It’s hard to pin point the exact time MMA was created but it’s widely tracked back to the infamous clash between Antonio Inoki and Muhammad Ali in the 70s. The UFC was founded in 1993 but struggled tremendously to evolve into the organization it is today.
While early on MMA served to prove how vital jiu-jitsu is modern MMA dominance is markedly a question of who has the right combo of skills including wrestling, defensive grappling and striking. Very rarely do we see specialists from a single martial art dominate.
But this is a bitter pill to swallow for any and all aging veterans which is perhaps how MMA’s favorite laughing stock got the idea to propose a fictional match between Tim Sylvia and current UFC champion Francis Ngannou and his last challenger Cyril Gane.
Pantheon Level clueless pic.twitter.com/Z93lvsKHmz
— calfkicker (@calfkickercom) October 8, 2022
“To me, Tim Sylvia has to be one of the scariest guys to ever compete in UFC,” Schaub said. “6-foot-7, good footwork … Even Tim Sylvia now, if you think about the champion of the UFC now in Francis or you think about Ciryl Gane, I mean, I would put a prime Tim Sylvia against any of them.”
“Ridiculous wrestling, couldn’t take him down. He’s a monster. I was watching his highlights the other day like a weirdo and I was like, ‘This guy in his prime could compete right now.’ You look at the champs now, man, Tim Sylvia could give Francis and Ciryl Gane some problems. He was such a savage.”
Sylvia retired after back to back losses outside of UFC back in 2013 with a record consisting of 31 wins 10 losses and 1 no contest.
Brendan Schaub is perhaps waxing nostalgic about his own career which was put to a stop after a series of devastating knock outs facilitated an intervention from his entertainment godfather Joe Rogan.
Schaub ended his own career back in 2014, just a year after Sylvia with a record of 10 wins and 5 losses.