Amongst all time Heavyweights in MMA. As much as a joke as he's become, the man put together some nice wins before 2008. Where does he stack up amongst his peers?
ive been thinking about this alot lately and im having a hard time with it. i can remember when big tim was genuinely considered unbeatable. people will deny it now and claim how "real" fans knew he was nothing special but the reality is he was once talked about in the same widespread reverance that people use with fedor these days. but getting back to the point, like i said im having a tough time ranking him. hes somewhere between heavyweight gatekeeper and legitimate contender i believe.
Top 20 all time HW no doubt. Top 10? You have to rate him over Arlovski, I think. Fedor, Crocop, Randy, Nog, Mir, and Barnett are clearly ahead of him... I think he is a lower top 10 all time heavyweight, but I haven't sat down to REALLY think about it. I mean, he beat Vera, 2-1 with Arlovski, he beat Rothwell and Whitehead earlier in his career. He beat Ricco...
Tim has some accomplishments no doubt about it hes a legit 2 time UFC Heavyweight Champion and has a resume stacked with good wins. My all-time Heavyweight rankings leading up to him would go something like. 1. Fedor Emelianenko 2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 3. Mirko Cro Cop 4. Josh Barnett 5. Randy Couture 6. Frank Mir Number 7 would be Tim Sylvia only recently has Mir surpassed him although Mir beat him in 04 it was until his 3 most recent wins over Brock, Nog and Kongo that gave him a deeper resume.
Best of a mini era (in the UFC) - hard to rate against the best because he was in such a weak division, but top 10 isn't too controversial.
He'll be remembered as the Larry Holmes of MMA. A legitimate champion who was so boring and had the hard luck of coming along at a time when greater champions at other weights stole his thunder to the point that it's held against him.
I always thought Sylvia was pretty ****. I'm no expert on MMA but if he is top 10 it is a sorry reflection of the sport. He got smashed by Arlovski with ease in one fight, and in the one he won by KO it was careless from Arlovski as he had Tim pretty much out of there again. He was sparked inside 10 seconds by ****ing Grandad Mercer. I missed his rise so perhaps that's when he looked unbeatable but most times he has stepped up to the top tier he has lost. Mir, Nog, Couture...I exclude Fedor because everyone loses to him so it's not really a criticism.
Saying Sylvia doesn't belong in the top 10 or 20 ATG HW is like saying John Ruiz and Nicolai Valuev don't belong in the top 20 for current boxing ratings. Also, Tim being in the top 10 isn't really any knock on the talent of MMA. He presented very real problems in a MMA match and MMA doesn't have a 100+ year old recorded history and matchmaking structure like boxing. Every all time great MMA fighter has fought in the last 20 years. Nearly every ATG MMA fighter has fought in the last 5 or 6.
He gets ranked where he does cos MMA is still young. Only now are we entering new generations but Couture, Coleman and Belfort are still around. You can't really rank all time until the division gets deeper in history. The truth is, we know as soon as a generation or two go by, he'll progressively get ranked lower cos he isn't that great. I think he overachieved and for that he gets credit. He is tough too. ****ing arm got broke and he wanted to keep going. I respect that.