Better Decade: Fedor Before Werdum or Silva Through Belfort.

[Dressler]

The following is an article from MMAFighting.com asking who had/ is having the better decade, Fedor pre-Werdum or Anderson Silva through his last fight versus Vitor Belfort.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/02/17/better-decade-fedor-before-werdum-or-silva-through-belfort/

So my question is simple, who has had the better decade? Fedor or Silva?

In my opinion its Fedor, I mean he went 31-1, with that one loss being considered a win, so in the view of many, a 32-0 streak over 10 years, thats mighty impressive. Although Silva has been on an impressive 26-3 record in a decade, with 12 straight wins in the UFC, with a record amount of title defenses. Even still, I pick Fedor, he is in my mind, the greatest MMA fighter of all time, and had the better decade.

 

[jmt225]

Fedor, easily.

Anderson Silva has too many losses from early on in his career, to very mediocre fighters on top of that.

Anderson also hasn't faced the best opponents. I mean, really.... look at the guys he beat since joining the UFC:

Chris Leben - Good fighter, but nowhere near great.

Rich Franklin x2 - These were very good wins, but nowhere near as impressive as Fedor's wins against Cro Cop, Big Nog, etc.

Travis Lutter - Joke.

Nate Marquardt - Known as a guy who can't win the big one.

Dan Henderson - Great win here, no denying that, but Henderson is best at Light Heavyweight, not Middleweight.

James Irvin - Joke.

Patrick Côté - Joke, plus one of the worst main events in UFC History.

Thales Leites - Joke, plus one of the worst main events in UFC History.

Forrest Griffin - Silva's greatest, most impressive performance to date, but Forrest isn't necessarily considered to be truly a great fighter at this point.

Damien Maia - Joke, plus one of the worst main events in UFC History.

Chael Sonnen - Great win for Silva.

Vitor Belfort - Good win, but Belfort didn't even deserve the shot at Silva. There's no way anyone could argue that Belfort was ever near the top of the heap in the Middleweight Division.

So, out of those, the wins against Sonnen, Griffin, Henderson, and Franklin are truly the only the fights worth praising Anderson on, and this is coming from a big Anderson Silva fan. The UFC's Middleweight Division was just too weak for far too long; it wasn't until Sonnen came along to where people could even start to take an interest to it.

Fedor Emelianenko, on the other hand, fought the absolute best in his division the entire decade. Even the UFC's best, since he would defeat the two guys who carried the UFC Heavyweight Division for years once they left the UFC in Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia, and not only did he beat them, but he destroyed him. The only big Heavyweights Fedor didn't face from 2000-2009 were Randy Couture (which Fedor did everything in his power to do), and Josh Barnett (after years of ducking Fedor, he finally took a fight with him, only to fail a drug test). But that's it... he's always fought the best of the best in his division. Anderson Silva cannot say the same, since for a while the best competition in his division weren't in the UFC, and the top competition that was in the UFC, they just weren't that impressive.

Moreover, the question is who has had the better decade... name one Fedor fight that was boring? Does it exist? I don't think so. However, Anderson Silva is now infamous for his boring fights. You have to take into account that not only did Fedor have the better competition and the overall better record, but he had the more entertaining fights as well. Silva's terrible showings against Maia, Lietes, and Cote really hurt his case in this discussion, no matter how you look at it.

I would argue that when you look at the fighters who had the best decade, four names should come to mind: Fedor, Wanderlei Silva, GSP, and Anderson Silva (Liddell and Hughes would be considered, but their runs ended so awfully by the end of the decade that it wouldn't be right to include their names). And while you can make an argument for how you list 2-4, Fedor is indisputably #1.

 

[Tha Wolfpac]

I agree with what JMT has said but i want to argue one point. Also a big Anderson Silva fan, the opponents he has faced in his respective division is not his fault whether they are good or not. Even if some are decent are better than your average Anderson still makes them look like fools with Sonnen being the exception. The middleweight division is dead and uninteresting because they are no viable contenders that can even compete with Anderson. Fedor on the other hand, just dominance is what comes to mind when you think of this man, he stood on top of a whole division for a whole decade and picked apart the best fighters in the world in the heavyweight division. Like JMT the quality of opponents that Fedor has fought outweighs who Anderson has fought which wasn't necessarily under Anderson's control.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

I agree with what JMT has said but i want to argue one point. Also a big Anderson Silva fan, the opponents he has faced in his respective division is not his fault whether they are good or not. Even if some are decent are better than your average Anderson still makes them look like fools with Sonnen being the exception.

Regardless of the fact that Anderson makes them look like fools, they aren't that great to begin with. Cote isn't even in the UFC any longer and never should have gotten a title shot to begin with. Everyone thought Marquardt was good and now we see that he's pretty average if you are a good wrestler or striker.

Hell, 3 of those challengers aren't even in the UFC any longer. Fucking Lutter went 2-4 in the UFC, how that asshole even got a title shot is beyond me. For that matter, he couldn't even make damn weight for the fight and still got his ass handed to him. Leites was a complete joke as well.

I said this on another thread and I will say it here, Anderson Silva is not the world-beater that everyone thinks he is. He is an amazing fighter, no doubt about that, but his resume is probably the worst of anyone that's in the P4P discussion. Shogun Rua has a WAY better resume than Silva. (I don't know why I keep coming back to Shogun, I don't even like the guy, but he's a champ and in the P4P rankings)

I didn't look and see who wrote this article and asked this question, but it's a pretty stupid question. Anyone that thinks Silva had a better decade than Fedor is high, stupid, clueless, or a combination of the three. Fedor had an run in MMA that will, likely, NEVER be seen again in our lifetime. The question is stupid by virtue of the names Fedor beat during his run. It wasn't just that Fedor beat them, some of them he beat multiple times.

EDIT: Wow, I just looked at who wrote the article and I am not shocked in the least. Michael David Smith and I go back and forth on Twitter all the time. That guy asks and says some of the most outlandish shit I've ever seen.