Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping revealed who he believes is the greatest middleweight fighter of all time.
Bisping recently spoke to Casino.org in an interview and was asked who he believes is the middleweight GOAT. In Bisping’s opinion, it’s Anderson Silva, and it’s not particularly close.
“The middleweight GOAT, without a shadow of a doubt, is the one and only Anderson Silva. He has 10 title-contending defenses. No one’s gonna touch that. No one’s gonna get remotely close to that. So, for me, it’s Anderson Silva all day,” Bisping said.
The Case for Anderson Silva
Silva joined the UFC in 2006 and immediately exploded onto the scene, winning his first 16 fights in the Octagon, which to this day is still a record, one that Islam Makhachev recently tied.
“The Spider” holds most of the middleweight records, including most title defenses in middleweight history (10), most knockouts in middleweight history (8, tied with Uriah Hall and Thiago Santos), and most knockdowns in middleweight history (13, tied with Israel Adesanya).
Silva also has the most finishes in UFC title fights regardless of weight class (9), the most knockouts in UFC title fights regardless of weight class (7), and the most knockdowns in UFC title fights regardless of weight class (10). When crunching the numbers, it’s easy to see why Silva is Bisping’s middleweight GOAT.
Not only are Silva’s numbers impressive, but so is the list of names he defeated, including Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen, Demian Maia, Vitor Belfort, Yushin Okami, and many more. While the end of his UFC run was rough, overall, Silva’s UFC career was incredible, and Bisping’s take that he is the middleweight GOAT is an entirely fair one.
However, while Silva is at the top of the middleweight GOAT list, several other middleweights are at least a part of the conversation.
The Case For Israel Adesanya
While Silva is the easy choice, there are certainly other middleweights who are at least worth considering, starting with Israel Adesanya.
After joining the UFC in 2018, Adesanya won his first five fights inside the Octagon, including beating Silva at UFC 234, to earn an interim UFC middleweight title fight against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 236. Adesanya won that fight, an epic battle that was later enshrined in the UFC Hall of Fame, to win the interim belt, and then he unified the belt when he knocked out champion Robert Whittaker in his next fight.
Adesanya then successfully defended his middleweight crown against Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa, Marvin Vettori, Whittaker in a rematch, and Jared Cannonier, before he lost it to Alex Pereira. But he immediately regained the belt from Pereira in his next fight before losing it to Sean Strickland right away. Still, it was an incredible run for Adesanya as the UFC middleweight champion, and he’s likely second right behind Silva in the middleweight GOAT rankings.
There are other great middleweight fighters, including Bisping himself, Whittaker, Pereira, Strickland, Franklin, Chris Weidman, and more. But, as Bisping stated, Silva appears to be the safe pick as the middleweight GOAT, with Adesanya as a close second.
Michael Bisping Names His Middleweight GOAT