Now do the same for Stipe
Stipe’s resume suffers from some of the same things, no argument from me on that. But it’s significantly better than Ngannou’s.
Stipe fought Arlovski and Overeem a year before Ngannou did, and he fought a declining JDS 2 years before Ngannou did. Again, not great versions of those fighters, but better than when Ngannou fought them. Hunt was pretty old by the time Stipe fought him as well, but a decent win I suppose.
Stipe’s wins against de Fries, del Rosario, Gonzaga, and Nelson are solid and his win against Werdum was very good. He of course also 50-44ed Ngannou himself when they first fought.
DC was old and on the brink of retirement when Stipe got those 2 wins over him, but I agree with what
@Trabaho said above: that version of DC was still a better win than either Cain or JDS was for Ngannou (and Stipe was clearly declining himself by then).
To me, Ngannou’s resume is pretty thin. Had he stuck around and had defenses against guys like Pavlovich and Aspinall, his stock would’ve risen considerably for me.