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@Substance Abuse
DJ, GSP
Khabib
Fedor
Aldo
Cruz
Silva
Cejudo
Holloway
DC
(Jones)
...these are probably the 10 best ever for me, although it's crazy difficult to do a top 10 which is clear cut. Now i left Jones out, but i'll explain that soon.
Criteria (not ranked) for me were:
I have Khabib at #2, because he's probably the most dominant champion we've ever seen, competed in a shark tank of a division, was never cut or knocked down, he's undefeated, with his only close fight coming extremely early in his UFC career against someone who later tested positive for EPO and he also happens to be (statistically) the second best fighter in UFC history with at least twelve fights, when it comes to the ratio of landed vs absorbed significant strikes (basically "hit and don't get hit"), but (!) he didn't have as much longevity as DJ or GSP and while he faced and crushed extremely good fighters, i would have loved to see him against some more proficient MMA-wrestlers/anti-wrestlers. A hypothetical match up (when equal in size) against a prime Aldo, GSP or DJ is also hard to predict.
That being said, he also could very well be #1.
I've got Fedor at #3 here, because although he's fought in a not so great division (compared to the guys here), he was insanely dominant for an incredible amount of time and number of fights. He was also extremely well-rounded, having tons of finishes by both KO/TKO and submission.
Additionally, he was very athletic, explosive and durable.
Aldo is #4 because like all other fighters (minus Khabib to an extent) mentioned before, he's extremely well-rounded and doesn't really have a glaring weakness.
His striking, when in his prime, is by far some of the best we've seen in the sport, especially his leg kicks.
Having great striking technique all around and being very explosive and powerful, he's also arguably the best anti-wrestler the sport has ever seen, but that isn't all.
In my opinion, he has had the craziest strength of schedule out of any MMA-fighter.
He fought: Volkanovski, McGregor, Yan, Holloway (twice), Moraes, Mendes (twice), Edgar (twice), Faber, Korean Zombie, etc.
That's just insane. At one point, he was 25-1, with a 18 fight win-streak (15 inside the UFC/WEC).
That being said, he has racked up some losses and although it wasn't "prime Aldo" in most of them (possibly all?) i don't think he was that far removed from it, at least not in his losses against McGregor and Holloway (lots of mileage, but only 29, 30 and 31 years of age) but in all fairness: they're great fighters themselves and IIRC, Aldo also suffered a long time from having rough weight cuts due to not having a nutritionist (since he had one, he has made 135 without being chinny or lacking athleticism inside the cage).
Cruz is #5 here, because he had one of the longest winning-streaks in UFC/WEC history (12) while fighting in a division with lots of very skilled fighters; he's got some of the best (and probably the most unique) striking and footwork in MMA-history by far and despite losing his last two, his striking defense percentage still stands at a whopping 73% (Silva, when only looking at his 16-0 run had 62.3%, Izzy right now has 65% to put things into perspective, although this stat can be slightly misleading at times).
On top of that, Cruz is actually a damn good wrestler, making for an incredible skill-set.
What also shouldn't be forgotten, is how many years really bad injuries took off his career (and he still came back).
Silva is #6 for me.
2nd in terms of dominance only to Khabib and otherwise only being rivalled by Fedor for most of his UFC career, Silva was a sensational striker with otherworldy good timing. He's got the record for the longest win-streak in UFC history (16) with 14 of them coming by stoppage and in most cases, these were due to Silva devastating his opponents.
With most of his opponents, especially some of his best wins, later p*ssing hot and his legacy having been cemented pre-USADA, i don't hold his positive tests against him much really.
Now for the reason i got him so low: for one, he was a bit too reliant on countering (and his opponents pressing forward) but mostly it's the fact that well-rounded wrestlers with good submission defense are arguably his worst match up and there are a lot of these in this list, plus the guys above him in this list have faced better opposition p4p, with the exception Fedor (GSP is not too far in front of him though) and to be clear: this is not to say Silva has faced bad opposition, just to be clear.
Cejudo is #7 for me; super well-rounded fighter, sensational wrestling, very good striking, extremely athletic and durable and has fought (and won) against very skilled opponents.
