Which fighter has the better resume for a GOAT status?

Rust Cohle

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Suppose every fighter has 20 fights and they are different sizes: large, medium and small. For you, what fighter has more credentials to be the GOAT? What your second option have to do to be the GOAT?

Fighter #1
- Size: large
- Champion and defended the title 3 times
- Competition: regular
- Loses: 5 loses. He was finished 4 times in those loses.
- Wins: KOs and submissions
- Style: Exciting
- Drug testing: clean

Fighter #2
- Size: Medium
- Champion and defended the title 8 times
- Competition: Normal
- Loses: 2 loses. He was finished in those loses.
- Wins: decisions
- Style: Boring
- Drug testing: clean

Fighter #3
- Size: Large
- Champion and defended the title 7 times
- Competition: Normal
- Loses: 0
- Wins: Some finishes some decisions
- Style: Exciting
- Drug testing: not clean.

Fighter #4
- Size: Medium
- Champion in 2 different categories, never defended.
- Competition: Hard
- Loses: 2 loses. He was finished 2 times in those loses.
- Wins: KOs
- Style: Exciting
- Drug testing: clean

Fighter #5
- Size: Medium
- Champion, defended 10.
- Competition: Regular
- Loses: 4 loses. He was finished 2 times in those loses.
- Wins: KOs
- Style: Exciting
- Drug testing: not clean

Fighter #6
- Size: Small
- Champion in 3 different categories, defended 2 times.
- Competition: Regular
- Loses: 8 loses. He was finished 6 times in those loses.
- Wins: KOs and subs
- Style: Exciting
- Drug testing: clean

Fighter #7
- Size: Small
- Champion, defended 14 times.
- Competition: bad
- Loses: 1.
- Wins: decisions
- Style: Normal
- Drug testing: clean

Fighter #8
- Size: Medium
- Never champion.
- Competition: hardest
- Loses: 2 loses. The 2 loses were for the title.
- Wins: KOs and subs
- Style: Exciting
- Drug testing: clean
 
Flavour of the week, whats his name again, Diakiese?

GOAT.
 
Either Ronda Rousey or Michael KING Bisping.
 
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But seriously it's #2 JBJ
 
Let's see if I can guess these:
#1 Fedor
#2 GSP
#3 Jon Jones
#4 ...MacGregor?
#5 Anderson Silva
#6 BJ Penn???
#7 Mighty Mouse Johnson
#8 Dan Henderson

Hendo can't be the greatest of all time, because he was never the greatest of any one time. Gotta be champ to be the GOAT. If he ever held UFC gold I'd give it to him, hands down (I still think he beat Bisping in his last fight, but whatever, he should have finished him, blah blah).

Mighty Mouse does need better competition to determine his ceiling. He could be, but without better competition we don't know. If he grabbed the 135 belt then yeah, he gets it.

BJ Penn's string of embarrassing losses over the last few years ruin his resume, unfortunately. In his prime he was one of the greats, for sure, but not the GOAT.

Anderson Silva had my vote for the longest time, but his PED use disqualifies him in my book. The GOAT must not be a cheater.

MacGregor is still too early in his career to make this call. Maybe get a few defenses in and we'll talk.

Jones could have been, but again, PED use disqualifies him.

GSP is a maybe. However, it's hard to call him the GOAT fighter when I don't think he was really fighting so much as not losing for the second half of his career.

Fedor still gets my vote. He had a few losses at the end of his career, but they weren't sustained over a long period of time like BJ Penn. He beat all the best of his day (except Randy Couture and Frank Mir, I guess) in totally dominant fashion. Yes, he fought sub-par fighters a lot of the time, but he also fought the cream of the crop.
 
Fighter #4 had harder competition than all the rest but #9? Interesting.

I would say that most of these fighters are great. I would also wonder if some of these are still active or retired. If still active at what point are they in their career? Do they still have time to do even greater things? Are they in the end of their career and will staying in the game too long have an impact on the overall body of work in some peoples eyes or do we look at the fighter when they were at their best to decide.

Some guys primes were magnificent which made their fall at careers end even more dramatic.

There are a lot more variables to this that make it difficult to dissect it with the tool you have provided but it is on the right track. I personally look at the individual strengths and what makes them successful.
 
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