Usman is another proof that title defenses doesn't mean all that much

[Pious Augustus]

The guy has pretty much cleaned out the division he has beat all of the top 6 contenders except for Masvidal
he has surpassed Woodley IMO...

MMA in the UFC isn't a sport...this's not a league and the champion isn't necessarily the best nor his contenders are...

the path to the championship isn't the same for everybody.

 

[Casual Fan]

Woodleys 3 title defenses trump anything Usman has done. Usman needs 3 more wins at champion to surpass Tyron.

 

[Doctor Lenovo]

Woodleys 3 title defenses trump anything Usman has done. Usman needs 3 more wins at champion to surpass Tyron.

With 3 more wins, Usman will be the best WW to date. He has already surpassed Woodley. Usman is the 2nd best WW after GSP.

 

[Vergilius]

Nah, he hasn't cleaned out WW, plenty of challenges left: Masvidal, Leon Edwards, Thompson (a tough challenge for Usman, I think), Ponzinibbio. Plenty of fights to make and I'm not sure he beats all those guys.

 

[Beherit]

I agree title defenses is not such a good criteria to judge the legacy of a fighter :

- some fighters have to go on 10 fights winning streak to get a TS ( like colby, usman, khabib, tony etc ),

- whereas more marketable fighters or fighters in poor weight class division can get a TS just after 4 fights winning streak ( Jones, conor, Ngannou, lesnar only 1 fight winning streak etc ).

The most important criterias should always be the lvl of competition and how the fighter faced this competition, all the rest is BS.

According to this criteria, Usman is not a greater WW than wwodley yet, but one more fight and he'll surpass him.

 

[Pious Augustus]

Woodleys 3 title defenses trump anything Usman has done. Usman needs 3 more wins at champion to surpass Tyron.

why? is it the quality of the opponent or the leather strap at the end of the fight?
according to your logic, McGregor winning the undisputed lightweight title trumps everything Tony has done in the division (because of a promotional leather strap that doesn't indicate anything)
MMA in the UFC isn't a sport...this's not a league and the champion isn't necessarily the best nor his contenders are...

 

[Iroh]

Nah, he hasn't cleaned out WW, plenty of challenges left: Masvidal, Leon Edwards, Thompson (a tough challenge for Usman, I think), Ponzinibbio. Plenty of fights to make and I'm not sure he beats all those guys.

This. Poorly thought out thread. Though he did beat Edwards before, he has improved a lot and done enough to warrant a shot.

 

[Iroh]

Most of the champs beat a bunch of contenders on the way to the top. It's not something particularly special to Usman.

 

[2004 account]

"more proof"

 

[Pious Augustus]

Nah, he hasn't cleaned out WW, plenty of challenges left: Masvidal, Leon Edwards, Thompson (a tough challenge for Usman, I think), Ponzinibbio. Plenty of fights to make and I'm not sure he beats all those guys.

This. Poorly thought out thread. Though he did beat Edwards before, he has improved a lot and done enough to warrant a shot.

if you wanna think about it in this manner and talk about the #7 & #8 contenders as beaning such unconquered challenges for the champ then no one has truly cleaned out any division...

 

[Iroh]

Also, Woodley beat Maia when Maia was on a run. Usman beat him when he was on a losing streak. If you want to talk about the quality of opposition, you want to look at the circumstances of the win too. Of course Tyron's fight was boring as fuck though.

 

[snootylol]

I don't think much of Woodley.. But i doubt Usman would beat the Wonderboy he had a draw/split dec win vs.. even now Wonderboy would give Usman a run for his money.. I don't think Usman is that heavy handed

Usman also beat most of these guys Maia/RDA on losing streaks.. usually after Colby had beat them

 

[Iroh]

if you wanna think about it in this manner and talk about the #7 & #8 contenders as beaning such unconquered challenges for the champ then no one has truly cleaned out any division...

Edwards is 4 and should be 3, IMO. Thompson might not be the highest ranked, but he is a very tough stylistic match up and his fight with Till could have gone either way, so in that regard he is just unlucky and could have been higher up the rankings if the judges saw it a bit differently. I don't think the eye poke shinobi has anything for Usman though, so that's whatever.

 

[eddi]

Only edwards and colby are a threat to usman's belt, and they have 3 or 4 won fights to go before they got a shot, he's gooooouuud for a while

 

[Blayt7hh]

It’s different though. Once everyone is gunning for you and training to beat you it changes. Add to that that it seems a lot of guys start to lose motivation once they get the belt

 

[Dorkman]

His win over Edwards dosen't mean modern day leon edwards hasn't earned the rematch with 8 straight wins. Ponz is still lurking too. And mas seems to be big on UFC's mind. the time it'll take to get those 3 guys lined up and through some new talent will likely surface from the top 15-25 that are finding their stride. Geoff Neal is looking to be a good up and comer. Could be even more coming behind him.

 

[superpunch]

The guy has pretty much cleaned out the division he has beat all of the top 6 contenders except for Masvidal
he has surpassed Woodley IMO...

MMA in the UFC isn't a sport...this's not a league and the champion isn't necessarily the best nor his contenders are...

the path to the championship isn't the same for everybody.

Belts mean something. Check out who would have held UFC 1 "belt" if it were a real belt:

Royce Gracie < Sakuraba < Igor Vovchanchyn < Mark Coleman < Big Nog < Fedor < Werdum.

We're in 2010 now.

Werdum < Overeem (Ubereem) < Antonio Silva < Cain Velasquez < Werdum < Stipe

We're in 2016 now.

Stipe < Cormier < Stipe

And now we're in the present day.

The UFC 1 "belt" didn't end up getting passed around to random guys in the B leagues like it would have been if belts truly don't mean anything. For nearly 30 years, aside from Big Foot having it for a few months, it's been constantly held by the clearly greatest or arguably the greatest the fighter the world that entire time.

 

[Hirashin]

Aaah, wait for the revenge of Tyron.




Naah, nah, nah - GSP.

 

[Sarge3000]

He cleaned out the division?
Lawler?
Masvidal?
Wonderboy?

 

[Nightwish]

Also, Woodley beat Maia when Maia was on a run. Usman beat him when he was on a losing streak. If you want to talk about the quality if opposition, you want to look at the circumstances of the win too. Of course Tyron's fight was boring as fuck though.

Usman vs Maia was boring as fuck too, like all Kamaru fights.