Dana White says Anderson Silva is still the number one pound-for-pound fighter, and probably the best ever
Posted on April 24, 2012, 12:43 PM by Mike DrahotaIn the barrage of news coverage that surfaced after UFC 145, the inevitable debate of who is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world gained a lot of steam with Jon Jones' victory over number one contender Rashad Evans.
Many believe Jones has overtaken Anderson Silva as the pound-for-pound king due to the sheer volume of top-level opponents that he has bested in the last year. However many also believe that Anderson Silva and his UFC-record winning streak are enough to keep him at the top of the mountain. UFC President Dana White has his own thoughts on the issue of Jones v. Silva, and expressed them with the following statement via mmainterviews.tv:
"Amazing. He (Jones) did it one year. Anderson Silva has been doing it since 2006. Until Anderson Silva loses, gets knocked off that top notch, or until we do him and Jon Jones, you know what I mean, I think he's the number one pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. You really gotta put it all in perspective. When Jon Jones is thirty and has dominated two weight classes, we'll see what happens with him. But to deny Anderson Silva is the best fighter in the world and probably the best ever, is tough to do right now."
So the debate will rage on over who is the best fighter in the world. With Jones gaining momentum daily, Silva will most likely need to put on an amazing performance at UFC 148 to keep his crown.
Comments
Until either Jones or Silva convincingly beat James Toney...the argument will always be there.
Well said DKM, but I would have to add Bob Sapp to that list as well.
silva will ko/tko him this time bet sonnen dont make no black belt jokes this time!
Bob Sapp would tap to disappointment.
who actually weaked dropkicks comment. that is so obviously funny, only a tard would not get it and weak it.
Relax dropkick
Hey, I weaked it myself lol
awesome, lol
Fedor is the best ever !
agree silva is the best ever! 31-4, 14-0 in the ufc 9 title def should have been 10 if lutter made wght two fights at 205 both ending in the 1st rd!
I don't know if that can happen they are both slaved by the white man as we speak.
Fedor is the best ever, he dominated a weight class for 10 years and fought the best during his time.
Yeah, if that's what you want.
I'm tempted to use the same argument fedor-haters use. Silva hasn't fought anyone. Here i said it. You can now sharp my trollness pls.
Silva > Hendo > Fedor
MMA match doesn't prove anything but that statement proves what you said contradicts itself.
Fedor is the best HW ever. His level of competition simply doesn't compare to Anderson or GSP.
If Fedor finished his career with wins against top HW's in the UFC and Anderson lost to close his career, then you may be right.
shut the **** up ....fedor is in your butt, and you love it.
dana's way to 'goad' bones into a super-fight.
I have to agree with baldy on that one. Anderson Is the P4P king. Until Silva loses, Jon "Bones" Jones, in my humble opinion, is considered the P4P Prince haha.
The fact that GSP isn't talked about in this conversation anymore is hilarious. Avenged the only two losses in his career in violent fashion. Has lost only one or 2 rounds in the past 5 years combined. Beaten Josh Koscheck, BJ Penn, and Matt Hughes twice. First person to beat Jake Shields after a 15 fight win streak that included victories over Dan Henderson and Robbie Lawler at MW.
4 decisions in a row, and suddenly the guy who was neck and neck with Anderson Silva is an afterthought.
Thats that "what have you done for me lately" attitude the UFC carries.
Shields also beat Condit, Okami and Daley when he was good in that run
I agree, Just hope GSP starts finishing fights more often.
Love Silva but going by common sense, P4p is has a large part to do about quality of opponents and Anderson has dominated average fighters. It's hilarious to see Dana and his stooge Joe Silva try to hype up opponents like Maia, Cote, Thales, Leben etc when those guys are average at best. Jones has dominated elite former champions so how the hell is he not presently ahead of Silva on thecurrent P4P list. Dana's argument would make sense if the conversation is abou the best of all time instead of currently. He rags on Fedor for having never fought anybody but praises Silva for beating a majority of average fighters in a weak division. His excuse is Silva is so good he makes everyone else look average....eh eh I don't think so. For Silva to truly test himself he needs to move up to 205 and fight elite fighters. Fedor fought the best in his time with Pride and dominated. Even though I respect Dana he spews a ton of nonsense when it comes to talking about Fedor. He recently said the UFC HW division is close to Pride in its prime. The man he said who never fought anybody dominated that division in its prime and be was severely undersize (the true meaning of p4p).
If jones continues his curren course then he would undoubtably be the GOAT.
Finally someone with a Brain
respect man for having a mind of your own.
Yes Silva is being overrated as the GOAT
when in fact Jones fought the same amount of high level
opponents in just 1 years as Silva has in his entire carrer
i would even say that Jones has fought higher level of fighters
Silva's best 5 are Hendo,Belfort, Sonnen,Franklin and that's about it 4
maybe 5 with Nate Matrquardt .
but that Nate was not even close to a more recent Nate Marquardt we saw in the last few years who Silva would not fight in a rematch same with Hendo.
