How good was Anderson Silva when Chris Weidman beat him?

TheItalianStallion

TheItalianStallion

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For the longest time I've always wondered how good he was. I know he was 38 and past his peak fighting prime I won't argue that he wasn't, however he didn't look nearly as slow or past it as several other fighters normally are at that age and destroyed both Chael and LHW Bonnar not long prior. So imo even though Silva was coming to the end of his career he was still by Far the best middleweight at the time and I believe even that version of Anderson would have beat many of today's middleweights and even Israel given what current Silva was able to do against him.
 
Still good, probably good enough to have won the fight if he hadn't clowned around.
Him getting KOd was going to happen eventually though unless he retired.
Anderson's style relied heavily on reflexes, which seems to be one of the first attributes to go as you get older.
Also MMA striking IN GENERAL is drastically better than it was in Silvas prime .
 
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not in his prime but he also never fought anyone like Weidman in his prime. Silva fans ignore the losses pre ufc and the losses late in his career too much imo

Hendo was a good win, Okami, Franklin(but that's a great style match up) everyone else was blah
 
He looked great, up until he got cocky. I think that moment shattered a lot of his confidence, and he's never been the same since. He used to demoralize fighters with his confidence to stand and bob and weave out of trouble with ease, even putting his chin out there to dare them, and it worked out great...until it didn't.

It was gonna happen eventually though, one way or the other. That was his time.
 
I think he was still close to his prime. A lot of people also forget that Anderson's TDD got much better after the first Sonnen fight when Anderson was 35.

When Anderson was in his physical prime his TDD and submission defense wasn't as good nor was his ability to get back up when taken down. I think the Weidman that Anderson fought would have beaten a younger Anderson as well just more likely by submission or TKO on the ground.
 
Still the best MW on the planet.

I believe Silva was on his way to defeating Weidman in their first fight and I was rooting for Weidman. I've rewatched their first fight a few times now.

Silva was landing really hard leg kicks and Weidman wasn't checking any of em. Weidman wasn't landing anything that was gonna hurt Silva. But Weidman was breathing heavy after that first round. I seen an interview where he admits to gassing quite a bit only one round in. This was a very winnable fight for Silva but the dude went crazy with the showboating and got caught. A night I'll never forget.

By the time the second fight came around Weidman was ready and learned how to check those kicks.
 
TheItalianStallion said:
For the longest time I've always wondered how good he was. I know he was 38 and past his peak fighting prime I won't argue that he wasn't, however he didn't look nearly as slow or past it as several other fighters normally are at that age and destroyed both Chael and LHW Bonnar not long prior. So imo even though Silva was coming to the end of his career he was still by Far the best middleweight at the time and I believe even that version of Anderson would have beat many of today's middleweights and even Israel given what current Silva was able to do against him.
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he looked pretty good until he was unconscious
 
HereticBD said:
He looked great, up until he got cocky. I think that moment shattered a lot of his confidence, and he's never been the same since. He used to demoralize fighters with his confidence to stand and bob and weave out of trouble with ease, even putting his chin out there to dare them, and it worked out great...until it didn't.

It was gonna happen eventually though, one way or the other. That was his time.
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What fight were you watching? Anderson got taken down in the first fight had to defend 2 submission attempts and ate some GnP that had his head bounce off the mat. He was losing then got desperate to goad Weidman into staying on his feet and got tricked into leaning into Weidman's left hook since he threw two punches in a row from the same side.
 
Not nearly good enough. That is literally the only metric I use.
 
Clearly not in his prime but still a high quality win for The Chris. Anderson had just dominated Chael the year before.
 
TheItalianStallion said:
For the longest time I've always wondered how good he was. I know he was 38 and past his peak fighting prime I won't argue that he wasn't, however he didn't look nearly as slow or past it as several other fighters normally are at that age and destroyed both Chael and LHW Bonnar not long prior. So imo even though Silva was coming to the end of his career he was still by Far the best middleweight at the time and I believe even that version of Anderson would have beat many of today's middleweights and even Israel given what current Silva was able to do against him.
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Just the same guy. He lost to a superior fighter, both times.
 
He went into the fight with the mindset of it being a retirement fight. So he was past his prime, but he was still the #1 MW in the world at the time.

First round it looked like he was gauging Weidman's distance to set up a Ko in the 2nd, Honestly silva threw that fight away

He was overly eager to bait Chris to stay on the feet but I think he didn't realize he probs didn't need to bait Weidman into throwing punches anyway
 
Any wrestler who was competent on the feet would give Spider problems. Weidman was a Chael 2.0 and much younger and hungrier. I think Silva knew this going into the fight and that was the reason he clowned so much, he was kinda insecure about his chances. Plus he had already lost a step since the 2nd Shael fight. Also, Imo they where both juicy in that match so that cancels out.
 
He was still incredibly good. Every bit the dominant champ. He'd just handily beaten Chael in a rematch, but he was probably slowing down. It's just that a declining Anderson was still much better than everyone else. Counter strikers just age like milk.
 
Not that far away from some of his most spectacular performances.

Still, 38 years old, and's been fighting since forever.

Let's call him 80% Anderson.
 
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