(Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)
Current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva is one unique individual. He has a black belt in BJJ, Tae kwon do, Judo and is probably the best Muay Thai fighter ever known to enter the Octagon.
Silva holds the record for the longest winning streak in the UFC with 10 wins. Each having resulted in stoppage, with the exception of Thales Leites, who literally laid down on the mat the entire fight. Put frankly, Anderson "The Spider" is the definition of what it takes to be an elite MMA fighter in the octagon today.
After watching Silva demolish Forrest Griffin at UFC 101: Declaration, I think it's safe to say that Silva is one of the most dominant fighters in the history of the sport. Forrest Griffin, known to weigh as much as 250 lb. at one point in his career, was dominated by his much significantly smaller framed opponent from the opening bell.
Silva simply bobbed ,weaved, and taunted his opponent while waiting to counter. He put Griffin on the mat twice with accurate punches before throwing an off-balanced, straight right hand that caught Griffin on the chin and dropped him for good.
Three and a half minutes was all it took for The Spider to turn Forrest Griffin from top five Light Heavyweight contender to worn out rubble.
Which leads us to question: Is Anderson "The Spider" Silva the now the undisputed P4P champion of MMA?
In my opinion...yes. Sure, there are a few others who deserve the title: George St. Pierre, B.J. Penn , and probably the biggest challenger of all, Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko.
While its much easier to argue that Silva has undoubtedly edged out GSP and B.J. in the mythical pound for pound rankings, Fedor is a different story. Since MMA is a combat sport where the rule "bigger is always better" implies, a dominant heavyweight is always highly favored upon when it comes to P4P rankings.
That being said, Fedor Emelianenko is the definition of dominant heavyweight. With a record of 30-1 , Fedor is virtually unbeatable. His only loss was due to a cut caused by an illegal elbow, which most likely would have been ruled a no contest by UFC standards.
He has beaten some of the top-ranked heavyweights in the world, and was scheduled to fight number two ranked heavyweight Josh Barnett. Had the fight actually taken place Fedor would no doubt in my mind be the undisputed pound for pound champion of the world.
However, the fight never occured due to Barnett testing positive for anabolic steroids, just 10 days before the event was to take place.
So technically Anderson Silva wins by default, at least for the time being, until Fedor gets a chance to demolish yet another opponent in dramatic fashion. It's still going to be really hard to top Silva's last performance, who has won at welterweight, middleweight, and even has two light-heavyweight victories to his name.
But regardless, The Spider has the crown.
All the The Emperor can do is wait.
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