• Top five UFC fighters

Hathaway names Anderson Silva his third best of all time

ESPN.co.uk has its own idea about who the top five UFC fighters of all time are, but we thought it might be interesting to hear the views of those who have shared the same Octagon as their heroes.

During a recent visit to GAME store on London's Oxford Street, we decided to put British welterweight John Hathaway under the spotlight. Hathaway had to pick his top five from the past 17 years of UFC action, and he came up with a couple of surprise choices. Intriguingly, the 23-year-old puts Anderson Silva at No. 3 following his miraculous victory over Chael Sonnen.

"In my weight class I like Jon Fitch a lot, I think he's a great competitor, and I like Josh Koscheck," Hathaway told ESPN.co.uk. "Especially with them both coming from strong wrestling backgrounds, they've both adapted their games well.

"They've adapted in quite different ways as well. Koscheck is more about the stand-up; Fitch has improved his stand-up too but he uses it more to set up the takedown. He's got great submissions as well, and he's really tough to submit as he's proved many times.

"Anderson Silva would be at three, I've watched him since the days of Cage Rage and Pride FC, he's a great competitor. And the same with Vitor Belfort, I've watched him since he was 19 back when he was The Phenom. Both like to finish fights, and usually in a good fashion as well.

"My number one fighter is BJ Penn. He was one of the first fighters I remember watching when I was 16 or 17, and it was those performances that captivated me.

"I remember the Joey Gilbert fight when he ended up taking his back and beating him up. The commentators had been speaking highly of Gilbert, who was strong and came from a wrestling background, so it was good to see BJ beat him.

"The second fight of his I remember was his first Cael Uno fight, when he finished him in 10 seconds. Just seeing him run into the cage and then run back out, it was a nice way to do it."

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