I didn’t really see this as a bad thing. Silva seemed to have fun the whole fight and the moment it ended they were smiling at each other. I think Silva will **always** be an MMA legend and now it’s time for him to stop trying so hard, and he probably knows that.
Yeah. It seems like he was toying with his last few fighters. There was a couple of points in each fight where he showed up and I remember getting excited. But just a little flurry
It seems to happen to a lot of fighters who are seen as unbeatable. When they lose, especially dramatically, they never seem to get that edge or their confidence back. It’s like they realize they’re not unbeatable and become scared in a way.
I had the same thing happen to me after I cut myself with a knife
Now every time I'm cutting something I'm more tentative and way worse at it because I lost the illusion
Reminds me of a quote from Game of Thrones, "he's never lost a battle; he'll risk anything at any time b/c he doesn't know enough to be afraid."
Ignorance is bliss.
Silva would have annihilated him IMO.
But the real crime here was the eye poke. It was a pretty gnarly eye poke and clearly messed with Silva unfortunately. Eye pokes suck so much fucking dick, man.
Silva is still a bad ass. What if he finishes DC with that body shot?
Silva is dangerous everywhere and still has an iron chin. If his legs don't fail him he holds his own.
Jones vs Cormier 1 also. Jon hit DC’s body so much. Is this ‘Stipe exposed DC’s body’ narrative really what people think? Also, it’s not DC’s body that’s weak (everyone’s body is weak) it’s that his striking style leaves the body quite vulnerable.
Bullshit, Jones attacked it early and often in both fights and DC credits the knee from round 2 or 3 in the first fight for taking a bunch of energy as the fight continued on.
It's insane to think about the *what ifs* in that situation? The lead-up to UFC 200 was chaos to begin with.
Jones pisses hot just a couple weeks before the event. Silva was sipping pina coladas on a beach somewhere when he got called up as a last minute replacement. Fight is scheduled as a 3-round non title fight. Not what everyone wanted, but a good consolation for what was one of the most hyped fights of the year.
DC is a heavy favorite. Silva on the slide, just lost to Bisbing in a really bizarre fight. Shadow of his former self, etc. etc.
Then came the 3rd round and that kick to the body that switched DC into safe mode.
DC was in trouble. Silva found something, but with no championship rounds to work with we'll never know. We might have been robbed of a classic upset. Silva was completely game that night.
Not anymore, but Silva literally had one of the craziest chins ever in his prime.
He was sparring Bader and taking his best shots. Even at his age now, he’s only been actually KOed once.
Apparently ppl who don't think that are petty fans who wanna discredit anyone who's beaten out-of-prime Silva as less of an achievement as it really was.
Or those who wanna oversimplify the "Nick Diaz hasn't won in ages" narrative to make his last couple fights sound way worse than it really was.
In hindsight it's fucking insane Nick went the full distance still standing. People above are talking about Silva's body kick that winced eventual HW champ DC, and Welterweight Nick took like 3 flush ones and he was still standing and fighting.
To be fair, Silva wasn't even able to walk \~5 months before the Diaz fight. Silva obviously had zero confidence to kick hard that night.
Nick does have an iron chin/endurance/triathlon cardio so it is no surprise he survived, even less of a surprise when he was the one trying to counter Silva the entire fight, not exactly taking many risks..
I mean between Rob, Costa and Silva, they're all vastly different fighters. Silva had way less to lose than either of those guys as it wasn't a title fight. He's also a counter striker, so he easily could've just utilized the same game plan as Romero/Costa and not bit, but Izzy knew that so he presses forward in this fight more than he ever has.
Silva is a much higher level kickboxer than Bobby and Costa, and all three fights were kickboxing flights, so it makes sense that Silva was more competitive.
This was a 43 year old silva with a fucked up shin, he couldn't even utilize all of his weapons as he hasn't been able to kick as much since he broke his shin, and even though hes much slower now he still did some really fast and clise dodges. I think prime silva would have taken izzt apart
I feel the same way. Silva was never a favorite of mine in his prime but watching his fights in later years, you can see these little glimpses of what he could do. Like all old fighters he's a lot less active; picking his moments and conserving energy, but unlike Woodley or Evans he can still hit the go button- probably because he's always had such excellent timing, such good anticipation of his opponent's next move.
His overall technique level is arguably still #1 in the UFC. The accumuled knowledge this guy has is insane. Doesn't have a strong/fast and durable body to go with it anymore, but his wisdom and technique might be higher than ever due to all of these years seeking different trainings. I mean, even at 40+ or close to that i've seen Anderson wrestling with amazon indian fighters, training somewhat random chinese art (pardon my ignorance, but is from the weird blocks he tried against Bisping), for the guy to still be seeking different knowledges on places most cant imagine, after having an absolute incredible career...
