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Would a loss from this point on tarnish Anderson Silva's legacy?

4K views 43 replies 27 participants last post by  Roflcopter 
#1 ·
The man is what 38 now? He is getting up there and should be on the decline. This is why I don't care much for a fight with Jones. I think the window for Anderson to be moving around weight classes has passed. If Anderson beats Jones then it just adds another win on his record, but if he loses I think most people would say,"Well he is too old, and he isn't fighting in his natural weight etc..." I for one think his legacy as the top p4p fighter of all time is already cemented in my mind regardless if he starts losing.

Or do you guys think that he still needs to keep winning like Henderson and Couture do/did at their respective ages?
 
#2 ·
Anderson is on his own pedestal as regards to his MMA legacy already. Sure, losing would smudge his unbeaten UFC record and his aura of (recent) invincibility, but nothing, I think, will knock him off that exclusive perch.

I disagree with the statement that a win over Jon Jones wouldn't be a major addition to his reputation. The word legend gets thrown around a lot, and usually too casually. If Silva were to beat the New Phenom that is Jon Jones, a man that has crushed an entire division, and made it look easy, without even cracking the age of twenty five, if Anderson were to beat this Champion at a heavier weight class he might be able to cement himself as the best ever in the sport, when the sport is only in its juvensescence.

That would make for legend.
 
#3 ·
No, his legacy's pretty much cemented.

He has every record imaginable in the UFC and is easily the most dominant Champion for now, I think if Bones stays at 205 he'll shatter those records but that'll take a while.
 
#25 ·
totally agree with your reasoning. was just thinking that now mma is so big, the chances of someone as good as jones coming along is much higher than it was for silva

i think a fight with jones would do no harm to either fighter, no matter what happened

a tradegy that it will never happen

reminds me of how i felt about no fedor v randy/brock, unfulfilled!
 
#4 ·
No? Who cares? UFC page is starting to look like Sherdog, load of fantasy land threads.

Silva is No. 1 in the world right now, he has reached legendary status and no matter what happens in the future or who takes over as No. 1, Silva's work is done and will not be downplayed by anyone with half a brain.
 
#5 ·
why would a loss tarnish anything? I hate that saying "oh, he's tarnishing his legacy, etc.."

it's not like it would erase everything he's done before that.
 
#18 ·
Nothing to lose? What about his teeth? What about consciousness?

People on this forum seem to think this is a video game. Yea, easy for you who sits on his fat ass from the couch to say he has NOTHING to lose. But fact is you don't fight.

It is so odd to me how people just make fantasy matchups, expect fighters to fight until 40 years old, expect them to always bounce back, expect them to not care about their health.....as if it were pretend fighting.

Well it is real. People are a little to drowned in their video games and fantasy worlds these days to realize that these are people...with families...and have a job. And have injuries.
 
#10 ·
Depends who it is who gets that W over him. I think it would, just like any loss typically does but given how he's gone unbeaten in so many UFC fights it will go down as him coming to the end of his career and being over the hill.

The fact is if he retires now he retires an invincible fighter who demolished every top middleweight. Put a loss on the end of his career and suddenly he wasn't invincible just dominant for a very long period of time.

I say let Rashad fight him and if Silva wins, retire.
 
#13 ·
Yes easily, even though he has done everything. People forget Silva is 38, but his last three fights he has looked better than he has before. He is on top right now at 38, his skills has not decline, so any lost right now would tarnish his legacy, although it should not.
 
#22 ·
Not really.

No one credible thinks that Fedor isn't the best HW ever.

The only thing that was tarnished by Fedor's losses was his aura and his talent relative to a an all time, mythical scale.

Mainly because Fedor's downfall seemed way too coincidental with consistently facing the best fighters he had fought in nearly a half decade.

Fedor's all time p4p ranking was tarnished more by his extremely protected record and the fact that he avoided the young guns that were coming up after his division started to rise from the shitpile.

Even the fact that he fought a guy like Brett Rogers instead of Alistair Overeem when he was contractually signed for Strikeforce is a huge watermark on his resume. Even the Werdum fight was incredibly criticized at that point and he lost that fight...., and this was the starting point when people besides me and a few others in the know about Fedor's shambolic record padding started to turn on Fedor and realize that something was amiss. People started using his management company as an excuse, other people just turned on him completely.

The fact that the so called best HW in the world had over 5 fights in an organization and never fought the division champion when most people wanted to see the fight for a majority of those 5 years is incredulous.
 
#16 ·
A win would do a lot more for Anderson's legacy than Bones because of the age and size difference. If Bones won it would get downplayed historically and the conversation would turn into what would happen if these two could have met in their prime. If Anderson wins it becomes another ridiculous accomplishment towards the end of his career making it even more impressive.

