The UFC is universally recognized as the preeminent mixed martial arts promotion on the planet. Therefore, UFC bouts usually see the best competing against the best. Of these top level fighters, who has seen the most success?It is impossibl…
The UFC is universally recognized as the preeminent mixed martial arts promotion on the planet. Therefore, UFC bouts usually see the best competing against the best. Of these top level fighters, who has seen the most success?
It is impossible to objectively evaluate which fighters have had more success based on past competition. Such a process allows for too much subjectivity when comparing the value of different wins.
To avoid such subjectivity, the rankings in this article are based on each fighter’s record over .500 (wins minus losses). This process is more effective than simply comparing winning percentages because it factors in longevity.
Also, since any fighter with a better winning percentage but fewer wins above .500 than another fighter would have to win more than half of his fights to catch up, this list assumes that it is impossible to assume such success. For example, if fighter A is 11-3 (eight games over) and fighter B is 7-0 (seven games over), although B has a much better winning percentage, B would have to 4-3 in his next seven fights to match A; it is impossible to assume such success (see Brandon Vera).
For tiebreakers, overall winning percentage will be considered (7-0 > 9-2).
Dana White gets behind the scenes for UFC 134, UFC Fight Night 25, and a press conference for UFC 135 in his latest video blog.First we get to see White’s enthusiasm for the upcoming card and the sportsmanship shown during the latest events.The Brazili…
Dana White gets behind the scenes for UFC 134, UFC Fight Night 25, and a press conference for UFC 135 in his latest video blog.
First we get to see White’s enthusiasm for the upcoming card and the sportsmanship shown during the latest events.
The Brazilian crowd is ridiculously loud as Dana White enters the arena and Dana sits cage-side, complaining about the late stoppage on Luis Cane.
Next, we get to see the entrances of Yushin Okami and Anderson Silva for the main event of UFC 134: Rio. The crowd erupts as Anderson retains his title. Dana congratulates Anderson backstage on his win, then thanks Okami for a great fight, knowing that “Yushin always comes to fight.”
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira gets confirmation of his Knockout of the Night bonus, picking up Dana White in excitement and promising Erick Silva $5,000 for his knockout of Luis Ramos. Big Nog is very complimentary of Brandan Schaub, saying he “is strong with heavy hands.”
Next, the video jumps to UFC Fight Night 25 where Matt Riddle is being attended to after his fight with Lance Benoist. Despite the loss, Riddle is incredibly complimentary of his opponent, congratulating him on being 6-0.
Shamar Bailey asks to come train with Evan Dunham after his loss, to which Dunham replies, “You’re always welcome.”
Cody MacKenzie is angry after his submission loss to Vagner Rocha, barely willing to sit down to be attended to by the doctors.
Jake Ellenberger and Jake Shields enter the arena.
Shields is being attended to backstage and complains about the stoppage in his knockout loss. The commission official tells him he was “glazed over,” and then encourages him to get a CAT scan. Shields expresses concern over the radiation.
Jake Ellenberger hangs out drinking water, confirming that he has been paid and is in no pain after the fight.
Next, the video jumps to the UFC 135 Press Conference, where Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Jon Jones exchange a few insults and “Rampage” mocks Jones for his staredown technique.
It’s always nice to get a behind the scenes look—particularly when they involve these moments of amazing sportsmanship—at the fighters we cheer for and support. As Dana White states, “it makes me proud to be in this sport.”
Always colorful and entertaining UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen appeared on MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour yesterday and among other topics, gave his thoughts on being public enemy number one in Brazil. According to the outspoken self-professed American Gangster, he decided against travelling to Rio de Janeiro to corner his friend and training partner Yushin Okami against Anderson Silva at UFC 134 when he received more than the usual number of death threats, particularly when he felt that shit got real.