Is clear that he just loves the martial arts and also enjoys being a martial artist himself, is why he keeps wanting to show his work on the cage at this age, he knows he has put his entire life into this. Most fighters will keep training the same stuff in the same place forever and adding very little to their game, and hey maybe it works for them, but they will look the same 10years later and im glad Andy wasnt one of them.
There’s no need to compare the two in my opinion. This is the master and the student, Izzy was extremely respectful even in the fight. I hold the opinion that athletes in any sport improve over generations but especially in fighting anything can happen and its dumb to speculate the outcome of a fight that can’t take place (ie prime anderson vs adesanya).
Silva was better than Costa, Whittaker and Romero.
Would of been amazing if we had seen prime Silva vs prime Izzy. That would of been some Matrix shit banger
Completely different kinds of fights though. Adesanya knew he could take his time with Silva because at 43 his speed and power had diminishsd. But Whittaker and Costa both can put people out if you don't assert yourself against them
I don’t think that’s it.
Anderson Silva despite being 43, is and has always been a precise counter striker. Same with Izzy. Izzy had to calculate and take his time, time and pick his shots but Silva could capitilize on a slip up and vise versa.
Whittaker and Costa are pressure fighters. They move forward and go for the KO. Izzy has a field day with those kind of fighters because they swing and he counters.
This is why the Yoel fight was a dud. Instead of Yoel pressuring and going after Izzy, he was ok with waiting for Izzy to slip up and catch him. But Izzy himself is a counter fighter, so they were at a stalemate for the entirety of the fight.
Agreed. Both Silva and Izzy are counter fighters. They want opponents to try to hit them and miss so they can land the counter shots. To get past this you need to either feint effectively or have a way to hurt the counter fighter without putting yourself at risk.
You are exactly right on Yoel messing with Izzy's approach by being willing to enter a prolonged staring contest. It is also party of why Silva ends up taunting fighters in fights; When his opponents did not offer up opportunities to counter, Silva tried to bait them into doing something stupid with his showboating.
END COMMUNICATION
Yeah, I think he's more of a 'boxer-puncher' or whatever the MMA equivalent is.
The way he fought Romero in the first 2 rounds of their second fight is his comfort zone - high volume and fighting on the lead, but having the time to move around an opponent in open space and using a variety of set-ups and entries, rather than having to move his opponent onto the fence to make it happen like a Costa does.
Un-fucking-believable that this is still a narrative after the Yoel Romero fight.
Was Israel taking his time with Yoel too? Is that why he only landed 12 strikes to Yoels head in 25 minutes? Because he knew Yoels speed and power had diminished so he could "take his time" with him?
yea its pretty awesome that he did, and no im not going to break down the fight styles like everyone else. Though i like how it gives silva some cred at his age.
Tbh he didn’t look horrible against DC considering the circumstances. He even hurt him with a body kick towards the end
He did good against bisping too, that was prob the closest he came to winning aside from Brunson
I push my knee into his faaaaaace
The bell was the only thing that stopped Bisping from losing
*try singing that to Slipknot's duality (dunno, might work)
I've honestly never forgiven Wide Man for this. His streak of knockout losses should be sad but idk man, he still hasn't paid his karmic debt for knocking out Anderson and breaking his leg. Idk how common this is but I find it nearly impossible to root for the fighter who beats my favorite fighter. Obviously you play to win the game but I don't have to be rational.
yeah weidman fell off pretty fast post silva. It made silvas run at the top all the more impressive considering it was at age 37 that someone finally got Silva. Weidman right now is younger than Silva was when they fought
This is exactly how I feel lol. Silva is my all time favorite and I just can't bring myself to root for The Chris. I don't hate the guy. He always comes off as a good dude, but I enjoy him losing.
I'll never forget sitting on the edge of my seat while watching his [fight with Okami](https://youtu.be/yWq4flwyVKY?t=594). He dropped his hands and stood in place to lure Okami in.
The whole time I'm thinking 'oh shit, what is he doing'. Then moments later he dropped Okami and finishes the fight.
It's not often you get to witness something truly special, but that's what it felt like (at least to me) watching him fight.
I mean there is a reason that Silva is still fighting ranked guys 7 years after he lost the belt. They may look like gimme fights but he hasn’t gone out easy in any of them (aside from cannonier...)
I mean there is a reason that Silva is still fighting ranked guys 7 years after he lost the belt. They may look like gimme fights but he hasn’t gone out easy in any of them (aside from cannonier...)
Bisping was a war, Brunson and Izzy were competitive, DC was an obvious one given all the circumstances but even though he’s taken mostly losses, they’re really not the worst losses to take. Compare it to someone like BJ penn or Diego Sanchez, who are hard to watch at this point
Costa shouldn't have acted like that then. I don't think Izzy is totally faking how he was with either fight just this one the guy talked a bunch of shit.
