4. Wanderlei Silva
The face of Pride Fighting Championships finishes fourth here. For the first half of the decade, Silva was utterly unbeatable by anyone his own size and was perhaps the sport's most iconic figure. Silva's grappling during his prime has always been underrated, as he had good takedown defense and excellent BJJ for his time. However, his bread-and-butter was his seek-and-destroy muay thai style, which came to define his team Chute Boxe as a whole. He eschewed jabs for vicious power punches, especially hooks and overhands, and was especially lethal inside the clinch. Pride’s rules worked to his advantage too, as Silva loved to soccer-kick and head-stomp downed opponents. Silva was undefeated in Pride from April 2000 until New Year's Eve 2004, when he dropped the split decision to the massively larger Mark Hunt, having gone undefeated in 18 outings, with 16 wins, an incredible 14 by stoppage, a draw against Filipovic, and an abbreviated no contest against Gilbert Yvel. Truly a marvelous run during which time he was arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the entire sport. Highlights during that time include knockouts of Quinton Jackson twice, Guy Mezger, Yuki Kondo, all-time legend Kazushi Sakuraba three times, and garnering decisions over iron-chinned Dan Henderson and Olympic heavyweight judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida, who was then undefeated.
Alas, Silva, like other Chute Boxe stars, started declining before he even turned 30, a consequence not only of the damage he received from many brutal wars, but of the concussion-laden training sessions at the camp. Silva dropped a decision to Brazilian rival Ricardo Arona in August 2005, his first defeat during the decade to a man his own size. He won a split decision in their rematch, but after a classic knockout of Kazuyuki Fujita featuring soccer kicks, Silva faced nemesis “Cro Cop” again in November 2006 and was thoroughly battered from pillar to post, being knocked out with a head kick a little over halfway into the first round. Nor was it the mere product of weight. Silva was actually the heavier fighter that night at 225 pounds, while the Croatian weighed 220. Like the face of the UFC, Chuck Liddell, whom we discussed earlier, the end of the decade was rough for Silva, who ended up losing five of his last six. In his final appearance in Pride, he lost his title by knockout to Dan Henderson, a man he had previously beaten. In the UFC, the lone bright spot was knocking out Keith Jardine in just 36 seconds, while losing close decisions against Liddell and Rich Franklin, and being knocked out in the first by Quinton Jackson, a man he had beaten twice in his prime. Yet, for almost five years during the 2000s, Silva was as great as anyone in the sport.
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