Fedor vs. Silva?

The results from last night's events -- dominant wins for both Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko -- have reopened the ever-festering debate over who is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. While the two will likely never meet in competition, fans of each fighter have their reasons why they think Fedor or Silva is the true pound-for-pound king. But which arguments really hold water? What stands up to scrutiny?

Let's take a look at two arguments from each camp, do some reductionist analysis, and see what stands up to scrutiny. The intent is not to prove one side of the debate or the other. Rankings like these are subjective and depend on each individual's point of view. But the arguments below are a good place to start in forming your own opinion of who takes the top spot.

Pro Fedor Arguments

Point: The knock on Fedor was that he hadn't fought anyone good in years. Now he beat Tim Sylvia. That should put him back at the top of the list.

Counter-point: Yes, but while Fedor was fighting mismatches, we got to see what real dominance looks like courtesy of Anderson Silva. He steamrolled the best competition in the middleweight division.

Underlying Question: Has Anderson Silva's run since he got to the UFC been more impressive than Fedor's best years in Pride?

No one has been able to figure out what the real difference in quality was between the UFC and Pride. It was assumed for a long time that Pride had the superior talent. But then Pride stars like CroCop, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, and Sokoudjou all lost their debuts in the UFC. Now, no one knows what to believe.

What is clear is that Silva's run since he came to the UFC is nothing short of remarkable. The FightMetric system uses a stat called TPR (Total Performance Rating) to measure the quality of a fighter's performance based on six statistical components (it's like the NFL's Passer Rating for QB's). Scored on a scale between 0-100, the average score for a fight winner is 55. Here are Silva's Total Performance Ratings against his last seven opponents:

vs. Irvin: 100
vs. Henderson: 89
vs. Franklin: 96
vs. Marquardt: 91
vs. Lutter: 61
vs. Franklin: 95
vs. Leben: 100

That makes an average of 91. Fedor's average over his last seven fights is 85, but that includes wins over Zuluzinho, Hong-man Choi, and an aging Mark Coleman. Earlier in his career, Fedor rattled off a seven-fight streak with an average TPR of 92. But even then, that included wins over fighters like Yuji Nagata, Naoya Ogawa, and Gary Goodridge.

Point: Fedor has never really been beaten. Anderson Silva has three legitimate losses on his record, including one fight where he got beaten badly by journeyman Daiju Takase.

Counter-point: Yes, but that was then, this is now. We're talking about best pound-for-pound fighter now, not at every point in his career.

Underlying Question: Has Silva closed all the gaps in his game, and if not, doesn't Fedor have holes in his game too?

There's not enough data to make a confident pronouncement, but the scouting would indicate that Silva is still weak in the same area he was against Takase: defending from side control. Not being able to recover once controlled from the side directly contributed to his losses against Luiz Azeredo and Daiju Takase, and Silva showed little improvement in his first rounds against Travis Lutter and Dan Henderson.

Fedor's game has no holes that are easy to point to, except the resiliency of his skin. If not for a propensity to get cut easily, opponents have yet to find a strategy that works consistently. The win over Sylvia only strengthens the point that Fedor's greatest talent is his ability to completely neutralize the talent of his opponent.

Pro Silva Arguments

Point: Silva is a finisher. Fedor couldn't finish his three biggest fights, two against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and one against CroCop.

Counter-point: Yes, but no one has ever finished Nogueira and both got completely taken out of their games.

Underlying Question: Is beating Nogueira and CroCop by decision more impressive than finishing Dan Henderson, Chris Leben, and Rich Franklin (twice)?

The dominance that Fedor displayed in his three biggest fights is truly impressive. Using FightMetric's effectiveness scores, he outpointed CroCop 256-53 and beat Nogueira twice with scores of 386-69 and 353-159.

But the goal of every fighter is to end his fight. No one who comes in specifically looking for a decision should be considered a pound-for-pound champ. So if we assume that Fedor was trying to finish Nogueira and CroCop, it means he failed.

Silva has successfully stopped each of his opponents in the UFC. That includes stoppages over Henderson, Leben, and Nate Marquardt, none of whom had ever been stopped before. Franklin had only been stopped once before and was near the top of the pound-for-pound rankings himself before getting utterly destroyed by Silva. Remember that before meeting Silva, Leben and Henderson were thought to have iron-clad chins.

Point: Silva moved up a weight class and took out a fighter at 205. That proves he's more than just a great middleweight.

Counter-point: Yes, but Fedor competes at heavyweight, where he is often at a huge size disadvantage.

Underlying Question: Is it harder for a small guy to compete at heavyweight than for a fighter to move up a lower weight class?

The prevailing wisdom in the sport is that a fighter should compete at the lowest weight class to which he can cut safely. If he competes at his natural weight, he runs the risk of getting outmuscled by a fighter who cuts more weight than he does. Recent adopters of the wonders of weight-cutting and dropping down a class include B.J. Penn, Mike Swick, and Brandon Vera.

But Vera is an object lesson in how difficult it is to be a small heavyweight. Saturday night was Vera's 205-pound debut. Vera was on the fast track to a heavyweight title shot until he met up with legitimate heavyweights like Tim Sylvia and Fabricio Werdum. Earlier in his career, Randy Couture had the same revelation, cutting to 205 after losing to bigger heavyweights like Josh Barnett and Ricco Rodriguez.

The gap between middleweight and light-heavyweight is 20 pounds. Even though Irvin cut weight to make 205, he probably only outweighed Silva by 20 pounds at fight time. By contrast, the gap between heavyweight and its upper limit is 60 pounds. Fedor weighed in at 230 pounds. Sylvia has to cut to make 265 and was probably closer to 280 at fight time. Fedor was likely giving up 50 pounds. And while it was obvious that quickness beat size this time around, it's size that wins out more often than not.