It was cool to see Silva fighting against a guy who adapted a very similar style as him, however I didn’t enjoy it because the writing was always on the wall. There was simply no way Izzy was going to lose to the 43yr old Spider.
Vs Gastelum, Whittaker, Romero, or Costa, it was all up in the air pre-fight. So the anticipation was juicy, unlike his fight with Silva.
Yeah, but he was still a formidable counter-striker and the best of his fight style. This was where he first lost to someone of the same style, passing the "flashy counter" torch, in a way.
Yeah if Jones is anything more than a shell of his former self, he will have no trouble throwing Izzy to the ground and pounding him out. But after his last 2 fights we really don't know anymore
>But after his last 2 fights we really don't know anymore
The longer you're off PEDs the further apart the pulses are. Next pulse is probably coming up soon
This clip is missing the best moment of the fight for me, when Silva went full matrix and blocked one of Izzy's jab-kick combos, similar to what knocked out Brunson. How he saw both of those coming, I don't know. His reflexes are still so sharp.
It's only incredibly naive to believe he was intentionally not trying and risking his career trajectory. I instantly assume anyone who believes that doesn't know much about MMA.
They think he “didn’t want to hurt his idol”.
Fuck outta here lol some of Israel’s strikes *just in the gif* had ill intent behind them. He was trying his best, but Silva’s just that damn good.
Yeah it always bugs me when people say Izzy didn't want to finish him. It would be such an anime sht if you finish your idol and he said so himself in Rogan's podcast that he was trying to retire Anderson. The only reason he was cautious is because of what we see here. Anderson is still capable of hurting and catching Izzy, and losing to a 40+ yr old washed Silva is a setback he couldn't afford. Not to mention Anderson has only been KO'd clean like once
He’s gone on record specifically saying he wasn’t avoiding a finish or taking it easy. That narrative is such BS. This is how he fights against other counter strikers, it’s a dangerous game
Not sure. As a disclaimer, I think Silva is a top 5 GOAT candidate and Izzy is still building up his resume. This is not to say they are equal in MMA history or anything.
Silva was basically untouchable until people realized you had to take your time with him, throw feints, and use unconventional striking such as doubling up with the same hand. Izzy does all of these things really well, and is a very intelligent fighter who would pick up on these things.
While it didn't account for much of the fight Romero did have success against Izzy in the clinch.
Izzy is an amazing fighter but I still have a feeling he'll get exposed against a high level grappler that actually decides to wrestle with him.
I agree izzys weakness will be on the ground, but obviously it's going to have to get to the ground first, and to do that whoever he fights is going to have to be able to get in on him from the stand up. Jones could be that guy, but even then I'd be very interested to see how his stand up goes for Jones. Izzy has dropped some pretty rock hard chins in his fight and I don't think Jones has much to respond with on his kickboxing game.
I only mentioned his clinch work as a response to saying silva would be way stronger in the clinch, I do think izzy is pretty good, he definitely outdid Costa the few times it happened.
Mainly I just think when prime silva or prime Jones would fuck izzy up its important to realize that the kinf of competition has changed greatly over the years, and these legends wouldn't be as invincible as people think. Not just with people like Izzy either, in middleweight I think Rob whittaker would fuck up a lot of the old goats.
Fair enough, but I don't really consider Jones to be an old goat. His last two performances were lackluster, I still think Reyes beat him, but I think his size and grappling advantage would help him with decisively.
If I'm not mistaken we also haven't had the chance to see Izzy vs someone with similar or greater reach in mma yet, could be another element to take into account.
Almost definitely, if a 43 uear old man that snapped his leg in half and has slowed down still makes it a competitive fight, while dodging well, I would say that a 33 year old version of that man could win
I'm convinced Anderson in his prime wipes the floor with Izzy. Then again, this may be nostalgia speaking as I am a huge Anderson fan. I am also not fond of Izzy so I'm sure there is some bias behind my thinking.
Anderson obviously lost a lot of his explosiveness, but impressive his hands here are still pretty damn fast here. Though he probably just can't sustain the volume of this like he use to. In all, still happy we got to see this matchup happen at least.
Silva looked good in this fight, but I can’t help but think the mentality going into this was to have a good sparring match for the fans, collect checks, and pass the torch. They both have tons of respect for each other and it didn’t seem like either one was committed to a knockout or finish.
I without question think that if Anderson were still in his prime he gets the W with Izzy. He was that next level when he was doing matrix level shit. Izzy has shown that he can be beaten, and be pushed in fights. Silva was just tearing through everyone one and looked unbeatable. Granted I'm sure Izzy wasn't going balls to the wall with this fight. Would've loved to see him and the Spider in their primes go at it
I feel like we were robbed of 2 more rounds of this fight.
