You have to look at relative competition. You can't compare the competition people fought in the 90s to now, nor can you compare the infant WW division Hughes fought in to today. At the time, Newton, Sakurai, Sherk, etc. were very good fighters.
Those guys skillsets all could easily hang today too. Main thing is they'd likely have to drop a weight class with the advancements in weight cutting which has been the biggest change in MMA at the top level over recent years. The depth of MMA talent always gets better but at the absolute top there hasn't been a whole lot of change. 2 of Kamaru's title defenses were against Jorge who wasn't far removed from the time frame of some of Hughes wins lol. BJ and GSP are given but no point in even arguing with anyone who questions the quality of a Mach, Newton or Sherk.
You look at someone like Merab Dvalishvili... He is #2 right now in what's widely considered the deepest division in MMA. And he doesn't do a damn thing better or differently than a prime Sean Sherk. If anything he's worse since Sean had better striking, more power and was a better sub grappler and finisher. Merab is tough as hell with ridiculous cardio and pushes a grinding pace but his skillset is incredibly lacking in alot of areas. It's a complete myth that every fighter is so complete now there are plenty of guys that are subpar or bad in some aspects that are still top fighters in 2022 even past the specialists. Even if you just look at WW Belal Muhammad is ranked #4 now lol... And I like Belal but his skillset is just.... ordinary, basic.
Castillo might not be one of Hughes top 10 best wins and he's beaten the likes of Nate Marquardt. Trigg has some really good wins and performances in his prime as well. Not even getting into Hughes post prime wins like Lytle, Serra and Almeida. I mean Ricardo absolutely dominated TJ Grant right after their fight and TJ had just gone to a close MD with Johny Hendricks and didn't lose again until his premature retirement. Almeida beat Grant so bad he dropped down to LW for the first time lol.
Hughes is on the short list of GOAT MMA grapplers. Some of the best GNP ever. Incredible submission game that still holds up, reversals, transitions, top control. Ridiculous conditioning and his striking was underrated too had some deceptive power as well.
Usman doesn't really have a case over Hughes. Kamaru reigned over a weak era of WW. Alot of WWs in their late 30s and a bunch of bloated LWs (RDA, Jorge, Burns, Chiesa, Yancy, Nate, Pettis etc) got ranked at WW during Kamaru's era most of em getting top 5 rankings, being contenders and even fought for the title.
