Yes. TMMAC always welcomes healthy debate and intelligent discussion.
Fair enough. I, like so many others, was dazzled by the brilliance of the spider that i was blinded to many things that went on during his career. I am very conflicted about this subject. I was a big fan. Now not so much. I will not support cheating.
Personally, the roids thing doesn't bother me so much (if roids bother me I can't be a Wandy fan so fuck that haha) on it's own so much as the adamant denial and hypocritical statements about others doing so and how they should be punished to the extreme that he's made in the past.
I was a big fan of Anderson's myself once upon a time, but he's just done a lot of shit that's rubbed me wrong through the years, starting with how he handled his "friend" Wandy dropping to MW. A guy he
pretended to be friends with dropped to a safer, more natural weight class for him and he immediately calls said friend's next opponent and offers help from a former training partner, having his nerve to get pissy while himself feeling free to hop between weight classes at his convenience. Needless to say, I don't respect a move like that....my Wandy love doesn't help the butt hurt though, I'll be honest.....
Then he has his nerve to whine about fighters being "disrespectful" in interviews , while he goes and tops any words they could have possibly spoken with his actions IN the cage. "Oh, Damian Maia said he hopes to "take my arm home?" (IE; win by sub, as if we didn't know that) How disrespectful!" Then he proceeds to show us what "respect" and "honor" are by hiding behind the ref, doing imitations, name calling and generally screwing over everyone who paid for the fight with immature jackassery, basically because his opponent dared to say he thought he could win by sub and Andy got butt hurt.
Then he has the nerve to answer questions about fighting the likes of JBJ or Shogun with shit like "No, 185 is my weight class. I am the champion. This is where I fight. This is my division. I would like to fight GSP next". I wish somebody would have taken the beat down and smacked the shit out of him when he said that, lol. On multiple occasions.
And don't even get me started on how fucking difficult it was to get him in a worthwhile fight towards the end of his run where I assume he knew he was slowing down. He basically had to be forced into matches with top contenders like Chael 2 or Weidman after months of refusals, drama and begging for much easier fights like Cung Le or welterweights. It got to the point that even Dana White was mocking him saying he everytime they try to set him up with a contender, he asks for Mighty Mouse or something instead, and this was when Anderson was still the biggest thing they had going and Dana was always on his nuts. That would be like Dana mocking Rousey these days. She would have to REALLY push it as Anderson clearly did when trying to avoid real contenders toward the end while begging for easier side shows instead.
And I could probably go on. You'll never hear me say Anderson wasn't a GREAT fighter. He's absolutely one of the all time best at any weight class. But I have always viewed him as a very poor
"champion"". Maybe it's just my personal view of what an ideal champ should be like. They are happy to face all contenders in their weight class and show up to fight and do their damn job. They don't dance around, hide behind the refs and yell insults because the other guy said he hoped to armbar him. They don't constantly refuse number one contenders and beg for easy matches. They don't get mocked for wanting easy fights or threatened with the under card for being a jackass during a fight by their own promoters. They don't obsessively chase matches with guys from lower weight classes who have already said "no thanks". A good champ just generally doesn't act like Anderson Silva did, especially in the later years of his run.
Sorry to rant. Like I said, Anderson is an all time great and fun to watch if he's not just dicking around, but he's never really been this respectful, humble champ who exudes "budo" and behaves in a deity like manner that his hardcore fans have always insisted he was. Just a prissy, entitled dude with an awesome skill set.
Just my opinions of course. Maybe I'm a little too opinionated judging by that wall of text, lol.