Daniel Cormier recently spoke out on UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya being called the middleweight GOAT. ‘DC' was quick to remind everyone that Anderson Silva still exists and he holds that title.

Daniel Cormier did fight Silva back at UFC 200. He knows both fighters very well and was the perfect person to talk about the ‘GOAT' and who deserves the title.

“Dude, Anderson Silva existed,” former UFC champion Cormier told a fan on ESPN (via MMA Fighting). “Anderson Silva existed, like, I don’t get this recency bias that fans have. Guys, you can’t just—honestly, I think the word GOAT gets thrown around way too easy in fight sports. You’ve got to really—the only person that doesn’t get passed is Muhammad Ali. There have been really impressive fighters, but people recognize what Muhammad Ali was. Anderson Silva was to MMA what Muhammad Ali was to boxing. No, Izzy has some work to do to catch Anderson.”

Fighting Silva is something you can never forget, as long as you don't get knocked out. Daniel Cormier remembered what it was like to him on at UFC 200 back in 2016.

“I looked across the Octagon and I knew that I was fighting Anderson at UFC 200,” Cormier continued. “We did the staredowns for the weigh-ins and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m fighting Anderson Silva.’ Then when we got in the Octagon I was like ‘Holy shit, that’s Anderson Silva.’ It was like, the levels just kept going up in terms of appreciation for who he was to the sport of MMA. Anderson Silva is the MMA, mixed martial arts goat at 185. It’ll be a long time before someone passes him.”