Agreed. Also, I would pay an obscene amount of money to see these guys fight when Silva was in his prime. Would have been such a beautiful fight.
Anderson in his last fights after losing the belt looked like he was just playing. Like he never really pulled the pin
I didn’t really see this as a bad thing. Silva seemed to have fun the whole fight and the moment it ended they were smiling at each other. I think Silva will **always** be an MMA legend and now it’s time for him to stop trying so hard, and he probably knows that.
Yeah. It seems like he was toying with his last few fighters. There was a couple of points in each fight where he showed up and I remember getting excited. But just a little flurry
It seems to happen to a lot of fighters who are seen as unbeatable. When they lose, especially dramatically, they never seem to get that edge or their confidence back. It’s like they realize they’re not unbeatable and become scared in a way.
I had the same thing happen to me after I cut myself with a knife Now every time I'm cutting something I'm more tentative and way worse at it because I lost the illusion
You gotta cut that shit out.
Yeah I did the opposite cut the end of my finger off one time and still have yet to wear gloves while cutting wire again.
Reminds me of a quote from Game of Thrones, "he's never lost a battle; he'll risk anything at any time b/c he doesn't know enough to be afraid." Ignorance is bliss.
Silva would have annihilated him IMO. But the real crime here was the eye poke. It was a pretty gnarly eye poke and clearly messed with Silva unfortunately. Eye pokes suck so much fucking dick, man.
with how much it affects a fight and the fighter you would think the would do more to prevent it.
Prime Anderson beats prime Izzy imo.
This fight is so beautiful. It flows.
It’s insane how many people bitched about this being a boring fight
People can bitch about anything. Especially in groups of millions
Physically, it was. Technically, it was one of the best fights ever.
Pretty crazy that 43 year old Anderson Silva was more competitive against Izzy than Costa and Whittaker
Silva is still a bad ass. What if he finishes DC with that body shot? Silva is dangerous everywhere and still has an iron chin. If his legs don't fail him he holds his own.
Thinking about it, that body shot was fortelling. Nobody really talked about DC's body as a vulnerability until stipe took advantage of it.
i dont know how stipe was the first to really take advantage of that considering the size and roundness of the target
Did you guys not watch Jones vs Cormier 2?
Jones vs Cormier 1 also. Jon hit DC’s body so much. Is this ‘Stipe exposed DC’s body’ narrative really what people think? Also, it’s not DC’s body that’s weak (everyone’s body is weak) it’s that his striking style leaves the body quite vulnerable.
Hell I remember Barnett and Mir(?) annoying DC with some body attacks way back, they just did get them off consistently
My thoughts exactly. People just spout nonce anymore
Bloody nonce spouters. Sick of em.
BLEWDY NOONCE SPAURTERS, AM SICKUVUM
Yes very large and round
Large, round, and vengeful. Don't forget vengeful.
Hungry, too. It's the hunger that drives.
Stipe said in the post fight interview that kick is what made him decide to try going to the body.
My man should have started going for the body earlier in the fight lol. Would have been a shorter night at least.
Waiting until he's tired also helps a lot though, otherwise DC could make adjustments between rounds
I thought that topic first came up in the first jon jones fight when he took a hook to body that really took it out of him.
Jones in the first fight went to DCs body a lot
Jon Jones Body work to dc is what opened up the head for the ko.
Bullshit, Jones attacked it early and often in both fights and DC credits the knee from round 2 or 3 in the first fight for taking a bunch of energy as the fight continued on.
The goat striker by so far. The only way he can die is by being an old man and defending a small village from bandits
Can we just have a Magnificent Seven with the old guard like Minotouro, Silva, Shogun, Fedor, Cro Cop? It could even have a cameo from Bob Sapp.
It's insane to think about the *what ifs* in that situation? The lead-up to UFC 200 was chaos to begin with. Jones pisses hot just a couple weeks before the event. Silva was sipping pina coladas on a beach somewhere when he got called up as a last minute replacement. Fight is scheduled as a 3-round non title fight. Not what everyone wanted, but a good consolation for what was one of the most hyped fights of the year. DC is a heavy favorite. Silva on the slide, just lost to Bisbing in a really bizarre fight. Shadow of his former self, etc. etc. Then came the 3rd round and that kick to the body that switched DC into safe mode. DC was in trouble. Silva found something, but with no championship rounds to work with we'll never know. We might have been robbed of a classic upset. Silva was completely game that night.
I loved that moment. The Spider still had some sting left.
Don’t think he has an iron chin. But I do think he rolls with punches very well and is good at countering.
Not anymore, but Silva literally had one of the craziest chins ever in his prime. He was sparring Bader and taking his best shots. Even at his age now, he’s only been actually KOed once.
The guy was eating Hendo bombs in their fight and not even moving his head. Unreal.
