5. Tim Sylvia
Sylvia definitely had one major natural gift when he began MMA. He was very big, standing 6-foot-8 with a 80-inch reach. However, that was about it. His first amateur MMA fight occurred when he was 25 years old and besides size, he had precious little to offer, being painfully slow, unathletic and even clumsy. Nor did he have much fighting background before beginning MMA, having only wrestled in high school, and not very successfully at that. In his second amateur fight in 1999, Sylvia lost to Jorge Rivera, who would go on to become a solid fighter...at middleweight. Then, in late 2000, Sylvia made the fateful decision to sell all his belongings and move to Bettendorf, Iowa, to join Miletich Fighting Systems. While Sylvia didn't like training hard, being at Miletich, arguably the best camp in the world at the time, and pushed by dedicated, hard-working champions like Matt Hughes and Jens Pulver, had its effect. Sylvia developed into a very physically strong fighter who could defend against takedowns exceptionally well and had very powerful, if slower strikes on the feet. Nor was it limited to his hands, as Sylvia has a classic head kick knockout of Tra Telligman.
Sylvia won several major fights against those with far more natural athleticism and skill, knocking out Ricco Rodriguez in three minutes to take his UFC heavyweight title, then delivering a shocking knockout of Andrei Arlovski in just over half a round in their rematch, when it looked like he was headed for a second straight quick loss against the Belarusian, to become a two-time champion. And he won the trilogy by triumphing by decision in a third fight against Arlovski, even if it was very boring. Some may dismiss Sylvia as just winning due to his size, but that's an insult to what he accomplished. Consider also that Sylvia faced two fighters taller than himself in their respective primes, Gan McGee and Wes Sims, neither of whom achieved anything close to what Sylvia did. In fact, McGee challenged Sylvia for the UFC heavyweight championship in September 2003 and was knocked out in under two minutes. Certainly, Sylvia was a notable overachiever and an unfairly forgotten champion today.
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