I don't really think it makes sense for the GOAT to be chasing fights. Shouldn't people be coming to him to get their own glory like Rashad is thinking about doing?
 
#17 ·
i dont think so, his legacy is set, unless he goes on to lose 4 straight like most legends before calling it quits and i dont mean just losing i mean getting KTFO liddell style.

But i doubt that will happen, in fact i doubt anderson loses until hes 40, i think when he reaches 40 hes going to start to fade, i already think hes slower than earlier in his career but he makes up for it with incredible accuracy and technique.

i also think its importante to understand that its going to be pretty hard for anderson to continue fighting into his 40s like randy and henderson. Due to the fact that hes been fighting a long time from such a early age already this guy has been fighting for more than a freaking decade, look at any MMA fighter once they reach a decade that wear & tare usually catches up to them, not anderson man...hes a beast, this guy used to fight at 170! he beat ******* newton in pride and sakurai in shooto, then fough in cage rage and THEN entered the UFC and started his dominance

Anderson is a old school guy still at the top and always improving, there was a time where he didnt even have a ground game, its amazing to see how much hes grown as a fighter...no doubt he will go down as GOAT already:praise01:

there lol
 
#26 ·
Im not a Silva fan, but his legacy is set in stone.

I dont see any MW currently that I think can actually beat Silva. I say Weidman could make it interesting, but not a sure fire win.

I see Anderson winning at least two more fights at MW and then retiring.
 
#29 ·
A loss for Anderson Silva wouldn't tarnish his legacy... but it definitely would make people start talking more about if he is "beyond his prime" and should retire.

I think Anderson Silva's situation would be different from Fedor. The reason why Fedor's stock fell so much was because after Pride he wasn't fighting top guys. So people started to dispute his "best heavyweight ever" status because of this... then when he starting losing... it just proved those people's thoughts. I think Fedor had a loss coming to him a lot sooner... he just happened to find that one punch against Arvloski and Brett Rogers.
 
#33 ·
It would depend on how he loses and to who he loses to.

If he loses to Jones at LHW, it wouldn't be a big deal, because he would had lost to a much younger, bigger fighter outside his weight class.

If someone like Rashad comes down and wrecks his shit, and Sonnen goes up in weight class and gets blasted by mid tier guys, then that would definitely hurt his legacy. People will start to claim that he ruled a weak division whether it is true or not.

People hate on Fedor for ducking fighters, but he never ducked a fight. He was willing to make the fights happen if a financial agreement that satisfied him and his team was met.

GSP, Silva, and Jones on the other hand don't want to fight because it would hurt their legacy and sponsorship money. If the UFC is not careful, we will end up with the same thing that happens in boxing, the big names will hand pick their opponents and not risk fighting guys that can beat them.
 
#34 ·
I don't think losing to Rashad would hurt his legacy or jumping up to 205 and losing to Jones would hurt his legacy. And if loses a decision to Michael Bisping or Alan Belcher or Chris Weidman or Tim Boetsch those won't hurt his legacy much either. What would hurt his legacy if Hector Lombard comes in and just beats the ever loving crap out of him. Fedor would have been fine and GOAT had his loses just been Henderson and Werdum but the Big Foot Silva ended his mystique. He didn't lose to someone special doing something amazing he was just beaten down. If a free agent middleweight comes into the UFC and beats him that is going to hurt him.

Anderson's legacy is not above reproach, he's made things very hard for him not based on his skill as a fighter but rather his character. The temper tantrums in the Ocatgon, the politicking on who he wasn't going to fight and who he felt he should fight, and pulling out of all the fights he's done over the years. We ignore it now....but if he loses that's going to be brought.
 
#35 ·
Fedor would have been fine and GOAT had his loses just been Henderson and Werdum but the Big Foot Silva ended his mystique. He didn't lose to someone special doing something amazing he was just beaten down.
Bigfoot is also half a man bigger than Fedor.
 
#39 ·
So were the last two guys that wrecked Bigfoot.

So anyone know the details about why Fedor isn't fighting in the UFC yet?

He dominated Pride for so many years. Now Pride is owned by the UFC mother company. Why don't they have him in the UFC. I know there was some drama between M1 and UFC but I don't quite get what the big deal was???

Would be nice to see him fight Jones, no? :)
He just retired. I have to wonder with all these big retirements if we are going to see a rival organization come up.
 
#38 ·
So anyone know the details about why Fedor isn't fighting in the UFC yet?

He dominated Pride for so many years. Now Pride is owned by the UFC mother company. Why don't they have him in the UFC. I know there was some drama between M1 and UFC but I don't quite get what the big deal was???

Would be nice to see him fight Jones, no? :)
 
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