Is Anderson Silva overrated?

I think he was the closest thing to a Mike Tyson the UFC has had, fighters gave their power away to him in the ring.

He was also very good, I wouldn't say overrated ( I never rated him above Jose Aldo even in his prime, or Fedor). He got exposed against Chael Sonnen in their first fight so it put him in his place amongst fans after that one.

He was the first person to stop Chris Leben, beat Franklin twice who in retrospect wouldnt rank in the top five in the division in his prime today. His notable wins imo, Chael Sonnen x2, Belfort, Maia, Henderson.

I disagree, I think Weidman has a little ways to go to surpass Silva.

 

He was definitely a great fighter, but he didn't fight many well-rounded fighters. Many of the guys he was up against were way out of their league. WHen he fought Weidman, who is truly a well-rounded fighter, he was defeated. Granted, he was past his best at that point, but I think Weidman would have handled him regardless.

 

He is underrated since his loss to Weidman. If he had won that fight which I truly believe he would have which a better game plan, Weidman would be considered another nobody in the division Anderson dominated.

If Pettis had beaten Dos Anjos no one would have considered it anything special, or if Barao had beaten Dillashaw they would be saying it was a routine win in a weak division he is dominating.

Everone knew they where witnessing something special when they saw Anderson Silva fight. Hopefully his ban isn't too long so he can have one last run to reclaim his title.

 

I would rank him in the top 5 all time in MMA. He literally destroyed fighters and/or made them look foolish. I wouldn't even say his losses hurt him all that much as I tend to give passes on fighters who fight beyond the mid 30's and loose. After all, it's bound to happen, it's just a matter of when. I still rank Fedor as the best all time.

As for the James Irwin fight, I'm personally not a fan of criticising someone for winning, especially in such impressive fashion.

I thought the win over Henderson was a great win and as far as rematch goes, you're insane if you think these fighters have any control of who they fight. If you've learned nothing in the UFC you should at least know the owners and Dana White call the shots as to who's fighting who.

 

By the Mike Tyson comparison, I meant he was a boogeyman outside/inside the ring (or so I was made to believe), and like Mike Tyson people often lost against him before they even went in to fight.

I agree, if Weidman beats Rockhold and Souza a he surpasses Silva.

But then with this whole topic you also have to take into consideration that Silva was dominating his weight division when MMA and UFC were evolving very rapidly.

Training methods and coaches were all being figured out.

Today it's all established in one place: boxing coach, muay thai coach, kickboxing, wrestling, bjj, judo etc.

Todays mma is way way different then it was in the UFC back then.

I love guys like Forrest Griffin, Leben, Bonnar (aand rank them highly for their time) because they fought out of necessity, they were pioneers in the UFC, as well as Silva.

 

The credibility of anyone who thinks Weidman is "well rounded" or will surpass Silva with "two more wins" has to be questioned.

Weidman is the one who's championship resume is suspect. All his championship wins have been over fighters pushing age of 40:
He won title over a disinterested 38 yr old Silva in the twilight of his career who didnt take Weidman seriously.

Then Weidman beats an even older Silva who openly showed zero interest in a rematch and had to be begged by Zuffa to comeback to fight Weidman again.

Lyoto Machida's spectacular one sided loss to Luke put Weidman's 5 round slow dance with Machida last year in proper perspective.

Vitor is another 38 year old. He hadnt fought in 2 years. His body noticeably shrunken and his landed strikes no longer thudding why? because he was denied the hormone boost that fueled all his previous performances.

All these guys only brought their names and reputations into the Weidman fights. Where the hell is Weidman's championship win over a prime opponent? He has at least 3 years of winning over prime contenders before he can be in the same conversation with established long reigning champs like Silva.

 

I disagree I think Silva took Weidman very seriously(both times), and his childish antics through my eyes were due to frustration in not being able to execute what he wanted the way he wanted it. The second Silva started doing those antics again I though he was in trouble, especially with Weidman.

Those 2 Silva wins count for something, just look how Silva came back and beat a great fighter in Diaz. Yes, he had difficulties in that fight, but that nick diaz would be a tough match for anyone in the division imo.

Styles make fights. Belfort beat Rockhold, Weidman ud d Machida & beat Vitor, Rockhold kod Machida, the triangle connections are irrelevant.


The Lyoto that was in there with Weidman was one of the best Ive seen especially compared to the Machida that was there against Rockhold. There could be a lot of explanations for this but Im just saying, just because Silva was archaic, dramatic, animated in his fights doesnt mean Silva is some sort of deity in mma, Weidman is not really those things and he wins all his fights convincingly.

Also something I just thought. I recently watched Roy Nelson vs Overeem, theres an example of two older fighter whom you would call past their prime both looking and giving an incredible (best Ive seen from both) performance against each other.

 

Hmmm

Well, he looked spectacular, and his skills were insane

But i'm with you on the resume thing. His division was awful at the time

If he had fought in todays stacked MW divison we would have gotten to see just how good really he was, and imo there's no question he would have been one of the main players, he had reflexes, skills and accuracy on a whole other level

He moved up to LHW and showed he could easily hang there. Now at the time LHW was the most stacked division in the UFC, but Silva didnt take anything to do with it. Avoided Machida cause he was his friend, and after Shogun destroyed Machida, Silva went quiet on that one too

When Superfights were being discussed, he tried to land his with the smaller GSP, wanting nothing to do with Jones, even though he had already proven himself a beast at LHW. He pathetically tried the "friends" excuse there too

So, its a hard one to say

Incredible skills and matrix reflexes vs an unwillingness to really put that to the test

Just a shame we never got to see his incredible skills on display in todays monster filled middleweight division

GSP has to be regarded as Greater due to his inredible resume

Jones possibly too

And as for Weidman, well if he gets by Rockhold and Jacare, he not only leaves Silva in the dust, but has a huge shout as the GOAT

 

He was good but his resume isn't that strong maybe the MW division wasn't up to scratch. Jon Jones would've destroyed him and GSP easily defeats the same Silva who fought Sonnen

 

He is overrated underrated and inflated and flatulated!

 

Or Diaz, imo.

In fact as someone mentioned above, I think ATG of mma list goes something like this atm.

1.GSP
2.Jones
3.Fedor
4.Aldo
5.Silva

 

Newton,Kato,sakurai,horn,Murray all beaten before his legendary ufc title reign.i don't think he is overrated at all.although I'm sure he would love to erase demian Maia and Patrick Côte from history.