In every sport, there exists a perpetual debate as to who the greatest of all time is. And with each passing generation, the line blurs between the ghosts of past, present and future.
Mixed martial arts, under the banner of the UFC, turned 20 in 2013. In comparison to its more seasoned siblings, MMA is going through puberty. But that doesn’t mean the cage hasn’t showcased its share of brilliance.
What was once mostly spectacle, like matching a 600-pound sumo wrestler against a 170-pound whirling dervish, became a fully defined sport. And when it’s performed at its finest, MMA can be a ballet of violence.
A few names rise above the rest when talk turns to the greatest MMA fighter of all time. It starts with the self-effacing Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko. In real time, some are already willing to proclaim current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones as the man.
Between those two in the debate are two different champions in Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. You can make a case for both, as well as for the two aforementioned fighters, but for many, the guy who’s making his long-awaited return this weekend at UFC 183 stands tallest.
Fans and pundits alike compare win-loss records. They debate respective strength of competition and add up who has more knockouts and submissions versus judges’ decisions. Win streaks and total time as champion matter. Bonus points if they’ve held belts in more than one organization.
Beyond the calculators, protractors and the inexact science of it all, there’s the poetry found in motion. The splendor of Silva is what separates him from the others.
If Jones is currently channeling the ruthlessness of Michael Jordan, Silva is Dr. J.
Think about the way he moved and the manner in which he flattened once tall men. Silva was the first mixed martial artist who made you feel you were breathing in the Matrix. He’d mastered the sequencing of ones and zeros and was giving us the woman in the red dress.
We couldn’t look away. And then, just like that, it all came crashing down. With the flick of a wrist, Silva’s near seven-year reign was over at the hands of an agent of change in the unbeaten Chris Weidman.
In their first fight, Silva’s bullet-dodging backfired. Weidman dropped the champ with a left hook and followed it up with some retaliatory (Caution: Strong language) ground-and-pound. The second match added injury to insult with the leg break that put The Spider out of action for 13 months.
Silva could have easily called it a career. The injury was an excruciating one.
A few months shy of 39 at the time, he had nothing left to prove. But he refused to be put out to pasture. Over the past year, various videos of Silva’s comeback trail flooded the Internet. The ones of him kicking with his mending leg were the most visceral.
When he steps into the cage Saturday night at UFC 183, it will be a moment that lives with his fans forever. Jack Dempsey said, “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” Silva didn’t have to get up, but he did.
Combat sports are unforgiving by design.
Most career endings are not the stuff of Hollywood. There’s no guarantee that Silva’s final dance, whenever it comes, won’t be any prettier than if he’d hobbled out on a broken leg.
But at least he’ll be going out on his terms—GOAT status in tow for the time.
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