UFC 134: Counting Down Anderson Silva's 5 Best Knockouts

Anderson Silva will put his perfect UFC record and middleweight championship on the line against Yushin Okami this Saturday night at UFC 134. Okami is an interesting match-up for Silva, but until someone actually beats The Spider, you have to assume that he is going to win the fight.

One of the great things about sports is the debate that fans and analysts have about who is the best of all-time in a particular sport. Over the year's arguments like Ruth or Mays, Montana or Elway, Gretzky or Lemieux have been debated ad nauseam.

But as far as the sport of mixed martial arts is concerned, there is only one man who can claim to be the best ever: Anderson Silva.

Some guys have had more influence, some guys have been bigger stars, but when you look at the body of work that Silva has put together, particularly over the last five years, there is no one who can match what he has done inside the octagon.

Silva is the fastest fighter that most of us have ever seen. He can strike quickly and when you least expect it. He has such a vast arsenal of moves that you can't game plan for him, you just have to hope that he makes that one mistake that you can capitalize on.

In Silva's long and illustrious career, he has provided some of the most memorable knockouts in UFC history.

Here are the five best knockouts from The Spider during his tenure as a UFC fighter.

5. Ultimate Fight Night 5 vs. Chris Leben

The fight that started it all: Anderson Silva vs. Chris Leben in June 2006.

It was Silva's first appearance in UFC after years of working for various MMA promotions around the world. He introduced himself to UFC fans with a first-round knockout.

Leben entered the bout with a five-fight win streak. He was on his way to getting a middleweight championship fight with a victory.

But Silva stole Leben's spotlight and forever earned a place in the hearts of mixed martial arts' fans everywhere.

4. UFC 77 vs. Rich Franklin

Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin have fought twice. The first time they fought was Silva's second fight in UFC and he won the middleweight championship. He won that fight via knockout in the first round.

The second time they met was at UFC 77 and Silva won again via knockout. But this time, he decided to make things a little more interesting and wait until the second round to end things.

The best part of the knockout is right before it happened. Silva is holding Franklin's head and appears to be telling him something. I think he was telling him to watch out for the knee because it was coming. Unfortunately for Franklin, he did not listen and was sent to canvas wondering what just happened.

3. UFC 73 vs. Nate Marquardt

Nate Marquardt was able to get Silva down early in this fight after Silva tried a flying knee and missed, and it looked like Silva could be in trouble because he has never been a guy who is comfortable fighting off his back.

The referee saw that nothing was happening on the ground, so he stood them up, and Marquardt tried to stand and punch with Silva.

That ended up being a big mistake as Silva was able to rock him with a shot to the face. Marquardt stood tall for a little bit after that shot, but then Silva did his version of the rope-a-dope and finally knocked Marquardt out.

(Note: There was no video of just the knockout, so a highlight video of Silva's career was used instead.)

2. UFC 126 vs. Vitor Belfort

One of the great things about UFC is that a knockout can occur at any moment. Case in point: Anderson Silva's amazing knockout of Vitor Belfort earlier this year.

UFC was hyping this fight up as the biggest middleweight title fight in history and Dana White did all that he could to convince us that Belfort could be the one to end Silva's undefeated streak in UFC.

When the fight started, it looked like it was going to be another boring Anderson Silva fight. The two fighters were circling each other and had no apparent interest in hitting each other.

But as the round moved on, they finally opened up. Belfort threw a flurry of punches, but Silva's quickness proved too great for him to overcome.

Then, with just under two minutes to go in the round, Silva was standing right in front of Belfort and decided to throw a front kick that caught Belfort square in the face. Belfort went down in a heap and Silva threw some punches just for good measure.

It was one of the most spectacular knockouts in UFC history, yet it falls just short of being the best knockout in Silva's career.

1. UFC 101 vs. Forrest Griffin

Anderson Silva has made his name fighting at 185 pounds, but there have been a few times in his career when he has made the move up to 205 pounds.

One of those times when he jumped up in weight was when he challenged Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 in August 2009.

Griffin, who was a former light heavyweight champion, has never been one to back down from a challenge, but after the beating he took in this fight, maybe he began to re-think that strategy.

Silva knocked him down three different times in the first round. His speed and striking have never looked more crisp than they did in this fight. His bobbing and weaving, which has been such a big part of his success, was better than ever.

The end came as Griffin was fighting for his life, Silva was backing away and threw a punch that dropped Griffin to the canvas.

Silva knocked out a world class fighter with a punch as he moving away from him. There is no one else in this sport that could do that.

The knockout earned Silva various end-of-the-year awards, including Sherdog's Beatdown of the Year.