4. Anderson Silva
Silva enjoyed a historic reign of dominance over the UFC middleweight division. Laser-like punches, crushing knees and precision ground-and-pound paired with the occasional submission helped turn the 185-pound division into a veritable playground for “The Spider.” Silva has been called by some the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time, but it has nothing to do with his gift of gab.
Yes, Silva shimmied and jived all over the Octagon while in the throes of combat, taunting foes like a modern-day Muhammad Ali in an effort to throw them off their games. It was all a ploy to create openings for his surgical standup. In his prime, he had no equal as he ran through contemporaries like Rich Franklin (twice), Dan Henderson, Vitor Belfort, Demian Maia, Yushin Okami and Chael Sonnen (twice). It seemed there was nothing he could not do inside the Octagon. Outside the cage, he was an aloof character who rarely opened up to the media. Silva rattled off 16 consecutive UFC victories from June 28, 2006 to Oct. 13, 2012, cementing his place among the game’s greats.
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