Just how good was Wanderlei Silva?

HHJ said:
One of the most homicidal violent fighters in mma history.When hurt,he just kept coming. Def lost something from those back to back ko losses to crocop and hendo,but he showed some glimpses of his old self in the cung le,jardine and Brian stann fights. When he has you hurt he KNOWS how to put you up in that room in the sky with jesus.
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Don't forget Bisping
 
Gladiator24 said:
Got fight pass, someone on here recommended me to go watch pride stuff, so I watched a documentary on pride and man that wanderlei Silva looked vicious! His staredowns alone looked scary af! Almost on the same level as mike Tyson! No one really mentions this guy in the goat talk but just how good was he, was he a level just below the goat status or something

Plus pride itself looked insane, some of the fights, Damn!
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Prime wanderlei was a scary motherfucker, although his chin wasn't the best in the world imo
 
so much roids involved that it's impossible to tell.
 
Incredibly good, that weight division was so damn stacked. The height of the LHW (MW) division, so many legends in their primes. Wanderlei dominated for years until finally losing a decision in a tournament to Arona who was a freakishly good grappler, just look at his success in ADCC. He then avenged that loss in a title fight. Smashed Rampage twice who smashed Chuck twice. He was a shell by the time he went to the UFC with flashes of brilliance. But that old Wanderlei was something special, just the epitome of technical sprawl and brawl, violence incarnate.
 
He's one of the top LHWs of all time. IMO he was at his best around late 2000-2005. Watch his first fight with Cro Cop and his fight with Hunt where he was supposed to be fighting Sakuraba and instead fought a striker that's about 100lbs more. He was much more well rounded back then and had crazy recovery, speed and agression.
 
ReadWrite said:
He was past his prime when he arrived at the UFC, where he went 5-5. He had some good fights (Chuck), but no notable wins, unless you count prime Bisping, whom he narrowly defeated. His most memorable wins were the 36-second destruction of Jardine and the plum-knee KO+face plant of Rampage, left to hang in the ropes.

Wanderlei20KOs20Rampage_medium.gif

Wandy was a glorified brawler, a MW/LHW version of Matt Brown.
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But Wand was a Champion who won Championship fights......many of them.
 
613 said:
You are just going to lie about his weight now eh lol
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What did he lie about? Wanderlei was around 205 when he fought Cro Cop the first time. He bulked up a bunch for the OWGP because he thought he would have to fight Barnett or Big Nog. It was a mistake in hindsight as he didn't fight them and he was faster than Cro Cop when they fought the first time and he would have won if there were judges in that match.
 
jk.rock said:
Hugh mistake by silva to bulk up as he lost his speed and was on the silde in 2006. The first fight with cro cop he was around 205 and matched mirko for speed and won that fight imo.
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Yeah I think Wand probably won that fight too, weird rules where it was technically mma I think, but with forced stand-ups. Odd, I'd have to watch that fight again in full it was very close. Wanderlei was much more aggressive in the first fight, never gave crop cop space to land the devastating fight ending strikes. I think in the second fight he was hurt very early on with a left straight and never recovered. But all respect to Wand, he fought CC twice and also Hunt! Total madman.
 
Great fighter although a questionable standup with Rampage. When he got the UFC, he wasn't the same. The knee surgeries, the plastic surgery, he stopped shaving his head and he wore board shorts.
 
WAR RANDLEMAN! said:
he was excellent at pulverizing Japanese pro-wrestlers and street sweepers that he outweighed by about 90 lbs
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Honestly Wanderlei is probably the biggest can crusher ever, I personally think he's the most overrated fighter ever. I give him props for smashing Rampage though and putting up fights against Hunt & Cro Cop
 
Spookv said:
Honestly Wanderlei is probably the biggest can crusher ever, I personally think he's the most overrated fighter ever. I give him props for smashing Rampage though and putting up fights against Hunt & Cro Cop
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I hope you realize that the whole can crusher thing is a myth and complete nonsense. I've head this for well over a decade and yet no one can really make any sense of this. There were a few guys he fought that were cans so no denying that, however that is greatly exaggerated that he fought many. First, before Wanderlei was even in Pride and fought a so called can, he fought Vitor, Tito, Van Arsdale, Cro Cop Hendo, Mezger, Sakuraba and Yvel (DQ but he still fought him). That is a pretty dam good list of top fighters. Now the only guys he fought that fall under cans would be Otsuke, Iwasaki Oyama and Kanehara. Tamura was a legit fighter who had good wins and so was Kondo and lets not even mention Sak and Yoshida in that category. And Wand fought these guys within a two year span of each other and after 2004 he fought nothing but top comp in Pride and the UFC. So you have 4 guys in about 30 fights till 2004.

