5. Anderson Silva
The No. 1 middleweight makes it in the top half of the list, but surprisingly, didn't get any first-place votes. Silva's career is utterly unique among the other inclusions here. There was no indication based on his early career that he would be anything close to the legend he became. Even at age 29, he was the most unlikely GOAT candidate imaginable. At 28, he was submitted via triangle choke by Daiju Takase, a very limited Japanese fighter who had almost twice as many losses (7) as wins (4). This was actually a much bigger upset than Georges St. Pierre losing to Matt Serra, as Silva had been an astounding -1500 favorite. At 29, Silva was stunned again by Ryo Chonan with a flying scissor heel hook. Chonan was a pretty good fighter, unlike Takase, but aside from an exotic submission game, there was nothing special about him. Silva was a -300 favorite for that one. Both those losses seemed to reinforce the idea that as tremendously talented a striker as Silva was, he was just too easy to take down or submit.
Luckily for both him and MMA fans around the world, Silva perfected his style for MMA and became much harder to defeat with grappling. Silva holds wins over numerous other champions and top contenders, decimating Rich Franklin with strikes twice, knocking out Vitor Belfort with a front kick that is a candidate for the greatest stoppage ever, finishing Yushin Okami, two stoppages of Chael Sonnen, one a buzzer-beating submission in a fight he was badly losing, choking out Dan Henderson, finishing Nate Marquardt in Round 1, easy decision wins over top grapplers Demian Maia and Thales Leites, and even a round 1 knockout of former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin. To this day, even with all the evolution and improvement in MMA, one can argue that Anderson Silva in his prime was the greatest striker the sport has ever seen. His 14 straight victories in the UFC is still a record. Nevertheless, for a list as demanding of perfection as this one, it must be noted that he always had a certain weakness to elite wrestlers, something all the other inclusions lack.
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