All Time GOAT poll

I’m not certain there is a specific goat, but maybe a goat for each weightclass. Maybe a Mt. Rushmore of goats for each era.

2001 - 2010: Fedor, GSP, Silva, Aldo
2011 - 2020: Jones, MM, Khabib, DC
2021 - Now: Volk, Izzy, Cejudo, Usman
 
WOLVERINEKILLS said:
I’m not certain there is a specific goat, but maybe a goat for each weightclass. Maybe a Mt. Rushmore of goats for each era.

2001 - 2010: Fedor, GSP, Silva, Aldo
2011 - 2020: Jones, MM, Khabib, DC
2021 - Now: Volk, Izzy, Cejudo, Usman
Click to expand...
Cool idea to break it down by time period, but not sure how many people would buy into that considering the "AT" part of "GOAT"
Chomsky Honk said:
• How many Elite/Great wins the fighter has - Clear victories > close decisions
• Did the fighter ever make it to the top of the division?
• Did the fighter continue to rack up Elite/Great wins after reaching the top?
• Losses
• Eyetest
Click to expand...
I remember back when the primary criteria was ranked wins above all else. Wasn't that long before this "# of title defenses" phase displaced it.
 
By far the most important criteria is your ability to prove your skills against larger opponents. I have zero interest in seeing someone play the weight cutting game and beat up smaller people, or just have physical dominance.

After that it’s a mix of various things: consistency, strength of schedule, skill set, finishing ability etc.

I don’t care about just wins and losses. Context matters. Taking chances and fighting bigger people goes a long way as well as not confining yourself to one weight class.
 
Easy question, complicated answer. Criteria is tough to decide, but it depends on what you need it for.

Goats are a great addition to any farm. They can be kept:
  • For dairy
  • For meat
  • For fiber
  • As pack animals
  • As companion animals to larger livestock, like horses
  • For brush control
  • For breeding programs and sale of kids
  • For 4-H projects or the show ring
  • Or as a pet
It depends what you actually need the animal for. once we answer these questions, then we can have a realistic debate on the matter.
 
If you consider all of these fighters the GOATs of their respective divisions:
  • Fedor at HW
  • Jones at LHW
  • Anderson at MW
  • GSP at WW
  • Aldo at FW
  • Mighty Mouse at FLW
Then there is one glaringly obvious thing all of these fighters had in common: they were all #1 of their division for 5+ years.

Most people consider length of reign the only important factor of greatness but for some reason don't want to admit it. In the end if a fighter was #1 the longest, and had the most wins as #1, how can anybody else be ranked ahead of them. It simply makes no logical sense.
 
Dionysian said:
By "best fighter" you mean solely skillset then? Or something else?
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Khabib's skill set is definitely a part of it, best most complete grappler ever, cardio for days, iron chin, best ever fight iq.

It made him who he is. The most dominant fighter I've ever seen.
 
1. Competition beaten/faced and assessing how close to or in their primes they were at when beaten

2. Measurable accomplishments such as title defense numbers, numbers of other champions beaten, winning streaks, number of top 5/10 ranked fighters beaten, overall record etc.

3. Dominance/Big moments/Fighting Ability, I think this criteria clearly means less than the first two from the objective mind but it still matters in how we see things to a relevant enough extent.

4. Generations beaten, To me personally, one of the greatest things a fighter can do is defeat multiple eras. The era a champion rises up in is typically against those who were on top but perhaps are beginning to fall off, to then climb to the top of a mountain as champ and beat your generation is basically a standard for me. If you can continue on further and even begin to defeat the next younger generation rising up as contenders too it usually indicates a GOAT level of status.

5. Stylistic relevance, kind like in boxing how Naoya Inoue never fought a great American Slickster but is now going up to prove himself vs that very thing in Stephen Fulton, I think things like if you're a strong grappler and you beat a bunch of weak ones or if you're a great striker and never really had to face strong grapplers etc. You gotta take the stylistic challenges they fought through relative to their game and the different looks they were met with into consideration as well.
 
Becoming champ in UFC or Pride
Strength of schedule
# of top 10 wins
# of title defenses
Longevity

Those are my main criteria.

