Anderson is P4P best.

There is no more disputing this. Him and GSP are both dominant of course, but Anderson finishes fights. He knocked out a great striker in Vitor Belfort with one of the most creative kicks ever. He still has that one shot KO power, he has 25 minutes to finish anyone he fights. If you guys think GSP is number one, please state your case, I really do not see any logical argument here, but I'll obviously listen to reason.

There's no doubt in my mind. I honestly was surprised people put GSP above Anderson before but I think after this Anderson has to be first. Amazing kick

i am gonna take some heat here, but i still think gsp is p4p the best in the world...of course i will explain myself tho... gsp gets the slight nod in my mind because he is the complete package...he is the best wrestler in mma, at least top 5, which is amazing considering how new he is to wrestling...he's a great technical boxer, rarely taking damage....but don't take my word for it, listen to statistics...numbers dont lie, and fight metrics unveiled a ranking of all major stats in ufc, since ufc 28...gsp is in the top 10 all time in most knockdowns(7), takedown defense % (86.4%), sig. strike accuracy (56.2%), strikes absorbed per minute (.99)....and number 1 in takedowns, takedown accuracy, sig. strikes landed, total strikes landed...zzzzzz.....sorry, i bored myself to sleep with that! lol...anyway, this is in no way me hating on silva, but i guess the thing i should said to write the SHORT VERSION: SILVA HAS A ***** IN THE ARMOR= WRESTLING..WHILE GSP IS COMPLETELY STRONG EVERYWHERE.

i am gonna take some heat here, but i still think gsp is p4p the best in the world...of course i will explain myself tho... gsp gets the slight nod in my mind because he is the complete package...he is the best wrestler in mma, at least top 5, which is amazing considering how new he is to wrestling...he's a great technical boxer, rarely taking damage....but don't take my word for it, listen to statistics...numbers dont lie, and fight metrics unveiled a ranking of all major stats in ufc, since ufc 28...gsp is in the top 10 all time in most knockdowns(7), takedown defense % (86.4%), sig. strike accuracy (56.2%), strikes absorbed per minute (.99)....and number 1 in takedowns, takedown accuracy, sig. strikes landed, total strikes landed...zzzzzz.....sorry, i bored myself to sleep with that! lol...anyway, this is in no way me hating on silva, but i guess the thing i should said to write the SHORT VERSION: SILVA HAS A ***** IN THE ARMOR= WRESTLING..WHILE GSP IS COMPLETELY STRONG EVERYWHERE.

@jersey, ok, solid points, but GSP does have some *****s. He has the ability to put the fight where he wants it, which obviously is a big advantage, but he has lost twice in the UFC, once by KO, and once by sub. Anderson would have 25 minutes to land one big strike in the fight against GSP, and it would be 25 minutes of survival for GSP. GSP's wrestling is very good, but Koscheck showed it is a little bit overrated (he could not get Kos to the ground, and even got floored by him). And his striking is good not great, his jabs threw koscheck off, but his striking consists of only one punch. Anderson showed tonight he has the ability to ko you from stuff you don't even see coming. Of course it is no question that GSP would beat Anderson in a grappling match, and Anderson would win a striking fight.

Regardless of who you think will win the fight (which is a fight we will get, assuming GSP will beat Shields), Anderson is higher ranked! He is 13-0 in the UFC, with (arguably) higher quality wins than St. Pierre. This should not be disputed. St. Pierre has been ko'd and armbarred during Silva's long reign at the top.

(Just to be clear, I am not attacking you here Jersey, I am simply refuting you're argument, I do not believe GSP deserves to be ranked higher than Silva, and winstreak alone should prove that)

I moved Anderson back into the number one spot for this performance.  He's now 13 - 0 in the UFC with an 8 - fight title defence streak going.  GSP could just as easily be the number one guy because of the level of competition he's facing, but there's really no denying that Anderson is disposing of his competition in much more impressive fashion.  There was really no reason for GSP to not finish a one-eyed Koscheck with over 20 minutes to do so.