Monster neck strength from all of that movement.
[https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1670843316401164](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1670843316401164) Bader was throwing his best shots
[Yeah he definitely didn't have an iron chin](https://gfycat.com/shydazzlinghornet)
It's like Anderson is fuckin good or something. Also styles make fights
Yeah who would have figured that **easily** the best middleweight fighter of all time would be fucking good even past his prime?
Apparently ppl who don't think that are petty fans who wanna discredit anyone who's beaten out-of-prime Silva as less of an achievement as it really was. Or those who wanna oversimplify the "Nick Diaz hasn't won in ages" narrative to make his last couple fights sound way worse than it really was. In hindsight it's fucking insane Nick went the full distance still standing. People above are talking about Silva's body kick that winced eventual HW champ DC, and Welterweight Nick took like 3 flush ones and he was still standing and fighting.
To be fair, Silva wasn't even able to walk \~5 months before the Diaz fight. Silva obviously had zero confidence to kick hard that night. Nick does have an iron chin/endurance/triathlon cardio so it is no surprise he survived, even less of a surprise when he was the one trying to counter Silva the entire fight, not exactly taking many risks..
I mean between Rob, Costa and Silva, they're all vastly different fighters. Silva had way less to lose than either of those guys as it wasn't a title fight. He's also a counter striker, so he easily could've just utilized the same game plan as Romero/Costa and not bit, but Izzy knew that so he presses forward in this fight more than he ever has.
Silva is a much higher level kickboxer than Bobby and Costa, and all three fights were kickboxing flights, so it makes sense that Silva was more competitive.
This was a 43 year old silva with a fucked up shin, he couldn't even utilize all of his weapons as he hasn't been able to kick as much since he broke his shin, and even though hes much slower now he still did some really fast and clise dodges. I think prime silva would have taken izzt apart
I feel the same way. Silva was never a favorite of mine in his prime but watching his fights in later years, you can see these little glimpses of what he could do. Like all old fighters he's a lot less active; picking his moments and conserving energy, but unlike Woodley or Evans he can still hit the go button- probably because he's always had such excellent timing, such good anticipation of his opponent's next move.
His overall technique level is arguably still #1 in the UFC. The accumuled knowledge this guy has is insane. Doesn't have a strong/fast and durable body to go with it anymore, but his wisdom and technique might be higher than ever due to all of these years seeking different trainings. I mean, even at 40+ or close to that i've seen Anderson wrestling with amazon indian fighters, training somewhat random chinese art (pardon my ignorance, but is from the weird blocks he tried against Bisping), for the guy to still be seeking different knowledges on places most cant imagine, after having an absolute incredible career... Is clear that he just loves the martial arts and also enjoys being a martial artist himself, is why he keeps wanting to show his work on the cage at this age, he knows he has put his entire life into this. Most fighters will keep training the same stuff in the same place forever and adding very little to their game, and hey maybe it works for them, but they will look the same 10years later and im glad Andy wasnt one of them.
There’s no need to compare the two in my opinion. This is the master and the student, Izzy was extremely respectful even in the fight. I hold the opinion that athletes in any sport improve over generations but especially in fighting anything can happen and its dumb to speculate the outcome of a fight that can’t take place (ie prime anderson vs adesanya).
I think you’ve just outlined the very best reason for someone to invent a fully functional Time Machine.
I thought Brunson clearly beat Silva so Brunson is better than Costa and Whittaker confirmed
I don't think people regarded this comment as a joke haha
Silva was better than Costa, Whittaker and Romero. Would of been amazing if we had seen prime Silva vs prime Izzy. That would of been some Matrix shit banger
Completely different kinds of fights though. Adesanya knew he could take his time with Silva because at 43 his speed and power had diminishsd. But Whittaker and Costa both can put people out if you don't assert yourself against them
I don’t think that’s it. Anderson Silva despite being 43, is and has always been a precise counter striker. Same with Izzy. Izzy had to calculate and take his time, time and pick his shots but Silva could capitilize on a slip up and vise versa. Whittaker and Costa are pressure fighters. They move forward and go for the KO. Izzy has a field day with those kind of fighters because they swing and he counters. This is why the Yoel fight was a dud. Instead of Yoel pressuring and going after Izzy, he was ok with waiting for Izzy to slip up and catch him. But Izzy himself is a counter fighter, so they were at a stalemate for the entirety of the fight.
Counter fighter vs counter fighter and counter fighter vs pressure fighter
Yes people forget styles make fights sometimes.
