Whos a better fighter, Edson Barboza or Thiago Santos?

[ExitLUPin]

2 of the best Brazilians from this era. Both have similar strengths and weaknesses.

2 of the best kickers in MMA history. Santos has 7 head or body kick TKOs in his career. Edson has 5 including 3 leg kick TKOs. They both have a spinning kick knockout, Edsons over Etim and Thiago has a heel one over Marshman

Thiago is the #2 LHW right now but had struggled in past @ WW and MW. But LW is far deeper than LHW. Edson has been perennially top 10 peaking top 5 in by far the deepest division in the sport

Both are 2 of the most dangerous fighters/knockout artists in MMA if u just play their game and stand in kicking range or kickbox with them as Jan, Jimi, Hermanson, Marshman etc. have found out along with Hooker, Pettis, Dunham etc. for Edson. Two of the most explosive fighters in MMA and really athletic in general

But they both struggle immensely with pressure. Luque, Saucy and Branch all crumpled Santos in the 1st round with pressure. Edson has had similar struggles against Gaethje, Khabib, Lee,Varner etc

 

[Torrid]

I'd say rather comfortably that Thiago would beat Edson.

 

[RVCA]

Santos

He's every bit the kicker Edson is but is a far better boxer who has the footwork to fight going backwards and deal with pressure, unlike Barboza

Santos' only weakness at 185 was his chin but moving to 205 and eating bombs from Manuwa without going down shows that he actually has a great chin.

 

[SirKratos]

Pretty close but I give the edge to Santos by being in a close fight with Jones. Barboza would never have that kind of performance against someone of Jones’ caliber

 

[xXxGhost89xXx]

“Two of the best Brazilians from this era”

 

[Slatersan]

I say santos. Watching barboza get mauled by khabib and kevin lee painted a horrible picture of his skills to me. Barbozas standup is for sure one of the best in all of mma though.

 

[ExitLUPin]

“Two of the best Brazilians from this era”

Not that many gureat Brazilians from this era compared to the past. The post-Nog/Wand/Shogun/Anderson/Aldo/Werdum/JDS/Barao/Lyoto etc era hasnt been the best for Brazilians.

The best guys from this era are RDA, Jacare, Maia, Patricio, Lima, Costa, Moraes, Glover, Formiga, Figueirdo.....RDAs the only champion thats been the #1 guy in the division

I say santos. Watching barboza get mauled by khabib and kevin lee painted a horrible picture of his skills to me. Barbozas standup is for sure one of the best in all of mma though.

What about watching Santos get mauled by Saucy and Branch?

 

[Slatersan]

What about watching Santos get mauled by Saucy and Branch?

He looks better at lhw and he went five rounds with jones on one leg. barboza just looked plain helpless in those fights. Imagine barboza vs khabib on one leg.

 

[Buff]

Edson.

The man could kick the sun.

 

[Seiryoku Zenyo]

Marreta is tough. Barboza is one of the best, nastiest kickers i've seen on the UFC. His cardio is not good. Both have a lot of heart.

If I could pick to have the fighting skills of one of them, i definitely will go with Barboza. Not even close.

 

[Pious Augustus]

2 of the best Brazilians from this era. Both have similar strengths and weaknesses.

2 of the best kickers in MMA history. Santos has 7 head or body kick TKOs in his career. Edson has 5 including 3 leg kick TKOs. They both have a spinning kick knockout, Edsons over Etim and Thiago has a heel one over Marshman

Thiago is the #2 LHW right now but had struggled in past @ WW and MW. But LW is far deeper than LHW. Edson has been perennially top 10 peaking top 5 in by far the deepest division in the sport

Both are 2 of the most dangerous fighters/knockout artists in MMA if u just play their game and stand in kicking range or kickbox with them as Jan, Jimi, Hermanson, Marshman etc. have found out along with Hooker, Pettis, Dunham etc. for Edson. Two of the most explosive fighters in MMA and really athletic in general

But they both struggle immensely with pressure. Luque, Saucy and Branch all crumpled Santos in the 1st round with pressure. Edson has had similar struggles against Gaethje, Khabib, Lee,Varner etc

Edson was ranked #3 at some point in 2017

 

[hedidhisownstunts]

Barboza by a landslide has far more technical tools.

 

[Koimpact]

Edson. He's got more weapons on the feet and is arguably more dynamic. He might not pack as much of a punch as Santos but Barboza can still put you out in the blink of an eye

 

[EricSpider]

The two are absolute monsters. I've always tought that Barboza never even fighting for the belt at LW shows how incredible that weightclass is.

 

[iloveufc123]

Santos. Wtf. Edison is good but Santos goes out in his shield.

 

[blaseblah]

Not that many gureat Brazilians from this era compared to the past. The post-Nog/Wand/Shogun/Anderson/Aldo/Werdum/JDS/Barao/Lyoto etc era hasnt been the best for Brazilians.

The best guys from this era are RDA, Jacare, Maia, Patricio, Lima, Costa, Moraes, Glover, Formiga, Figueirdo.....RDAs the only champion thats been the #1 guy in the division

JDS and Barao are from the same era as Barboza...

 

[Rum]

Both have improved markedly in the last couple of years.

Barboza has more recent losses but is also fighting in a faaaaaaaaaaar deeper, tougher division where it's faaaaaaaaaaaaar more difficult to look good.

JDS and Barao are from the same era as Barboza...

And Aldo's one of the 5 best fighters of his era and from the same era as RDA, Maia, Jacare etc.

The dude didn't have his head on right when he made that list.

 

[ExitLUPin]

JDS and Barao are from the same era as Barboza...

Baraos best years were from 2011-2014. He already had 27 fights before his UFC debut

Edsons was 2014-2018 and still ongoing considering his last performance against Felder. Edson had wins in the same time as Baraos best but he wasn't beating ranked fighters back then. His best wins were Pearson and Castillo both controversial split/majority decisions. He didn't hit his groove until 2014

JDS best years were 08-14. He wasn't the same after the Stipe war. He's still trudging along but in a horrible division.

JDS and Barao both debuted in MMA during the mid 2000s and peaked In the same time period. Edson debuted in the late 2000s and peaked years after there's ended. I don't see them as part of the same gen, just one removed

 

[DabraKajitsu]

Edson Barboza is technically the superior fighter.
Oh, people think Thiago Santos is good because he made Jones look trash? Cmon guys.... Jones looks trash because he was sitting at about 30%.... Yes, Santos was throwing heat missiles but imagine if he didn't have that knee injury!!!! We would've seen peak Jones that fought DC 1 and Gus 1. What I'm trying to get at is that the LHW division lacks such skills that Jones doesn't even need to go 100% anymore even his last 5 fights he shut down most of his opponents including Gus 2 and DC 2.

 

[R3DV1P3Rx28]

Am I the only one that thinks comparing a fighter from lw to that of a lhw is just straight up retarded? No offense