Michael Bisping believes Anderson Silva is still the middleweight GOAT

Michael Bisping holds firm that Anderson Silva is still the GOAT at middleweight.

The former 185-pound champion took to his YouTube channel recently and discussed the topic of who is the greatest champion the division has ever seen – specifically zeroing in on Silva and Israel Adesanya. Bisping suggested that Silva still holds all the records for title defenses, victories, finishes, and more. It’s hard to make the argument for anybody other than “The Spider” in his opinion.

“Listen we could sit here all day and we pontificate and come out with theories and who’s the best and why and all the rest of it,” Bisping said (via MMA Fighting). “Right now, Anderson Silva is ahead on all the numbers — knockouts, wins, defenses, length of time, all the rest of it.

“It all points toward Anderson Silva, and I think he’s got the better style so far. ‘The Last Stylebender’ is incredible to watch, but the way that Anderson Silva would dispose of his opponents was legendary back in the day.”

Bisping holds a win over Silva

Bisping fought Silva back in February of 2016, defeating the Brazilian via unanimous decision. However, he knows first-hand how dangerous Silva can be, nearly being finished by Silva with a flying knee during the closing moments of one of the rounds. As for Adesanya, he actually owns a victory over Silva from their 2019 matchup.

Of course, this came at the tail end of Silva’s career, marking the beginning of a three-fight losing streak for the former middleweight king before his retirement. For that very reason, Bisping doesn’t put too much stock into that result, but remains adamant that he means no disrespect to today’s champion.

“They’re two great fighters from two different eras,” Bisping said. “They did get to fight one another and of course Israel won but as I said before, you can’t really look at that fight too much. You can’t really give it too much weight, and I know that sounds like an insult to Israel Adesanya.

“That’s not what I’m doing. They’re both incredible. I’m a fan of them both. Right now, the greatest middleweight of all time without question is Anderson Silva, but Israel Adesanya is still only 34 years old. The man is still in his prime, and he’s fighting every few months.