Can we talk about Sherdog's P4P top 10 list?

[No Skill Gap]

It's fucking terrible (pls no ban me staff). Okay it's not horrendous, because it has zero women fighters on it and for that I commend the based staff on this site, but at the same time I have two problems with it:

1. Dustin Porier is on it. Porier appears 10th on the list, and I have to ask...why? Why the fuck is Porier on the list at all? Ferguson is better, Gaethje is better and the current interim champ, McGregor is far more accomplished, better, has a win over Porier, and fights up a weight class or 1.5 - 2.

Sorry but that's egregious. Porier is a good fighter, he had an interim title and a nice streak for bit, but he lost to Khabib and isn't even a top 3-4 LW arguably, in his own division he isn't even top 2-4 with certainty.

2. This will be far less popular with the Bieber..uhh I mean Khabib fans here, but why the fuck is Khabib ranked 1st?

Here's the thing, I like Khabib and I'm a fan. He should be up there, top 3-5 P4P for sure, but 1st?!?!? How can that possibly be justified. Jon Jones (PEDs and being a weirdo cokehead aside) has never LOST a fight in his life, he's defended probably 5x as much and has a far better resume'.

Cejudo has won titles across two divisions, and just beat Cruz. I think Khabib should be ranked 3rd at best. In reality Khabib's best wins are like...a questionably diminished RDA, McGregor (weak to wrestlers) off a long layoff, Dustin Porier, and Edson Barboza - a gatekeeper who's never been elite, but came close to it. He arguably lost to Tibau as well (just as a counter for Jones very arguably losing to Reyes).

Still a great resume' for Khabib, but how in the blue fuck is he ranked 1st?

 

[Shaddows]

Khabib is unbeaten.
Conor is inactive as fuck and Poirier was not. That also accounts.
Jon was also inactive while suspended for a few years.
That's while Khabib never lost, stayed active, so he surpassed Jon.

Not saying I agree, just offering a reasoning why they could be ahead of the guys you pointed out.

 

[Klaavical]

Not sure I think undefeated records must be high on the criteria

 

[surgeyou1]

I don't even like Cejudo but his past few victories have been more impressive than anyone else. He's got a pretty good claim as much as anyone. Legitimately the best fighter at 2 divisions.

 

[Danis_champ]

Can't agree with Jones being #2 he arguably lost his last two while Henry destroyed everybody he faced recently. We should not only count wins and losses but how dominant a fighter has been.

#1 Khabib
#2 Cejudo
#3 Usman
#4 Adesanya
#5 Volkanovski
#6 Jones
#7 MM
#8 Stipe
#9 Cormier
#10 Ngannou

 

[JSV]

but where does kevin lee fit into all of this ?

 

[Beherit]

It's fucking terrible (pls no ban me staff). Okay it's not horrendous, because it has zero women fighters on it and for that I commend the based staff on this site, but at the same time I have two problems with it:

1. Dustin Porier is on it. Porier appears 10th on the list, and I have to ask...why? Why the fuck is Porier on the list at all? Ferguson is better, Gaethje is better and the current interim champ, McGregor is far more accomplished, better, has a win over Porier, and fights up a weight class or 1.5 - 2.

Sorry but that's egregious. Porier is a good fighter, he had an interim title and a nice streak for bit, but he lost to Khabib and isn't even a top 3-4 LW arguably, in his own division he isn't even top 2-4 with certainty.

2. This will be far less popular with the Bieber..uhh I mean Khabib fans here, but why the fuck is Khabib ranked 1st?

Here's the thing, I like Khabib and I'm a fan. He should be up there, top 3-5 P4P for sure, but 1st?!?!? How can that possibly be justified. Jon Jones (PEDs and being a weirdo cokehead aside) has never LOST a fight in his life, he's defended probably 5x as much and has a far better resume'.

Cejudo has won titles across two divisions, and just beat Cruz. I think Khabib should be ranked 3rd at best. In reality Khabib's best wins are like...a questionably diminished RDA, McGregor (weak to wrestlers) off a long layoff, Dustin Porier, and Edson Barboza - a gatekeeper who's never been elite, but came close to it. He arguably lost to Tibau as well (just as a counter for Jones very arguably losing to Reyes).

Still a great resume' for Khabib, but how in the blue fuck is he ranked 1st?

Jones clearly lost his last fight ( u can make argument for his last 2 fights ), u don't know shit about MMA if u think otherwise. Sherdog guys knows MMA, they know he lost.

