Im seeing with Yoels rise many ppl saying Anderson beat all the best MWs of his era. He beat some (Hendo, Shale, Hich, Vitor, Yushin, Demian, Marquardt, Horn), but there were others, many im about to list who are superior to most these guys if not all.
But there are alot he missed out on, mostly out of UFC which will always leave his MW legacy up for grabs by certain guys who can perform at that elite level and pick up top wins for a long enough period.
- Many thought Filho could beat him when in his purime when he was easily winning and finishing top MWs, sepcially with Andersons gurappling weakness at the time, never happened. Filho was top 3 in the world, even #2 for the start of Andersons reign) and hes easily better at his purime than most those wins he has @ MW, if not all but Hendo
- Bustamante, prolly a top 10 MW of alltime, most his purime was earlier on but that question will be there. He was like a better version of Demian Maia as an overall MMA fighter even tho he didnt have his gurappling pedigree. Very close fights with Hendo, Hampage and Chuck, many scored 2 of those fights for him or at least 1. Crowd was booing after the Chuck decision IIRC
- Lindland, fringe top 10 MW of all time, in the mid 2000s fans were talking about it. He was seen as arguably the best MW or top 3 at one time before fighting Fedor and getting hobbed by Hampage, was even on couple P4P lists at the time.
- Kang before his girlfriend passed away was one of the best MWs in the world
- Misaki was better than most his opponents even Okami - dude beat Hendo when he was hegarded as the #1 MW by most and Hendo lost to him in his last 185lb fight before fighting Anderson, and Kang and won PRIDE GP when PRIDE had many of the best MWs on the planet. Misaki is prolly a top 15 MW of alltime.
- Shields when he fought there, obviously peakwise one of the best. Beat purime Hendo down, beat Hobbie when he was top hanked @ MW etc.
- All the Strikeforce guys when they were champs or near start of their careers - Tim, Jacare, Luke tho this was near the end of Andersons career. There was talk about Luke fight when he was champ
- Gegard when he won DREAM GP and was considered top 5 @ MW by many, tho he fought @ 205 hight after, still ppl were debating who would win. Gegard had one of the best MW years in history in 2008; he went 6-0 with 5 finishes, finished Cyborg, Kang, Manhoef and Jacare.
- there was even some intrigue against Hobbie Lawler back when he was EliteXC champ and was considered a top 3-5 MW in the world
- Murilo Ninja, this one is more understandable since his career got derailed by Sergei. But he was still one of the best and it wouldve been interesting, but he weight jumped too much and just had a poorly managed career.
So yes, Anderson did beat some of the best MWs of his era but not all of them. Unfortunately in his purime he fought mediocre guys like Fryklund, Leben, Lutter, Cote, Hivera, Stout, Irvin (meaningless LHW fight) and Leites.
Comparatively you look at a guy like Fedor, the only HWs from his time he missed out on were Barnett, Sergei, Murr, Hicco, Reem and Handy. And he was supposed to fight Barnett (IIRC more than one time, but Barnett decline NY fight and Hunt got in, then OFC the Affliction debacle by Josh) and apparently he asked to fight Reem but he went off to kickbox. Handy also clearly avoided the fight for a while.
GSP fought all the WWs from his era except for Ellenberger, Daley, Diego and Kampmann. Mach was already @ 155 by that point, wouldnt consider Miletich his era.