(Video courtesy of AOL Fanhouse)
Always colorful and entertaining UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen appeared on MMAFighting’s The MMA Hour yesterday and among other topics, gave his thoughts on being public enemy number one in Brazil. According to the outspoken self-professed American Gangster, he decided against travelling to Rio de Janeiro to corner his friend and training partner Yushin Okami against Anderson Silva at UFC 134 when he received more than the usual number of death threats, particularly when he felt that shit got real.
“I became a big distraction. I wanted to go and be part of that for one reason, which was to help Yushin. I could watch the show from my living room, but I wanted to be there and support him, and that was it. Quite frankly, I became a big distraction. It got a little bit out of hand even. The level of death threats got a little bit high. I reached 10 and…10 death threats and I think number seven was actually serious,” he pointed out. “By the looks in his eyes, it looked like he’d stabbed somebody before, so.. The final call came down to… Yushin had a sponsor who said, ‘Look, we’d rather he didn’t come. The feeling on the ground here in Brazil is this could actually turn into a true incident, so that was it. If a sponsor makes a request, you follow through with it. And it wasn’t my show. It wasn’t my night and I didn’t want to take any attention off Yushin. I truly believed he was going to win the championship and the last thing I wanted to do was take away from that.”
Although he says that he was surprised with the reaction his inflammatory comments garnered him from the fans in Rio even though he wasn’t fighting on the card, Sonnen says he was “flattered” that they cared so much even if their care came in the form of vitriol and death threats targeting him.
“In Brazil they have two newspapers. Two newspapers kind of cover the whole country and one of those newspapers had me on the front page and I wasn’t even on the card. I was a little bit surprised that I had gotten so inundated with it. At the same time I was flattered. It just wasn’t my night. I wasn’t a part of this. I was no more than a fan and that’s all I ever wanted to be. I wanted to go out, be a fan, pat Yushin on the back, warm him up and support him that way — hold the water bucket for him.”
In a strange twist, the onetime Republican senate hopeful blasted American fans for their lack of loyalty to their own and praised Brazilian fans for sticking by their countrymen.
“I admire [their passion]. I like that they get like that. I’ll tell you what I mean, each country you fight in is different. In Japan, the crowd is silent. They’re silent, not because they’re not into the matches — there’s 40,000 strong at some of these events. It’s a sign of respect to be quiet and let the competition and the sport itself take place in front of you. In Brazil it’s totally different, but I like it. In Brazil they do it right. They support their fellow countrymen,” Sonnen explained. “In North America, we don’t support our countrymen. I have people that are American who want to see me lose to Anderson and that’s okay, but it’s a little odd. In no other country would you see people turn against their own countrymen. I’ll give you a great example and I don’t know if you were at this fight or not, but Matt Hughes fought Royce Gracie and that crowd booed…it took place in Los Angeles…they booed Matt Hughes so loud and they cheered Royce with all of their might. In no other country would you cheer against your own man, except North America. I love the American crowd, but it does alway confuse me. I love the Brazilian fans for backing their own. It shouldn’t matter what people say, if a countryman is fighting a fellow countryman, you support your guy. Brazil does it right. North American fans need to take a page out of their book.”
I’m surprised he conceded that Brazilians have books, or maybe when he said “book” he was inferring that the country only has one.
Following his victory over Yushin Okami at UFC 134, UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva has now revealed he fought through a shoulder injury. The win gave Silva his ninth consecutive title defense, improving his professional record to 34-4 an…
Following his victory over Yushin Okami at UFC 134, UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva has now revealed he fought through a shoulder injury.
The win gave Silva his ninth consecutive title defense, improving his professional record to 34-4 and his UFC record to 14-0. The recent news is quite surprising, considering how convincingly the Brazilian was able to dispatch his opponent.
“A month before the fight I injured my shoulder while training with Junior dos Santos, and I was feeling a lot of pain in Rio. I’ve had to take some medicine and warn the athletic commission about it,” Silva told Veja, courtesy of TATAME.com.
“It’s a small injury, but I guess it’s on the cuff and bothers me. I’ll rest for a while and get healed.”
