One Thing to Watch: Anderson “The Spider” Silva is one of the UFC’s greatest artists
With the NBA, NHL, NASCAR and other major sports leagues and sporting events suspended or canceled, what better time to take a look back at some iconic sports moments? Each day, we’ll deliver One Thing to Watch.
Some spiders have eight legs, and some are considered extremely dangerous.
One Spider, in particular, only has two legs – but it never made him any less dangerous.
Today represents Anderson “The Spider” Silva’s 45th birthday, and of course, we’re going to celebrate at the expense of a few of his victims.
Anderson Silva is one of the greatest mixed martial artists in history and is frequently mentioned in the conversation for greatest UFC fighter of all-time.
He made his UFC debut on June 28, 2006, knocking out Chris Leben in the first round, and a few months later, on Oct. 14, he won the UFC Middleweight title by knocking out Rich Franklin in the first round.
Relive Silva’s win over Franklin:
Silva continued on, winning his first 16 UFC fights across the middleweight and lightweight divisions. He defended the middleweight belt 10 times in the process and didn’t suffer a defeat in the UFC until July 6, 2013.
In the process, Silva defeated the likes of Franklin, Dan Henderson, Forrest Griffin, Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort, Yushin Okami and more.
Anderson Silva is regarded as one of the greatest strikers in MMA history, and on Feb. 5, 2011, he registered one of the greatest knockouts in UFC history.
Nine years ago today, @SpiderAnderson settled his beef with Vitor Belfort with a front kick to the face ?? pic.twitter.com/QJXbGJ1YFr
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 5, 2020
You’ve seen it before, but just for good measure:
The infamous two-legged Spider struck again.
Even though Silva has lost six of his last eight fights, including a ‘no contest’ against Nick Diaz at UFC 183.
His best is behind him, but his best is often considered to be the best we’ve ever seen.