I don’t personally get listing dominance as a separate category.

It’s appreciated but it has to be against a strong strength of schedule, against many top 10 fighters, or preferably title challengers or reigning champ to factor in imo.
 
The majority (probably 80 percent of the criterion space) for me is an interaction of a) length/tenure of dominance by b) degree of dominance.

How long (in fights, not calendar time) you ruled over your peers in era, combined with the degree of separation between you and your peers in era.

That's the basic idea. Part A is usually derived from title fights wins/defense/number of top 5 or 10 wins. Part B relies more on eye test, finishes, close vs. wide decisions in your fights, etc..

Someone like Khabib maxes out part B, but drops some on part A. Someone like Jones maxes (or almost so) both A and B.

The above has to be funneled through quality of opposition and era of course. Dominating better divisions at a certain level means more than dominating weaker divisions at a certain level.
 
My criteria is a little unorthodox

-Height
-How much weight they can bench
-Hairline level
-Wife/GF Dimeness
-How many social media followers
-Sick tatty
-Own Brand
-Nice & Flowy
 
The biggest criteria's for me are dominance and accomplishments. How dominant were you in your prime, how long did you dominate for, and what did you accomplish.

I think longevity is probably the most crucial factor. We've seen so many fighters look dominant for a short period of time. They look amazing, invincible, and we can't imagine anyone will beat them. Then they go on to lose the very next fight and all the sudden don't seem so invincible. Great examples of this are Lyoto Machida, Chris Weidman, JDS, ect. So a fighter like Khabib who was very dominant for a short period of time doesn't make it very high on my list. Sure he looked unbeatable as champion but so what. That doesn't mean he was unbeatable. He could have went the way of the Machida era. We'll never know. I favor guys who actually stayed on top for an extended period of time and proved themselves.
 
Skill is always #1
If you're the best you should be the most skilled. As a fighter you ability trumps everything else.

Who and what div they ruled over is #2
Competitive division build stronger strengths of schedule. And being in an era when there were many greats to fight matters

Dominance #3
Wining, losing, and most importantly how you win or lose. Did you win or lose with a disadvantage etc.

What if scenarios play no factor. How good were you? How did you perform? Who did you fight? What did you accomplish?
 
Last edited:
1: Dominance - Length of time on top of their division
2: Finishing abiltiy - Whether or not they were finishing their competition or not
3: Skill Set - Can they fight/finish from everywhere
4. Level of Competition - Did they fight everyone available in their time period
 
Randy Fandy Fo Fanders said:
Easy question, complicated answer. Criteria is tough to decide, but it depends on what you need it for.

Goats are a great addition to any farm. They can be kept:
  • For dairy
  • For meat
  • For fiber
  • As pack animals
  • As companion animals to larger livestock, like horses
  • For brush control
  • For breeding programs and sale of kids
  • For 4-H projects or the show ring
  • Or as a pet
It depends what you actually need the animal for. once we answer these questions, then we can have a realistic debate on the matter.
Click to expand...
{<jordan}
 
It's not like basketball where you can say 1 person is the GOAT like Michael Jordan. He is the goat of basketball period. For the UFC, there are too many variables:
  • weight classes
  • male/female category
  • fighters with similar records
  • different time periods
Each of these mentioned categories have their own GOAT. And each fighter mentioned in the poll is a GOAT for their category. GOATs for everything, everywhere in MMA doesn't exist in 2023.
 
Taric said:
If you consider all of these fighters the GOATs of their respective divisions:
  • Fedor at HW
  • Jones at LHW
  • Anderson at MW
  • GSP at WW
  • Aldo at FW
  • Mighty Mouse at FLW
Then there is one glaringly obvious thing all of these fighters had in common: they were all #1 of their division for 5+ years.

Most people consider length of reign the only important factor of greatness but for some reason don't want to admit it. In the end if a fighter was #1 the longest, and had the most wins as #1, how can anybody else be ranked ahead of them. It simply makes no logical sense.
Click to expand...
What is your metric for "length of reign" though? Is it solely time... so Conor's two years of boxing and paternity leave while holding the LW belt are equal to BJ's two years? Or is it title defenses? So DJ is above GSP?
 
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