Despite suffering from pain in his shoulder, Silva said his injury was not as serious, and he was cleared to compete.
This brings up a lot of credibility to his bout against Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 where Silva retained his title but confessed he had suffered a rib injury in the post-fight interview. It is expected he will defend his middleweight crown against either Chael Sonnen or Brian Stann, where he will be looking to successfully defend the title for a tenth consecutive time.
Silva’s antics and effortless performance proved why he is undoubtedly one of the best fighters in the world.
At 36 years old, however, this also might be a sign that Silva is gradually slowing down as a fighter.
According to UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, he injured his shoulder while sparring with Junior dos Santos prior to his UFC 134 bout with Yushin Okami and was put on painkillers for the injury. Silva revealed to the Brazilian magazine Veja that he was in pain the day of the bout and that he took some painkillers to ensure he could fight, but says that unlike guys like Bas Rutten and Karo Parisyan who failed to reveal their use of analgesics to their respective athletic commissions prior to bouts, he did tell the group in charge of overseeing the event that he took the unnamed drug prior to the bout.
“A month before the fight I injured my shoulder while training with Junior dos Santos and I was feeling a lot of pain in Rio. I had to take some medicine and warn the athletic commission about it. I’ve talked to my doctors. I had an MRI and then I started feeling pains in my shoulder but the doctors let me go and said it was not that serious,” Silva says. “It’s a small injury, but I guess it’s on the [rotator] cuff and bothers me. I’ll rest for a while and get healed.”
(“Can’t….stop….giggling.”)
According to UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, he injured his shoulder while sparring with Junior dos Santos prior to his UFC 134 bout with Yushin Okami and was put on painkillers for the injury. Silva revealed to the Brazilian magazine Veja that he was in pain the day of the bout and that he took some painkillers to ensure he could fight, but says that unlike guys like Bas Rutten and Karo Parisyan who failed to reveal their use of analgesics to their respective athletic commissions prior to bouts, he did tell the group in charge of overseeing the event that he took the unnamed drug prior to the bout.
“A month before the fight I injured my shoulder while training with Junior dos Santos and I was feeling a lot of pain in Rio. I had to take some medicine and warn the athletic commission about it. I’ve talked to my doctors. I had an MRI and then I started feeling pains in my shoulder but the doctors let me go and said it was not that serious,” Silva says. “It’s a small injury, but I guess it’s on the [rotator] cuff and bothers me. I’ll rest for a while and get healed.”
The problem lies in the fact that the “commission” in this case was actually the UFC and whether or not the type of medication he took prior to the bout is an approved one and if not, will the UFC report it remains to be seen. The promotion has revealed positive drug tests in the past as they did in the case of Chris Leben who tested positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol following his UFC 89 loss to Michael Bisping, but what if the guilty party was its most popular champion and arguably its biggest asset?
Banned painkillers include oxycodone and oxymorphone, while approved ones include ibuprofen and acetaminophen.
It will be interesting to hear if the type of drug is revealed by the UFC or if anyone bothers to ask.
Filed under: UFCAnderson Silva returned home to Brazil in what was essentially a coronation, riding a wave of euphoric fans to another rout, this time smashing the durable Japanese fighter Yushin Okami. We are still no closer to answering the question …
Anderson Silva returned home to Brazil in what was essentially a coronation, riding a wave of euphoric fans to another rout, this time smashing the durable Japanese fighter Yushin Okami. We are still no closer to answering the question that Joe Rogan asked so many fights ago: Who can stop that man?
Silva’s next move is anyone’s guess. UFC president Dana White says that fighting on the UFC’s FOX debut is not happening, so apparently headlining a second mega-show is not in the cards for the long-reigning champion.
So who might be next for Silva? We take a look at the possibilities for him and several other of the UFC 134 participants in this edition of The Forward Roll.
