(Props: ESPN Sportsnation)
Ready to get your hearts broken again, MMA fans? ESPN’s SportsCenter and Sport Science programs are collaborating on a new Greatest Athlete of All Time bracket, in which legendary athletes from 16 different sports go head-to-head based on a “unique metric that factors in attributes such as speed, power, reaction time and more.” Naturally, the MMA representative is UFC middleweight deity Anderson Silva, whose astounding 16-0 record in the UFC includes 10 consecutive title defenses.
Let’s get one thing straight: Anderson Silva is not going to win this little competition. To advance out of the first round, he’ll have to beat Olympic swimming golden boy Michael Phelps, and if by some miracle he pulls that off, he’ll face the winner of Michael Jordan vs. Tiger Woods in the quarterfinals. Silva is just a patsy here. Roadkill. A half-assed nod to fans of a fringe sport. To demonstrate how little ESPN cares about us, here’s how Sport Science host John Brenkus sums up Silva’s career:
“In addition to numerous UFC and Pride belts, Silva has also earned black belts in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, taekwondo and Muay Thai.”
Numerous PRIDE belts? Sure, zero is technically a number. (Is Brenkus confusing Anderson with Wanderlei Silva perhaps?) Not that it’ll help at this point, but you can still show your support by voting for Anderson in the poll on the Sport Science Greatest Athlete of All Time page. And tune in to SportsCenter next Monday, February 18th, to watch the Spider’s public-execution at the hands of that sandwich eating playboy.