Stipe got his first title shot by beating Hunt and Arlovski, and the second by getting KOd

[Melas Chasma]

Stipe has had some great luck during his career. Peaking just at the perfect time when all the other top10s were out of prime and old, and he mostly didn't even have to beat them to get a title shot, he got to defend against them.

I see Stipe as a good HW but who is considered great only because he happened to be in his prime at the perfect time in the worst HW era in over 10 years.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Arlovski was ranked pretty highly at that point and had beaten four ranked fighters in a row.

Overeem also got his shot by beating Andrei.

 

[frandie2b]

But N'Gannou hasn't done enough to get a rematch... lol

 

[Linelo]

JDS' run to his 1st title shot vs Cain was the best run for a UFC HW contender.

 

[MMACroatia]

Stipe is the best HW ever in UFC

 

[Melas Chasma]

Arlovski was ranked pretty highly at that point

Sure he was, he had beaten prime Mir in his last fight.

 

[TheJohnnyWalkerEra]

Sure he was, he had beaten prime Mir in his last fight.

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[Fatback96]

There’s no such thing as a GOAT HW, there’s just HW’s with decent win streaks until they randomly get KO’d.

I got Ngannou and Stipe at the same level at this point just from their strength of schedule.

 

[capnlarge]

Okay but he had some nice wins as champ, so I'm not sure what the point is.

 

[cshireman4]

DC got his first HW title shot by getting head kicked by Jones and beating Volkan Oezdemir at 205. Then he went and done this to get his second...

 

[thobra]

I agree that the timing was good, but he did prove he belonged there, so I guess the UFC did right.
About the DC fight, most hardcore fans saw what was up with the constant eye pokes, so he was expected to win the rematch (and he deserved it).

It might not say much, since the UFC HW division never was very good, but Stipe is among the best UFC HWs of all time.

 

[hotcurlyweenie]

Whatever. Look at his wins. The dudes had a sensational career at HW. A fighter can only beat the men in front of him, he can't alter time to fight when the division was deeper.

 

[DOMMA]

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[Shadowthrone]

 

[waldywaldy]

That's HW for ya.

Randy Couture is the OG when it comes to undeserved title shots

HW title fight after beating a Japanese pro wrestler and middleweight Jeremy Horn
Immediate HW title fight after losing the tile to Barnett
Loses that shot against Rizzo and gets an immediate shot at Chuck's LHW title
Loses LHW title to Vitor gets immediate rematch
Loses LHW tile to Chuck and gets a rematch after one win over Mike van Arsdale
Loses the rematch but gets an immediate shot at Timmeh's HW title

Dude fought for a UFC title 12 times in 19 fights going 12-7 in the process

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

This is heavyweight. People wanted Greg Hardy to get a shot if he ran a 4.5 40...

 

[kimocomplex]

at the time Arlovski returned to the UFC, he:

beat Schaub
KO'd Bigfoot in a Fight Night main event
beat Travis Browne in a Fight Of The Year
beat Mir in a long awaited showdown

so yea Stipe beating him down gave him alot of stock

 

[sonhow]

There’s no such thing as a GOAT HW, there’s just HW’s with decent win streaks until they randomly get KO’d.

I got Ngannou and Stipe at the same level at this point just from their strength of schedule.

 

[Morris88]

DC got his first HW title shot by getting head kicked by Jones and beating Volkan Oezdemir at 205. Then he went and done this to get his second...

Um, that's not quite the full picture is it, he'd previously gone on an unbeaten run at HW beating Josh Barnett, Bigfoot Silva, Frank Mir and Roy Nelson...

 

[Big Slammer]

DC got his first HW title shot by getting head kicked by Jones and beating Volkan Oezdemir at 205. Then he went and done this to get his second...

the Jones result was declared a NC so DC got the HW title shot after winning 5 in a row which included 3 title defences