Anderson Silva is considered by most to be the pound for pound best MMA fighter in the game. Last weekend he added a victory over Dan Henderson, the Olympic wrestler out of Team Quest, to his resume. The fight of the night included a first round that I gave to Henderson, but ended with Dan having a spider on his back. Silva tapped out Henderson via rear-naked choke in the second round and by doing so, Silva is now in rare company. Not only is he undefeated in the UFC and hasn’t gone into the third round since joining the MMA juggernaut, he is quickly beating the best competition in that weight class too. He has beat Rich Franklin twice, Nathan Marquardt, Chris Leben, and Dan Henderson amongst others. He is showing why he is the best pound for pound fighter in MMA.
If you look around the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, there is only a hand full of fighters that you could compare The Spider’s run to. A few of these are Matt Hughes, Fedor Emelianenko, and Chuck Liddell. Looking at the records of these fighters I found an uncanny similarity between Anderson Silva and Chuck Liddell. This is not bad company to keep, but could it be an eye opener for Silva in the future?
During Chuck Liddell’s run as the champion ,he won an impressive seven wins in a row. He was in the top spot and every fight was against the second best guy the UFC could throw at him at that time. He achieved wins over fighters like Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Renalto Sobral, and Jeremy Horn. He was at the top of the UFC, but most of all he was Dana White’s boy. He was the untouchable of the UFC and everything he touched was turning to gold. He was in magazines, websites, and on television. Chuck also was being interviewed on the sports world wide leader ESPN. It almost seemed like Chuck may never lose again, but the luck ran out and Chuck encountered one major road block to continuing his streak; Quinton Rampage Jackson. Rampage seemingly beat Chuck at his own game. Rampage knocked Chuck out quickly in the first round and has been the champion ever since.
I bring up the history about Chuck because Anderson Silva is starting to head down the same path. He is Dana White’s new boy thanks to Dana going on the record saying that Anderson Silva is the best pound for pound Mixed Martial Artist in the world. I can’t say that I completely disagree, but he is starting to believe it like it could be considered fact. To date, Anderson is on an amazing 7 win streak. He is on fire and similar to Chuck, he seems like he can’t do any wrong. I am not saying that he is going to lose his next fight, but I am saying that he is due. Lately the sport has been one of upsets (see Matt Sera vs. GSP I). The sport has suddenly been revolutionized with new athletic all around fighters that can achieve victory in every aspect of a fight. Each time Silva steps into a fight it will be against top competition.
In the mean tine, Anderson Silva will continue to be pushed as one of the faces of the sport, and the UFC organization. Pictures of him and teammate “Big Nog” will continue to surface around the internet as the two Brazilians continue to seek dominance in the UFC. Anderson Silva is a great champion as a BJJ black belt, and is the most feared striker in the sport. He is a homerun hitter in a league of contact punchers. At this point there are not many that can challenge him. He has beat black belts, Olympic wrestlers, and others on his way to his hot streak and the only hope for that weight class is that he gets bored, and decides that he wants to bump up. I would love to see Anderson Silva avenge his loss over Yushin Okami, then bump up to 205 and battle with the big guys. If he is the striker he is known for, I want to see him stand with the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Chuck and Rampage. After UFC 82, Silva said that he would like to fight the 185 boxing champ, with boxing rules. This will throw even more fuel to the MMA vs. boxing rivalry. Currently the boxing champions in the 190 pound class are Firat Arslan (28-3-1), David Haye (20-1), and Steve Cunningham (21-1). If Anderson Silva was able to beat one of these world class boxers, it would be an amazing boost for the sport. Combine that with a huge sponsor in Bud Light, and you have the makings of an amazing popularity boost for one of the most amazing sports in the world.
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I do still love MMA and have...
March 7th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I disagree with this statement purely on the basis that most world MMA rankings never listed Chuck Liddell as the #1 fighter in the world. It’s just not something that they did, because they figured that Wanderlei would kill him, as Rampage did in his brief run over in Japan.
While Chuck won seven times in a row, it’s important to remember that his run came after being demolished by Rampage in his brief Pride stint, which followed a loss to Randy Couture. Very few people, myself included, thought that Chuck was even a top 4 205 pounder. (at the time, I ranked him 6, behind Wanderlei, Shogun, Rampage, Arona and Nogueira) Anderson, on the other hand, has beaten a top 5 fighter, where Chuck did not. Some might argue that at the time Anderson fought Franklin, Franklin was a top five fighter (with Kang, Henderson, Misaki and Filho), and while I tend to disagree with that assessment, I will not deny that Henderson is certainly a top 5 guy and Anderson is certainly ranked #1 after beating him.
That said, I think that it’s also not an adequate comparison of dominance. Liddell wasn’t finishing everyone in the openning two rounds the way that Silva has (while I’ll certainly acknowledge that Anderson took longer than that with Henderson, I don’t think that it makes sense to count that as Hendo is a top 5 guy and Anderson STILL finished him, while Liddell didn’t even fight that level of contender without getting his face smashed).
This is a good piece for those who are familiar with Liddell because of his fame, and because of the notoriety that he’s brought to MMA as an actor (the same reason many are familiar with Tito Ortiz), but the fact is, I don’t see them as being on the same level because they weren’t competing on the same level, at least in my opinion.
Still, perhaps we should start calling Anderson “The Next Wanderlei,” as a comparison to the way Wandy ran Japan for years seems more appropriate, at least to me.
Good stuff, though, Curtis. Interesting points.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Josh,
Thanks for the post! I like it when I get feedback, whether it is positive or negative. Guess that’s why they call is MMAOpinion. I can see your opinions too.
After the Hendo fight, I was thinking about how the UFC will market Silva, and wondered if they would be able to market him like Chuck. The comparison came from remembering how everyone (especially on Sherdog’s Forum) thought that Chuck was unbeatable. Similar to the way they view Anderson Silva right now.
Wand was a beast in Pride. I was in his corner against Chuck! I am not a big Chuck fan, but he is very marketable and the fans love him!
March 10th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I think Anderson win streak is far different from Liddell’s streak. Forget about rankings for a second, rankings can be very debatable and subjective.
Look at the 7 bouts Liddell faced. He fought 2 rematches and all 7 fights were against wrestlers and submission fighters. I wouldn’t say that they were tailored to Liddell’s style because both Horn and Couture own victories over Liddell but there was no variation in the MMA competitions.
Look at the different fighters that Anderson faced and what they brought to the table. He’s fought strikers in Franklin & Leben, BJJ sub artists in Lutter, grapplers and wrestlers in Henderson & Marquardt, and guys with pretty solid chins Leben & Henderson - who also have seriously proven KO Power. So what will happen when Anderson Silva faces another Muy Thai specialist? Oh yeah, he KO’ed Curtis Stout within 1 round.
A note about Leben. He has more than proved his durability and strong chin against Terry Martin and a split decision against current hot-hand Patrick Cote. Say what you will about rankings, but 18-4 is a pretty impressive record.
End note, Anderson Silva is due. Like any fighter, he has some weaknesses. Apparently no one took full advantage of them like Travis Lutter who failed to make the most of his full mount position against the middleweight champion.