Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest MMA Strikers

1. Anderson Silva

Sherdog's greatest middleweight ever and fifth greatest fighter pound-for-pound tops another list here. I had Silva ninth on my own list. That reflects no disrespect towards the Brazilian legend, as Silva was my top pick for any fighter who fought at welterweight or above, but simply my belief that lighter fighters possess a higher level of skill than any of the heavier ones. When it comes to anywhere above lightweight, Silva was as good as it gets. He had an unbelievable fluidity to his movements and strikes, able to summon blistering speed and knockout power from any limb and absolutely any angle. Combined with pinpoint accuracy and incredible reactions, that made Silva’s striking impossible to deal with. One simply didn't know whether the knockout blow would come via punch, kick or knee. His movement and defensive reactions were spellbinding, able to pull straight back to dodge blows on a level with Muhammed Ali himself. One should also note that Silva's prime was in the late 2000s and early 2010s, where striking greatness was much rarer in MMA than it is now.

Silva's great career includes a starmaking performance in Shooto to outpoint Hayato Sakurai, a vicious beating of Lee Murray, a 49-second knockout of Chris Leben that ended with a knee, knocking out Rich Franklin in just under three minutes to win the UFC middleweight championship and then destroying him again in the rematch early in Round 2, more first-round knockouts of Nate Marquardt, James Irvin, and Forrest Griffin, outstriking Dan Henderson before locking in a submission late in Round 2, and of course, his front kick knockout of Vitor Belfort in the first round, one that many consider the greatest knockout in MMA history. Many fans, me included, thought that there would be never be another champion with the unique skills and movement of “The Spider”, and while a few have been similar, including previous entry Israel Adesanya, none have truly matched him.