Accomplishments.
I was talking about this recently, in a thread comparing Aldo and Volk. And I rank Aldo higher all time. And someone said, “But Aldo has lost X number of fights!” And sure—after being undefeated at FW for a decade, and after ruling that division for 6 years, and after 9 title defenses, Aldo lost some fights.
Volk has done none of the things I just listed. Once he does, then let’s start looking at losses.
Same in this case. Fedor had a run in which he wasn’t cleanly beaten for a decade, beat 5 former or future UFC champs in (or pretty damn near) their prime, and had 5 total HW title defenses. Let me know when another HW does that, and then we can split hairs over losses, to whom, and when. I mean, Stipe has 4 losses himself, and has fought nearly as many fights or nearly as long. Fedor has 5 clean losses at HW in 22 years.