That being said, some of his best wins have been under circumstances that i think have to be taken into consideration; the DJ fight was a toss up, with many people thinking DJ won it, Dillashaw might have been depleted from cutting too much weight and the Cruz stoppage was too early in the eyes of many.
Although he was a two weight UFC champion, his career (in MMA) hasn't had many fights - with 18 in total (16-2 record) his resume is the shortest on this list, so that's something which makes it a bit hard for me to put him higher, but that being said, i don't doubt that on his peak he was possibly up there with the very best on this list.
I got Holloway on the on #8, because he accomplished a lot and is (as of now) still the second best featherweight of all time, or at the very least, the second most accomplished 145er ever.
He's got great striking, especially offensively, insane cardio, good BJJ, is very hard to take and hold down and on top of that is is very durable as well.
In his last fight against Volkanovski, he proved that when he's on point, he's still an absolute killer and pretty much just as good as Volkanovski, who's another top tier fighter himself.
Now it's true that he has lost six times, but context is the keyword here.
His first three, came at the ages of 20 (1) and 22 (2), with two of them coming against great opposition in Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier and while his other three losses came in his prime, one of them came a weightclass above (against a prime Poirier and Holloway was still competitive), one came in a clear cut decision against Volkanovski (Volkanovski didn't demolish him though) and the other loss came in a fight that was eerily close and which is amongst the best performances ever for a losing fighter.
His weaknesses as a fighter imo are that he (sometimes!) relies a bit too much on his chin and that for a while, he was a bit too one-dimensional in his offense, basically limiting himself to boxing only, when he, like he showed against Volkanovski the second time, has so much more in his arsenal than that.
I got the daddest man on the planet, DC, at #9.
Both heavyweight and light heavyweight are (in my eyes) behind all other men's UFC divisions when it comes to pure skill, otherwise he'd be ranked far higher with a similar resume, but still, DC was a two weight UFC champion and while there was eye-poking involved in his win against Miocic and he got the belt at 205 due to Jones p*ssing hot, i can't overlook his accomplishments under the cirumstances he got them.
The man entered the UFC at the age of 34, standing at 5'11"/180 cm (with a reach of 72"/183 cm) and with a not to be underestimated amount of body fat, while fighting in two divisions where his opponents absolutely dwarfed him and despite these massive shortcomings in terms of age, height, reach and... well, body composition, he still beat a heavyweight all-time great in Stipe and just about everyone else not named Jon Jones (who officially only beat him once, although it's fair to ask if Jones has ever been clean when fighting DC).
In his prime, he was deceiptively explosive, powerful and generally athletic (even cardio-wise) for a guy his size, he was extremely durable and from a technical standpoint, a phenomenal wrestler with really good BJJ. His striking, in particular his boxing, was also really good for MMA standards, especially when he was able to "dirty-box" so yeah, he basically had it all - except height, reach and age - and is in my eyes the true best 205er of all time.
As for Jon Jones...
He's a massive PED cheat and i don't say this only because he tested positive in the USADA era, but also, because he has gone from outwrestling a prime DC to not being able to do the same against Dominick Reyes (and imo losing to him) and to barely winning a split-decision against a one legged Thiago Santos, who's far from being known for being agreat anti-wrestler.
Aside from the PEDs, i also think that Jones has hugely benefitted from fighting a lot of guys that aren't actually natural light heavyweights; once he fought guys his size, he looked very human at times, especially against Reyes, Gus (first time) and St.Preux.
On top of that, quite a few of the guys on his resume also had a lot of mileage on them and/or were comparably old, namely Rampage, Vitor, Sonnen and Teixeira - Thiago Santos (35 at the time) and OSP (33 at the time) weren't spring chickens either.
Last but not least: the difference in skill between divisions is a huge part of why i ranked fighters the way i did, so here's a video which does a good way in showing that, imo.
(That's not to say that i necessarily agree with the overall statement of the video/title of it though)
Sorry for the wall of text, but since some of these rankings are very controversial in the eyes of most, i felt the need to thoroughly explain them.
Cheers mate!
DJ, GSP
Khabib
Fedor
Aldo
Cruz
Silva
Cejudo
Holloway
DC
(Jones)
...these are probably the 10 best ever for me, although it's crazy difficult to do a top 10 which is clear cut. Now i left Jones out, but i'll explain that soon.
