Which one of these fighters will be The One to dethrone Anderson?

[Emmery Myers]

In the current MW division, there are 5 potential title challengers out there right now who have both the opportunity to earn a shot, and the possible skill sets to beat Anderson. None of these fighters should be favored to beat Anderson. But eventually, someone will get lucky, or Anderson will slow, or someone will see something on tape and exploit it. Of all fighters out there, this list contains the fighters currently most likely to be the one to do it.

Weidman - Pros : young, confident, athletic and an insane wrestler. Cons : lacks experience. Some might argue he isn't seasoned.

Munoz - Pros : decent MMA wrestler, heavy hands, entering his prime. Cons - despite his pedigree, his wrestling hasn't been anywhere near Chaels in the past in the cage, slow hand speed, and may not fight Anderson due to being teammates.

Evans - Pros : great MMA wrestler. Phase shifts well. While fresh, has speed and power. Very experienced and a former champion. Cons - has been out struck by deceptive, fast strikers in Jones and Machida before, has chin questions, may lose the speed advantage he usually has, been known to gas. He has never cut to MW before.

Rockhold - Pros : has the "phenom factor" of Cain, Aldo, Jones etc, extremely athletic and talented striker. Large for the division. Gaining experience and entering prime. Comes from one of the best camps in the sport. Cons : Other than his fight with Souza, there is a palpable dearth of top talent on his resume, which gives him an experience disadvantage. Likes to strike, which automatically makes Silva, who has borderline super human reflexes a bad match up.

Lombard - Pros : Explosive, high caliber athlete with great takedowns from the clinch, and tremendous power. In his absolute prime and has a 12 minute long highlight reel of nothing but destruction. Very experienced. Cons : short reach, despite experience against cans/decent/lower-mid level guys, has not faced a lot of truly elite talent.

Honorable mention goes to Bisping : Pros - he has a good, well rounded game and a lot of high level experience. Cons - he has a lack of power, likes to strike, has shown his chin is not bullet proof.

Which of these fighters will be the one to unseat Anderson? Will it be someone else? Will he beat all of these guys anyway?


(disclaimer : I know anderson would be favored to beat any of these guys and I would pick him to beat any of them tomorrow, but someone is bound to do it. This is simply for the sake of discussion. )

[Lemony Snicket]

Weidman would be a veeeeery tough fight for Andy.

[Ash]

I think you basically listed the guys in order of who is most to least likely to beat Anderson.

[Ash]

To add to the list, while not a match-up likely to ever occur, I always thought Jacare Souza would prove a tough match-up for Anderson, barring he wasn't stuck in "I'm Jacare the striker!" mode.

[Lemony Snicket]

How about a mediocre japanese fighter?

[Ash]

Like Kei Yamamiya?

[Cbear]

The biggest threat to Andy is going to be Father Time when his Matrix speed slows down. he is 38 now and probably wont fight again until next year. At some point age catches up and its going to allow one of these lesser fighters to step in and get the win. It would be nice if we mma fans could have ONE champion who retired on top as our legend instead of hanging around too long and losing to lesser fighters in their twilight years. Its one thing for Andy's streak to end to a big name but does anyone really want to see the Undertaker like "Streak" broken by a no-name like Munoz, Weidman, Rockhold? I don't. If the legend is going to fall, let it be to another legend or something big like the crazy fued with Shell. These other guys are just vanilla invisible and if they were to dethrone Andy it would be such a let down.

[Ash]

Anderson is finally making the super bucks now though, so I'm hoping that doesn't result in him going Hollywood and losing to a bunch of lacklustre fighters, or overstaying his ability in MMA.

[Cbear]

Anderson is finally making the super bucks now though, so I'm hoping that doesn't result in him going Hollywood and losing to a bunch of lacklustre fighters, or overstaying his ability in MMA.

Yeah, its kind of a double edged sword for us fans. Do we want him to continue fighting so we can watch him do crazy stuff and win or do we want him to retire on top before the inevitiable happens and he gets Fedore'd? I like to watch the guy fight but as Ive said before, I'd like for mma to have just ONE guy we could hang our hat on and say was the best of all time and "unbeatable". Andy is the only thing close to being mma's Rocky Marciano/Babe Ruth type legend.

[split decision]

If the legend is going to fall, let it be to another legend or something big like the crazy fued with Shell. These other guys are just vanilla invisible and if they were to dethrone Andy it would be such a let down.

Amen, brother. Give us a Jon Jones superfight, which Anderson has repeatedly expressed he doesn't want, or go out on a high note, which is such a rarity in most sports.