Ha! I completely forgot all of that about Silva. Forgot that he was rumored to have tossed the fight etc etc. The last MMA match I watched was one of Brock Lesnar years ago and after that I just tried to keep up through news articles. With that said, I would be talking about Anderson Silva in his prime, the beast that I remembered him as.
Reading back on what I wrote earlier, "destroy" is probably too strong a word. I don't want to downplay Bruce Lee because I know how quick the guy is, but the size advantage is just too much for me to see Bruce coming out of this with a victory. He'll put up a hell of a fight, but I still see Silva topping him. Like we mentioned before though, it's impossible to say who would win now.
Interesting question, who do you think would win in a fight: A heavyweight boxer like Mike Tyson or Bruce Lee?
Yeah he might as well have thrown the first fight against Chris, he was being arrogant as hell, and when he was doing one of his impressive leaning dodges got tapped on the chin, apparently thinking it would be appropriate to pretend to be hurt and in the process of simultaneously disrespecting his opponent and the championship got knocked out.
You can watch it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwDqz2P0YTw
In the Octogon, in an MMA match, there's no doubt in my mind that a prime Anderson Silva would have an immense advantage. To be honest I have a hard time seeing Bruce Lee winning too, not because I think he couldn't do it, but because none of Bruce's real fights were ever recorded. Still in street fight scenario I'm going to give it to Bruce, because of his unquestioned obsessive dedication to martial arts. In regards to the size difference, Silva's size is definitely an advantage. But it's been well noted that Bruce could kick a 300 pound heavy bag so hard that it would hit the ceiling. Despite the size difference, even a prime Silva is not on par with Bruce's physicality.
It pains me to have to try and make a choice between two of my heroes, Iron Mike and Bruce Lee. In a boxing match there's no debate in my mind that Tyson would win it. Tyson was a little man for a heavy weight fighter, standing 5'10-5'11 because of that and not being an awkwardly proportioned giant like many of his opponents. He could take advantage of his well defined and well measured physique. His angles, speed, power and technique are all excellent. His highlight reel is rife with legendary KO's. Men who would appear nearly twice his size would look a little bit different laying horizontally sprawled out on the ground totally unconscious.
Are you asking me if I think Bruce Lee would win against Mike Tyson, or are you asking me how much I value size/see it as an advantage. There's a video around the internet of a 170 pound MMA fighter fighting a 600 pound fat man. It's really interesting, a little bit funny too.
Size and reach are both great advantages to have in a fight, but I don't believe size trumps technique and dedication. What would be the point of practicing something as difficult and demanding as martial arts, if the say all be all was size? It would be so much easier to just eat a shit ton than to bust my ass in the gym. In modern society we seem to be obsessed with size, bigger trucks, bigger dicks, bigger bellies and we worship weight lifting because it gives us bigger muscles. Why not just automatically acquiesce to other peoples demands simply because they're larger than us? Is all the training pointless simply because someone was born bigger than you?
Clearly in a fist fight size and reach is an advantage, that's the idea behind weight classes, so that fighters can compete in a weight bracket that's fair. Even though every weight class is filled with cowards that can manage to cut down to the weight for the weigh in, but will be much heavier at the actual fight. So that they can tower over their opponents.
Iron Mike Tyson himself is the perfect example of how size isn't the only defining factor of a battle, he's downed MANY men much larger than himself.
Who do I think would win between Mike Tyson and Bruce Lee, I can't really say for certain. I want to say Iron Mike, but that's only because I've actually seen all of his fights.
Not saying that you aren't really right, and I don't really think that Anderson Silva "clearly slacked off his training and lost the passion". Anderson Silva gave some interviews before the second fight saying that he was motivated and training pretty hard (doesn't really matter, I know) and was sure that he'd win, and the second fight was making a bunch of people hyped (it was going to show up in the TV like 3~4AM or something like that, and even people that aren't a fan of MMA [like me] were watching it).
However, I don't agree with "disrespects his own title, showing that he is no longer deserving of it", in the first and in the second fight, Anderson Silva was fighting as he normally does, in the first fight he lost because he made a mistake (stayed out of guard to provoke Chris Wiedman) but in the second fight he was more careful, and he didn't really lose by a mistake.
Anderson Silva uses this
"kick (I don't know the name in english, sorry)" pretty often, It's one of his strongest moves (and one of Chuck Norris' strongest moves too lol), It can cause serious damage, the problem was that Chris Wiedman was alredy aware on how to block that kick, then, when Anderson Silva kicked Chris Wiedman blocked with his leg at the same time (as you can see by the image that you posted), this move that Chris Wiedman did, consists in moving your leg up to use your knee and your shin to block a kick. So, Anderson Silva hit Chris Wiedman tibia with his tibia, but problem is that Anderson Silva hit with the thinner part of the tibia, while Chris Wiedman blocked with a thicker part of the tibia (the shin doesn't have muscle to absorb hits), the impact is the same as hanging a 200KG piano on Anderson Silva's tibia ( I'm saying this based on a video). What I'm trying to say, is that, I would gave Chris Wiedman some credit by his smart move instead of criticizing Anderson Silva.
That's the most common technique for blocking that kick, it's not exactly rocket science. Yeah it was a good guard, but I expect my champion to train well enough that they don't break their own leg on their opponent.
