7. Anderson Silva
Wait, “The Spider”? Lifelong proponent of the art of eight limbs, Anderson Silva? Flying knee, reverse elbow, front kick to the face, Anderson Silva? Yes, that Anderson Silva. The art of punching is as much about creating openings through which to land those hand techniques as it is the raw force behind them, and while Silva was hardly pillow-fisted, there have been few better at finding clever ways to maximize the force behind their strikes.
As he evolved into a multifaceted striker, his ability to land those punches grew, as well. Pinpoint counterpunching dropped Chris Leben before the knees finished him off in Silva’s Ultimate Fighting Championship debut, all of them clean and with exceptional weight transfer and mechanics; a single punch off a caught kick -- again, a clever setup -- put down James Irvin; a sniping jab led to Forrest Griffin’s “no mas” moment; and Silva dropped Yushin Okami multiple times with punches.
Silva serves as an excellent reminder that the puncher’s art is about more than slinging hands and that slick technique creates unconsciousness just as effectively as a mighty swing.
Number 6 » MMA’s original phenom is also its original puncher. Sure, there were fighters who dropped bombs before he did so in the UFC in 1997, but nobody had thrown leather with quite so much style, explosiveness or raw, shocking force.