16 Greatest HW’s of all time

[Taric]

Fightmatric really has the problem that because it tries to depend only on mathamatics over time it became more and more skewed away from reality.

Yeah, some of their individual rankings are so far off of every other ranking list out there... and I don't even have a problem with that if you go into the conversation knowing that their rankings are unique among media outlets.

 

[GOATtalks]

The level of damage your likely to take from both the fight and the training is obviously more likely to be greater the higher the level you fight, you ask Izzy yourself whether he's training harder now than he was at the dawn of his career or whether the Jan fight was harder on him than some small regional win and you know what the answer will be.

Honestly my opinion of you remains that you an attension seeking troll just posting stuff you know will get a reaction for your attention jollies which shows a pretty extreme level of disrespect to anyone on these forums looking for honest debate.

Not true again. Izzy himself said that toughest dude he fought was some guy he fought in China before UFC. A lot of fighters actually train less or smarter at the top leading to less damage. Conor definitely trains less than before he fought Aldo. Max doesn’t spar anymore. Fighters pay more attention to recovery and fight less often at higher level. They also have access to better coaches, facilities and nutrition. So no, you’re definitely wrong.

I’m disproving all of your arguments with facts, logic and reasoning. All your doing is calling me troll. And if by disrespecting you mean having a different opinion, you probably have a problem communicating with people.

you’re at the bottom of this pyramid

 

[Number 8]

Mirko #16 Gane #15 haha

This is why I love sherdog

 

[Stevanchez]

You’re right. It’s actually @acannxr mistake, I didn’t notice that. I’ve fact checked him for the most part and thought he had it right. I’ll edit the post.

A lot of the earliers generations' wins are discounted by acannxr because, although they were fights between two ranked HWs, they took place in "open weight" tournaments. Why that makes a difference? I have no idea. But that's why Sobral wasn't included. I also think he made quite a few mistakes due to this qualifier, as he has removed some peoples wins and missed others. For example, I already pointed out to him that he didn't realize that 3 of Barnett's wins came in "open weight" and I'm sure there are more. But that means guys like Werdum, Overeem, Nogueira, Fedor, Couture, Barnett, Randleman, and Coleman had names omitted from they're listed because early UFC, PRIDE, Rings, and Pancrease had a lot of fights take place at "open weight".

I added Sobral to Fedor’s wins, but not Randleman. Generated FightMatrix have him at #7 after the loss to Fedor. The rankings are published every 3 months and in the issue before the fight he wasn’t top10. The problem is he fought in between that issue and beat CroCop, right before fighting Fedor. I could add him to this list, but I would have to fact check every fight of every guy on this list from this perspective now. Maybe I’ll do that, but it would take a lot of time.

Or...because that would tie Fedor at 66 with Stipe (you should check your math on Fedor's total, it should be 62). Which would mean Fedor has the same total in your arbitrary point system and nearly double the quality wins of Stipe.

 

[cheesus]

What a garbage list, you have Gane above Cro Cop, yet Barnett is top 5 even though he was caught cheating four times and lost to Cro Cop three times. The fact that Cain beating Travis Browne is more important to his legacy compared to Cro Cop beating Randleman says it all.

 

[GOATtalks]

A lot of the earliers generations' wins are discounted by acannxr because, although they were fights between two ranked HWs, they took place in "open weight" tournaments. Why that makes a difference? I have no idea. But that's why Sobral wasn't included. I also think he made quite a few mistakes due to this qualifier, as he has removed some peoples wins and missed others. For example, I already pointed out to him that he didn't realize that 3 of Barnett's wins came in "open weight" and I'm sure there are more. But that means guys like Werdum, Overeem, Nogueira, Fedor, Couture, Barnett, Randleman, and Coleman had names omitted from they're listed because early UFC, PRIDE, Rings, and Pancrease had a lot of fights take place at "open weight".

Or...because that would tie Fedor at 66 with Stipe (you should check your math on Fedor's total, it should be 62). Which would mean Fedor has the same total in your arbitrary point system and nearly double the quality wins of Stipe.

I don’t know how I got that wrong. I edited it, thanks!

 

[Stevanchez]

CroCop has never been the champ and only managed to beat 2 top10 fighters and one of them is Heath Herring, lol. He was possibly the 3rd best guy of his era, that’s about it.

According to Fightmatrix Wanderlei was ranked #8.

 

[WOLVERINEKILLS]

An advantage? I wouldn’t call it that. That’s the reason they don’t go 10 years undefeated like Fedor

It is an advantage because they are all in the same org now, whereas Pride or UFC fighters could only compete against guys in their own org, or get sidelined by legal red tape like Couture did when he tried to fight Fedor in Affliction.

