Leben recounts getting KO'd by Anderson Silva

That is vintage UFC at its best 

Looking at how light and smooth Anderson was.. it’s funny people thought he was still in his prime when he fought Weidman 

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KingMartyrJack -
dangerboy12 -

Im probably the only long time MMA fan who though Leben would win. Anderson was known to be easy to take down with shaky grappling, and Leben had an underrated ground game. And i felt that coming from a good team, they would give him the right gameplan.

I was wrong lol.

LOL! Your friends sound like the kind who then said he ddn't "deserve" a title fight with Rich Franklin after that performance ... heh.

In fairness there were threads on here saying Anderson didn’t deserve a title shot. But u know. UG. 

gokudamus -

I was eating at the cafe in hardrock shortly before the event and in walks anderson and crew...noone knew who he was!

Lol, sad

Loved those MMA days, feels like an age ago.

Anderson’s win against Leben was impressive - mainly because Chris was such a resilient fighter, to see him get handled like that was amazing.

However, it was Anderson’s wins against Franklin that really stood out to me. Rich was a pretty solid and consistent champion at the time and a very technical fighter. To see him get smashed like that was incredible.

I don’t think I’ve seen a title fight where the champ looked so out of his depth. You could see that Rich knew beyond all doubt that Anderson was too good for him.

The Forest and James Irvin fights were amazing for different reasons. To go up in weight and make it look so easy was something else. Back in those days, Anderson was the closest we’ve come to a living, breathing videogame.

2 Likes
danybayamon23 -

One of the most flawless victories of all time

Didn’t have done ridiculous stats like Leven didn’t la d a single strike and Anderson landed every single one of his?

ABCTT_PaleAndGangly -
failure at life -

Say what you want about the fight but the guys in the UFC proved to be better than all the guys in pride. Gomi got his shit pushed in when he came to the UFC. None of the other guys from pride had a ton of success either

I’m going to disagree. Silva did better in UFC and had a harder time in Pride. Liddell did okay when he fought in Pride, but not at successful as in UFC. I see what you’re saying, but this goes both ways. 

It’s pretty difficult to say which org had the better fighters. There’s strong arguments on both sides. 

 

Also, I miss IFL. GO SILVERBACKS!

"Somebody is leaving on a stretcher!" set MMA back quite a bit because of them.

Chris is awesome

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Anderson is our Michael Jordan. 

Jon Jones is our retarded version of lebron. 

Andy is the GOAT and I'm a fan of both.

My first live UFC fight was 147...Silva vs sonnen 2.

Was insane.  And ended up in his locker room with his team celebrating and singing in Portuguese.

Walked outside and who do I bump into? Jon jones, arthur jones, and dana white.

Universe is a wild place

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Dont let me forget Leben.  True warrior and was always a big fan

JoeHurley -
failure at life -

Say what you want about the fight but the guys in the UFC proved to be better than all the guys in pride. Gomi got his shit pushed in when he came to the UFC. None of the other guys from pride had a ton of success either

Really?

Shogun came to the ufc and won a title.

Werdum came to the ufc and won a title.

Rampage came to the ufc and won a title.

Minotauro cane to the ufc and won a title.

Dan Henderson and Overeem both had success and made it to title matches.

Yeah... Funny thing is even when this was happening fans who liked picking sides were saying similar things like Pride fighters were always at a lower level and so on. Hype was big and there were some surprises such as TUF winner Forrest Griffin demolishing the beastly Shogun but Rampage, Hunt, Werdum, Minotauro and so on did more than well. It may have been because the real hyped up KO-monsters Wandy and CroCop never really took off and Shogun needed a couple of fights before he got going. 

As for CroCop, I don’t know if it was roid withdrawal or whatever but you could tell when he walked to the octagon that SOMETHING had changed… 

If was hard to trust in pride Anderson Silva, remember the Daiju Takase fight and a few others. 

0hi0direct -

Anderson is our Michael Jordan. 

Jon Jones is our retarded version of lebron. 

Andy is the GOAT and I'm a fan of both.

My first live UFC fight was 147...Silva vs sonnen 2.

Was insane.  And ended up in his locker room with his team celebrating and singing in Portuguese.

Walked outside and who do I bump into? Jon jones, arthur jones, and dana white.

Universe is a wild place

I think GSP is closer to your analogy but I can't complain with AS.
Rabid Bunyip -
danybayamon23 -

One of the most flawless victories of all time

Didn’t have done ridiculous stats like Leven didn’t la d a single strike and Anderson landed every single one of his?

I remember soares, I know I know, saying something like silva was 30/30 strikes and I don’t think leben landed a thing

leben wasn’t technical for shit but the guy had a chin and heart so the fact silva did what he did at the time just spoke to the difference in levels

His destruction of Franklin (x2) & Forrest were just as awe inspiring.

WaltJ -

It's funny, I've been binge watching PRIDE events lately, and seeing Silva pre and post arrival to the UFC has been fascinating.  It's like a light switch just flipped for him and he found himself as a fighter and just had this ultra high level of confidence. 

Other than maybe Demetrious Johnson, Anderson Silva is the closest thing I have seen to watching a video game in real life. He was like the real life Matrix

After Pride he joined Muay Thai Dream Team and put in work at Cage Rage...one of the better shows of all time.

Ttt

0hi0direct -

Anderson is our Michael Jordan. 

Jon Jones is our retarded version of lebron. 

Andy is the GOAT and I'm a fan of both.

My first live UFC fight was 147...Silva vs sonnen 2.

Was insane.  And ended up in his locker room with his team celebrating and singing in Portuguese.

Walked outside and who do I bump into? Jon jones, arthur jones, and dana white.

Universe is a wild place

LO Fucking L @ JJ as our retarded Lebron. 

Watching curly celebrate show the amount of he has

Anderson Silva is the goat... Other fighters have an argument for that title, but no one made it look easier! I feel lucky to have witnessed him fight.