Criteria (not ranked) for me were:
- Overall skill-level of the division
- Skill-set of the fighter: does he have glaring weaknesses? If so, how easily are they exposed? How'd he fare against different types of fighters he might not have faced?
- Dominance
- Longevity
- Did the fighter test positive for something? If so, pre- or post USADA? when was the fighters peak/when did he cement his legacy?
I have Khabib at #2, because he's probably the most dominant champion we've ever seen, competed in a shark tank of a division, was never cut or knocked down, he's undefeated, with his only close fight coming extremely early in his UFC career against someone who later tested positive for EPO and he also happens to be (statistically) the second best fighter in UFC history with at least twelve fights, when it comes to the ratio of landed vs absorbed significant strikes (basically "hit and don't get hit"), but (!) he didn't have as much longevity as DJ or GSP and while he faced and crushed extremely good fighters, i would have loved to see him against some more proficient MMA-wrestlers/anti-wrestlers. A hypothetical match up (when equal in size) against a prime Aldo, GSP or DJ is also hard to predict.
That being said, he also could very well be #1.
I've got Fedor at #3 here, because although he's fought in a not so great division (compared to the guys here), he was insanely dominant for an incredible amount of time and number of fights. He was also extremely well-rounded, having tons of finishes by both KO/TKO and submission.
Additionally, he was very athletic, explosive and durable.
Aldo is #4 because like all other fighters (minus Khabib to an extent) mentioned before, he's extremely well-rounded and doesn't really have a glaring weakness.
His striking, when in his prime, is by far some of the best we've seen in the sport, especially his leg kicks.
Having great striking technique all around and being very explosive and powerful, he's also arguably the best anti-wrestler the sport has ever seen, but that isn't all.
In my opinion, he has had the craziest strength of schedule out of any MMA-fighter.
He fought: Volkanovski, McGregor, Yan, Holloway (twice), Moraes, Mendes (twice), Edgar (twice), Faber, Korean Zombie, etc.
That's just insane. At one point, he was 25-1, with a 18 fight win-streak (15 inside the UFC/WEC).
That being said, he has racked up some losses and although it wasn't "prime Aldo" in most of them (possibly all?) i don't think he was that far removed from it, at least not in his losses against McGregor and Holloway (lots of mileage, but only 29, 30 and 31 years of age) but in all fairness: they're great fighters themselves and IIRC, Aldo also suffered a long time from having rough weight cuts due to not having a nutritionist (since he had one, he has made 135 without being chinny or lacking athleticism inside the cage).
Cruz is #5 here, because he had one of the longest winning-streaks in UFC/WEC history (12) while fighting in a division with lots of very skilled fighters; he's got some of the best (and probably the most unique) striking and footwork in MMA-history by far and despite losing his last two, his striking defense percentage still stands at a whopping 73% (Silva, when only looking at his 16-0 run had 62.3%, Izzy right now has 65% to put things into perspective, although this stat can be slightly misleading at times).
On top of that, Cruz is actually a damn good wrestler, making for an incredible skill-set.
What also shouldn't be forgotten, is how many years really bad injuries took off his career (and he still came back).
Silva is #6 for me.
2nd in terms of dominance only to Khabib and otherwise only being rivalled by Fedor for most of his UFC career, Silva was a sensational striker with otherworldy good timing. He's got the record for the longest win-streak in UFC history (16) with 14 of them coming by stoppage and in most cases, these were due to Silva devastating his opponents.
With most of his opponents, especially some of his best wins, later p*ssing hot and his legacy having been cemented pre-USADA, i don't hold his positive tests against him much really.
Now for the reason i got him so low: for one, he was a bit too reliant on countering (and his opponents pressing forward) but mostly it's the fact that well-rounded wrestlers with good submission defense are arguably his worst match up and there are a lot of these in this list, plus the guys above him in this list have faced better opposition p4p, with the exception Fedor (GSP is not too far in front of him though) and to be clear: this is not to say Silva has faced bad opposition, just to be clear.
