To me, Silva is still the best of all time, at his best that is. Silva didn't lose because the other guy just tore him apart, he lost because he pissed around, showboated, tried to look cool and generally spent more time getting into his opponent's head than he did trying to hit him in it. The Silva who lost to Weidman is the Silva who beat Bonner and Griffin and Maia (he still beat them mind), not the Silva who beat Sonnen (the second time), and Franklin and Okami. GSP is certainly more consistent, but a fully motivated, fully fit, fully dedicated GSP is winning a five round decision, a fully motivated, fully fit, fully dedicated Silva makes people embarrassed. I think this fight, for Silva, was the Serra fight for GSP, and GSP's faults in terms of talent had a lot more to do with his loss to Serra than Silva's did in his loss to Weidman.

 

Anderson Silva is a guy who's won 18 of his last 20 fights (one of those loses via DQ), 16 of which he finished, and several of which he wasn't taking at all seriously, but still won, and took numerous fights outside of his weight-class on short notice. In 20 fights, he's been beaten once, and it was in arguably the worst performance, in terms of attitude, in his career.

 

GSP has also won 18 of his last 20 fights (although both those loses involved him being finished), but only managed to finish eight of them, fought them all at welterweight, and six of them in Canada (of Silva's last twenty fights, only two have been in Brazil). GSP's also six years younger than Silva.

[Guest The Beltster]

And the facts can go on and on. Comparing GSP to Silva is laughable. Silva is head and shoulders above GSP. Shit, Jon Jones, at this point, trumps GSP as a better fighter and will no doubt go down in history as being higher in the pecking order than GSP.

[Guest John Hancock]

I think, right now, I put GSP over Jones. I'd rather watch Jones fight than GSP fight every time, but, in terms of success, Jones loses rounds in multi-round fights, where as GSP doesn't. I think, maybe as early as next year, Jones will overtake him though. I actually think Aldo is better than both of them. In terms of best guys still fighting right now, and obviously not based on recent form, I'd go; Silva, Aldo, GSP, Jones, Cain.

 

I think, if anyone's better than Silva at their best right now, it's Aldo.

[Guest The Beltster]

But Jones fights to win and fights to finish, GSP doesnt lose rounds because he lays on people in borefests. I think I'd put a guy who tries to win over a guy who tries not to lose.

 

Dont let me wrong, GSP has a much longer career which counts for something, but I think when they have both retired GSP wont even be in the discussion with Jones, and Jones might end up topping Anderson, but that will take some doing.

 

Just makes me laugh that one loss and people are saying he's finished and how its somehow proof that he isnt the G.O.A.T, like that one loss in a fight he wasnt taking seriously and was clowning around makes the rest of his career not exist anymore.

[Guest Eddie]

To me Anderson Silva typifies what It means to be the best 'Fighter' a man who has more straight title defenses than any other fighter In a major promotion, when he fights he comes to 'fight' now no disrespect to GSP but he comes to win (which I understand so does everyone else) he has no intention of ever risking anything in a fight which kind of creates a lack of excitement for me. To look at Silva as analyze him you have to look at his body of work as it were;

 

Chris Leben: Now Chris Leben now is somewhat at the tail end of a career that has had more downs than ups but at the point where he fought The Spider he was on a 5 fight win streak, he beat guys who were seen as pretty good at that time too, the result? Anderson Silva becomes the first person to stop Chris Leben with strikes in less tan one minute of the first round, quite the UFC debut.

 

Rich Franklin: The UFC reigning middleweight champion, 7-0 in the UFC had beaten some good guys and most people still rate him now as he's a good all round fighter, the result? Silva TKO's him in the first round without really breaking much of a sweat

 

Travis Lutter: In my opinion the worst fighter that Silva faced, he was lazy, he didnt make weight and he lost the chance to win the belt even before the bell, a strong jiu jitsu background, he had won the Ultimate Fighter Comeback show to get the shot and unlike Matt Serra failed to make his mark he did however manage to make the second round, the result Anderson Silva submits him with a triangle choke with assisting elbows

 

Nate Marquardt: A newcomer to the UFC who had impressed in Pancrase, went 4-0 in the UFC got his title shot and was dispatched again in the first round by Silva. He managed to put a good run together after but has slowly faded out of contention

 

Rich Franklin (2): More of the same for Franklin he managed to make the second round this time though but unfortunately Silva ruined his hometown homecoming with strikes once again

 

Dan Hendeson: The first guy to face Silva coming off a loss, he got the shot because he was the 2 weight champion of pride and it was seen as a sort of unification bout, we all know how durable Hendo can be and how good his striking can be, henderson impressed for a decent amount of time, Silva had his chin tested but was unfazed he managed to secure a submission win in the last second of round 2, this is the last time Hendo was beaten by anything other than decision..

 

Now the next six fights all came in a period where i feel Silva had become a little disinterested in the UFC and wasn't sure what he wanted to do

 

JAMES IRVIN, Patrick Cote, Thales Leites, FORREST GRIFFIN, Damian Maia, Chael Sonnen: Now the guys I have put in caps were the guys Silva fought with a little more passion, the 'challenge of bigger opponents seemed to bring something out in Silva but he still seemed a little less interested against these guys, the rest were either not trying to fight silva (Leites, Maia, Cote) or were just on one (PHD's that is folks) Sonnen steam rolled Silva (who had broken Ribs in the fight let us not forget) and Silva managed a lucky if not skillful last ditch submission, which led us to Sonnens trash talking going into overdrive and sparking a fire under Silva

 

Vitor Belfort: This fight was seen as a clash of titans as Belfort had been walking his opponents in and out of the UFC the phenom had returned but was met with a focused ready Anderson who didn't appreciate Belforts comments on how he was fake, result? Anderson shows the world the front kick and the highlight reel gets an extra vid,

 

Yushin Okami: Okami was a man Silva had wanted to fight for a long time, since the DQ at Rumble on the rock and when he finally made his way to contender Okami was expected by a few to do what Chael had and implement his wrestling, the result was again a Silva TKO in the second round, a small measure of revenge and it sent Okami spiralling back down the rankings

 

Chael Sonnen: The most anticipated rematch in the history of the UFC Chael had talked his way into a huge fight with a man he had nearly dethroned, he beat Brian Stann who had been on a bit of a run and then controversially beat Mike Bisping to get his shot again, he managed to do in the first round what he had in the first 4 and a half in there previous fight however in the second he was less successful and eventually dispatched by a knee to the chest then strikes after, his first TKO loss in the UFC

 

Stefan Bonnar: A man on steroids, a man much bigger than Silva and a guy who was previously close to unstoppable, Silva stopped him in the first.

 

Now reading through and looking over the fighters he fought most of them had a lot of momentum a lot of skill and the tools to be competitive but each of them lost to Silva most by TKO or Sub, that is a stellar record and a record no fighter compares with, Chris Weidman has managed to knock of the GOAT and I wish him well in future fights but I can honestly say If they rematch I think Anderson will win I haven't watched the fight but I have heard what happened and have seen the odd gif, I'd like to see him return like GSP and win and win but with the same methods as he always has.

 

He has always fought the best guys available to fight him and has lost once through his own complacency/arrogance. In my eyes he's the best ever.

[Guest John Hancock]

According to UFC's weird magical ranking system that no one in the entire world understands, Jon Jones is now officially recognised, by the company, as the best pound for pound fighter in the world as of this moment.

[Guest The Beltster]

Silliness.