Why anderson silva is the best

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Error Please enter an email address. Success Thanks for signing up. Please check your email for a confirmation. Error Something went wrong. On the feet, there is no one deadlier than Silva in UFC history. Beyond his knockout record, Silva is also the most accurate striker ever, landing He's never landed less than 50 percent accuracy in any of his 16 fights in the UFC, and he has 17 knockdowns as well yes, another UFC record.

In other words, standing with Silva is like playing hot potato with lit sticks of dynamite—eventually, all of his opponents get blown up. As if that wasn't enough, Silva's reign atop the UFC middleweight division is almost twice as long as any other champion in the company's history. The statistics back up the claim that Silva is virtually untouchable, but what about the level of competition he's been facing over the last seven years while serving as UFC champion?

Has he truly faced the best of the best along the way? Throughout his UFC career, Silva has been in title fights for 11 of his 16 fights, so it's safe to say most of the contenders have been very worthy of being in the cage with him.

Silva has also had three light heavyweight fights and two non-title fights during his time with the UFC thus far. Looking past his debut and the first fight with Rich Franklin, where Silva who came into the bout as a lower-ranked fighter, let's check out the rankings and records of his opponents as they approached their fights with Silva in the UFC.

Travis Lutter — record. Unranked at the time as he earned his title shot after winning season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter. Nate Marquardt — record. Ranked No. Rich Franklin — record.

Dan Henderson — record. James Irvin — record. Unranked at the time, with Silva taking the fight at light heavyweight. Thales Leites — record. Forrest Griffin — record. This was another case of Silva moving up in weight, and also happened to be one fight after Griffin won the UFC light heavyweight title. Demian Maia — record. Chael Sonnen — record. Vitor Belfort — record. Ranked No 6 in the world by Bloody Elbow in January Yushin Okami — record.

Chael Sonnen — Stephan Bonnar — record. Unranked at the time, with Silva taking the fight at light heavyweight for the third time in his UFC career. To add that up, since he won the UFC middleweight title in , Silva has faced 10 ranked opponents including one fight with a ranked opponent at light heavyweight. He's finished three fights while competing at pounds and also beaten three former UFC champions Franklin, Belfort, Griffin , and a two-weight class champion from Pride Henderson.

It's hard to argue with those accolades, but now, let's look at the competition to Silva's claim to the throne as the best fighter in MMA history. Without digging too far into career history of every single opponent that a fighter has faced throughout his career, the two names that likely come closest to Silva's records are current UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and former Pride heavyweight king Fedor Emelianenko.

First up, let's look at St-Pierre, who, in my opinion, is the person most likely to challenge Silva's reign and claim as the best fighter ever. During his UFC career, St-Pierre has won 18 total fights, tied for the most of all time, while also winning 11 times in title fights—an honor he currently shares with Silva.

The welterweight division has also been notoriously known as one of the toughest and deepest weight classes in the sport. He's faced and defeated three former UFC champions, although in one of those fights, he was taking on Matt Serra, who defeated him to win the belt in the first place.