It's an honor just to be nominated!

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva is widely-regarded as the finest mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter in the history of the sport, having successfully defended his title 11 times while ending 14 of his Octagon fights by way of knockout, technical knockout or submission.

But is he the greatest athlete of all time? ESPN wants to know:

"SportsCenter" and ESPN Sport Science have teamed up to determine the greatest athlete of all time, using their unique metric that factors in attributes such as speed, power, reaction time and more. Your votes over the past 16 weeks determined the athlete who would represent each sport in the bracket phase of the project, which is set to begin on "SportsCenter" on Sunday, Feb. 17. Check out Sport Science host John Brenkus' chat, where he discusses the bracket and examines how to measure an athlete's greatness, plus much more. And cast your vote for who should win the bracket!

"The Spider" has some stiff competition. He must first sneak past Michael Phelps (Swimming) on Feb. 18 and if he advances to the next bracket, could face the likes of Muhammad Ali (Boxing), Michael Jordan (Basketball), Carl Lewis (Track & Field), Willie Mays (Baseball) or Pele (Soccer), among others.

Get those votes in by clicking here. He's gonna need 'em.