Did RDA Retire?

VinceArch said:
He's in that territory where the UFC will put him up against two up and comers and cut him if he loses both fights. I don't know who they could bring in for him to have a competitive fight. Nick Diaz and both retire?
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Well two more losses would be 5 in a row. Unless you want to see him put up Ferguson or Penn numbers he needs to be cut. Hopefully he’d retire before it comes to that.
 
MigitAs said:
He’s not a legend; how dare you tarnish the word by calling him one.
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I really hope this is sarcasm.

Obviously he's not going to be on the Mount Rushmore of the UFC but he's 100% a legend and a future hall of famer.
 
Didn't he blow his knee out in his last fight vs Neal? Not something you want happening in your 40's as a fighter, but RDA is a legend huge fan of him.
 
560ti said:
I really hope this is sarcasm.

Obviously he's not going to be on the Mount Rushmore of the UFC but he's 100% a legend and a future hall of famer.
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Nah, not even close

Don’t get all in your feelings either.

No disrespect to RDA, he is a good fighter with an elite-level resume. His accomplishments are impressive to say the least.

However;

Legend is a word reserved for the elite of the elite, the guys that people like RDA look up to.

Guys like GSP, Fedor, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones.

These are true legends.

Just don’t sully the word by attaching it to the wrong guys, that’s all I ask.
 
MigitAs said:
Nah, not even close

Don’t get all in your feelings either.

No disrespect to RDA, he is a good fighter with an elite-level resume. His accomplishments are impressive to say the least.

However;

Legend is a word reserved for the elite of the elite, the guys that people like RDA look up to.

Guys like GSP, Fedor, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones.

These are true legends.

Just don’t sully the word by attaching it to the wrong guys, that’s all I ask.
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His resume is the best of all-time at LW (and even better when you consider what he did at WW); he's been fighting at the top level of the UFC for almost 20 years putting on consistently top-level performances; he's an ex-champion that moved up a weight-class and did pretty well (fought for an interim vs. prime Colby and barely lost).

To say he's just a "good fighter" is a pretty obscene down-playing of how good he was for how long. By the standards of the modern UFC he is a legendary fighter, he's definitely far superior to some other "legends" that weren't nearly as skilled or as good for as long but fought at higher weight-classes. He is certainly the elite of the elite when it comes to fighting skills and performances, just falls short of the long reigning champs that you mention.

Maybe he didn't have the cultural impact/influence of the longest reigning champions of all-time, but he certainly left a mark on the sport that puts him in the sub-1% of UFC fighters to have ever competed. To some of us that is legendary, especially in a weight-class like LW which is a shark-tank and doesn't have a lot of long-reigning champions.

I mean if I was asked to name the top 10 LW fighters of all-time I would include him, so to me he's a legend.
 
Putting him up against Geoff Neal was one of the oddest matchmaking decisions I've ever seen. It was like they wanted Old Man RDA dead. Then, he somehow managed to manifest the only fate worse for him and his career than a predictable early TKO by getting dropped before subsequently blowing out his knee.

Sucks, really.
 
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Natural Order said:
Was always a huge fan of Jeremy....a true disciple of the Just Bleed God. Gave us some absolutely violent KOs over his tenure. I particularly love his early starching of the Irish Hand Grenade! Vicious Hendo-esque follow-up.
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I always wanted to see stephens fight michael johnson and korean zombie
 
If rda comes back who would he fight? I dont know if he can make 155 anymore. Maybe ponzinibio or gorimbo
 
FEDORFAN44 said:
If rda comes back who would he fight? I dont know if he can make 155 anymore. Maybe ponzinibio or gorimbo
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Definitely have him fight at WW, preferably an aging/very declined former elite fighter or an aging/slightly declined journeyman.

Gunnar Nelson, Stephen Thompson, Jake Matthews, Nicolas Dalby, Gilbert Burns, etc.

I like your idea of Ponz as well.
 
TheMMAnalyst said:
His resume is the best of all-time at LW (and even better when you consider what he did at WW); he's been fighting at the top level of the UFC for almost 20 years putting on consistently top-level performances; he's an ex-champion that moved up a weight-class and did pretty well (fought for an interim vs. prime Colby and barely lost).

To say he's just a "good fighter" is a pretty obscene down-playing of how good he was for how long. By the standards of the modern UFC he is a legendary fighter, he's definitely far superior to some other "legends" that weren't nearly as skilled or as good for as long but fought at higher weight-classes. He is certainly the elite of the elite when it comes to fighting skills and performances, just falls short of the long reigning champs that you mention.

Maybe he didn't have the cultural impact/influence of the longest reigning champions of all-time, but he certainly left a mark on the sport that puts him in the sub-1% of UFC fighters to have ever competed. To some of us that is legendary, especially in a weight-class like LW which is a shark-tank and doesn't have a lot of long-reigning champions.

I mean if I was asked to name the top 10 LW fighters of all-time I would include him, so to me he's a legend.
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Agree to disagree, I think Legend should apply only in very extreme circumstances, I think Poatan is the closest we have to living legend currently, and he is so old now.
 
MigitAs said:
Agree to disagree, I think Legend should apply only in very extreme circumstances, I think Poatan is the closest we have to living legend currently, and he is so old now.
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That's fair, we are all up to our own interpretation of things - I just personally feel like RDA walks the borderline of being a legend based on resume/length of career/consistency of performances. Some of us revere fighters for more than being the winningest champions of all-time.

I actually think there are plenty of living legends (I assume by "living" you mean still active as fighters) -

Islam
Volk
Merab
Yan
Holloway
Jiri
Izzy
Poatan
Valentina
Zhang

Then there are fighters just the slightest step down from those that I would put with RDA as walking the line of legend but not quite being on the level as the "legendary" fighters above:

Romero
DDP
Pantoja
Moreno
Figgy
Aljo
Gaethje
Jan
Kayla

I think some of you guys confuse "legend" with "GOAT" and though there is overlap they aren't the same.
 
Technically, no. But I hope he does. He's 41 well over a year inactive off a major knee injury. A come back fight has a very high likelyhood of RDA just getting damaged and beaten bad. The only saving grace is he's an extremely smart fighter, and can fight a style that dosen't rely on youth. But I still don't think it's likely to end well. Because the UFC would likely give him a streaking prospect to make a name off him.
 
TheMMAnalyst said:
That's fair, we are all up to our own interpretation of things - I just personally feel like RDA walks the borderline of being a legend based on resume/length of career/consistency of performances. Some of us revere fighters for more than being the winningest champions of all-time.

I actually think there are plenty of living legends (I assume by "living" you mean still active as fighters) -

Islam
Volk
Merab
Yan
Holloway
Jiri
Izzy
Poatan
Valentina
Zhang

Then there are fighters just the slightest step down from those that I would put with RDA as walking the line of legend but not quite being on the level as the "legendary" fighters above:

Romero
DDP
Pantoja
Moreno
Figgy
Aljo
Gaethje
Jan
Kayla

I think some of you guys confuse "legend" with "GOAT" and though there is overlap they aren't the same.
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I think of the guys you mentioned Jiri, Holloway and Islam will stand the test of time, maybe even Gaethje; imo Aldo is still more of a legend than Volk; even if his more legendary days were in WEC.
 
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