Your list is full of good fighters, just a bit inaccurate on the order of who most people consider the “greatest”, according to the replies here.

 

[TR1]

Francis career prime was more recent (rematch time! Did you see his improved defensive wrestling? His physical prime might have been then for sure cause he was younger and faster.

so I do give Stipe a 0.5 win over near prime food figthers in his career

To be fair to Stipe though, he was very old and just went through wars with DC, before the Ngannu rematch. So IMO he was not at his best either at that point.

But yeah, 90% of his record has no business being anything but fringe top 10 at best if the division had any sort of depth.
I don't think any other fighter has had such a deceptively "good" resume as the Graverobber Miocic.

 

[I WILL CUT YOU]

I actually can back that claim easily and all you can do is call me names. Like you know someone, who’s losing an argument. You couldn’t say way my method is bad, so you attack me personally. You’re the lowest level of a debater there is.

View attachment 874216

I actually can back that claim easily and all you can do is call me names. Like you know someone, who’s losing an argument. You couldn’t say way my method is bad, so you attack me personally. You’re the lowest level of a debater there is.

"Argumentum ad hominem" means to use someone's passion/interests/feelings in a debate against them. You are biased and inexperienced; therefore your position is open to ridicule.

You are the worst debater-- one who heard once what a strawman was, then considers themselves an expert. You're so brand new, you don't even know how new you are.

See Effect; Dunning-Kruger.

 

[I WILL CUT YOU]

Smh I bet your dumbass thinks Aldo and Conor are in their prime too since they're under 35.

He's not a professional athlete lol

 

[MartinGibson86]

Fightmatrix once had Bob Sapp as a top 5 HW.


Barnett is way too high----Semmy was never near the second best HW in the world. Hunt was also ranked 2nd.

 

[GOAT.]

He's not a professional athlete lol

"Professional "

 

[GOATtalks]

"Argumentum ad hominem" means to use someone's passion/interests/feelings in a debate against them. You are biased and inexperienced; therefore your position is open to ridicule.

You are the worst debater-- one who heard once what a strawman was, then considers themselves an expert. You're so brand new, you don't even know how new you are.

See Effect; Dunning-Kruger.

He's not a professional athlete lol

You’re still doing it

 

[Adamant]

Fedor is #1, without question. Prime Fedor would murder Stipe, Cain, Barnett, etc.

 

[I WILL CUT YOU]

View attachment 874297
You’re still doing it

Again, your basic understandingof an actual ad hominem makes you mistake my dismissal of you for one.

You're dismissed.

 

[I WILL CUT YOU]

"Professional "

<{cruzshake}>

 

[modulus]

Maybe I missed ti but no Marc Coleman??

UFC HW Champ
UFC Tournament 10 and 11 Champion
Pride 2000 Grand Prix Winner

 

[GOAT.]

Fedor is #1, without question. Prime Fedor would murder Stipe, Cain, Barnett, etc.

Facts

 

[Paladin]

@acannxr made a thread a while ago ranking best HW’s in the world by the number of top10 wins based on FightMatrix.

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...st-top-10-ranked-wins-at-heavyweight.4148848/

Thank you for your research @acannrx, I’ll use your thread as a base, although your approach is a bit flawed, because beating #10 guy isn’t the same as beating the #1 guy. So a better system would be a point based system. A win over #1 guy equals 10 points and a win over #10 guy equals 1 point. So let’s begin:

#16 Mirko Filipovic

View attachment 874150


#10 Heath Herring 1 point
#3 Josh Barnett 8 points
#6 Josh Barnett 5 points
#2 Josh Barnett 9 points

Filipovic has 4 top ten wins and 23 points


#15 Ciryl Gane

View attachment 874082

#7 JDS 4 points
#5 Jairzinho Rozenstruick 6 points
#6 Alexander Volkov 5 points
#3 Derrick Lewis 8 points

Gane has 4 top ten wins and 23 points


#14 Frank Mir

#4 Tim Sylvia 7 points
#2 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 9 points
#8 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 3 points
#7 Antonio Silva 4 points

Mir has 4 top ten wins and 23 points


#13 Brock Lesnar

#9 Heath Herring 2 points
#3 Randy Couture 8 points
#3 Frank Mir 8 points
#5 Shane Carwin 6 points

Lesnar has 4 top ten wins and 24 points


#12 Andrei Arlovski

#7 Vladimir Matyushenko 4 points
#7 Tim Sylvia 4 points
#9 Fabricio Werdum 2 points
#4 Antonio Silva 7 points
#4 Travis Browne 7 points
#9 Frank Mir 2 points

