Can Anderson Silva surpass fedor as the greatest ever?

How will a GSP victory for Silva rank Anderson in your opinion Yaca? Over Fedor?

 

beating the bigger man and p4p best in the world, if previous to that he beats Jake shields, and anderson isnt on to bad of a decline by the time they fight.


**** cleaning out the ww division then beating one of the best welters ever in jake shields, moving up to face anderson silva coming out of that with a win is some legendary **** my friend, no one else in mma is posed like that to make such a fearless move.

personally I hope Gsp stays at ww and continues to win there, if he can no longer make weight then move up, their is no reason to end your title run early unless he can make multi millions in a mega fight.

I dont think Gsp/Silva will ever happen anyway.

 

I meant if Silva wins, would a victory over GSP put him above Fedor? He's beaten a former LHW Champ at his own weight. Obviously a win over Forrest isnt the strongest win he could achieve at LHW, but the way he did it was damn impressive. No LHW has dominated FG like that, well I guess you could make a case for Jardine unless Im forgetting someone else.
But yeah, if Georges beat Anderson, it would be a huge victory (no pun intended) and I dont think it will happen either, but we'll see after the Shields/Okami fight. But both are coming to a point where there's no one left to beat in their divisions

 

Anderson would have to move up to lhw I dont think him beating a great smaller fighter(gsp) would get him there alone. And I dont think he has much time left to reign over the middleweight division, because of his age. Fedor just dominated for too long and beat Nog and cro-cop in their prime and beat them at their own game, not to mention all the other great wins on his resume.

A win over someone like jon jones would be huge, otherwise how about rampage, mousassi, perhaps a rematch with dan henderson.

 

No. Fedors greatness was not just about his wins but also the way he went about them. Respectful, unassuming and professional at all times. AS has already been a mssive dick in too many fights.

 

Ive been wanting a Hendo rematch since the 1st one, but a win over either 3 you mentioned would be great for his standing

But back to the subject of Fedor, my personal feelings in terms of marquee wins then Nog and Cro Cop are huge, and maybe Anderson hasnt anything on his to compete with that bar Hendo and to a lesser extent Forrest and Rich. But I dont know why, but I have a feeling that maybe Mirko's rep wont stand the test of time as much as Nog, Hendo ect, but time will tell on that. But I think Anderson has more quality in his resume overall but as I said maybe lacking a marquee win. That's why I find the GSP fight interesting for both guys

 

Don't forget Vitor......and even Sonnen....

 

True, very good wins. But when this generation is retired and we are looking back at this era I think maybe those guys careers will be characterised by the fights they lost (Vitors temperament, Sonnens sub defence) than the fights they won which is kinda what I was alluding to with time not being kind to Mirko

 

Surely relative to their divisions, Silva's victory over Franklin was just as important as Fedor's over Cro Cop? Other than a fight against Lyoto which I believe took place at light heavyweight, Franklin was undefeated when he faced Silva and has since proven time and time again that he was comfortably superior to other middleweights other than Silva (the one exception being his fight against Belfort but that was at a catchweight and Franklin's third fight in eight months). Admittedly it didn't have the hype that surrounded Fedor-Cro Cop because Franklin was never as big a star.

To me the Silva-GSP fight is great because it is like Pacquiao-Mayweather. Their two best fighters in the world but more than that each other's strengths are best suited to test the weakness of their opponents. Silva's striking against GSP's suspect chin. GSP's wrestling against Silva's suspect takedown defense. Silva's unpredictablity and inventiveness against GSP's professionalism and superior gameplanning. To use the cliche so beloved of Rogan - if you were to create a fighter in the lab to beat Silva he would be like GSP and vice versa.

 

Very true Will, and that's exactly what I meant by saying Silva has more quality overall. In an ATG status Rich is a solid B+ win a middleweight. He was the best of the division and Im a fan but the UFC division wasnt as strong when he was champ, not his fault really and to this day 185 isnt the deepest of divisions. His resume after Silver is much better than it was before. And I think he'll stand the test of time better than Mirko as an all round Mixed Martial Artist

 

True but let's put it this way, what is Fedor's third best win? Obviously his wins over Nog and Cro Cop top the list but which name on his resume comes in third? Randleman and Coleman were way passed their primes when faced them, and Sylvia was in the middle of an alarming career slump after his self-confidence and desire were broken by Couture and Nog. So I'd probably say its Arlovski or perhaps Babalu, - either way someone who I'd say is certainly a step below GSP's third best victory (Penn or Fitch depending on how you want to order) and perhaps below Silva's (either Belfort or Sonnen). And the thing thing as you go down the list I think the greater quality of opponents faced by Silva and GSP becomes ever clearer.

And in terms of the length of their dominance, both GSP and Silva won their first UFC titles in late 2006. With the exception of GSP's fluke lost to Serra both have been untouchable since. Fedor's first victory over Nog was in 2003 and his fight against Cro Cop was in 2005. After the Cro Cop fight the quality of opposition fell away dramatically. So I think its certainly an arguable point that Fedor was preeminent in the heavyweight division for longer than Silva or GSP have been at their weights.

 

Yeah I agree with that. To me Silva's win over Franklin is kinda of like Calzaghe's over Hopkins - its grown in credibility since the fight thanks to what the defeated man has been able to go on and do.

 

We are on the same page here Cooling, chill son. My post may have been briefer but I tried to make the same point

 

Good analogy :thumbsup

 

lol I wrote that and then saw you had summarised my point in one sentence atsch