Tell that to: Samart Payakaroon Khaosai Glaxay Kaokor Galaxy Pongsaklek Wonjongkam Somluck Khamsing All the above Muay Thai fighters that become Boxing Champions and there are many many many more Thais that that have crossed over and either become champions, won gold medals or challenged for world titles. Every Thia you see in aboxing ring was a Muay Thia fighter first! A few non Thais and I know there are many many more.... Troy Dorsey Pele Ried Vitali Klitchko Pawal Wolak Matt Skelton The list goes on....... In regard to Silva, he isn't an exceptional striker, he looks better than he is in the UFC where most guys come form non striking backgrounds hence make Silva look more skilled than he really is.
To me Silva seems like a brilliant striker. Maybe not fundamentally brilliant but his timing, reflexes and creativity but maybe then again I don't know striking like you do.
Don't doubt yourself Matty, I know you train boxing so you know a good striker when you see one. :good All I mean when I say he's not an "exceptional" stiker is, sure he's a good stiker, but in the UFC MMA world he looks much better than he is as most of the guys he's bashing up have spent most of thier fight careers on their backs on mats not standing toe to toe swopping leather. Most of those guys seem to come out of serious grappling, werestling BJJ backgorunds not serious striking careers. Let's just say he never set the Muay Thai or kickboxing world alite pre his MMA caareer, which you'd expect an "exceptional" striker to do. Not knocking him, he's a great fighter who's applied his striking game to the UFC better than anyone else, it's just MMA guys tend to get over excited nd overrate his striking capabilites especially that Rogan guy.
Yeah that's probably right that's what I think as well. In an MMA enviroment he is a great striker but in Muay Thai and Boxing he looks fairly pedestrian. I remember watching that video of a boxing match of his and he was pretty poor actually.
Much of Silva's greatness is based on his athletic gifts, not his fighting technique. I think Silva is a great fighter, I don't think Silva is a great striker. He depends too much on athleticism, is lacking in defense, and totally disregards range. I posted a video of Nogueria, bigger but slower, schooling him a while back. I've always said Nogueira has some of the best boxing I've seen in mma, but being schooled by him does not speak well of your abilities when compared to world class boxers.
That is what I meant when I say that he's not technically brilliant but has good timing, reflexes and creativity. I've had many debates on Sherdog about this :-(
True Anderson could prolly win a 185 title but not one that matters kinda like James Toney is still the HW champ