Before there were champions like Francis Ngannou and Stipe Miocic, Tim Sylvia was a pillar atop the Heavyweight division in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Between both eras of champions was Brendan Schaub who won The Ultimate Fighter 10 (TUF) to earn his spot on UFC’s roster in Dec. 2010. Retiring in 2015, Schaub has remained an avid follower of the sport.
The aforementioned Sylvia held UFC gold on two occasions, first in 2003 before recapturing it in 2006. In total, Sylvia defended the strap three times over his two reigns and let people know it, wearing his belt in public wherever he went. “The Maine-iac” is widely regarded as one of the more underrated fighters in mixed martial arts (MMA) history. For Schaub, he believes the giant would fit in rather comfortably against 2022’s best.
“To me, Tim Sylvia has to be one of the scariest guys to ever compete in UFC,” Schaub said on his YouTube channel when watching old fights with Frank Mir. “6-foot-7, good footwork … Even Tim Sylvia now, if you think about the champion of the UFC now in Francis or you think about Ciryl Gane, I mean, I would put a prime Tim Sylvia against any of them.
“Ridiculous wrestling, couldn’t take him down,” he added. “He’s a monster. I was watching his highlights the other day like a weirdo and I was like, ‘This guy in his prime could compete right now.’ You look at the champs now, man, Tim Sylvia could give Francis and Ciryl Gane some problems. He was such a savage.”
The current champion, Ngannou (17-3), is just one defense into his reign thus far, defeating Gane (11-1) in Jan. 2022 via a strong unanimous decision performance to kick things off (watch highlights). Since then, Gane has rebounded in impressive fashion, defeating Tai Tuivasa with a third round knockout in UFC’s Paris debut this past Sept. 2022 (watch highlights).
Prime Timmy was a fucking savage and had a chin. I see him doing better vs Ngannou though he wouldn’t hit Gane a single time.
I don’t hate this idea. Prior fighters get ridiculously under rated once they’re retired, but most of the guys who were champs before would be at least competitive in the division today.
Hell even the Superbrawl and Extreme Challenge tournaments Tim won I can’t imagine someone like Francis could win, he doesn’t have the gas tank.
Timmmmmayayayayayayayayayayaayayayyaayaya
Kabooom Ol Schoolin
Thats why I respect Mariusz Pudzianowski so much.
In his 3rd pro fight he was willing to fight Sylvia when he was still 25-6 and real dangerous. In his 4th pro fight he got in there with Butterbean.who was 77-8 in boxing and 15-7 in MMA at the time.
Those are pretty ballsy 3rd and 4th fights for fighters who have trained their whole lives but for a strongman to cross over to MMA and take those fights… hats off to Pudz.
well done to the Pudzian
Had a chin, he was knocked senseless by couture and didnt recover from it until the 5th round by his own admission. Fedor had him on queer street after 10 seconds.
lol controversial description in this day and age
Francis would killshot 1 punch KO, doesn’t need gas
Lol. Tim wouldn’t last 60 seconds with either of them.
Brendan is getting dumber everyday.
I think Sylvia would lose to both but he would still be a top 5 HW today.
Gane and Ngannou are pro sports level athletic. Sylvia is not. I dont think Sylvia would even have the skill advantage against Francis. He’d be kind of screwed.
I totally agree that Sylvia is one of the most underrated fighters.
Tim used to get beat up by Matt Hughes during sparring. He’d do nuffin to Francis or Gane