Soares: I truly believe Anderson is the greatest of all time

Ed Soares says that he believes Anderson Silva is the greatest fighter of all time. Well here's a greatest fighters of all time thread... who do you have at #1 and why?  Where does Anderson Silva belong?  Should all time fav fighters be kind of like pound for pound, where you take into account the era they were fighting in, even if they couldn't hack it today?

http://mmaweekly.com/anderson-silva-doesnt-want-to-be-the-best-he-wants-to-be-the-best-ever

“What he’s done is going to be very difficult for anybody ever to repeat… eight title defenses, 13 consecutive wins in the UFC. I think the way the sport is evolving and how much better these athletes and all these fighters are getting, I think for you to roll off 13 wins consecutively in the UFC is something almost next to impossible.”

Silva’s reign of terror has been nothing short of remarkable.

In those 13 wins, Silva has finished 11 of his opponents with either strikes or submissions. In nine of those victories, the fight never made it past the second round.

Silva is often touted as the top pound-for-pound fighter on the planet by UFC president Dana White, and his manager believes that he’s not only on his way to being considered the greatest of all time, he might already be there.

“I really truly believe in my heart that Anderson Silva is the greatest fighter of all time,” Soares commented.

Anderson is up there to say the least. GSP and him will be #1, and #2 when things are done, I hope that they can fight sometime soon.

Silva hasn't been fighting the kind of fighters The Greatest of All Time should be fighting yeah he has beaten them pretty good but look at his last five fights.Vitor Belfort who was on a year and a half lay off chael sonnen whom he got his butt whupped for 4 1/2 rounds demian maia who he played with him for five rounds to taking the fight seriously the Griffin fight was impressive Thales Leites whom wasn't even a challenge and was to scared to come forward.it's gonna be a while before I put him on the top of my list.

The last time Anderson fought someone outside of the top 10 AT THE TIME THEY FAUGHT was James Irvin 3 years ago.  He is 11-0 against top 10 fighters at the time they fought over the last 5 years.  He beat Henderson, the pride Champ.  He beat Chael, the #2 MW in the world.  He beat Rich twice, the best MW out there besides Anderson.  He pummelled Forrest, the ex-LHW champ.  I'm not quite sure how you would put Fedor at number one if your reasoning for not putting Anderson at #1 is competition.  Fedor is 0-2 in his last two fights and has not beaten a top 10 fighter in his weight class in almost 6 years (Crop Cop in '05). 

I understand where you're coming from, but take a look at Lynx last post and Soccerkick's last post.  They make perfect sense. 

In Fedor's defense though this is an all time list not current p4p and his achievements shouldn't be tossed aside.  Jordan and Gretzky are still considered the best in their respected sports even if they left not quite on the top of their games.  But now that I say that it really makes Anderson all the more impressive being seen as unbeatable closer to the end of his career than when he was in his "prime" age

I'm pretty sure this is the greatest fighter of all time ranking. Not current p4p. Fedor has fought and beat some of the best fighter in the world and he did it when there were in thier prime AND he did with ease yeah he isn't doing to so well but considering he was pretty much undefeated for over 30 fights(only loss was to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at that was beacause of a cut)

That's he is the greatest fighter of all time.

Fedor's unbeaten streak is very impressive but its definetly filled with alotta wins over sub par fighters from china, his handlers have definetly done there best to present him with as many easy fights through his career as possible and for that he can't be number one.

I disagree with Fedor when he was champion he only had 3 title defenses and spent so much time fighting a much lower level competition than himself. With all the top HWs available in Pride at the time with Barnett, Werdum, and Sergei he didn't fight any of them. He spent much of hos time fighting Ogawa, Zulu, past prime Coleman, Goodgridge, and others far below champion level. Outside Pride HMC, and Lindland. In fact the last 3 years since coming to the US his fight schedule been tougher than it was in his 7 years prior. If you take the padding out of his record it really is no more impressive than Anderson's or GSP's.  

@Bigj383 Thank you for explaining that better than I did.  I completely agree a thousand percent.  Thank you again!

 

The pad on Fedor's record make me question if he had fought top level competition, could he have stayed undefeated?  I feel like he probably couldn't, but Anderson Silva has.  He consistently comes to fight against incredibly game opponents and always make it look effortless in picking them apart.

I have Fedor as number 1.

32-0 Streak at HW
Undefeated at 15-0 in Pride
WAMMA HW Champion (2 defences)
Pride HW Champion (3 defences)
Pride 2004 HWGP Champion
Average of 3.25 fights a year (GSP's is 2.27, and Anderson's is 2.47)
Beaten 5 different former and future UFC Champions
Beaten 3 different former and future Pride/Pride GP Champions
Beaten former and future K1 Champions (Mark Hunt, Semmy Schilt)
Beaten an ADCC Champion (Ricardo Arona)
Submitted Olympic Silver Medalist in Judo (Naoya Ogawa)
Submitted Olympic Silver Medalist in Freestyle wrestling (Matt Lindland)
Twice submitted World Championship Silver Medalist in Freestyle wrestling (Mark Coleman)
Never unanimously lost a round of MMA fighting until the Round 2 of his Bigfoot Silva fight
Never been knocked down from stand-up striking

But hey, it's all subjective and based on opinion, so it doesn't bother me if someone else has ranked another fighter in the number 1 spot.

* Edited at 01.02.2013, 12:05 PM ET *

I agree with Soares.

Silva has fought in 3 weight classes, never reliquished his title, and consistently dominates. No doubt in my mind.