Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping still rates Anderson Silva higher than Israel Adesanya.
Adesanya will be looking for the first defense of his second reign as middleweight champion when he battles Sean Strickland in the UFC 293 headliner taking place Saturday night in Sydney, Australia.
Should “The Last Stylebender” come out on top, he'll have earned his sixth middleweight title defense. Despite Silva having 10 title defenses, many already regard Adesanya as the greatest middleweight champion of all time given his body of work.
Bisping, however, feels it's hard to ignore Silva's numbers as well as his overall style when considering the middleweight GOAT debate.
“Listen we could sit here all day and we pontificate and come out with theories and who’s the best and why and all the rest of it,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel (via MMA Junkie). “Right now, Anderson Silva is ahead on all the numbers – knockouts, wins, defenses, length of time, all the rest of it.
“It all points toward Anderson Silva, and I think he’s got the better style so far. ‘The Last Stylebender’ is incredible to watch, but the way that Anderson Silva would dispose of his opponents was legendary back in the day.”
While Silva had the odd stinker as champion — see Demian Maia — he became known for defeating his opponents before they even started fighting with his aura while he also delivered a number of iconic finishes.
Adesanya has some memorable finishes as well such as in his wins over Alex Pereira, Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker. However, his finishing rate is far below Silva's as four of his five title defenses came via decision.
He does have the caveat of beating Silva via decision when they met back in Feb. 2018. Bisping doesn't put too much stock into that result, though, as it was a Silva way past his prime.
All that said, Bisping believes Adesanya is more than capable of surpassing Silva in the future.
“They’re two great fighters from two different eras,” Bisping added. “They did get to fight one another and of course Israel won, but as I said before, you can’t really look at that fight too much. You can’t really give it too much weight, and I know that sounds like an insult to Israel Adesanya.
“That’s not what I’m doing. They’re both incredible. I’m fans of them both. Right now, the greatest middleweight of all time without question is Anderson Silva, but Israel Adesanya is still only 34 years old. The man is still in his prime, and he’s fighting every few months.”
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