But still, the 6-foot-8, 260 pound fighter with a then 24-4 overall MMA record—16 (T)KO’s and two submission victories – was quite gracious in defeat. This was likely even harder for him considering the fact that he had looked very good early on in the fight. So good, in fact, that the crowd of MMA fans on hand to watch had been cheering him quite loudly, something that didn’t usually happen.

“I just started getting the fans going my way and I come out here and I lose the damned fight!” Sylvia said after the Nogueira bout.

But this is a bio. So, let’s start near the beginning.

Tim Sylvia before MMA

Tim the “Maine-iac" Sylvia was born on March 5, 1976 in Eastbrook, Maine. Sylvia was an athlete throughout his childhood, spending time training in Karate and participating in high school wrestling. Beyond that, he was involved in semi professional football after graduation. Still, it wasn't straight to a professional fighting career for Sylvia. In other words, post high school graduation he worked in construction, community gardening, hanging sheetrock, and painting houses.

That said, being a longtime UFC fan Sylvia did eventually become interested in fighting, and took up with former TUF competitor Marcus Davis learning the sport. After training for a year, the man known for power on his feet won a grappling tournament. Soon after that, he entered an amateur MMA contest and knocked out his opponent in a mere 17 seconds.

Around that time, Sylvia and some friends went to UFC 28 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There he met Pat Miletich, longtime UFC Champion and the head of Miletich Martial Arts in Bettendorf, Iowa. It has been said that Miletich exclaimed to Sylvia: "You are a big son of a bitch!" and asked, "do you fight?" Sylvia replied, "a little, but I have a hard time finding training partners and getting fights."

"Come to Iowa," said Miletich. And in 2000, after selling close to everything he had, Tim Sylvia did just that. Thus, an outstanding MMA fighter was born.

Tim Sylvia in MMA

Tim Sylvia’s MMA career started on 1/19/01 with a TKO victory over Randy Durant in an IFC event. In fact, he won his first 13 matches before even entering the UFC, 11 by way of stoppage. Some of the people that fell to him during these early stages? How about Ben Rothwell ( decision ), Mike Whitehead ( TKO ), and Jason Lambert ( TKO )?

During his pre UFC days, people had a ton of problems with his long reach, underrated striking skills, and takedown defense. Not much has changed, huh? Anyway, with Sylvia’s early string of victories it was only a matter of time before he ended up fighting in The Octagon.

Tim Sylvia in the UFC

Tim Sylvia debuted in the UFC on 9/27/02 at UFC 39 against Wesley Correira. “Cabbage”, man known for his toughness, fought valiantly, but in the end a second round TKO loss was all he had to show for it. The UFC was so impressed with Sylvia after that bout—and perhaps so hurting for another heavyweight championship caliber fighter—that they immediately gave him a shot at the UFC Heavyweight Championship Belt against Ricco Rodriguez on 2/28/03 at UFC 41.

And what the world found out in that fight was that Tim Sylvia had some serious power and striking skills. Rodriguez succumbed to him in the first round via TKO and a new champion was crowned.

Tim Sylvia and the broken arm

After defending his title against Gan McGee, Sylvia stepped into the Octagon with Frank Mir. Mir was widely lauded for his unbelievable submission skills and guard. Despite this, Sylvia took him right down in the first round.

Big mistake. Mir sunk in the armbar. It was deep. However, Sylvia refused to tap, causing Mir to break his arm in a highlight reel move. Despite the fact that the referee stepped in, Sylvia clearly wanted to continue fighting with the broken arm.

Thus, Sylvia lost his UFC title even if he did show an amazing amount of toughness. The kind of toughness, in fact, that you would think would get fans on his side.

But Sylvia was for some reason becoming someone that the fans rooted against, not for. Perhaps it was because of his size. Either way, this was only the beginning.