Arlovski has 6 top ten wins and 26 points


#11 Daniel Cormier

#6 Antonio Silva 5 points
#8 Josh Barnett 3 points
#7 Frank Mir 4 points
#1 Stipe Miocic 10 points
#5 Derrick Lewis 6 points

Cormier has 5 top ten wins and 28 points


#10 Fabricio Werdum

#4 Gabriel Gonzaga 7 points
#1 Fedor Emelianenko 10 points
#10 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 1 point
#5 Travis Browne 6 points
#5 Mark Hunt 6 points
#8 Travis Browne 3 points

Werdum has 6 top ten wins and 33 points


#9 Randy Couture

#6 Maurice Smith 5 points
#5 Kevin Randleman 6 points
#8 Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 3 points
#5 Pedro Rizzo 6 points
#10 Pedro Rizzo 1 point
#5 Tim Sylvia 6 points
#3 Gabriel Gonzaga 8 points

Couture has 7 top ten wins 35 points


#8 Francis Ngannou

#8 Andrei Arlovski 3 points
#2 Alistair Overeem 9 points
#3 Curtis Blaydes 8 points
#4 Junior dos Santos 7 points
#7 Jairzinho Rozenstruik 4 points
#1 Stipe Miocic 10 points

Ngannou has 6 top ten wins and 41 points


#7 Alistair Overeem

View attachment 874140

#7 Sergei Kharitonov 4 points
#9 Brett Rogers 2 points
#3 Fabricio Werdum 8 points
#2 Brock Lesnar 9 points
#10 Frank Mir 1 point
#3 Junior Dos Santos 8 points
#7 Andrei Arlovski 4 points
#6 Mark Hunt 5 points
#2 Fabricio Werdum 9 points

Overeem has 9 top ten wins and 44 points


#6 Junior dos Santos

#4 Fabricio Werdum 7 points
#9 Mirko Filipovic 2 points
#6 Shane Carwin 5 points
#1 Cain Velasquez 10 points
#4 Frank Mir 7 points
#9 Mark Hunt 2 points
#6 Ben Rothwell 5 points
#4 Derrick Lewis 7 points

dos Santos has 8 top ten wins and 45 points


#5 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

#5 Valentijn Overeem 6 points
#5 Gary Goodridge 6 points
#3 Mark Coleman 8 points
#6 Ricco Rodriguez 5 points
#5 Mirko Filipovic 6 points
#3 Josh Barnett 8 points
#9 Tim Sylvia 2 points
#5 Randy Couture 6 points
#10 Brendan Schaub 1 point

Nogueira has 9 top ten wins 48 points


#4 Josh Barnett

#2 Semmy Schilt 9 points
#2 Randy Couture 9 points
#10 Semmy Schilt 1 point
#6 Kazuhiro Nakamura 5 points
#2 Mark Hunt 9 points
#3 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 8 points
#7 Frank Mir 4 points
#7 Andrei Arlovski 4 points

Barnett has 8 top ten wins and 49 points


#3 Cain Velasquez

#3 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 8 points
#1 Brock Lesnar 10 points
#9 Antonio Silva 2 points
#1 Junior dos Santos 10 points
#3 Antonio Silva 8 points
#2 Junior dos Santos 9 points
#8 Travis Browne 3

Velasquez has 7 top ten wins and 50 points


#2 Fedor Emelianenko

#8 Renato Sobral 3 points
#6 Semmy Schilt 5 points
#10 Heath Herring 1 point
#1 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 10 points
#8 Gary Goodridge 3 points
#9 Mark Coleman 2 points
#2 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 9 points
#4 Mirko Filipovic 7 points
#4 Mark Coleman 7 points
#7 Mark Hunt 4 points
#8 Tim Sylvia 3 points
#6 Andrei Arlovski 5 points
#8 Brett Rogers 3 points

Emelianenko has 13 top ten wins and 62 points


#1 Stipe Miocic

#5 Mark Hunt 6 points
#3 Andrei Arlovski 8 points
#1 Fabricio Werdum 10
#3 Alistair Overeem 8 points
#5 Junior dos Santos 6 points
#2 Francis Ngannou 9 points
#1 Daniel Cormier 10 points
#2 Daniel Cormier 9 points

Miocic has 8 top ten wins and 66 points


Like @acannxr, I only used UFC/Pride champions for this list. This is the most objective unbiased system I’ve could come up with!
Discuss

EDIT: Alistair Overeem added to the list

Im a little confused on Werdum.
Was Cain unranked when Werdum choked him?