All Time GOAT poll

[Yellowcrab]

Top five of each division based on UFC/Pride/WEC champions with most to least top ten ranked wins within their respective weight class.

Heavyweight
1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
3. Junior dos Santos
4. Stipe Miocic
5. Cain Velasquez

Light Heavyweight
1. Jon Jones
2. Mauricio Rua
3. Chuck Liddell
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Rashad Evans

Middleweight
1. Anderson Silva
2. Israel Adesanya
3. Robert Whittaker
4. Luke Rockhold
5. Chris Weidman

Welterweight
1. Georges St-Pierre
2. Matt Hughes
3. Kamaru Usman
4. Robbie Lawler
5. Tyron Woodley

Lightweight
1. Takanori Gomi
2. Benson Henderson
3. Eddie Alvarez
4. BJ Penn
5. Khabib Nurmagomedov

Featherweight
1. Jose Aldo
2. Max Holloway
3. Alexander Volkanovski
4. Conor McGregor
5. Mike Brown

Bantamweight
1. Dominick Cruz
2. Aljamain Sterling
3. TJ Dillashaw
4. Petr Yan
5. Miguel Torres

Flyweight
1. Demetrious Johnson
2. Deiveson Figueiredo
3. Brandon Moreno
4. Henry Cejudo
5. -Vacant-

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...-top-10-ranked-wins-in-each-division.4149321/

Statistics without context are often bullshit.

Here's a simple sample : India GDP is much higher than that of Switzerland, so obviously indians are wealthier than people living in Switzerland, right ?

Your ranking is a complete joke on many weight classes.

 

[Hima Hamrash]

Undefeated 3000-0 Rickson Gracie.

Rickson Gracie was like the Khabib Nurmagomedov of the Gracie clan, that clan was the most dominant in the history of the sport Now it's the Nurmagomedovs, Alhamdulillah, Praise to be Allah
Edit: and just like how he was undefeated like Khabib but we know Khabib did lose at some point ins his life to Magomed Ibragimov when he was younger in Sambo, it was his only official loss, same as Rickson Gracie who also DID lose at some point in his life, his only official loss in martial arts competition came at the 1993 U.S. Sambo Championships in Norman, Oklahoma, he faced Judo and Sambo Champion Ron Tripp, he lost to him.

 

[Hima Hamrash]

Chael
Chael
Chael
Chael
Chael

 

[Hima Hamrash]

Who are your top 5 GOATS in Every Weight class in MMA HIstory?
Edit: Since there are a lot of weightclasses you don't have to name your top 5 in every weight class if you don't want to.

Nah jk about my last post, memes aside, these are my Weight classes GOATs IMO by far, Zuffa (Pride/UFC/SF/WEC) And Quality over Quantity (cause as you know, the GOAT Convo changes time by time, as this is also a young sport, it lasted only for 30 years, unlike Boxing that existed for Centuries) Anyways, these are my lists:
HW: Fedor, Big Nog, Cro Cop, Stipe, Cain
LHW: Jon, DC, Rampage Jackson, Frank Shamrock, Chuck Liddell
MW: Silva, Izzy, Weidman, Rockhold, Rich Franklin
WW: GSP, Hughes, Usman, Miletich, T-Wood
LW: Penn, Khabib, Pettis, Bendo, Edgar
FW: Aldo, Volko, Holloway, Conor, Mike Brown
BW: Cruz, Dillashaw, Barao, Sterling, Yan
FLY: DJ, Cejudo, Moreno, Figgy, Adriano Moraes

WMMA:
W-FW: Cyborg, Nunes, GDR, Julia Budd, Felicia Spencer
W-BW: Nunes, Ronda, Miesha, Holly, Pena
W-FLY: Valentina, Grasso, Montano, Liz Carmouche, Jennifer Maia
W-SW: Joanna, Rose, Zhang, Carla, Andrade

 

[I WILL CUT YOU]

Chael
Chael
Chael
Chael
Chael
View attachment 979194

Never lost a round

 

[Hima Hamrash]

 

[DrunKnJSD]

If your selection for the greatest fighter of all time is not in the poll, feel free to vote for other explain why.