Anderson Silva
Silva should be the main eventer of the FOX show. It’s a spot he’s earned, if he wants it. It would allow the UFC to showcase their best talent, and give fans the value of seeing him for free. Unless UFC executives changes their mind, that’s not going to happen, so it’s virtually a lock that he will face the winner of October’s Brian Stann vs. Chael Sonnen bout. Either fight is easily sellable, but a Sonnen rematch would draw massive interest.
Prediction: Silva faces the Sonnen-Stann winner in February 2012.
Yushin Okami
Okami joins a long list of fighters who fell to Silva in title bouts, yet only one — Rich Franklin — was able to earn a rematch. It’s a long, hard road back to the top for Okami, who took the long path to a title shot in the first place.
After waiting since last November to fight, Okami needs to get back to action quickly. So ideally, he needs to be matched up with a relatively well respected fighter, preferably coming off a loss.
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
Rebounding from his March title loss, Rua looked spectacular in pounding his way through Forrest Griffin. The result continued Rua’s bumpy ride in the UFC; he’s 4-3 overall since joining the promotion.
That said, Rua’s fights are always exciting, and given his highlight reel, he’s easily promotable. Needing less than two minutes to earn victory, Rua can turn around quickly and get back into the rotation. I’d slot him into a bigtime fight in short order.
Prediction: Rua faces Dan Henderson in November’s UFC on FOX debut.
Forrest Griffin
Griffin’s two-fight win streak was halted with a quickness by Rua. Prior to the event, he sounded disillusioned about the fight game, and the result isn’t likely to help matters. We also know that Forrest had other matters on his mind: his wife was nearing the end of her pregnancy as he flew to Rio to face Shogun.
Griffin deserves a nice break from the grind as he settles into fatherhood, and hopefully that gives him the time to reignite his fire to train and compete.
Prediction: Griffin returns in the spring against a fighter on the verge of top 10 status, someone like Alexander Gustafsson.
Edson Barboza
Barboza’s striking is beautiful to watch, yet he often seems content to hang back and counter rather than attack on his own terms. He is good enough to make that work against most mid-tier competition, but as he moves up the rankings and faces more wily foes, that could lead to trouble.
If I’m the UFC, I put him back in the cage against someone who’s going to force him to fight in many different areas.
Ross Pearson
The British fighter still shows promise. He’s a fierce competitor, has crisp boxing and comes to scrap. It wasn’t enough against Barboza in a close call, but he shouldn’t face much of a downward move after putting up a game performance on enemy territory.
Prediction:Thiago Tavares has won two of three; Pearson has won three out of four. That matchup sounds about right.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Nogueira’s win over Brendan Schaub might have been the night’s emotional high in Rio. Nog came in as a sizable underdog, after a long layoff, and after admitting he had rushed his return to fight in Brazil for the first time.
The relative lack depth near the top of the heavyweight division should allow Nog to take a bit more time off now and let some other fights shake out. But for those who still have questions about Nog’s continuing ability to take a big shot, there is probably a big puncher on the other side of his break.
Prediction: Next spring, Nogueira faces the winner of October’s Cheick Kongo vs. Matt Mitrione fight.
Brendan Schaub
What a crazy game MMA is. Schaub was riding high, on top of the world as he made his way to Rio for UFC 134. No one would have ever predicted what was to happen next. The fact that Nogueira beat him was no huge shocker, but that he would knock Schaub out came as a stunner. Nogueira had only two knockouts in his entire, storied career prior to that, and has last one had come over six years ago.
While Schaub had dreams of a title shot, instead, it’s back to the end of the line for the 28-year-old.
Prediction: Schaub eventually fights the loser of September’s Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton match.
Rousimar Palhares
In victory or defeat, Palhares remains one of MMA’s most head-scratching talents. He backed off a sure TKO at UFC 134 to begin a premature celebration, then nearly got knocked out when the fight restarted.
Given his predisposition for unpredictability, who knows what to expect from Palhares in the future? But the man can still fight, so he deserves a big matchup.
Prediction: Palhares fights the winner of November’s Mark Munoz vs. Chris Leben fight.
Anderson Silva