Antonio Silva Puts His “Bigfoot” in His Mouth; Calls Out Brock Lesnar
By: Oliver Saenz Posted On: August 18, 2010 at 10:01am
The only man to ever be called Elite XC Heavyweight Champion, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva recently came down hard on industry insiders ranking current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar as the top Heavyweight in the world. Silva recently spoke to tatame.com and asserted that Fabricio Werdum should be the number-one Heavyweight following his surprise submission win over “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianeko, who had sat atop the #1 Heavyweight slot for several years running, at least according to many major news outlets and insider websites. Silva also expressed shock over a fighter having a 5-1 record being considered the best in the world. I, personally, am more shocked that people are taking Antonio Silva seriously when he says things like this.
First off, beating the top fighter in the world does not instantly make you the top fighter in the world, especially considering the splintered nature of MMA’s Heavyweight division, where almost all the best Heavyweight athletes are in the UFC. Leading up to his shocking win against Fedor, Werdum had beaten Mike Kyle and Antonio Silva himself. Leading up to his shocking come-from-behind submission win over Shane Carwin, Brock Lesnar had beaten UFC Hall of Fame member and then-current UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture and former UFC Heavyweight Champion and then-current UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir.
In short: Werdum beat a nobody and then a mid-level opponent that has only recently begun to emerge as anything more than a freak-show attraction, and then he got a great win under his belt. Brock Lesnar beat a champion who is also a legend in this sport, and then he beat another champion and the only man who ever beat him, and then he scored a fantastic come-from-behind win over someone who had just obliterated anyone that ever went up against him up to that point. Even with his remarkable win over Fedor, Fabricio Werdum simply hadn’t faced the same level of competition that Brock Lesnar had, and so I think it’s perfectly justifiable to have Lesnar as the number one Heavyweight, Werdum at two, and Fedor at number three.
I agree with Silva that it’s crazy to have a fighter with a 5-1 record being ranked as the top Heavyweight in the world. But that’s actually a compliment to Brock Lesnar. It’s a testament to his off-the-charts skills, power, and wrestling pedigree that Lesnar basically came in, conquered the UFC, and now stands atop the world as the best Heavyweight. I personally think that Cain Velasquez will prove to be Lesnar’s kryptonite, but until that time comes, Lesnar is without equal.
And to be perfectly honest, I don’t think Antonio Silva should be throwing stones while living in a house made of glass. It wasn’t long ago that “Bigfoot” was nothing more than a freakshow attraction, used by promoters to milk his impressive size and his average fighting ability. Until his recent win over Andrei Arlovski, the only real name-value opponent on Silva’s record was Fabricio Werdum, and Silva lost that fight. Antonio Silva has only just begun to be accepted as an elite-level Heavyweight fighter, rather than just a big guy with big hands. He should take a hard look at himself, and how promoters booked him in the past, before he begins criticizing the UFC and their rushing of Lesnar into the spotlight.
But what do you think, fans and friends? Do Antonio Silva’s words have merit, or is he sticking his nose into places where it doesn’t belong?
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Comments
Antonio “Big Foot” would get finished by any of the 5 top heavyweights in the UFC. Not only would he tap or get knocked out, it would most likely happen in the first 3 rounds. Although in MMA anything can happen, I think if he were to meet Brock in the Octagon it would be a totally one sided match. Brock would take him down easily and ground and pound his way to an easy win.
i agree 100% with Bigfoot Silva! also your really down playing the competition Werdum has faced and hyping Brocks. 1st Randy was winning his fight with Brock until he got caught… if he was 10 or 5 years younger he woulda dominated Brock. 2nd Frank Mir ruled the heavyweight division when it was very weak and since returning been SUPER HYPED. sure he submited a green Lesnar and KO’d Big Nog but Nog has absorbed so much punishment over the years it was a matter of time before he started getting knocked out… i think Big Nog should retire. 3rd Werdums competion in the UFC he beat Brandon Vera, (who beat Mir) and he beat Gonzaga twice lost a close fight to Arlovski. JDS beat Werdum fast BUT Werdum was VERY outtashape after that loss Werdum left the UFC he was not dropped from it. outside the UFC hes beat Alistair Overreem, Aleksander Emilianenko, Fedor Emilianenko.
He beat Aleks and Overeem four years ago. Rankings are all about who you’ve beaten recently.
When the entire four-man UFC Heavyweight tournament was announced, almost EVERYONE was betting money that the final fight would be Nog vs. Couture. You simply can’t diminish a win over Couture and Nog, even at this point in their careers, that’s VERY difficult to do, I don’t care what anyone says. Beating Mike Kyle and Antonio Silva is NOT all that difficult, although I’ll give praise where praise is due and give Werdum a whole lot of credit for submitting Fedor.
