#12: Anderson Silva
Photo by James Law/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
How many times have you heard Joe Rogan or Dana White call Anderson Silva the “Greatest of All Time”? Yeah, I can't remember either, but it’s quite a lot.
And for a good chunk of his career, the man known as ‘The Spider’ certainly looked the part. Anderson’s UFC title reign, with a record 10 defenses of his belt (a record later broken by Demetrious Johnson) was memorable. During almost 2500 days, he racked up a 16-fight win streak (daring to go fight some guys up at LHW in the process) until Chris Weidman happened. Oh, and USADA of course.
But way before that, Anderson’s first-time making waves was back 2001 in Japan, when he beat the legendary and then defending Shooto middleweight (168lbs) champion Hayato ‘Mach’ Sakurai. This feat allowed him to enter the prestigious Pride FC ranks, but he couldn’t make the most of it (except for his famous entrances impersonating Michael Jackson) beating Carlos Newton but losing to Daiju Takase and infamously being at the wrong end of Ryo Chonan’s flying scissor heel hook.
Silva licked his wounds in the Cage Rage octagon, before storming to the UFC and put together a run even the most casual of combat sports fans heard about.
The Take Over
Most of the American audience was unaware of Silva’s true level when he was booked against Chris Leben for his UFC debut. Even if his slicing elbow KO of Tony Fryklund at Cage Rage 16 went a bit viral (it was 2006, Twitter was launched the same year, going viral at the time wasn’t exactly like today), his debut was only fairly anticipated by the media and more educated MMA fan base. Leben was on a tear, on five-fight winning streak, and before the fight he promised he would 'send him back to Japan where the competition is easier.’ Chris got battered and finished in 49 seconds in a masterful display, a very short amount of time in which The Spider was able to showcase his incredible accuracy, world class striking skill set and countering abilities.
The beating granted him an immediate title shot against then champion Rich Franklin. Silva clearly was Franklin’s hardest opponent to date and it showed, as he was stopped by the Brazilian in the first round. Silva took the belt from him (and his nose in the process) with a brutal knee from the clinch. Anderson’s reign of terror was on. From the Leben fight, to James Irvin 3 years later, only 3 people made it out of the first round, and not one of them saw a 3rd round.
Ultra-tough Dan Henderson: choked out in the 2nd. Rematch with Franklin: 2nd round whooping. Grappler Travis Lutter : caught in a triangle and elbowed into submission.
Anderson then decided to go up a weight class, only to light up James Irvin in less than 2 minutes. Now widely regarded as the best fighter in the world, Silva went on to have some lackluster wins where he was too cautious, or fighting with no sense of urgency at all. He was still head and shoulders above his fellow competitors though, thanks to his world class skill set.
In his physical prime, The Spider was a smooth counter striker, who could punch, knee, kick, or elbow his opponents in devastating fashion, thanks to his Muay Thai background. A southpaw who liked to switch stances, he was very accurate, patient, with great boxing ability, excellent head movement, and generally slick defensive game. He fought with a lot of confidence, often clowning fighters and appearing cocky at times. Silva also studied traditional martial arts, as he was a Taekwondo black belt, and Capoeira, which made for a quite unpredictable fighting style. He was also a very capable grappler (holding a BJJ black belt under Minotauro Nogueira) and could rely on his ground skills, even very late in a fight, as he showed in the first Chael Sonnen fight (more on that later).
Nike & Steven Seagal : Rise To Super Stardom
To make things clear, Anderson Silva was literally styling on his opponents. His trashing of former LHW champion Forrest Griffin was mesmerizing, and he seemed at the peak of his powers at that time. After a short feeling out process, he started walking down the bigger man, staying right in front of him, hands low, dodging every blow coming at him and countering in devastating fashion. He ended up knocking out Griffin with a short, retreating right hand. After another weird showing against BJJ ace Demain Maia, Anderson finally found an ideal foe to have a rivalry, one of those things that build a legacy.
Chael Sonnen happened, indeed a blessing in disguise for him, as the ‘American Gangster’ fully embraced the villain role. The build up to the fight saw Chael repeatedly insult Silva, his country and his close friends such as the Nogueira brothers. The man from Oregon managed to single handedly hype the fight to the point that it became a blockbuster before the fight even began.
