[Leagon]

There ya go. Does he?

If you have only seen his UFC fights, then you may not want to comment. To be fair, I don't think I've seen all of his fights either, but those three fights don't really showcase everything he has.

Let's look at what he's done in his career. 18-4. Two losses coming by submission. One by Decision. And one, as we all know, by DQ.

He's the best striker at his weight class and, in my opinion, MMA. That alone makes him a huge problem for anyone. Now, I've seen the arguement that he'd get owned in K-1. And I think he probably would too, but I'm talking MMA striking specifically.

Now, it seems that since his fight with Lutter, everyone picks any Joe Blow wrestler over Anderson. Let's look at his fights against people with solid groud games:

Travis Lutter - Win by Sub
Jeremy Horn - Win by Unanimous Decision
Daiju Takase (arguable)- Loss by Sub
Carlos Newton - Win by TKO
Hayato Sakurai (arguable) - Win by Unanimous Decision
Tony Fryklund - Win by KO
Luis Azeredo - Loss by Decision (first fight on his fight finder)

5-2 according to that. Pretty good for a striker of his caliber.

A loss to Luis Azeredo at the beginning of your career means about as much as a loss to Babalu early in your career. Its hardly anything to be ashamed of. Not to mention, the fight went to decision.

And let's talk briefly about his takedown defense. Watch his fight with Okami. He easily stuffs three or four before Yushin manages to get a leg. Newton and Sakurai both had some success taking him down from the clinch. Sakurai was completely nullified on the ground. Newton was having success until Anderson got him to guard. Then he too was nullified.

I think that's the problem. No disrespect to Chuck, but everyone loves him because of his legendary sprawl. Awesome. Anderson's sprawl is decent at best, but the fact remains that he is great at completely stopping any ground attack. Lutter didn't do anything. Newton didn't do anything. Sakurai didn't do anything. Takase managed to eventually get the sub, but his strikes were similarly nullified.

In an organization like the UFC (No yellow cards, frequent stand ups), being able to nullify a ground attack is just as good as a great sprawl. He'd be susceptible to LnP, but he's such a dangerous striker that, after a few stand ups, you're likely to be knocked out or too dazed to stay on top. From this we can assume that takedown defense isn't really a weakness for him at this time in his career.

But, just for shits and giggles, let's examine his takedown defense. As we know, Anderson doesn't cut weight. As we also know, Anderson is lightning quick. I think there's a correlation between these two facts. He sacrifices the extra size and strength for speed and flexibility. As such, most good wrestlers will be able to take him down by simply overpowering him. When they get to the ground, though, its obivous they can't do much. I don't think this is at all by accident. Similar to why Cro Cop's thighs are so big. Yes, it restricts flexibility on the ground, but he's not as concerned about attempting to traingle people as he is about kicking them to death. Just as Anderson isn't as concerned about muscling an opponent away from him as he is about having the extra speed in his punches.

Everyone likes to talk about how much of a nightmarish matchup Hendo and Filho are for him. Personally, I think he'd TKO Hendo. Dan likes to stand and trade before going for the takedown. As shown by Sakurai (to be fair, Sakurai isn't the wrestler Dan is, but its the same principle) that will get you so bloodied on your feet that you won't be aware enough to do much on the ground. Not to mention the reach advantage. Even against Okami (who has longer reach than Silva), Anderson kept him so far away that Yushin was shooting from outside the cage.

Filho is a different sort of beast, though. I haven't seen him fight much, so I won't pick a winner, but I think he'd have the best chance of anyone. If he was Japanese and knew some crazier submissions, I'd pick him for sure.

Lindland's not even really a middleweight anymore.

My opinion: Anderson Silva is the #1 Middleweight in the world, the most complete striker in MMA, and the originator of the PopnStop style fight of fighting... I'll think of something more catchy.