Few guys that came over to Pride fought these guys to be built up. Shogun, Hendo, Ninja, Cro Cop.
 
WAR RANDLEMAN! said:
he was excellent at pulverizing Japanese pro-wrestlers and street sweepers that he outweighed by about 90 lbs
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Like Rampage, Mark Hunt, Arona, Fujita, Eug Jackson, Ortiz, Belfort, Mezger, Crocop.... shit.
 
JKS said:
I hope you realize that the whole can crusher thing is a myth and complete nonsense. I've head this for well over a decade and yet no one can really make any sense of this. There were a few guys he fought that were cans so no denying that, however that is greatly exaggerated that he fought many. First, before Wanderlei was even in Pride and fought a so called can, he fought Vitor, Tito, Van Arsdale, Cro Cop Hendo, Mezger, Sakuraba and Yvel (DQ but he still fought him). That is a pretty dam good list of top fighters. Now the only guys he fought that fall under cans would be Otsuke, Iwasaki Oyama and Kanehara. Tamura was a legit fighter who had good wins and so was Kondo and lets not even mention Sak and Yoshida in that category. And Wand fought these guys within a two year span of each other and after 2004 he fought nothing but top comp in Pride and the UFC. So you have 4 guys in about 30 fights till 2004.

Few guys that came over to Pride fought these guys to be built up. Shogun, Hendo, Ninja, Cro Cop.
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Wanderlei really didn't fight many cans, this type of talk doesn't come from people that were watching MMA from 2000-2010 because they know that everyone fought some cans during that era. Pride guys also fought about 4-5 times a year compared to their UFC counterparts that fought 2-3 times a year so who cares if they fought a can or two on top of fighting 3 legit top fighters? It's just extra.
 
Lol @ Wand being juiced in Pride

Pretty much everyone was juiced in Pride. That’s like knocking Tito cause he was awesome at elbows in UFC

And yes, Wand was a blown up MW. He weighed in at 230+ lbs during an openweight GP but it required him to pack on an insane amount of muscle that obviously didn’t fit his frame
 
JKS said:
I hope you realize that the whole can crusher thing is a myth and complete nonsense. I've head this for well over a decade and yet no one can really make any sense of this. There were a few guys he fought that were cans so no denying that, however that is greatly exaggerated that he fought many. First, before Wanderlei was even in Pride and fought a so called can, he fought Vitor, Tito, Van Arsdale, Cro Cop Hendo, Mezger, Sakuraba and Yvel (DQ but he still fought him). That is a pretty dam good list of top fighters. Now the only guys he fought that fall under cans would be Otsuke, Iwasaki Oyama and Kanehara. Tamura was a legit fighter who had good wins and so was Kondo and lets not even mention Sak and Yoshida in that category. And Wand fought these guys within a two year span of each other and after 2004 he fought nothing but top comp in Pride and the UFC. So you have 4 guys in about 30 fights till 2004.

Few guys that came over to Pride fought these guys to be built up. Shogun, Hendo, Ninja, Cro Cop.
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He beat only 6 top level fighters in his Pride run. Mezger, Sakuraba, Rampage, Fujita, Henderson & Arona. The rest where ALL cans or guys who never belong in the ring with him.

He's a good fighter liked his brawling style and his ground game off his back is underrated, you bring up those fights with Vitor & Tito but fail to mention he loss those. Look at his career in the UFC, that's what his career would look like in Pride if he was fighting top fighters. It was a different time though where all the top 205 where scattered in different orgs. Lil Nog, Overeem, Vovchanchyn, even Lister we're there fighting yet he was matched against people who shouldn't have been in there. I get it, it was the Japanese who wanted to see a fellow countryman beat the unbeatable Wanderlei Silva.

Like I mentioned I enjoyed watching him he's a good fighter but the competition he beat to fill that undefeated streak were gimmes.
 
There’s probably no greater litmus test for MMA noobs than Wanderlei fucking Silva

Dude was the original Silva ffs
 
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