Who is the best pound for pound fighter in the world?
July 20, 2008 by Adam Morgan
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Ever since last night, the question has become who the best fighter in the world is. Pound for pound, who is the king? Is it still Anderson Silva after his demolition of James Irvin at a higher weight class? Is it Fedor Emelianenko after his 36 second abusal of Tim Sylvia, a former two time UFC heavyweight champion?
To some, it’s clear as day who the best pound for pound fighter is and has been for awhile now: Anderson Silva. To others, Fedor reclaimed his pound for pound spot last night by demolishing a man that took Randy Couture a full five rounds to beat. After last night, the two are definitely #1 and #2 on the list. They are both head and shoulders above the competition at their weight class. This much is clear. But who is #1? And who is #2?
For me, the picture isn’t as clear. Silva’s victory over Irvin, while convincing, doesn’t seem to mean much in the long run. Silva cuts a lot of weight to get to 185 lbs. and could technically compete at 205 lbs. all the time if he wanted to. That coupled with the fact that James Irvin probably isn’t event top twenty in the light heavyweight class make me skeptical to crown him the undisputed pound for pound king. Had Silva beat someone in the top ten or the top fifteen, then I would be more likely to call him the best pound for pound fighter in the world regardless of what Emelianenko did last night.
The only reason Fedor has fallen so far in people’s minds and rankings is his relative inactivity and lack of quality opponents. Now that Fedor has definitively destroyed one of the UFC’s more dominant former champions in less than a minute, it’s clear that he seems to be back on track to reclaim his crown at the top. If nothing else, he’s clearly vaulted himself back up to the #2 spot on many peoples’ lists.
For now, Anderson Silva remains on top. If he hadn’t fought on last night’s card in a different weight class, I believe a lot of people would be singing a different tune. If Fedor was the only one of the two to have a fight last night and he demolished Sylvia like he did, I think people would be clamoring to put him at the top. Silva’s win last night over Irvin allowed him to tread water at the top. But he has to be looking over his shoulder, as the Last Emperor seems to be on track to take back his throne.
hexrei
fedor has fought six different japanese fighters…so no he wasn’t fed a bunch of japanese cans…if you look at the guys that fedor fought, and can remember what there rankings were when he fought them, he has fought and defeated better fighters than sylvia…and you obviously don’t pay attention….look at post 35 where i explain what p4p is all about
as for Franklin, i simply debunked your argument about silva’s level of competition…if level of competition were a reason for p4p to slip(which it isn’t, ask ring magazine) then i say the only legit superstar silva has defeated is henderson due to the 185 weight class being thinner than an olsen twin. p4p is not a ranking based on whom you are fighting, but on saying who’s the best fighter overall….if i were to wave my magic wand and make fedor and silva the same exact weight, who would win? that’s a subjective argument for sure, but if we’re going to have subjective arguments than at least use logic.
Onto fedor’s career, he has quite simply defeated every heavyweight that it made sense to fight and cleared out the deepest heavyweight division in mma history….you probably weren’t watching back then since it predates griffin-bonnar, but while the japanese do have an affinity for freakshow matches, fedor also crammed in some of the best fighter’s on the planet….and before i see another inaccurate list putting down those guys…coleman lost once (to big nog) following his grand prix victory and was younger (and still is younger) than Randy Couture is now….so legitimate wins that were impressive as hell when they happened in fedor’s career looks like this.
arona, sobral, schilt, herring, big nog, coleman, randleman, big nog again, tk, crocop, hunt and now syvia
Silva’s impressive as hell wins
henderson
Everybody Loves Raymond – you are on good crank. Big Nog and CroCop are the only impressive wins in recent history for Fedor.
I think there’s no doubt that “in potentiality” Fedor is the best fighter ever up to this point. But in actuality he’s neither fought enough or had the level of comp he should to warrant p4p #1 status.
Fedor is head and shoulders above anyone in the heavyweight division, however, that division is definitely the weakest. Randy Couture, who everyone seems to think is one of the best, is highly overrated. Yes, he beat Silvia and Gonzaga, but neither of them are very impressive. Couture couldn’t even beat Liddell at 205. That’s why he retired, then moved back up to heavyweight where the competition was weaker.