And it delivered beyond all expectations.
Silva was battered for 22 mins on the ground and on his way to losing his belt, before catching Sonnen in a triangle armbar with roughly 2 mins left in the fight. An incredible come from way behind victory with a movie type scenario.
Silva’s stock would hugely raise after that, and even more after his encounter with Vitor Belfort. Former teammate, the fight was shortly contested, with Silva knocking out Belfort with a tremendous front kick to the head. He reached super stardom, and was the first MMA fighter to land a Nike contract. A huge feat of course, it’s Nike we’re talking about, home to the biggest sports stars in the world. He featured in some Nike football commercials alongside football superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo.
Action movie legend Steven Seagal was even in the equation—said to be Silva’s sensei—often being interviewed about how he advised him to do the front kick against Belfort and whatnot. Silva even began campaigning for a boxing fight against legendary Roy Jones Jr, who was more than willing to fight the MMA Kingpin.
Inside the octagon, Silva finished both Yushin Okami and Chael Sonnen in rematches, and Stephan Bonnar with ease in another light heavyweight showcase bout to continue his winning ways and cement his legacy, fuelling the GOAT talks even more. But in MMA, only father time remains undefeated. Just like every other legend, he would find that out the hard way.
Legacy Shattered And Twilight
Silva lost his belt against Chris Weidman the way he should have: being himself.
Weidman, was younger, stronger, and at 30 years old in his physical prime. Unfazed by The Spider’s antics, Chris took full advantage of a daring, hands down Silva and knocked him clean out with a left hook, catching him completely off guard. The inevitable rematch ended up being way worse for the now former kingpin, when he broke his leg on a low kick checked by Weidman.
At 38, many thought it would have been a great idea to call it a day, but Anderson is one stubborn individual, who strongly believed he could still compete a the top. He fought Stockton’s own Nick Diaz upon his return, winning the fight before it was revealed he tested positive for steroids. Needless to say the news was not very well received by the MMA community. People immediately started questioning his entire career and achievements, which is fairly understandable. From that point, people started turning on him, and it seems like it hurt his legacy to the point that he quickly became irrelevant for the MMA ever growing fan base, at a time when fighters like Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor reached insane levels of stardom.
He served a one year suspension before returning to face Michael Bisping in London, a great fight with a bizarre plot twist yet again. Silva knocked out Bisping with a flying knee at the very end of the 3rd round on the buzzer, but the referee Herb Dean deemed it as being after the bell, so ‘The Count’ was allowed to continue into the fourth round, rallying to get the judges nod, which in this writers opinion he shouldn’t have. Such a competitive fight only serves to bolster Silva’s legacy, especially considering that Bisping went on to win Silva’s old championship in his very next bout.
Silva went on to fight Daniel Cormier in the main event of the UFC 200, saving the card on two days notice after Jon Jones failed a drugs test. He lost the fight by decision in a good effort, finishing the fight strong. After beating Derek Brunson, Silva fought twice in 2019, at age 44, losing to both Israel Adesanya (in a spirited effort) and Jared Cannonier, in which he was again badly injured by a low kick.
Conclusion
Even though not officially ended, Anderson’s remarkable career and legendary moments don’t hold up when making a case for the best fighter ever. And that’s fine. ‘The Spider’ beat great names such as Dan Henderson, Hayato Sakurai, Vitor Belfort and Carlos Newton but to put it simply, others managed to gather a greater resume.
But that doesn’t change the fact that his title run is one of the greatest ever. On his A game, Anderson was able to showcase all of what made him an all-time great. I mean, he has tremendous looking wins, and at times, he looked otherworldly.
He still ended up ranked 7th on my own list, but much lower in most of my fellow contributors’, and I totally understand that. To be honest, upon rethinking my list, and the recent fights, i’d put him out of the top 10 right now, especially with Khabib making big waves (Editor’s note: The Fight Site team will be reassessing Khabib’s legacy once this countdown is complete, so stay tuned!)
But when its all said and done, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva will always be remembered as one of the greats of the sport. He’s done his fair share to help it reach mainstream status, brought MMA sponsorship to a whole new level, and inspired tons of up and comers. The holder of the longest win streak in the history of the UFC surely belongs in the top 20 MMA fighters of all time.