My GOAT is Fedor Emelianenko because he ruled the Pride FC Heavyweight division during almost a decade! Mentioning he was only 183 cm and his weight was below the 265 lbs max!
Submissions and KO's, great technique and endurance gave him the PRIDE World Championship for such a long time! Way more impressive than the 3 times Stipe Miocic defended the belt!

 

[Vincentsky]

Nah jk about my last post, memes aside, these are my Weight classes GOATs IMO by far, Zuffa (Pride/UFC/SF/WEC) And Quality over Quantity (cause as you know, the GOAT Convo changes time by time, as this is also a young sport, it lasted only for 30 years, unlike Boxing that existed for Centuries) Anyways, these are my lists:
HW: Fedor, Big Nog, Cro Cop, Stipe, Cain
LHW: Jon, DC, Rampage Jackson, Frank Shamrock, Chuck Liddell
MW: Silva, Izzy, Weidman, Rockhold, Rich Franklin
WW: GSP, Hughes, Usman, Miletich, T-Wood
LW: Penn, Khabib, Pettis, Bendo, Edgar
FW: Aldo, Volko, Holloway, Conor, Mike Brown
BW: Cruz, Dillashaw, Barao, Sterling, Yan
FLY: DJ, Cejudo, Moreno, Figgy, Adriano Moraes

WMMA:
W-FW: Cyborg, Nunes, GDR, Julia Budd, Felicia Spencer
W-BW: Nunes, Ronda, Miesha, Holly, Pena
W-FLY: Valentina, Grasso, Montano, Liz Carmouche, Jennifer Maia
W-SW: Joanna, Rose, Zhang, Carla, Andrade

Your literally just naming the guys with the most top 10 wins in every division lol

 

[pankrat]

Your literally just naming the guys with the most top 10 wins in every division lol

No he is not. There are several MWs with more top10 wins at 185 than Franklin. Among other examples
That guy is just all over the place

 

[Jose Beehive]

fedor is the greatest of all time, retard. the rest of the guys you have up there sucked at mma and were steroids cheaters.

 

[Jackonfire]

 

[noc]

Rickson Gracie was like the Khabib Nurmagomedov of the Gracie clan, that clan was the most dominant in the history of the sport Now it's the Nurmagomedovs, Alhamdulillah, Praise to be Allah
Edit: and just like how he was undefeated like Khabib but we know Khabib did lose at some point ins his life to Magomed Ibragimov when he was younger in Sambo, it was his only official loss, same as Rickson Gracie who also DID lose at some point in his life, his only official loss in martial arts competition came at the 1993 U.S. Sambo Championships in Norman, Oklahoma, he faced Judo and Sambo Champion Ron Tripp, he lost to him.

How Rickson lost to him?

 

[Hima Hamrash]

How Rickson lost to him?

Tripp threw Gracie to the canvas by Uchi Mata in 47 seconds, thus giving Tripp absolute victory under FIAS International Sambo rules, Rickson disputed this loss, claiming he was misinformed of the rules of the event, despite claiming to be a two-time Pan American Sambo champion

 

[Dionysian]

This is NOT an argument about who the GOAT is / there's 800 other threads about that. This is solely about what your personal criteria are, as I've noticed a variety of emphases throughout these threads.

Mine, in order of importance:

1. WHAT THEY RULED OVER. Fedor's greatest strength was a decade of dominance as an undersized HW ruling over HW's absolute golden age (2003-2009). Jon in close 2nd ruling (when active) a decade of LHW during its second-best phase (2011-2020). Khabib/GSP/Andy are all close IMO, based on combining their length with the strength of their division (Khabib only 2 years but over the arguably greatest period of the greatest division ever, GSP 5 years over a strong WW, Andy 6 years over a weak MW). DJ being beneath those three, despite having a bunch of defenses, in that he was ruling over a very weak division.

2. SKILLSET. This is probably harder for casuals or those who never trained, but yeah. Jones, Fedor, GSP, Khabib all at the top IMO. DJ and Alex probably probably damn close. I believe 2004 Fedor beats any human being in an OW fight. I don't see anyone beating a human with Khabib's qualities if they were the same size. The Jones that headkicked DC makes even top fighters melt. If he wasn’t on the sidelines then he could have taken the HW belt back when it meant more. GSP's skillset is at the top in that he had no weaknesses, but I also include destructive ability as a part of that so it detracts a tad considering his more conservative style.

