Was Wanderlei Silva......

The Best Fighter in the World? at anytime from 2000 to 2004

Just curious on yalls opinions?

No.



or

Well Fedor didn't get real recognition until he beat nog in 03. So i wouldn't say him. After the tito fight wand went undefeated untill 04 and he was much more active. It was what made him a legend. YES he was. Actually one of the only reasons tito ortiz was so respected and legitimized was because he was the one guy that had beaten Wand. Big Nog for the simple fact that yes he was great but then was overtaken by fedor. Only consistent fighter was Wand.

I remember first time I saw Wanderlei he got destroyed by Vitor Belfort so basically everytime I saw him in Pride I was waiting for him to get his ass whooped and he shocked me then after the Mezger fight I realized how good he was

anyone else agree if Wanderlei and Sakuraba fight 10 times, Sakuraba gets stopped everytime?

Birdofthad wrote:

anyone else agree if Wanderlei and Sakuraba fight 10 times, Sakuraba gets stopped everytime?

Yes, which makes it ridiculous that they not only fought 3 times when one time made it clear enough, but they were going to fight a 4th time time until Saku pulled out and Mark Hunt replaced Saku and beat Wandy ending his run of dominance.

I remember telling my Pride homer buddies how Wand was horrible because of the Belfort fight. A year ;ater I was saying he would kill Vitor if they fought again. Of course with the speculation of roids in Pride he could have had some help during those days. Either way he dominated for a long time in Pride. I think Vitor would take him right now for the record.

I KNOW!!!!!
PS I was shocked when Hall stunned the MMA world

bigbeastcardinal12 wrote:

I remember telling my Pride homer buddies how Wand was horrible because of the Belfort fight. A year ;ater I was saying he would kill Vitor if they fought again. Of course with the speculation of roids in Pride he could have had some help during those days. Either way he dominated for a long time in Pride. I think Vitor would take him right now for the record.

I think VItor KOs him again if they have a rematch know

Wanderlei Silva is an all time great, but he was never the best in the world, or even in his weight class. He got ran out of the UFC by Belfort and Ortiz. I don't for a minute buy the idea that Wandy wasn't in his prime, so the Ortiz win doesn't count. Wanderlei beats Sakuraba, Guy Mezger and Dan Henderson inside of 12 months following that fight. It's not as if he added so many new tools to his game that he was somehow a completely new fighter. His wrestling obviously improves between Tito and Hendo though, but Hendo was never as good as Ortiz in wrestling until later, as far as MMA goes. No one is going to want to hear that. But as great as Henderson was even then, he was never able to block shots and take guys down at will like Ortiz could back then.

good point wolf

you have to realize at that point in time I am young and hate the ever loving shit out of Tito Ortiz, no way am I going to admit he is close to being best in the division

you guys got me hyped up to watch old tito now. can't watch a movie so off to mmalinker I go

Tito was the best until Liddell took that over.

Wand is third on the GOAT list for LHW.

I would be willing to put a tito and wand tie. I never forget how tito had all the fireworks and limp bizkit walk-in music. Most discredit tito because they only know him now but in those times if you asked any fighter in pride who they wanted to fight they all said tito. Either cause they hated him or wanted to fight the best guy. BUT During this time period we are talking about wand beat saku, page twice, hendo, and had a draw with cro cop. Tito was not facing the same kind of opponents the wand was.

Tito's quality of opponents isn't worse than Wandy's.

Maybe if Tito had gotten more fights against Japanese middle weight pro wrestlers we'd think more of him right?

Tito has as many quality wins on his record as Wanderlei. He gets penalized because he fights on average once a year and usually against quality opposition. During this same period Tito beat Belfort, Matyushenko, Cote, Griffin, and Tanner and Shamrock 3 times. Maybe Wanderlei himself caused it, but Sakuraba was never really the same fighter and started his decline after their first meeting. Not quite as bad as the Shamrock fights, but the later Sakuraba fights aren't worth nearly as much as some think, in my opinion. The Shamrock series and the Sakuraba series share some comparisons I think.

Birdofthad wrote:

anyone else agree if Wanderlei and Sakuraba fight 10 times, Sakuraba gets stopped everytime?

Prolly. Horrible matchup for Saku. Saku had his way with Vitor though

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Tito was the best until Liddell took that over.

Wand is third on the GOAT list for LHW.

Kind of forgot about an old guy named Randy Couture didnt ya?

Birdofthad wrote:

anyone else agree if Wanderlei and Sakuraba fight 10 times, Sakuraba gets stopped everytime?

I tend to think Wand was on the juice during his pride days. But an unjuiced Wand would prob fare differently vs Saku.

But if we factor out the Juice I think we could say that Wand was the best fighter in the world for a bit.

Birdofthad wrote:

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Tito was the best until Liddell took that over.

Wand is third on the GOAT list for LHW.

Kind of forgot about an old guy named Randy Couture didnt ya?

I don't think his accomplishments are as great as Ortiz. He had the head to head wins over Belfort, Tito and Liddell, but not much else.

I might consider him for #4, though Shogun and Rampage have serious cases for that.

Sorry just after watching Randy pound Chuck and bitch smack Tito back to back I dont think there was much of a question as to whether he would have been the man in that division had he been in the org and division earlier

Ya, and if Warner had stayed as good as he was and didn't have a bunch of shitty seasons he could have been an all time great too.

Randy was like a running back who had back to back 2000 all purpose yards, a few other good seasons, and spent the rest of his career becoming a legendary wideout.

All time great running back? No. Could he have been? Sure.

Wow, no love for Randy... Beating two at one time seen as indestructible fighters in the lightheavyweight division back to back and constantly defying the word "impossible" just doesn't do it for you eh? I'd have to put Randy up higher than Rampage because of Rampage's poor game planning and seemingly lackluster performances in some of the larger fights he's been in before, during, and after his run at the title. Not to mention Rampage has a tendency to lose hard when he loses(save for the Griffin fight). He tends to get worked over pretty hard when he loses(IE Shogun and Wanderlei) whereas Couture is always game with exception of the second fight with Liddell.

Shogun has an argument, holding wins over Rampage and Liddell(albeit over a non prime Liddell).

gotta completely disagree wtih everything basically in your post wolf.

I dont get what kind of comparison you are trying to make

At the time everyone said Tito or Chuck is best in this division in UFC

Randy came and destroyed them both back to back

so according to wolf Randy Couture isnt an all time great running back? but he could have been? and this started wtih Kurt Warner somehow?

Man your really confused me

So Couture isnt an all time great in your opinion?

His accomplishments are only overshadowed by the things he could have done if he had gotten into the sport at an earlier age.