Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Light Heavyweights

3. Wanderlei Silva

A lot of newer fans might remember Silva primarily during his second run in the UFC from 2007 to 2013, during which he had some great battles and scored a few memorable knockouts over credible foes including Keith Jardine and Brian Stann, but alternated wins and losses, including dropping decisions to UFC poster boys Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin, who beat him in two catchweight bouts. The reality is that Silva was already well past his prime by that point, which was clear even in the final years of Pride Fighting Championships. Silva had been knocked out in his last Pride fight by Dan Henderson, a man he had beaten previously, and had lost of his last five, including splitting two very close fights against Ricardo Arona where he looked noticeably diminished. One can blame that on the tremendous damage Silva had already received, not only from his fights but from the infamous Chute Boxe sparring sessions, where guys were regularly concussed, and became washed up long before their time, with Murilo Rua being the most notorious example.

Of course, Silva's first stint in the UFC had been when he was in his early 20s and featured his famous knockout loss to Vitor Belfort and being soundly beaten by Tito Ortiz. However, from 2000 to 2004, Silva forged a tremendous legend and was arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, knocking out Quinton Jackson twice, Guy Mezger, Yuki Kondo, all-time legend Kazushi Sakuraba three times, and garnering decisions over iron-chinned Henderson and much larger Olympic judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida, all without a loss. It was one of the great runs in the sport.

Continue Reading » Number 2