3. DOMINANCE. Khabib tops this list as most can agree, solely based on number of 10-8s, never being hurt, steamrolling everyone, etc. For years Fedor and Andy were untouchable... until they weren't. Jones has longevity but three controversial decision wins sprinkled in. GSP has the most consistency mixed with longevity: 10-9s galore, depending on how you feel about that.

OUTSIDE MY TOP THREE CONSIDERATIONS:

A. # OF TITLE DEFENSES # OF RANKED WINS. EDIT: I originally had "# of title defenses" listed as a non-priority to reflect I thought this was a politically-dependent metric, therefore not that important. This thread helped me to remember that "# OF TITLE DEFENSE" somehow replaced "# OF RANKED WINS" which was ALWAYS a criteria before these last few years... ranked wins are a MUCH better metric of greatness because they are less political/more objective. Below is my original text on "# OF TITLE DEFENSES":
This is what started this thread… go to the other 800 threads to argue how much you value these. The most obvious detraction of Khabib in particular. A simple metric, but one very rarely applied consistently. For example, when people hammer this as the most important metric but then ALSO don’t list DJ in their top 5 I chuckle a bit. Plus, in a bullshit WME world where careers are beyond doctored and meritocracy doesn’t exist… how much are title defenses truly indicative of greatness? You guys do realize if Jon hadn’t come along to correct HW then Gane could have been declared champ and defended vs the Lewises and Tais of the world, right?

B. ASTERISKS/MISC. GSP’s streak of not finishing / getting TDs to seal 10-9s in the last 10 seconds of a round with Greg Jackson in his corner, etc. Andy and Jon being on steroids. Fedor not being in the UFC for people that think KOing Tim and Andrei is only valid while you're wearing condom depot shorts. Jon being directly aided and abetted to use steroids by a multi-billion dollar corrupt organization. If Conor ever actually achieved GOAT level (obviously he didn’t in anything other than PPV sales) I would put him having Herb “fight fixin” Dean as a ref to literally every fight after 2016 as a definite asterisk. Aside from that, also the double champ thing. How high does Cejudo go up having two belts despite winning FLW off DJ in a SD? Do you consider DC higher OW compared to Stipe solely because of the double belt thing? The interesting thing about this asterisk category is many people make this mandatory: mandatory elimination if roids OR mandatory requirement for double belts for example. If you make it mandatory, I guess that particular asterisk becomes #1 for you, right?

Anyway, what are your top 3 considerations? Curious to see how many differences (or similarities) there are across the board from posters here.

 

[JustOnce]

I learned after spending last 20 years debating goats in MMA, mostly for Fedor, I realized goat title is a rather meaningless obsession of sort, especially by fighters who want to be 'goat' themselves like Jones, Cormier, Khabib and so on. Back in the day, goat candidates were a lot more humble.

I always had Fedor on top for almost 15 + years, but recently been having some doubts.

GSP is up there for sure.

I'd say Fedor, GSP, and the rest. No rooms for roiders, cheaters for one, so that's ONE criteria. The rest criteria are really subjective, but it's really skillset and accomplishments.

 

[matrixremaster]

Just who I think the best fighter is,

Khabib.

Retiring young doesn't change that he was the best ever is in his prime.

I saw him dominate everyone including some of the best LW's ever in their prime without getting scatched while having more moment to moment dominance than anyone.

If that wasn't enough his beat up guys in the gym like Islam, Usman and Umar are now taking over the sport pound for pound and he was coach of the year.

 

[Dionysian]

Just who I think the best fighter is.

By "best fighter" you mean solely skillset then? Or something else?

 

[ComfortablyNumb55]

If you're not a HW, you have to move up a class to try and get a second belt. Not even necessarily win it, but at least man up and try.

Need 5+ title defenses.

Can't pop for steroids.

Can't retire young and/or avoid certain fights.

Etc.

 

[Chalky White]

For me:

1- Dominance
2- Low points
3- Popularity and influence with fans and peers
4- Coaching ability

So it has to be Khabib, based on my criteria. If Jon Jones shows me he can coach effectively, I’ll have him back at #1.

 

[Chomsky Honk]

• 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