While Jones beat Shogun,Machida,Rashad , Rampage and Bader
close yes but one defeat them all in lil more than a year while the other took around 10 years.
Lets see if Jones puts Hendo away like Anderson did. Hendo just scraped a win over Shogun and I am sure Anderson would have done better than Hendo. I think Anderson would destroy the guys Jones did just as bad even at a smaller size. When will Jon face guys bigger than him or even the same size? Once you take away his size advantage Jon looks less capable of beating Guys like Shogun, Hendo, Machida or Rashad.
But Jones has merely out sized all his opponents to victory. Machida had Jones for R1 and showed superior skill but his size was no match for Jones. Rashad was held out of range by Jones long arms. If we reduced Jones reach by 7-10 inches to come in line with the rest of the division I think we all could see a few guys that would take him out and Anderson would be top of the list. Skill wise Anderson is much better with the exception of wrestling.
he's a waist of a role of skin for not saying GSP
what?
Well, gee, thanks there Dana, for clearing that all up for us.
Funny how GSP disappeared from this argument because he's rehabbing a major injury, but Silva has been out almost as long "doing his own rehab".
Jones has had the best year ever by an MMA fighter, but Dana has at least one thing right, a great year doesn't put you at the top of the list.
But from another point of view, since p4p is all about dominating the highest level opponents...
The top 5 guys Silva has beat...Hendo, Sonnen, Belfort, Okami, Franklin.
The top 5 guys Jones has beat...Evans, Jackson, Rua, Machida, Bader.
Those list are pretty even in terms of opponents, and one guy is 13 years younger. If Jones had crushed Evans, I'd say he was number 1 p4p.....but it's just a matter of time.
Jones is on his way but p4p is if both guys are same size and in that case if Jones was Andersons size I think Anderson would make Jones look silly. Andersons technique and skill is on another level to anyone in the UFC. If it is Jon as is vs Anderson as is, then I would say it would be a close fight.
PFP is not some magical land in which both guys are the same size. Otherwise people can go around saying Joseph Benavidez is the best fighter in the world. PFP is all about best wins over best competition. Anderson is at the top of that list because he has the most dominant performances over the best competition for the longest period of time.
If both guys were the same size Jon Jones would still have a wrestling/grappling advantage. Hell if GSP were the same size as both of them he would have an advantage on both of them in wrestling.
Plus if were talking about size advantage (strictly length because there are guys that weigh more that Jones has destroyed), than what do you think Silva has on the entire MW division?
Anderson has the 7th longest reach in his division and Jones has first longest in any division. GSP has 1st longest in his division. Both GSP and Jones are more chiseled at fight time than Anderson. I would say Joseph is one of the better fighters out there but we can all see what Anderson brings extra to any other fighter. You need to re think what p4p is. It is strictly labeling a fighters skills alone and not their size, or the fighters they have faced( as the fighters they face may be a good or bad matchup for them stylistically). Jones has only met against smaller fighters which if they were his size may beat him quite easily like Machida for example.
If we're are strictly labeling someone's skills than Anderson would not be ahead of GSP or Jones. His wrestling is subpar, and that's the point I'm trying to make.
Rampage, O'Brian and Bader are both the exact same size (and Rampage and Jake might be bigger) than Jones. He fought against Vera who is just as tall if not off by an inch. Anderson might not have the longest reach in his division, but the only fight he did not have the height advantage was Forrest Griffin.
PFP has never, and should never be strictly labeling somebody's skill set. If that were the case than Joe Riggs would be a PFP great.
Interesting point about GSP Evan. He's got some monkey arms on him so if this magical land existed a reach advantage from Jones would be slightly diminished. It would basically come down to style if this were the case, and IMO GSP and Aldo would be the kings of this land. But to have a meaningful debate your right, the best way to establish an objective criteria is based off of quality opponents, quality wins, and also duration of dominance.
All these articles prove is that p4p is an individualistic preference based on many variables that hold different gravity to different people. Some say a UFC unbeaten streak puts Silva ahead. others say Jones' domination of higher calibre opponents puts him ahead. Some say GSP is p4p king as he is rarely ever troubled in any fight.
I doubt very much there will ever come a day where there is a p4p #1 that everyone agrees is a cut above the rest. The great thing about MMA is that we have these childish debates because it is a reflection on how much talent now resides in MMA and how it has evolved in the last 10 years.
I will probably get blazed for this but I would still put Edgar in the p4p mix. he doesn't dominate in any fashion akin to Jones, GSP or Silva but he is TINY in the most stacked division MMA has ever seen and he was unfortunate to lose to Henderson IMO as barring the upkick that done most the damage he was clear on points but it was close so no major grumbles about the outcome, merely that Edgar is as gifted as any name you could put forward in the p4p debate.
Pound for pound--chocolate is the best ice cream in the world.
Even though Vanilla is most popular, there is no question that chocolate is the best pound for pound ice cream in the world.
Pshhh, cherry vanilla all the way.
That would be true though.