Probably true.
To be fair, most GOATs are very good defensively, but in terms of actually dodging and slipping shots, it's Cruz, though he is a bit prone to leg kicks (then again, it takes crazy good fighters to exploit that, so it might not be that much of a weakness).
Imo Demetrious Johnson deserves a mention too, he's got competent head movement and blocks etc., but his distance management, footwork and awareness are his biggest strengths and allow(ed) him to very rarely get hit clean.
On another note: i aside from Cruz i don't see the other fighters being far apart, so as long as we don't watch the defensive ability of wrestlers without their wrestling.
(As being good at wrestling helps not just offensively, but defensively on the feet too).
Silva looks the most amazing, but did so facing a lot of not so great strikers.
Izzy has looked far less spectacular, but has faced better strikers (and more difficult style match ups) than Silva.
Khabib is kinda herky-jerky and the fact he rarely gets hit is also dependant on the fact he doesn't spend a long time on the feet, but he's definitely very good, defensively.
GSP - kinda similar to DJ - was a master of distancing and staying just outside range and percentage-wise makes his opponents miss more than anyone else mentioned aside from Cruz, who 1 fight ago was i think exactly on par with him in that stat, but his low amount of strikes absorbed too was dependant on him using a lot of wrestling.
Jose Aldo is a good pick, but then again he's been finished 3 times in/close to his prime by other strikers.
Jones rarely got hurt badly and is hard to hit clean in the head, but is kinda prone to leg kicks, a PED-cheat and has fought in a division which imo was never quite as good as people said and the few times he fought legit 205er strikers, he almost lost/lost...
Great analysis mate, absolutely spot on.
Yeah, If I had to go by division, it would look something like -
HW - Gane? Honestly there aren't many that stand out lol, and Gane hasn't had enough fights yet for us to really judge.
LHW - Jones, as you say his head defense is very clean, but being a PEDS cheat and all. Machida deserves a mention as well.
MW - Silva by quite a bit, but lack of good strikers and PEDS (Although I tend to think he took them to heal his leg break and not before, but maybe that's just my bias showing). Izzy is good, but he was in a war with Gastelum, and imo his length and reach is what does a lot of the defensiveness, I don't think he is on the level of Silva.
WW - GSP was very good, Wonderboy has been very good as well.
LW - BJ Penn would be my pick IMO, but Khabib is very sound, although I tend to think most of that comes from the grappling threat and without it he would get fucked up lol. Still, it's impressive.
FW - Aldo or Volk. Volk is super defensively sound, and Aldo was one of the greatest hair trigger head movement and leg kick defense guys on the planet. His cardio let him down, but before that his defense was as close to perfect as you can get.
Aldo with Usman level cardio is the most defensively sound fighter ever.
BW - obviously Cruz, but I think TJ and Yan deserve a mention. Now, Yan hasn't been in enough fights yet, but his blocking is superb. However, Aldo was legit smashing his leg until his durability and cardio gave out, so I would deduct points for that.
TJ is a funny case, because although he gets hit a lot, it's impressive how many punches he can string together in combination without getting hit. I would say he has the greatest head movement offensively of anyone I can think of.
FW - MM is a great pick, and one of the best defensive fighters ever. As you say, his head movement was so-so, but his range and timing and ability to read opponents combos was just amazing.
