GOATs don't just win belts, they steal souls

[futuredave]

Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, JBJ.

What they did to Griffith, Leben, Franklin, Hendo, Sherk, Hughes, Sanchez, Florian, Stevenson, Shogun, Machida, Cormier... just wrong.

In the rightest of ways.

I imagine Anderson has a collection like this on his mantle:

Here's JBJ adding to his after last night.

 

[estranged]

lol.. dc fan but nice 1

 

[lelouch]

sig worthy title

 

[Th3Sav4ge]

Fedor's

 

[jimbob27]

Ronda's house.

 

[INTERL0PER]

It's true too.

A lot of people rip on the champion's records because their opponents decline rapidly after fighting for the title... but I think people neglect the role the champion's play in that decline.

For a challenger, the title fight is the biggest moment in their career. They're prepared the best they ever have, they're at the height of their powers... then they run in to Anderson/Fedor/GSP/Jones/Aldo and just get fucking crushed.

It's got to be so hard to come back from that. To feel that there is a whole other level of fighter above you. I imagine a lot of these guys know, deep down, that they'll NEVER be as good as the champ... which is the whole reason they were in the sport in the first place.

Trying to continue to be a MMA fighter at the highest levels, while knowing that you'll never be the best, is a tough hill to climb.


EDIT: and lol at Ronda's arm collection

 

[Th3Sav4ge]

Spoiler

Ronda's house.

Aw shit.

 

[PD4838]

Ronda's house.

LMAO that's a pretty good one

 

[canadafightteam]

GSP is in there as well as, Every single time I hear Matt Hughes talk he is saying something bad about GSP. Hughes still wakes up screaming GSP's name

 

[INTERL0PER]

Ronda's house.

Meanwhile, at Palhares' place...

 

[J180]

 

[Krimzon]

machida and florian still have their souls

 

[Th3Sav4ge]

machida and florian still have their souls

Machida has to much soul

 

[VeeT1]

Shang Tsung'in dudes lol.

 

[Navy_Chief]

It's true too.

A lot of people rip on the champion's records because their opponents decline rapidly after fighting for the title... but I think people neglect the role the champion's play in that decline.

For a challenger, the title fight is the biggest moment in their career. They're prepared the best they ever have, they're at the height of their powers... then they run in to Anderson/Fedor/GSP/Jones/Aldo and just get fucking crushed.

It's got to be so hard to come back from that. To feel that there is a whole other level of fighter above you. I imagine a lot of these guys know, deep down, that they'll NEVER be as good as the champ... which is the whole reason they were in the sport in the first place.


Trying to continue to be a MMA fighter at the highest levels, while knowing that you'll never be the best, is a tough hill to climb.


EDIT: and lol at Ronda's arm collection

Jon Fitch was never the same...

 

[futuredave]

Machida has to much soul

185 lbs of soul. Not 205.

 

[Pointy Elbows]

I think Jones' collection looks more like this:

 

[SevenDeadlySins]

I think Jones' collection looks more like this:

Sums it up very well.

 

[thomm030]

Meanwhile, at Palhares' place...

Try harder

 

[BigDaddyBach]

Dude, Anderson got KO'd in the most humiliating fashion ever witnessed by human eyes, then he got his LEG SNAPPED IN HALF. Pair that with the fact that he got tapped by a number of Japanese fighters that couldn't even make it on the local circuit now a days.

Now on to BJ Penn: 'To the death Georges' and then he QUITS on his stool!! On ward to the Diaz fight - no explanation needed. And for the shit topping on the shit pie: possibly the most embarrassing performance in MMA history with Edgar 3.

If either of the aforementioned fighters had accrued equity in the soul piggy banks, they both paid with fucking interest! This sport is the type of sport that utterly humiliates everyone that takes part from GSP getting KO'd by Serra to beaten up by Hendricks and publicly TRASHED by Dana White in front of millions, to Fedor getting pounded into a hamburg meat by Bigfoot....then Bigfoot turning the octagon into what looked like a scene from a Japanese whale slaughtering boat deck by Cain, then Cain getting humiliatingly KO'd in front of UFC's largest television audience ever by JDS, then JDS getting mummified and gelded in the two rematches: get the point??!

Jones is damn hot now, just as hot as AS after the first Chael fight BUT every dog has it's day and you must have not been following MMA for long if you think he will escape this sport with his pride or fantastical soul piggy bank in tact. That is why this sport is great - it is like a giant Greek Tragedy played out in acts that takes years. Just when we think someone is impervious, the arrow of Achilles strikes at the most inopportune moment.