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Couture vs Henderson

This is one of the closest of the better career threads.

Handy won 5 or 6 UFC belts, though he started late but he did retire in the top 10 at like 47 years old.

Hendo found good success at various weight classes, also, while capturing MW and LHW gold.

It's really close, tho I think Dan might get it via SD.

Decision Dan might be back.
 
Hendo easily IMO

Won titles in multiple organizations and fought 47 fights for almost 20 years. His list of wins is just insane

Randy - shorter career - 30 fights -
On the other hand Randy started out in MMA super late at 35 years old, which is amazing in itself with his accomplishments.

This is a toughy
 
On the other hand Randy started out in MMA super late at 35 years old, which is amazing in itself with his accomplishments.

This is a toughy


It's nutty.

Everyone knows Jogan saying "once in a lifetime" but an accurate and under utilized quote is when Wand said "I no think we see another of him (Handy) in the lifetime".

Retiring at 47 in the top 10 is insane.
 
randy, but somewhat close. no one ever fought as high a percentage of his overall fights in championship bouts as randy did, it's pretty crazy. to still have twice as many wins as losses on his record in spite of that is a real achievement.
 
randy, but somewhat close. no one ever fought as high a percentage of his overall fights in championship bouts as randy did, it's pretty crazy. to still have twice as many wins as losses on his record in spite of that is a real achievement.
Randy had 30 fights and 15 championship fights. (including Interim fights but not tournaments)
GSP had 28 fights with 15 UFC title fights plus 3 title fights in TKO/UCC in Canada. So just counting the UFC title fights GSP is 15 out of 28. That's probably the only one with a higher %
 
randy, but somewhat close. no one ever fought as high a percentage of his overall fights in championship bouts as randy did, it's pretty crazy. to still have twice as many wins as losses on his record in spite of that is a real achievement.
A lot of title shots but not really more quality opponents than Hendo. Hendo fought the who's who of MMA and fought in basically 3 different weight classes.

Randy's championship and most of his title shots came during an era when UFC wasn't the most talented promotion.

Hendo has more wins than Randy has fights and they're all against killers. And he also has Randy beat in quality - just the two Rua wins are probably better wins than anyone Randy beat (Pedro, Liddell, Sylvia). I mean Hendo knocked out Fedor and Silva even if they were slightly past it. Guy is a legend.
 
It depends how you define "best mma career."

Hendo had the longer, more accomplished career. He has a much longer list of quality wins (although a number of them were very suspicious decisions). Randy had more notoriety, money, and post-fight opportunities because he was UFC champion.
 
This is tough because Couture won like 10 titles in two weight classes in the UFC but Hendo was the first simultaneous champion in a major org in PRIDE. That could be considered either more or less impressive depending on your view since they had way less title fights. Hendo also fought over three weight classes with arguably bigger wins than Couture. Hendo also got something Couture never could, the Fedor fight. I'm gonna say Dan takes it. Not as many accolades but bigger wins.
 
Hendo had some crazy moments in his career. Winning two belts in Pride, another in Strikeforce, beating Fedor, and those crazy fights with Shogun?

Hendo had a great career.

Randy also had some crazy moments, and when you thought he was done, he changed weight class and won the belt again. Randy, Chuck, and Tito defined UFC's LHW division for years.

Still, I think Hendo had the better career overall. The only thing he didn't achieve was UFC gold, but he did literally everything else
 
They were both kind of small guys for their divisions, Randy was the old guy on top of being small, but Hendo fought until late 40s too and leaving after a championship fight. People don't give Randy enough credit for what he did and especially at his age.
 
This is a tough one. Title-wise, Couture won UFC gold in two weight classes and defended both. Hendo though, had PRIDE titles in two weight classes simultaneously, a Strikeforce LHW title later, and wins at HW against Nog and Fedor, the 2 best HWs of his day. He’s got more wins than Couture has total fights, and his resume is full of great wins in 3 weight classes. I gotta go with Hendo.
 
Hendo by a pretty wide margin.

Randy had a very good career but it’s mainly defined by Chuck, Tito, Rizzo and Vitor with appearances by Randleman, Smith, Timmeh...which isn’t bad for an old man.

Hendo’s resume is a mile long consisting of many of the greatest fighters ever. He was a UFC and Rings tournament winner, Strikeforce champ, and double champ in the GOAT organization.

Compare their resumes and it’s not much of a debate.
 
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