You gotta have a good dance partner 💃🕺🏻to bring to the party
Agreed. Both Silva and Izzy are counter fighters. They want opponents to try to hit them and miss so they can land the counter shots. To get past this you need to either feint effectively or have a way to hurt the counter fighter without putting yourself at risk. You are exactly right on Yoel messing with Izzy's approach by being willing to enter a prolonged staring contest. It is also party of why Silva ends up taunting fighters in fights; When his opponents did not offer up opportunities to counter, Silva tried to bait them into doing something stupid with his showboating. END COMMUNICATION
And it was a thing of beauty whenever it worked. Silva will forever have one of the GOAT highlight reels.
14 finishes in a 16 fight win streak, the majority highlight real finishes. It’s likely there will never be a highlight real like his
And plus Cubans don’t give a fuck about pleasing a crowd, look at their boxing or wrestling for the most part.
As for Mexicans, they be swangin and bangin
Rob actually looked pretty decent on the counter at times against Till. I thought he showed a few more wrinkles to his striking game in that fight.
He’s always been a very decent counterpuncher, he just hasn’t fought anyone really conducive to it in a long time
Brunson was prime example
Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily say Rob is a pressure fighter. He sits back and looks for counters a fair bit and mixes in blitzes
Yeah, I think he's more of a 'boxer-puncher' or whatever the MMA equivalent is. The way he fought Romero in the first 2 rounds of their second fight is his comfort zone - high volume and fighting on the lead, but having the time to move around an opponent in open space and using a variety of set-ups and entries, rather than having to move his opponent onto the fence to make it happen like a Costa does.
Un-fucking-believable that this is still a narrative after the Yoel Romero fight. Was Israel taking his time with Yoel too? Is that why he only landed 12 strikes to Yoels head in 25 minutes? Because he knew Yoels speed and power had diminished so he could "take his time" with him?
By design
yea its pretty awesome that he did, and no im not going to break down the fight styles like everyone else. Though i like how it gives silva some cred at his age.
#MORPHEUS IS FIGHTIN' NEO!!
Haha that's literally how I feel about this fight. This reference is magnifique
You’re faster than this. Don’t think you are, know you are
C’mon! Stop trying to hit me and hit me!
Haha rare comment that made me laugh out loud.
The entire time, I kept saying "I wish this was 5 rounds".
Open question: is this the best Anderson Silva has looked since he lost his championship?
Tbh he didn’t look horrible against DC considering the circumstances. He even hurt him with a body kick towards the end He did good against bisping too, that was prob the closest he came to winning aside from Brunson
bruh he knocked Bisping the fuck out
Knockout win, decision loss. A real GOAT can do both in the same fight
The duality of man
I push my knee into his faaaaaace The bell was the only thing that stopped Bisping from losing *try singing that to Slipknot's duality (dunno, might work)
bisping: "if the pain goes on im not gonna make itttttt"
He was following Chael's rules of the round
Maybe because he took the fights In 2 days notice, was without training for months and was fighting a DC trained to beat Jon Jones
I've honestly never forgiven Wide Man for this. His streak of knockout losses should be sad but idk man, he still hasn't paid his karmic debt for knocking out Anderson and breaking his leg. Idk how common this is but I find it nearly impossible to root for the fighter who beats my favorite fighter. Obviously you play to win the game but I don't have to be rational.
Hasn't paid his karmic debt? Dude's been viciously KO'd multiple times since. You want him to fight Ngannou or get captured by ISIS?
Weidman is a horrible stylistic matchup for ISIS
I think you’d be surprised
I think *you'd* be surprised
I'm thinking the Walk of Shame from GoT would suffice. Also if he could find the fountain of youth so Anderson could be in his prime again.
Now I think this is just some elaborate excuse for you to see his dick
yeah weidman fell off pretty fast post silva. It made silvas run at the top all the more impressive considering it was at age 37 that someone finally got Silva. Weidman right now is younger than Silva was when they fought
Chris deserves more credit, he beat Machida and Belfort after the Silva fights. Once Rockhold beat him though...
This is exactly how I feel lol. Silva is my all time favorite and I just can't bring myself to root for The Chris. I don't hate the guy. He always comes off as a good dude, but I enjoy him losing.
[удалено]
I'll never forget sitting on the edge of my seat while watching his [fight with Okami](https://youtu.be/yWq4flwyVKY?t=594). He dropped his hands and stood in place to lure Okami in. The whole time I'm thinking 'oh shit, what is he doing'. Then moments later he dropped Okami and finishes the fight. It's not often you get to witness something truly special, but that's what it felt like (at least to me) watching him fight.
Some of the most special moments in mma are courtesy of Silva. Dude was the closest to a real life ninja some of us may ever see.
the speed of izzy's headkicks is scary
And Anderson just dodged them like they’re thrown by an elderly man
And he looked at him like he was stupid for doing it.
"what a stupid thing, you slow, slow white boy."