Tim Sylvia and the Andrei Arlovski trilogy

After a terrible car accident caused Frank Mir to relinquish his heavyweight title, a bout between Sylvia and Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski was set up for the championship. Unfortunately for Sylvia, he got caught with a big punch in the bout, went to the ground, and was never given a chance to recover.

Because Arlovski slapped an Achilles Lock on him and this time Sylvia did tap.

But lucky for the Maine-iac, he would get another chance. And when he did on 4/15/06 at UFC 59: Reality Check, he was able to knock Arlovski out after seemingly being hurt by the Russian fighter in the first round.

Which set up the final fight in a trilogy on 7/8/06 at UFC 61: Bitter Rivals. Despite the excitement that their first two encounters had brought, both fighters were rather cautious in this one, causing the crowd to boo big time. In fact, this may have been the pinnacle of fans cooling to Sylvia—it had been going on for a while now—as the boos were clear and loud during and after Sylvia’s decision victory. It seemed as if they felt that he was fighting for a decision victory, not to end fights as he had earlier in his career.

Unfortunately for him, this was not the end of the crowd negativity.

Tim Sylvia loses to Randy Couture

At UFC 68: Uprising on 3/3/07, Randy “The Natural” Couture came out of retirement after losing twice to Chuck Liddell to take on Sylvia for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. The reason? Couture believed, as perhaps some of the fans did, that Sylvia was fighting “not to lose” rather than to win.

Those be fighting words. Problem for Sylvia was that he got nailed by the much older fighter coming out with a hard right and was dominated in ground and pound fashion for the rest of the bout. This fight did nothing to repair his relationship with the fans. In fact, it went a long way toward making people believe that he was fighting “not to lose”.

Thus, Sylvia had once again experienced heartache and lost his title. But when Couture decided to step out of the UFC due to contract concerns, Sylvia got another chance at an interim heavyweight belt against a guy with a nice resume himself.

Tim Sylvia silences the boos and loses to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Tim Sylvia took on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 81: Breaking Point on 2/2/08 for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. UFC versus PRIDE, a powerhouse versus one of the greatest submission fighters of all time:

Who would win?

Initially, it looked like Sylvia. Many believed that the 6-foot-8 fighter would use his long reach and strong takedown defense to keep Nogueira at bay and win a decision. Well, he did use that reach for sure.

But he did so looking for the knockout. Along with this, Sylvia floored Nogueira in the first round and pounded on him unmercifully. The next round he looked good as well. In fact, the crowd actually cheered him during the match, something they hadn’t done in some time.

Unfortunately, the elation he likely felt was short lived. Sylvia got caught by one of the best submission fighters of all time in a guillotine choke in the third round. Despite this, afterwards Sylvia was all class as you can see by reading the intro to this article.

What’s next for Tim Sylvia?

For a man that has won and lost the UFC Heavyweight Championship several times and defeated outstanding UFC fighters like Jeff Monson ( decision ), Andrei Arlovski ( twice ), Ricco Rodriguez, Assuerio Silva ( decision ), Tra Telligman ( devastating knockout ), and Brandon Vera ( decision ), what else is there? Perhaps Cheick Kongo? Maybe Brock Lesnar? How about a rematch with Frank Mir now that he seems back fully from the injuries he sustained in that near fatal motorcycle accident?

Then again, maybe Sylvia will soon end up in a different organization altogether. After all, his manager Monte Cox is affiliated with M-1 Global right now.

Hard to say for sure. Here’s what we do know. Tim Sylvia has ridiculous power, underrated technical striking skills, and great size. Further, he’s very hard to take down.

Thus, you’ve got to think that eventually he’ll get another chance at that title. Maybe this time, the fans will be cheering for him.

He’s got the kind of toughness, MMA record, and heart where that should be the case. In other words, he deserves that much.

Fighter Biographies

Top Submission Fighters of All Time : B.J. Penn Biography

Top Submission Fighters of All Time : Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Chuck Liddell Biography and Fighting Information

Dan Henderson Biography and Fighting Information

Lyoto Machida Biography and Fighting Information

References

Wikipedia