Best All-Time MMA Fighter

Although he is still an active mixed martial arts fighter, Silva is widely considered to be the pound-for-pound best fighter that has ever graced the earth. At the tender age of 14, Silva began his martial arts tanning in Tae kwon do, earning a black belt by the age of 18. Known as a well-rounded fighter, Silva continued to diversify in different fighting styles, eventually earning a black belt in Judo and a yellow rope in Capoeira. Primarily known as the most feared striker in the history of mixed marital arts, Silva also obtained a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, is accomplished in the art of Muay Thai and has even entered the ring twice as a professional boxer, although not with the same success accustom with his martial arts career.

Buy This Allposters.com

Silva made his mixed martial arts debut in the Mecca organization that was based out of Brazil. Ironically, he lost his first fight to Luiz Azeredo by decision, but went on a nine-fight winning streak, with six of the wins coming by submission or TKO. On August 26, 2001, Silva was matched up against Shooto champion Hayato Sakurai and won the bout by unanimous decision and became the new Shooto Middleweight Champion and the first man to defeat Sakurai who was undefeated in his first 20 fights.

Best All-Time MMA Fighter Anderson Silva.
Thanks to malleus_brando at flickr.com for the picture.

After competing with a number of other mixed martial arts organizations, Silva finally signed with the UFC in April of 2006. Silva made his debut on the Ultimate Fight Night 5 on June 28, 2006, and subsequently knocked out Chris Leban in 49 seconds with a 100% strike percentage. Leben was the Ultimate Fighter 1 winner and was undefeated in five matches in the UFC before facing Silva. In response to his convincing victory, Silva was scheduled to face Rich Franklin at UFC 64 for the middleweight title. Silva ended the bout in just 2:59 for round one with a barrage of knees to the body from the Muay Thai-clinch and then he badly broke Franklin’s nose with a knee to the face. In the UFC middleweight division, Silva has essentially defeated all top contenders, including Franklin, Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson, Demian Maia and Chad Sonnen.

Like most top fighters, Silva has flirted with moving to different weight classes. At UFC 101 which took place on August 8, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Silva again fought at 205 pounds against former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin. Griffin was knocked down three times in the first round. The bout earned Silva Beat down of the Year honors from Sherdog. The bout shared those honors with the second bout between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir. Both fighters were awarded $60,000 as Fight of the Night bonuses and Silva received $60,000 in bonus money for Knockout of the Night.

Anderson "The Spider" Silva. Thanks to EliteSportsTours.ca at flickr.com for the picture.

Since winning the middleweight title, Silva has gone on to dominate and become the face of the UFC. With a current streak of 12 consecutive victories, Silva hold the longest active winning streak in the UFC, the record for the longest winning streak in UFC history and has been the middleweight champion since 2006. Overall, Silva boasts a record of 27-4, with 15 wins by knockout and 5 by submission. Silva is also the last Cage Rage Middleweight Champion and former Shooto Middleweight Champion. Silva is currently ranked as the number one Middleweight in the world by multiple MMA publications; Sherdog and Yahoo! rank Silva as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

What do you think?

We'd love to hear your comments and/or opinions. If you submit them here, other visitors can read them, rate them and comment on them. An e-mail address is not required.

Enter Your Title

Your comments go here. [ ? ]

Upload 1-4 Pictures or Graphics (optional)[ ? ]

Add a Picture/Graphic Caption (optional)

Click here to upload more images (optional)

Author Information (optional)

To receive credit as the author, enter your information below.

Your Name	(first or full name)
Your Location	(e.g., City, State, Country)

Submit Your Contribution

Check box to agree to these submission guidelines.

(You can preview and edit on the next page)

Click here to see the rest of the form and complete your submission.

New! Comments

Leave a comment about this article in the box below and share it with your Facebook friends.

Best All Time -- "The Best All-Time Sports Opinions" Thanks for supporting this site by purchasing high quality fan products from the sponsors we link to. Click Here for AWESOME Sports Fan Products Click to view our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy By Mo Johnson, Copyright © 2010-2017 Best-All-Time.com

Pro Sports

College Sports

More Sports Stuff

Fan Merchandise