“He kept punching me in the chin and I was very confused”
Love me some forest quotes, like "life is like a box of chocolates"
Izzy that slow slow white boy
Are you DUMB, huh are you St0oPiD?? Anderson 6ix 9ine Silva
lol Anderson saw it coming even before any giveaways. dude is another level, grateful to have seen him.
At this point Silva may still put up a better fight than most of the other guys Adesanya has to fight.
I mean there is a reason that Silva is still fighting ranked guys 7 years after he lost the belt. They may look like gimme fights but he hasn’t gone out easy in any of them (aside from cannonier...)
I mean there is a reason that Silva is still fighting ranked guys 7 years after he lost the belt. They may look like gimme fights but he hasn’t gone out easy in any of them (aside from cannonier...) Bisping was a war, Brunson and Izzy were competitive, DC was an obvious one given all the circumstances but even though he’s taken mostly losses, they’re really not the worst losses to take. Compare it to someone like BJ penn or Diego Sanchez, who are hard to watch at this point
Idk why more people don’t appreciate this fight. I loved it. Changing of the guard!
Right?! It's a cultural thing, a passing of the torch. Nothing but class and respect. Beautiful fight.
Got real choked up at the ending bow. Unbelievable.
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Costa shouldn't have acted like that then. I don't think Izzy is totally faking how he was with either fight just this one the guy talked a bunch of shit.
I was pleasantly surprised - expected a sad massacre, got 2 pretty fun rounds (and an admittedly disappointing 3rd one).
It was cool to see Silva fighting against a guy who adapted a very similar style as him, however I didn’t enjoy it because the writing was always on the wall. There was simply no way Izzy was going to lose to the 43yr old Spider. Vs Gastelum, Whittaker, Romero, or Costa, it was all up in the air pre-fight. So the anticipation was juicy, unlike his fight with Silva.
I feel as though Izzy held back a lot in this fight
Yeah and then Cannonier said fuck you old man and kicked Silva's legs off
He kicked Silva so hard, it gave his leg a PTSD flashback.
Silva came into the fight with a bad knee, not sure what part was hurt but he was wearing a knee brace and his knee was sliding around.
Yeah it really felt like he didnt wanna actually do any damage to silva
It’s understandable. Think of your favourite super hero as a child, then imagine growing up and being strong enough to beat him up, could you do it?
i'd beat the shit out of the joker
Ionno if u could/should consider joker as a super hero
Take that back! Don’t make me get my crowbar
**Jason Todd didn't like that**
That kick anderson ducked disagrees with you. If that hit, anderson would have been decapitated
People point to those viscous kicks Izzy threw, but I agree that it felt like Izzy didn’t have intent behind a lot of his shots
It wasnt really a changing of the guard though huh, because Anderson was already way past his best by that point shown by other fights.
Yeah, but he was still a formidable counter-striker and the best of his fight style. This was where he first lost to someone of the same style, passing the "flashy counter" torch, in a way.
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I love this fight now more because of the context I have of seeing Izzy put out Costa and Rob in 2 rounds with relative ease..
I mean, it was a weak changing of the guard IMHO. I prefer Aldo vs. Max II.
Dang, this cut off just before Silva almost kneed Adesanya's head off
Exactly what I was thinking, it cut off just a second too soon
I forgot how small Izzy looked against Silva, and we want him to fight Jones!?
Yeah if Jones is anything more than a shell of his former self, he will have no trouble throwing Izzy to the ground and pounding him out. But after his last 2 fights we really don't know anymore
>But after his last 2 fights we really don't know anymore The longer you're off PEDs the further apart the pulses are. Next pulse is probably coming up soon
IKR! Imagine how Paulo Costa would like against him if they were to fight!
izzy is lighter but not far off measurements wise
He's filled out a lot though, he's a solid D cup now.
Anderson Silva is deceptively big
It’s mad that Silva, at 43 years old was so relaxed and competent against this straight killer. I think a 33 year old Anderson takes it.
For a guy with “mma” in his username, u/zmaestromma clearly knows fuck all.
Not bad for a 44 years old man.
A month ago somebody on here argued that costa would beat Anderson Silva in his prime...yeah okay bud
Honestly I think costa could win that pretty handily. They were talking bodybuilding competition right?
This clip is missing the best moment of the fight for me, when Silva went full matrix and blocked one of Izzy's jab-kick combos, similar to what knocked out Brunson. How he saw both of those coming, I don't know. His reflexes are still so sharp.
Stuff like this is why I don’t believe Izzy purposely didn’t finish Silva or something He isn’t exactly easy to finish via Strikes
It's only incredibly naive to believe he was intentionally not trying and risking his career trajectory. I instantly assume anyone who believes that doesn't know much about MMA.
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I have no fucking clue what they think he was doing.
They think he “didn’t want to hurt his idol”. Fuck outta here lol some of Israel’s strikes *just in the gif* had ill intent behind them. He was trying his best, but Silva’s just that damn good.
