Despite his two failed drug tests, one before and one after his fight with Nick Diaz at UFC 183, Anderson Silva is still widely regarded by many as the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all-time.
Though his positive tests certainly have to hurt his standing – who knows whether or not he was consistently aided during the era when there was no or very little testing – Silva's accomplishments put him at the top of the heap.
A big part of what made Silva so great was his ability to finish. He's 34-6 in his MMA career and has finished 26 of those wins, including 18 in the first round.
Though he gets precious little attention for it, Luke Rockhold is actually finishing at a higher rate than Silva, including far more in the first round.
Rockhold, who is moving inexorably toward a shot at the UFC middleweight title, might earn it if he can finish former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida in the first round of their five-round main event Saturday in a UFC card in Newark, N.J., that will be broadcast nationally on Fox.
Rockhold is 13-2 in his MMA career with 11 finishes. He's finished 10 of those in the first round. After 15 fights in his legendary career, Silva was also 13-2 with nine finishes, all of which came in the first round.
So Rockhold is ahead of Silva's pace at the same point, which is saying something. But Rockhold operated for a long while in the shadows, not making it to the UFC until 2013.
He promptly was stopped in the first by a head kick from Vitor Belfort, though that loss in many ways comes with an asterisk since Belfort was using the now-banned testosterone replacement therapy.
The fact that he's not known or marketed as a finisher – virtually everyone who's heard of Ronda Rousey knows she finishes (just about) everyone in the first round with an arm bar, and those who don't are constantly reminded of it by the UFC's estimable marketing machine – but such isn't the case with Rockhold.
But it should be, and soon, particularly if he can stop Machida.
Rockhold is a typical California kid, laid back and relaxed, and noted as one of the best pure athletes in the UFC. But he's been a big-time finisher since Day 1, which he says comes down to belief in his preparation.
"It all comes down to confidence in myself and finding that moment of relaxation," he said. "When I'm fully relaxed, and just enjoying the moment and not stressing about position or anything, or forcing the issue, you kind of reach that next level of performance. It's there that you find things you might not normally find."
A submission win over Machida would be the most significant of his career, even though Rockhold has wins over the likes of Jacare Souza, Tim Kennedy and Michael Bisping, among many others.
Rockhold was part of the group of fighters who were with Strikeforce when the UFC purchased it and folded them into the UFC.
Early on, there were questions in some corners about whether the so-called "Strikeforce guys" were of the same caliber as their established UFC brethren.
It was annoying to Rockhold, who won the title in Strikeforce but didn't get the kind of recognition for that feat that he would have had he done the same thing in the UFC.
Though he's showed his skill by going 3-1 in four UFC fights, he knows there are those who still need to be convinced.
"You're always going to have doubters," Rockhold said. "Very few people don't have doubters. Look at [UFC light heavyweight champion] Jon Jones and how long he's dominated and people still doubt him. That's all a part of this business. It's always going to be a fight.
"It's especially true for someone like me, coming from my realm in Strikeforce. People always wanted to believe the UFC [middleweights] were on a different level than us [in Strikeforce]. People didn't believe Tim Kennedy deserved to be in the top 10, or Jacare. I heard it a lot that I wasn't worth it, but look what we've done. Look what we're doing."
What Rockhold has done: he's become one of the most dynamic finishers in the game.
Machida has been finished twice, but both were at light heavyweight and came against elite opposition. He was knocked out in a title fight by Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 113 in 2010, then was choked out by Jones in 2011 in a championship bout.
But Machida is one of the craftiest, and best, fighters in the world. His style remains difficult, but Rockhold is such a good athlete that he figures he'll be able to adjust.
"Everyone has a different style and I prepare for everyone differently," he said. "Machida is another fighter. Of course, he poses different threats in different areas. I just have to control the cage like I always do.
"I think people underestimate my ring control, my footwork, my range control. That's what I do really well and it's what I'm going to do even more so in this fight is control the distance, put him in a bad place and make him fight my fight."
If he can do that and come out of it with an impressive win by stoppage, after many years of being a star-caliber fighter, it will be time to drop the world "caliber" from that.
Luke Rockhold will simply be a star.