Regardless, as long as GSP beats Shields we'll finally have the biggest MMA fight in history (at least I think so) and we'll have a definitive #1 pound-for-pound champion.  Of course if GSP loses to Shields we'll still have a definitive pound-for-pound champ.

@Lynx guy, I agree with you, 100%. 
and @conman, I agree with your agreement of me.
That fight last night gave me a lot of confidence in a fight vs. GSP, he would get taken down at will I think, but he can hit that off switch at any moment, and put GSP on the floor.

Anderson finishes fights against high level competition. GSP doesn't. As long as they both keep winning the one who finishes fights has to be ranked higher in my opinion. Anyways I think the debate will be put to an end soon because it looks like GSP will be fighting Anderson provided he gets past Shields.

vman, but you could argue that GSP is defeating more well-rounded, more proven fighters than anderson.

they are both incredible and the only point in debating which guy is "better" is just to have some fun.  personally i still have GSP at #1. i do think he has been defeating tougher opposition, and he has looked completely invincible even though he hasn't finished fights. 

anderson was half a round away from losing his title after having been dominated against sonnen. there has been nothing like that for GSP - nobody has come close recently.

@minotauro

valid points, but i got gsp by a slim margin still... because, its best p4p now, not career....and while gsp has lost, he came back and DESTROYED those 2 fighters. silva was fortunate that sonnen has the submission defense of a mannequin...or he loses that fight, and ima go out on a limb and say gsp is just as good a wrestler (if not better) and has great sub defense and 1000x better stand up.....one man's opinion, and i may be wrong....but we're splitn hairs here anywayz...these 2 are tops in world, and by a huge margin over number 3.

@jersey, yeah true enough, but I think Sonnen is a better wrestler than St. Pierre, did you see how well he controlled Okami? GSP outstrikes the wrestlers and out wrestlers the strikers, but he couldn't take down koscheck and even got taken down by him. I realize what he did to Fitch, but Fitch went into that fight with very poor striking (which he has improved), and GSP exploited that hole in his game to set up the wrestling. 

I am not stupid, I realize wrestling is Anderson's worst asset and is GSP's best, but Anderson was injured in that Sonnen fight, and he wanted that sub, he was basically pulling guard every time Sonnen even attempted a td. 

whoever is the "better fighter", shouldn't really matter in this ranking, because it's all speculation. We will see this fight soon, and the winner will obviously be number one, but until then, I think we should look at win streaks, Anderson is undefeated in the ufc, which you can't say about GSP, and although he has looked vulnerable, he has also won every fight. 

This is a razor close argument, and I guess putting GSP as number one can be justified, but I disagree with it, personally, just because Anderson is on a huge streak, and he finishes fights, which are really the only two arguments not based on speculation.

You have some very selective memory @minotauro11. GSP's MMA wrestling is the best in the game. He dominated Fitch on the ground. He dominated Koscheck on the ground in their first fight and then, in the last fight, he beat another of the best wrestlers in MMA by jabbing him in the face for five rounds.
But if streaks are what you want to look at, fine. GSP has won 30 rounds in a row. Silva has won ... 2. GSP has faced top ten pound-for-pound competition at least twice in the last three years and will face it again against Shields. Anderson Silva hasn't found a pound-for-pound contender since winning the title from Franklin. Finally, and this is my favorite, number of fights since refusing to engage an opponent: Silva - 2 | GSP - Never.
Silva is like a child with a machine gun. Sure, he can kill you but who knows if he's going to pull the trigger.

Can someone please edit my previous post to have paragraphs ... like the way I typed it?

Sorry RA, you like many others have fallen prey to our crappy composition window.  We've had to delay fixing it and other nagging issues because of more urgent things. Won't be this way forever.