As for Silvia, there is a reason why the UFC did not resign him. He sucks.
Dana should swallow his pride, sign Fedor and have him beat the ‘Nog-Couture winner then fight Anderson at a catch weight of 215 or something like that.
That’s really the only way to settle this argument.
#51
“arona, sobral, schilt, herring, big nog, coleman, randleman, big nog again, tk, crocop, hunt and now syvia”
uh some of those guys were undersized heavies. crocop and big nog r the only 2 top heavies he faced in japan. he didnt finish either. sylvia, we all know, is terrible at sub defense.
NOW. since anderson silva has been in the ufc, a lot of people have doubted him. when he 1st arrived it was so he could a CHALLENGER to franklins title, not someone who was sent to destroy him. majority of fans thought that ace had too much an all-around game 4 the spider. we all know what happend there. Lutter, big bjj master, wins the fight as soon as it hits the ground. yeah right. marquardt, good wrestler. 7 TIME KING OF PANCRASE with heavy hands. didnt happen. and my all time fave, HENDO! Mr. olympic credentials. now i went to go see this fight live and i cant tell u how awesome it was to see everyones face around me when hendo looked like he was about to swallow his tongue. priceless.
now lets finally give silva some credit where its due. he’s beaten everyone he was doubted to beat. and yes that includes irvin who people thought was gonna ko silva. i know alot of people will make excuses 4 the sandman but i will say this. silva is more than capable of destroying someone’s face at 185 or 205. ask the sandman
this is a silly article; Emelianenko is so clearly the most dominant and destructive fighter in MMA; you’d have to be a TUF Noob or a lackey for the UFC to argue otherwise. Right now, there is not a heavyweight in the world who can challenge Emelianenko – and he’s smaller than many of his foes, to boot (whereas silva cuts a lot of weight to get down to middle-weight and has the dimensions of someone who could easily fight one or even two weight classes above where he does habitually).
Right now, Emelianenko is the one man in the world no one wants to fight on the street: he’s super-skilled; he is diamond-tough; he’s russian (which means he’s a closet sadist); and he seems to have no fear (he went right after Timmy even though Silvia is a much bigger man and has heavy and effective hands).
guy’s a beast – even if I don’t like him or his camp.
the guy to beat emelianenko will be the first guy to put on his face – on multiple occasions – that look he had briefly against hong man choi when that first armbar didn’t come off. In short, it will take someone who is not afraid to stand with him, has the chin to take whatever he can dish out, the ballsiness and self-confidence to really get after him wherever the fight may happen to go (Tim seemed to freeze in that fight saturday night), the hand-speed to match him in the exchanges, and nog-like technical skill on the ground.
Give Big Nog world-class stand-up and world-class fast twitch muscles (and maybe an olympic-caliber wrestling pedigree) and you have the man who can beat Emelianenko.
Of course, that beast hasn’t emerged yet
#9 you are a totally IDIOT .. How long have you been a fan of MMA ?
There is no ? that Fedor has the fought the best competiton between the two .. Silly bitch ..
@#58 Wow, great argument. Go back to sherdog, troll.
Thanks to all the people who already said everything back to romano that I was going to.
Fedor V Silva @ 205lbs.
Lets see it.
I bet Fedor handles Silva in the first round.
Easily Fedor. He has fought more top competition and I’ve never seen anyone beat him. I’ve seen Anderson Silva tap out like a bitch against mediocre Japanese wrestlers (Takase, Chonan etc.). Fedor has beaten all his opponents. It can even be argued that Fedor has never even lost a round outside of RINGS. Silva has lost many rounds, including the first round against Henderson. Fedor is on a 28 win streak. Silva is on a meager 10 win streak. Fedor consistently fights guys much bigger than himself while Silva usually has height and reach advantage in his fights. As for their most recent fight respectively, Fedor destroying a top 5 HW in 36 seconds was a lot more impressive than Silva destoying an unranked LHW in 61 seconds. It’s not even a contest. Fedor is the most accomplished of the two and he’s undefeated. Fedor is 6-0 against current or former UFC champions. How many big champions have Silva beaten? That’s right.
28-0 > 22-3
Top p4p fighter:
Anderson Silva or Georges St. Pierre