Cain could've/should've been a goat

Dude got knocked out in under 65 seconds twice. Got dropped/rocked (and even taken down) at the start of all 3 rounds vs Kongo. Got caught with big strikes multiple times at round starts in the two JDS wins. He got outwrestled early by post-stomach AIDS Lesnar. Got dismantled by Werdum.

He was a great fighter. But he had serious defensive liabilities that people ignore. He had a relentless offensive style that would overwhelm guys, but also left him vulnerable. And he couldn't sustain a career out of it.

GSP/Jones/Anderson/Mighty Mouse/Khabib got stopped by strikes in the first round exactly once between them (excluding a leg break) and even that was 3 minutes in, not in the first minute.

Yes, HW is different. But these GOAT-level guys aren't getting blasted/giving up takedowns to French kickboxers like Cain was as he charged in. Defense matters.
 
It just makes you respect the actual GOAT candidates even more...because to be in that conversation, you need to not only have reach the top of the sport, but you need to have staying power.

The streaks and longevity of fighters like GSP, Fedor, Silva, Jones, Mighty Mouse, etc. are quite something...even if you sprinkle in the odd loss or if some of them stuck around too long and finished their career badly.
 
jk7707 said:
He could have. He got injured too much, and spent his entire "prime" fighting JDS and bigfoot so we'll never know what he could have been.
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And yet people think Stipe is ufc hw goat, even though he lost to the jds who was coming off two beatings from Cain.

There is no evidence that Stipe would have beaten Cain during the time when he “only fought jds and Bigfoot”.
 
i think Ngannou would've beat any version of Cain. i think Werdum also. they are just bad matchups skillset wise and size wise.
 
arrmike said:
And yet people think Stipe is ufc hw goat, even though he lost to the jds who was coming off two beatings from Cain.

There is no evidence that Stipe would have beaten Cain during the time when he “only fought jds and Bigfoot”.
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Mmath isn't a great gauge. I don't know if Stipe would have been able to beat Cain, and neither does anyone else because they never fought and Cain's body gave out by the time Stipe rose to dominance.

I don't know if Stipe is the HW GOAT for the UFC. It's debatable. But I think he has a stronger resume than Cain.
 
Werdum- Francis and the Brock defeats via clear finishes and injuries derailed his career. He legit could have been a GOAT, he was on a collision course with stipe too when stipe started surfing post the first JDS fight
 
jk7707 said:
Mmath isn't a great gauge. I don't know if Stipe would have been able to beat Cain, and neither does anyone else because they never fought and Cain's body gave out by the time Stipe rose to dominance.

I don't know if Stipe is the HW GOAT for the UFC. It's debatable. But I think he has a stronger resume than Cain.
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Good point about mmath. I was trying to point out that the jds Cain fought and the one that decisioned Stipe aren’t at all the same fighter.
 
blaseblase said:
Even if his body had held up, his poor striking defense was always an issue.
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That and he didn't fight many people that were difficult match ups, Werdum was pretty much the only guy that could out clinch him that he didn't want to takedown.

I think Overeem before he fell off would have been an interesting match up with his striking, clinch and great guillotine too. Stipe also would have been a hard fight with his TDD and boxing since he wasn't so easy to hold against the cage like JDS.
 
Trabaho said:
I think Cain is leagues above Fabricio he just didn't adapt to the altitude and untypically gassed out in 2 rounds. Before that ue was a cardio machine.

I agree ts Cain is one of the goats while he was in his prime and uninjured. However Francis has a high chance of beating him at any point given that Cain fights open and offensive and Francis just needs 3 good punches. Cain also got rocked multiple times vs Congo and caught by JDS in the first fight.
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Cain it's Very Good but Werdum always will be his Kryptonite, Good Striking and doesn't fear Cain Takedown because his jiu jitsu it's God Tier.

Werdum make Cain pay for his lack of Striking Defense.
 
He had potential to be greater as we all know, he was made of glass, but also too, his striking defense wasn't that good and his chin wasn't great, you need to have a chin at HW so idk what more he could of done if he stayed healthy, DC has stated that Cain got the better of him in training
 
It really sucks that he had a 5-fight, 3-year span of fighting the same two guys. Makes it harder to evaluate his career. But also his best win(s) came during that time (vs JDS). At least their trilogy felt merited, but it still sucks when we don't get to see an all-time great vs a wider array of competition.
 
Seahawks Fan said:
With all Cain's legal stuff going on I decided to binge his UFC fights on fightpass. Honestly before this I probably only saw 2 or 3 of his fights cause I was still new to the sport. But after watching all of his major fights last night I can honestly say cain could have been the greatest ever if his body didn't fall apart. I Don't think I ever seen a heavyweight fighter as relentless as Cain. His conditioning and pace were just unreal for that division and he could just melt guys down no matter how big they were. His fights with JDS were just unreal and that version of Cain beats any HW ever. Kinda sad that he's a footnote now and rarely if ever gets mentioned in goat discussions. But his abilities and performances speak for themselves, at his best he was as good as anyone.
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No
 
Completely disagree. This nonsense is peddled by Rogan.

Cain is massively overrated.
 
There's a reason people call out the Stipe HW GOAT bullshit UFC propaganda. People who have seen Cain (and JDS) with their own eyes and have also seen Stipe, know that Stipe is good, but not on that same level.
 
Actually, a lot of fighters are pretty shot by their mid-thirties. It was probably a combination of genetics and injuries. There is a good chance of some brain injury also given his behavior.
 
One of the best cases (if not the best) of "what if" in the UFC.

The second best HW I saw. The Mexican Fedor.
 
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