But there’s no way you’ll convince me that beating Mike Kyle and Antonio Silva is in the same realm as beating Randy Couture and Frank Mir. There’s just no comparison. While the Fedor win was awesome, my point is that when you combine the name-value and most importantly the SKILL of the last three fighters both Werdum and Lesnar have beaten, Lesnar has faced the better competition as a whole. So he should definitely be #1.
Ranking wise Brock is definitely the #1 HW fighter in MMA today, Werdum should be ranked 2, followed by Fedor, Alister Overeem, Carwin, Cain, Barnett, JDS, Figfoot Silva (he was very impressive in both Werdum and AA fight). Big Nog, Crocop and Randy should soon retire…
But we will know the real #1 fighter after Fedors fights Alister and Werdum and Brock defends against Cain and JDS.
Fedor by far is the most skilled HW fighter of all times, after 10 yrs of ruling the HW div he must have retirement on his mind, but it will be awesome if he could give another run to the belt or the belts (ufc too
…
who in the fuck is this guy oh im a elite xc champ fuck him fedor was the number 1 like 5 years ago before the fight he was on the bottom end of the top ten in the heavyweight brock should bend this guy in a fucking pretzel then finish it off with some meat cleaver like punches to the face
It seems to me that a large number of bloggers and journalist opinion-makers are being persuaded to put out pro-UFC positions. I enjoy the UFC and Strikeforce but would very much like to see more objectivity among the commentators: Brock was lucky to get out of that last fight a winner, as Cain would clearly have beat him if his conditioning hadn’t failed him… Brock’s win does not therefore make him an uber-champion, rather he scraped-through and showed a number of vulnerabilities… to suggest otherwise if ridiculous, suggesting either a blind fandom or the kind of undue influence that clutters the opinion columns with promoter agendas… Seriously, who is paying people here to take these odd positions on fights? Someone must be on the make because half of the commentary i read these days on MMA does not resemble to an objective reporting of the fights i watch. I’m almost ready to give up the MMA opinion columns as they appear to rife with paid-off commenters positioning brands.
Regarding Werdum, yes he beat Fedor fair-and-square, but that doesn’t make him a champion, nor does it invalidate all that Fedor has achieved, although it leaves open the question of where Fedor is today in his career. otherwise I think Big Foot’s opinion is well expressed, if you read the original rather than how it is represented here.
Apologies Oliver, your article isn’t that bad or biased, I suppose that I’m generally ranting about my impressions of MMA opinion columns in general rather than singling your article out in particular. Peace.
I appreciate the insight. I try to be objective, but I find overly objective opinion columns downright boring. I like to throw some flare and personality into the mix, otherwise you’re reporting, not sharing your opinion. There’s nothing wrong with reporting the facts, but if you’re an opinion columnist (which I am), you owe it to your readers to take a strong stand on your opinion, no matter how many of those readers side with you or even against you. You can think what you want of me, but so long as I’ve got you thinking, that’s a job well done in my opinion.
I also think that a win is a win is a win, and I dislike making excuses for any fighters. Carwin’s failure to have good cardio was Carwin’s fault, likewise, Fedor’s desire to get a quick win even if it meant going to the ground with a ground wizard was his fault too. Werdum deserves to be right near the top, but as I said before, the competition he beat leading up to Fedor pales in comparison to the competition Lesnar beat leading up to Carwin.
I agree whole heartedly about opinion columns Julius… I was reading one the other day about Cain V and whether he should be the next to fight Lesnar and 9 out of ten comments were about his Brown Pride tattoo…. People were saying if some white guy had white Pride on his chest everyone would say he’s a racist… But because he is proud to be mexican thats ok… WHO CARES… as long as it is a good fight they could tattoo I eat fish and chips across their face for all I care…. If people cant get over a tattoo I don’t want to know….I JUST WANT TO SEE AND READ ABOUT A GOOD FIGHT… AND ALSO MORE UFC FOR AUSTRALIA
A guy on the farm team of mma is upset because other farm team guys are lower in the standings then the triple A team guys .coming from a guy that will never make it to the big show ,we know as the ufc,no his comments mean nothin
@Dumd you sound like a mindless Zuffa Zombie with ignorant statements like that…
Silva should keep his mouth shut as should anyone who agrees with him. Take a step back boys and think for a moment. Brock is where he is because he ran his mouth and backed it up period. He is a monster. If he loses that spark like Arlovski and GSP did then he will have some problems very soon, like the Carwin fight, Brock did not seemed pumped and crazy. Who would believe another man could push him around like that?
Also I think Cain and Jr Dos antos should fight first to decide who really is the top contender. What is the UFC thinking. CAIN VS JR first. Anyone agree with this???