Who ended up being the best of that era?
Top fighters in that time frame
Josh Barnett
Andrei Arlovski
Tim Sylvia
Randy Couture
Ricco Rodriguez
Redrock Rizzo
Frank Mir
Probably Tim Sylvia specifically in that time frame, cause Randy went down to LHW and Mir had the motorcycle accident. Without the accident I genuinely feel Mir would've run that era in the UFC.
I agree on Mir, he had one scary skillset that was beyond most HW's at the time.
I think it is hard to include Randy because he was really a LHW who sometimes showed up in HW with the right matchups.
Barnet has the best resume. He also probably tested positive more than anyone in mma ever. The only guy to outdo Jones lol
Nah this UFC fighter (Magomedov) worse. 3 fight win streak in UFC heavyweight. Failed drug test. Failed on return. Then tried to do a Jones third time but didn't hide as well and was life banned for refusing test https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2019...me-usada-ban-steroids-drug-testing-russia-mma
Damn I didn't know about the lifetime ban
What a shame, he has 0 KO power but the guy is really talented
None of them defended the belt the 3 times like Stipe did
Barnett, but he went to PRIDE. Mir was probably the best one after Barnett left, wish he'd have faced Barnett in that time frame.
Although really I'm not sure how relevant it is to his career at that stage, quite likely he would have been back to fighting in Russia/eastern europe anyway.