With the recent revelation that Anderson Silva had never been drug tested other than on the night of the fight (!!!) and his refusal to take responsibility for the failed test following his bout with Nick Diaz, doubt has been cast over Silva's UFC career. MMA Fighting's Luke Thomas (on The MMA Beat) suggested that Silva's late rise to prominence in MMA was always suspicious and the theory that fighters should be hitting their stride in their mid-30's, when other sport athletes are declining, is an absurdity, the heavyweight class notwithstanding. Technique-wise Silva is one of the greatest- no doubt about that. Arguably the best striker in MMA history. Freddy Roach calls him the best boxer in MMA. Silva's UFC debut was in 2006 (at 31-years old). He became champion later that year. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when Silva peaked in the UFC since the quality of his opponents goes up and down drastically. I think it's fair to say hammering out Franklin's nose and being the first to submit Hendo in back-to-back fights (2008) was probably his high point. He was 33 at the time. Is that too old to be peaking? Seems like it'd be right on the edge of the cliff between peak and fall. From the Hendo fight his opposition dips a lot. I feel like he coasted for a couple of years. Irvin, Cote, Leites, Griffin, and Maia are mostly guys who flirted with the top-ten but were never mainstays. Griffin had already had his chin cracked by Rashad Evans by the time he got the jump-up fight with Silva. The Maia fight was (previously) the low point in Silva's career, followed by five rounds of domination from Chael Sonnen. If you wanted to dogear the chapter in his career where getting on gear would've helped the most, this is probably the spot. He surprisingly rebounded with a spectacular KO of Vitor and a classic KO of an over-matched Okami before facing a spastic Chael Sonnen and finally a blown-up Stephan Bonnar on short notice. Then he ran into Weidman who might just be a bad match-up for him at any stage in his career. So what do you think, is Thomas talking some shit or does he have a point?
