Silva had more championship experience in the UFC if that’s what you’re talking about. The quality of the MW division wasn’t fantastic though. LW has always been the most competitive.
Imagine what a properly scaled out MW Khabib would do to Silva if Chael nearly beat him though.
That’s the problem. All you can do is imagine. Anderson best the best at WW and then MW and then fought a former LHW champion as well as a at one point HW champion and a LHW hall of famer.
You don’t get to keep your exact physical abilities by putting on or losing weight/size.
This is part of the flaw of the p4p argument.
Life is not a video game.
Someone Khabib’s size puts on 30 lbs – even if it’s pure muscle – there will be things he gains and things he loses.
What a smaller fighter has in terms of generally greater speed, agility, flexibility etc – they generally lack compared to bigger fighters in terms of strength, power, bone density (physical durability) etc.
You don’t just get to fantasy-land make a guy naturally 30 lbs bigger but he retains all of his attributes while also gaining those of the bigger guy.
Fighters who succeed in multiple weight classes are special for this very reason.
It’s not an easy thing, and they are realistically competing as different versions of themselves.