P4P is not about the entire career resumé, GSP would still be 1st if it was the case. It is more about the the form of the moment. At the moment, khabib is clearly more dominant than Jones in a clearly more stacked division, btw being undefeated for real.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

It’s interesting your claiming McGregor is better than Poirer based on a past fight when that fight was ten years ago, and you completely disregard poirers very recent win over Justin. Seems a little inconsistent.

 

[TheJohnnyWalkerEra]

Jones at #2 and the guy who just kicked his ass isn't even on the list?

 

[ThePatriot]

P4P is a stupid concept where neck beards debate 1000 different hypotheticals. Who gives a fuck.
#UnderTheRightCircumstances #Ronda

 

[No Skill Gap]

It’s interesting your claiming McGregor is better than Poirer based on a past fight when that fight was ten years ago, and you completely disregard poirers very recent win over Justin. Seems a little inconsistent.

No that's not really my logic behind it. My logic is that McGregor is 7-0 at FW and dethroned the GOAT of the division for the title, then moved up to LW (Diaz shit in between) and legitimately torched the LW champion at the time and held two belts.

I don't think he's "legit" fought at 170, but he sort of has beating two tweeners who've fought at WW before and going 2-1 overall there. Just with all these things combined, even omitting arguably irrelevant stuff like the Mayweather fight (I think it's semi relevant actually), I'm not sure how Porier is ranked 10th over him.

P4P is a subjective ranking and I wasn't even specifically trying to squeeze McGregor in here (I think Gaethje deserves the spot more), but he kind of checks all the boxes no? He beat a legend, went undefeated in a division and won the title. No defenses though. Moves up a weight-class (literal pound for pound stuff) and wins that title, "superfight" status due to popularity to some degree because he didn't "earn" the shot you could argue...but it happened nonetheless.

In the same span of time, since 2013, Porier has lost to Cub Swanson, McGregor himself, Michael Johnson, sort of lost to Alvarez but NC, lost to Khabib. His best wins being Gaethje (not the same form now, since McGregor beating Porier doesn't count the same right), Alvarez (after maybe going to lose the 1st fight), Pettis, and Holloway (a 145er).

McGregor in that same time span has only lost to Diaz at "170", Khabib. His resume' is obviously better with win over Aldo, Mendes, Porier/Holloway (not what they are now), Alvarez (champion at time), Diaz and Cerrone at "170".

That would be my reasoning as to why McGregor clearly and obviously deserves to be ranked higher than Porier. But again, I would probably but Gaethje over both of them right now for 10 because of recent activity and holding a "belt"

 

[PanicWrassler]

I’m just wondering how the fuck RDA was diminished in 2014...

How can you possibly highlight McGregor coming off a lay off whilst a sentence prior to that listing Cruz as a win for Cejudo?

 

[No Skill Gap]

Khabib is unbeaten.
Conor is inactive as fuck and Poirier was not. That also accounts.
Jon was also inactive while suspended for a few years.
That's while Khabib never lost, stayed active, so he surpassed Jon.

Not saying I agree, just offering a reasoning why they could be ahead of the guys you pointed out.

Khabib and active in the same sentence = lol

I'm a fan of Khabib but come on, if we are talking activity the guy has fought 5 times since UFC 205 against Michael Johnson, that was November 2016. We're approaching nearly 4 years since that date. He's fought twice since October 2018, once vs McGregor and once vs Porier.

He basically averages 1.2 to 1.3 fighters per year. The funny part is McGregor - who is also very inactive and sporadic and a "bad champion" in terms of defending and activity, has fought recently in January 2020. More recently active, for the record.

 

[No Skill Gap]

I’m just wondering how the fuck RDA was diminished in 2014...

How can you possibly highlight McGregor coming off a lay off whilst a sentence prior to that listing Cruz as a win for Cejudo?

That's a fair point, they were both coming off a layoff.

This isn't a thread trying to bash Khabib at all. I'm simply saying Jon Jones obviously deserves to be ranked ahead of Khabib, and Cejudo is someone who dethroned Mighty Mouse (125 GOAT) and went on to beat Moraes by finish at 135, and then just beat Cruz (135 GOAT) although he's arguably past his prime and diminished himself.

Sorry but I fail to see how beating Al Iaquinta on 3 days notice, McGregor - who sucks against wrestlers as everyone will say here - after a big layoff, and Dustin Porier makes you the P4P champion of the world.

