Who would you favour over Wanderlei Silva between the years of 2001 and 2006?

In 2001 Christiano Marcello joined Chutebox as the grappling coach, this led to Wandy actually training developing and improving his ground game to the point where he was a very well rounded fighter with expertise in MT as well as BJJ. Up until the KO loss to Cro Cop Wandy would enjoy his best years.

He has one close loss to Arona which was avenged and another close loss to Hunt that should have gone his way based on the Pride criteria.

Let's consider which notable LHW fighters would be favoured over this prime version of Silva?

Jones
Cormier
Rua
Liddell
Ortiz
Machida
Belfort
Couture
Evans

Or nobody?

Should anyone be favoured over this beast of a fighter? Once he's honed his MT and BJJ skills from the age 25 to 30 he was a force to be reckoned with.

Or is there a handful of those listed you think would beat him?

 

Good debate so far guys.

 

Lidell will give anyone problems with his power and accuracy, and his counter punching is better suited to a cone forward puncher.

However no one ever put Liddell under pressure aside from Rampage and we all know how that ended.

As for Couture, he was a great talent but his best work is on the clinch and who in the right mind clinches with Wandy.

 

I think Randy gives anyone issues unless they are significantly bigger than him. I just don't think he has enough to do a prime Wandy.

That high kick from Cro Cop knocked the prime right out of Silva.

 

Gus was bombed out by Johnson, I don't see him surviving Wandys onslaught.

As for Johnson himself, he could be an amazing fighter, it's hard to say because he shared an era with Cormier, but I struggle to picture a former WW beating Wandy.

For me, Jones, Cormier and maybe Rua are the only guys I favour.

Machida can give anyone problems with his dazzling counters but I don't know if he'd do enough to get the job done.

 

I still think he beats Liddell prime for prime.

 

I'll hold my hands up, haven't watched that fight yet, was basing entirely on the time of the finish.

I don't really know enough about Gus or Rumble. I have watched a lot of Cormier and Jones though, but not in enough detail so I'll lay off picking those fights.

Wandy I've seen pretty much every fight of. A deadly striker with a BJJ black belt who has the strength to compete with wrestlers, it's a very dangerous combination.

I'll look more into Gus and Rumble as and when I get up to them, ATM I'm only upto 2008 year end.

In fact my next 3 fights to watch are Griffin - Jackson, Griffin - Evans, Evans, Liddell.

Plus some Maia as at this point he was considered a top MW prospect.