@jersey i cant agree more.
Its partially and admitted bias of being both not a fan of anderson's personality and being canadian, but i have gsp as slightly edging out silva due to being better everywhere than everyone he fights.
Last night was an awesome finish and as much as i dislike anderson im in awe of him.  
The difference is gsp engages even if it is just top control waiting for an opening, he is engaging.  Anderson, if no one engages him he dances and waits.  

Add in the stats jersey put out from fightmetric and i think its enough.
But also these two being so close it could go either way for many reasons and they are unquestionably the number 1 and 2 period.

@Raray, I am not disagreeing with you here, GSP has great mma wrestling, I think I mistyped or you misread my post, I am not trying to say GSP isn't a great wrestler, he is. Yeah he did dominated Fitch on the ground, and he dominated koscheck in their first fight, but Koscheck showed he didn't take GSP's wrestling seriously the first time, he out wrestled him in the second for the brief time they were wrestling in the second fight (do you disagree with me on this??). GSP did set up his wrestling against Fitch with his striking (and that's all I was trying to say), even if he did dominate on the ground, I DON'T DISAGREE WITH THAT. 
And who won the rounds stat is kind of dumb, and so is the who is more aggressive, no offense. Anderson has won his last 13 fights, GSP got knocked out 8 fights ago.
And as far as this whole GSP is fighting better competition, let's compare their last 8 opponents. 
Silva W1 Belfort, vs. GSP w5 Koscheck, close fight as far as competition goes, but Anderson ko'd Belfort in the first, which I think gives him the edge here.
 Silva w5 Sonnen vs GSP w5 Hardy, this is a joke, Sonnen is much tougher competition. 
Silva w5 Maia, GSP w5 Alves, this is a tough one to call, but I think Maia's world class bjj makes him the tougher opponent here.
 Silva w1 Griffin vs GSP w4 BJ, GSP wins this one.
 Silva w5 Leites vs GSP w5 Fitch, Fitch is better
 Silva w3 Cote vs GSP w2 Serra, tough one to call, but I give the advantage to Cote, but I'm guessing you would give it to Serra, so I won't count it. 
Silva w1 Irvin vs GSP w2 Hughes, Hughes is better
Silva w2 Hendo vs GSP w3 Kos, Hendo is better competition. Then in their fights before that GSP got ko'd, and Anderson destroyed Franklin.
So what I'm trying to get at here is that there isn't as big of a gap in competition as people are saying, there are a few cans in there for both of them, but Anderson is winning all of them, and he was winning fights before this too, not getting ko'd by guys like Serra. (I'm not picking a fight here and I'm not mad, just stating my case, I want to hear yours too)

I think Anderson is still at the top.

I honestly belive both men have been fighting less then spectacular competition.

Until GSP and him fight, or he get's beaten by Okami.. then he deserves the top spot.

Beating Vitor Belfort who has no top wins at MW signifies you be p4p best? Vitor got a title shot because he's a name, nothing more. People just sweep the whole Chael Sonnen fight under the rug huh? Horseradish!

@raray How can you compare the two by who's won more rounds? By your logic are you saying GSP looked way better in his last fight compared to Anderson's simply becuase he dominated for 5 rounds and Silva only had 1?
@Olexei You bring up the Chael fight like we all try to forget it, but you may remember Anderson won. We all know he got pounded for almost five rounds but he won. He was injured and clearly wanted to submit Chael. And he did, further showing his dominance.

If the best argument people have for Anderson not being the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world is that he had to submit Chael Sonnen in the 5th round of their fight because he couldn't get it done sooner, well I think that just proves how good Anderson really is.  Anderson went into that fight with a goal which was to submit Chael Sonnen to prove that the Nogueira brother's style of BJJ along with the black belt Anderson earned from them was legit.  He did exactly that.  Then to top it off all off, Sonnen tested positive after the fight and Anderson fought with a rib injury.

So again, if that's the fight people wanna point to to show that Anderson is unworthy of being the pound-for-pound champ, well that's their choice.