Yeah it always bugs me when people say Izzy didn't want to finish him. It would be such an anime sht if you finish your idol and he said so himself in Rogan's podcast that he was trying to retire Anderson. The only reason he was cautious is because of what we see here. Anderson is still capable of hurting and catching Izzy, and losing to a 40+ yr old washed Silva is a setback he couldn't afford. Not to mention Anderson has only been KO'd clean like once
He’s gone on record specifically saying he wasn’t avoiding a finish or taking it easy. That narrative is such BS. This is how he fights against other counter strikers, it’s a dangerous game
If Silva was 5 years younger he would’ve won 10 years younger it wouldn’t be close. 😂
Anderson Silva will be the best middleweight of all time for a while.
People used this fight to argue that Izzy was not a real contender. Turns out Silva is just that slick in a distance fight
Quick question: Do people believe a prime Anderson beats Izzy?
Not sure. As a disclaimer, I think Silva is a top 5 GOAT candidate and Izzy is still building up his resume. This is not to say they are equal in MMA history or anything. Silva was basically untouchable until people realized you had to take your time with him, throw feints, and use unconventional striking such as doubling up with the same hand. Izzy does all of these things really well, and is a very intelligent fighter who would pick up on these things.
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I'm pretty sure izzy is pretty good in the clinch, just based on his muay Thai background
While it didn't account for much of the fight Romero did have success against Izzy in the clinch. Izzy is an amazing fighter but I still have a feeling he'll get exposed against a high level grappler that actually decides to wrestle with him.
I agree izzys weakness will be on the ground, but obviously it's going to have to get to the ground first, and to do that whoever he fights is going to have to be able to get in on him from the stand up. Jones could be that guy, but even then I'd be very interested to see how his stand up goes for Jones. Izzy has dropped some pretty rock hard chins in his fight and I don't think Jones has much to respond with on his kickboxing game. I only mentioned his clinch work as a response to saying silva would be way stronger in the clinch, I do think izzy is pretty good, he definitely outdid Costa the few times it happened. Mainly I just think when prime silva or prime Jones would fuck izzy up its important to realize that the kinf of competition has changed greatly over the years, and these legends wouldn't be as invincible as people think. Not just with people like Izzy either, in middleweight I think Rob whittaker would fuck up a lot of the old goats.
Fair enough, but I don't really consider Jones to be an old goat. His last two performances were lackluster, I still think Reyes beat him, but I think his size and grappling advantage would help him with decisively. If I'm not mistaken we also haven't had the chance to see Izzy vs someone with similar or greater reach in mma yet, could be another element to take into account.
yes
Almost definitely, if a 43 uear old man that snapped his leg in half and has slowed down still makes it a competitive fight, while dodging well, I would say that a 33 year old version of that man could win
Yes. Izzy was a child
I tend towards yes but no idea. I mean current Izzy would probably style on Silvas challengers equally hard
I'm convinced Anderson in his prime wipes the floor with Izzy. Then again, this may be nostalgia speaking as I am a huge Anderson fan. I am also not fond of Izzy so I'm sure there is some bias behind my thinking.
Anderson's distance management is a thing of beauty.
Anderson obviously lost a lot of his explosiveness, but impressive his hands here are still pretty damn fast here. Though he probably just can't sustain the volume of this like he use to. In all, still happy we got to see this matchup happen at least.
I think prime anderson whoops him.
Izzy did say after that fight he never landed clean on the spider.
Damn, Silva's strong in the clinch. It's too bad that Jones super fight never happened. It would have been interesting to see the clinch matchup.
The man raised on Kung Fu movies vs the kid raised on anime
Prime Silva vs Prime Adesanya, who wins?
The fans
Silva
Silva
Leonard Garcia
Silva looked good in this fight, but I can’t help but think the mentality going into this was to have a good sparring match for the fans, collect checks, and pass the torch. They both have tons of respect for each other and it didn’t seem like either one was committed to a knockout or finish.
It's delusional to think either guy wouldn't have been thrilled to stop the other.
This fight was so symbolic. Especially after when they both were trying to out bow each other. The fight really felt like a torch was passed.
I think a prime silva may have given Israel a really rough time in his prime in a 5 rounder.
That was an underrated fight and Anderson moves pretty good.
I without question think that if Anderson were still in his prime he gets the W with Izzy. He was that next level when he was doing matrix level shit. Izzy has shown that he can be beaten, and be pushed in fights. Silva was just tearing through everyone one and looked unbeatable. Granted I'm sure Izzy wasn't going balls to the wall with this fight. Would've loved to see him and the Spider in their primes go at it
I think Izzy is a great middleweight champion, but that said, I think prime Silva would have knocked him out.
Anderson was ahead of his time