“Every Single Champ in UFC is Special”- Anderson Silva Talks About the Best Fighters Through the Years

Anderson Silva is as humble as they come. While he may be cocky inside the cage, he is often quick to defer conversation about him being the greatest MMA fighter ever. His resume makes a strong case for him, but he always downplays it.

Silva kept that trend going when questioned about that again, mentioning the greats that came before him and have come after him.

“It’s tough to say that. I can’t respond to you about this because every single fight, every single champ in the UFC is special.

“Let’s go back to the beginning, Royce Gracie, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture. They were different fighters. Vitor Belfort, Minotauro Nogueira, Forrest Griffin, Lyoto, wow, there are a lot of fighters. BJ Penn. Now you see different guys after- Rich Franklin, me. Different guys. It’s tough to say who’s the best and who’s the best ever in this sport. Every single champ, every single guy take the belt and do something special inside the cage.

“It’s not about one person, it’s about every single fighter. And I can’t say that like Georges St-Pierre is this or that or that. Everybody have their special moment. I had my special, Georges had his special, Jon Jones, Conor, Khabib.”

Anderson Silva and his case for GOAT

Anderson Silva is being humble, but he is a front-runner in the GOAT conversation. He is one of the greatest champions in UFC history, having the second most consecutive title defenses. He held the record for a while before Demetrious Johnson broke it.

Silva has an asterisk to his name, and that was his positive drug test after his win over Nick Diaz. The end of his career hasn’t been pretty either, winning only one of his last eight fights (win over Diaz overturned to NC). However, his prime was possibly one of the greatest primes of any UFC fighter in memory.

One thing Silva is right about is that a lot of people have their names in this hat because of their achievements. This is an unsolvable debate, so Silva knows better than trying to answer this. He chooses to respect the ones that came before him, the ones he competed against, and the ones that have come after him.