Cejudo is #7 for me; super well-rounded fighter, sensational wrestling, very good striking, extremely athletic and durable and has fought (and won) against very skilled opponents.
That being said, some of his best wins have been under circumstances that i think have to be taken into consideration; the DJ fight was a toss up, with many people thinking DJ won it, Dillashaw might have been depleted from cutting too much weight and the Cruz stoppage was too early in the eyes of many.
Although he was a two weight UFC champion, his career (in MMA) hasn't had many fights - with 18 in total (16-2 record) his resume is the shortest on this list, so that's something which makes it a bit hard for me to put him higher, but that being said, i don't doubt that on his peak he was possibly up there with the very best on this list.
I got Holloway on the on #8, because he accomplished a lot and is (as of now) still the second best featherweight of all time, or at the very least, the second most accomplished 145er ever.
He's got great striking, especially offensively, insane cardio, good BJJ, is very hard to take and hold down and on top of that is is very durable as well.
In his last fight against Volkanovski, he proved that when he's on point, he's still an absolute killer and pretty much just as good as Volkanovski, who's another top tier fighter himself.
Now it's true that he has lost six times, but context is the keyword here.
His first three, came at the ages of 20 (1) and 22 (2), with two of them coming against great opposition in Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier and while his other three losses came in his prime, one of them came a weightclass above (against a prime Poirier and Holloway was still competitive), one came in a clear cut decision against Volkanovski (Volkanovski didn't demolish him though) and the other loss came in a fight that was eerily close and which is amongst the best performances ever for a losing fighter.
His weaknesses as a fighter imo are that he (sometimes!) relies a bit too much on his chin and that for a while, he was a bit too one-dimensional in his offense, basically limiting himself to boxing only, when he, like he showed against Volkanovski the second time, has so much more in his arsenal than that.
I got the daddest man on the planet, DC, at #9.
Both heavyweight and light heavyweight are (in my eyes) behind all other men's UFC divisions when it comes to pure skill, otherwise he'd be ranked far higher with a similar resume, but still, DC was a two weight UFC champion and while there was eye-poking involved in his win against Miocic and he got the belt at 205 due to Jones p*ssing hot, i can't overlook his accomplishments under the cirumstances he got them.
The man entered the UFC at the age of 34, standing at 5'11"/180 cm (with a reach of 72"/183 cm) and with a not to be underestimated amount of body fat, while fighting in two divisions where his opponents absolutely dwarfed him and despite these massive shortcomings in terms of age, height, reach and... well, body composition, he still beat a heavyweight all-time great in Stipe and just about everyone else not named Jon Jones (who officially only beat him once, although it's fair to ask if Jones has ever been clean when fighting DC).
In his prime, he was deceiptively explosive, powerful and generally athletic (even cardio-wise) for a guy his size, he was extremely durable and from a technical standpoint, a phenomenal wrestler with really good BJJ. His striking, in particular his boxing, was also really good for MMA standards, especially when he was able to "dirty-box" so yeah, he basically had it all - except height, reach and age - and is in my eyes the true best 205er of all time.
As for Jon Jones...
He's a massive PED cheat and i don't say this only because he tested positive in the USADA era, but also, because he has gone from outwrestling a prime DC to not being able to do the same against Dominick Reyes (and imo losing to him) and to barely winning a split-decision against a one legged Thiago Santos, who's far from being known for being agreat anti-wrestler.
Aside from the PEDs, i also think that Jones has hugely benefitted from fighting a lot of guys that aren't actually natural light heavyweights; once he fought guys his size, he looked very human at times, especially against Reyes, Gus (first time) and St.Preux.
On top of that, quite a few of the guys on his resume also had a lot of mileage on them and/or were comparably old, namely Rampage, Vitor, Sonnen and Teixeira - Thiago Santos (35 at the time) and OSP (33 at the time) weren't spring chickens either.
Last but not least: the difference in skill between divisions is a huge part of why i ranked fighters the way i did, so here's a video which does a good way in showing that, imo.
(That's not to say that i necessarily agree with the overall statement of the video/title of it though)
Sorry for the wall of text, but since some of these rankings are very controversial in the eyes of most, i felt the need to thoroughly explain them.
Cheers mate!