 

[No Skill Gap]

Not sure I think undefeated records must be high on the criteria

They inevitably will. The human brain is drawn towards the mystical allure of the undefeated record. Doesn't matter which sport it is. We've seen it time and time again: Fedor, Jones, Khabib. Silva and McGregor for their UFC runs at the time, etc.

But I agree. GSP is a prime example of it, so is Cejudo.

 

[kevinramsdell]

I don't even like Cejudo but his past few victories have been more impressive than anyone else. He's got a pretty good claim as much as anyone. Legitimately the best fighter at 2 divisions.

Wins over DJ, EPO TJ, and Moraes were massive. The Cruz win is mehhhh, because who really expected different? Either way, yea, Henry is impressive as fuck.

 

[No Skill Gap]

Jones clearly lost his last fight ( u can make argument for his last 2 fights ), u don't know shit about MMA if u think otherwise. Sherdog guys knows MMA, they know he lost.

P4P is not about the entire career resumé, GSP would still be 1st if it was the case. It is more about the the form of the moment. At the moment, khabib is clearly more dominant than Jones in a clearly more stacked division, btw being undefeated for real.

I think Jones lost to Reyes, I only said it on this site like 50 times and made a thread on it the night of and the morning after I think. Regardless, we can play that game with Tibau and Khabib then, because anyone with a brain knows that the fight could have been scored either way, and personally I scored it for Tibau at the time and after re-watching it.

So then it becomes a question of: Does being undefeated matter greatly? Does a loss from awhile ago matter? And does an "official" outcome trump a loss to the hardcore fans' eye or more educated consensus?

For me Khabib is obviously up there, like I said on the OP of this thread. He's top 3-5 easily, he's probably top 3. I just take issue with "#1". Why? Again what are Khabib's best wins? Khabib is undefeated, assuming we considering Tibau a win...officially it is at least, but is his resume' particularly great? No. No it isn't.

Has he fought up a weight class? No he hasn't. That's not a requisite, but it certainly adds points to a P4P list in my subjective list certainly. At the end of the day, Khabib's best wins are over RDA - who at the time was good, but arguably was pre-Acai run if you catch my drift. McGregor, Porier, Barboza.

McGregor is his best win by far. He was also coming off a long layoff and sucks against wrestlers. I don't mean this to take away from Khabib, but I would never put McGregor as P4P #1, even when he was like 9-1 in the UFC with two belts and wins in 3 divisions technically, with wins over Aldo, Mendes, and Alvarez. Yet here we are putting Khabib 1 with an inferior resume'.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

9 champions plus Dustin Poirier <Lmaoo>

 

[Shaddows]

Khabib and active in the same sentence = lol

I'm a fan of Khabib but come on, if we are talking activity the guy has fought 5 times since UFC 205 against Michael Johnson, that was November 2016. We're approaching nearly 4 years since that date. He's fought twice since October 2018, once vs McGregor and once vs Porier.

He basically averages 1.2 to 1.3 fighters per year. The funny part is McGregor - who is also very inactive and sporadic and a "bad champion" in terms of defending and activity, has fought recently in January 2020. More recently active, for the record.

That's the thing though.
Khabib fought. Conor took a break (or multiple breaks) spanning years without a fight.
Let us not count also that Khabib defended his belt. Conor? Shamefully forfeited BOTH belts. Nothing new for COnor, by the way, since he never defended any of his belts, UFC or not.

Khabib does try to stay active. He was supposed to fight now. Not his fault that the pandemic complicated things.

What was Conor's excuse?

 

[No Skill Gap]

That's the thing though.
Khabib fought. Conor took a break (or multiple breaks) spanning years without a fight.
Let us not count also that Khabib defended his belt. Conor? Shamefully forfeited BOTH belts. Nothing new for COnor, by the way, since he never defended any of his belts, UFC or not.

Khabib does try to stay active. He was supposed to fight now. Not his fault that the pandemic complicated things.

What was Conor's excuse?

No he was not supposed to fight now, Ramadan was ongoing and it just ended. Now he needs to gain weight and strength after fasting for months, then do a full camp before fighting.

They both aren't very active. Let's just agree on that...I don't have a "side" here per se. Khabib has been more active over the past 2 years by fighting 3 times (Iaquinta, McGregor, Porier). In that same time McGregor has fought 2 times (Khabib, Cerrone) and has fought Mayweather in boxing although that's not "relevant" to the UFC.

Basically it's 3 v.s. 2 here. Neither have been active. Khabib was suspended after the cage brawl, and McGregor fought Mayweather. Khabib is a practicing muslim who observes Ramadan.