Historically the guy who holds the belt is the best fighter...nowadays I'm not so sure

[TheNinja]

Lmao at nope for stipe. Educate yoself

I think Stipe is fantastic but he did lose to JDS 2 years ago. Do you 100% believe that Stipe is currently better than JDS? B/c I'm not. Do you 100% believe Stipe could avoid Cain's overwhelming style?

 

[farrella]

Historically, more often than not the guy who held the belt was typically considered the best fighter in the division. With all these changes I'm not 100% convinced anymore. It's a really odd time where it feels like anyone can win the title and that the rankings don't mean much and the title holders could be beat by 3-5 guys

FlyW- MM clearly #1-AGREE
BW - Dom, I'd say #1-AGREE
FW - Conor/Aldo - I can't say for sure-ALDO probably by a little
LW - Alvarez - Nope, not clear #1-WHO KNOWS
WW - Woodley - Nope-LAWLER OR GSP OR TOSS UP
MW - Bisping - Nope-ROCKHOLD OR WEIDMAN
LHW - DC (tricky, I'd say yes but only b/c Bones gonna do what Bones do)-AGREE BUT MURKY
HW - Stipe - Nope-CAIN

Interesting post, who do you think is the best in each weight class?
lyW- MM clearly #1-AGREE
BW - Dom, I'd say #1-AGREE
FW - Conor/Aldo - I can't say for sure-ALDO probably by a little
LW - Alvarez - Nope, not clear #1-WHO KNOWS
WW - Woodley - Nope-LAWLER OR GSP OR TOSS UP
MW - Bisping - Nope-ROCKHOLD OR WEIDMAN
LHW - DC (tricky, I'd say yes but only b/c Bones gonna do what Bones do)-AGREE BUT MURKY
HW - Stipe - Nope-CAIN

 

[Final Say]

I think Stipe is fantastic but he did lose to JDS 2 years ago. Do you 100% believe that Stipe is currently better than JDS? B/c I'm not. Do you 100% believe Stipe could avoid Cain's overwhelming style?

a lot of people thought stipe won that first fight. I dont, but he's better now and I think his strategy failed him. Yes, I'm very sure he would beat junior in a rematch. And I think junior is a worse match up for stipe than Cain, so yes I'm even more confident that he would beat Cain. You can't pressure stipe like that, he's too good of a boxer. Ask Werdum

 

[Glove]

how can you say that they are not th best???

rockhold was the best and he just got KTFO by bisping, how does that not make Bisping better than him??

lawler was the best and he just got embarrassed by Woodley, how does that not make Woodley better than him??

EXPLAIN THAT!!!

Matt Serra knocked out GSP, do you really believe that Serra was the better fighter overall?

 

[MCS]

Beltholders should be ranked #1 since they got the job done, but that doesn't mean they're the best. Sometimes they are, if they've beaten several top contenders and the new contenders haven't done as well as the defeated ones. Fans in general are too quick to say who's gonna go on a tear, be it a contender or a champ.

GSP, Jones and Fedor did enough to be considered the best. They were consistently the favorites among fans, odds makers and analysts, and it's hard to get all 3 to agree since they look at it from different perspectives.

 

[7th]

it's never true unless a guy cleans out his division like Anderson and Jones did.

 

[nogdog]

how can you say that they are not th best???

rockhold was the best and he just got KTFO by bisping, how does that not make Bisping better than him??

lawler was the best and he just got embarrassed by Woodley, how does that not make Woodley better than him??

EXPLAIN THAT!!!

Because most people believe that Rockhold has the skills to beat Bisping more often than Bisping would beat Rockhold. Such that BIsping's win over Rockhold was somewhat of a fluke.

It's possible that the person who is the then-current champion is not the best fighter in the division. E.g. Serra when he beat GSP. That was shown to be a fluke, and we all saw the utter domination that happened in their rematch. GSP is the WW GOAT and one of the arguable GOATs in MMA - Serra is nowhere near that, even though at one point he did beat GSP and took GSPs title.

 

[CoffeeAndBeer]

Historically, more often than not the guy who held the belt was typically considered the best fighter in the division. With all these changes I'm not 100% convinced anymore. It's a really odd time where it feels like anyone can win the title and that the rankings don't mean much and the title holders could be beat by 3-5 guys

FlyW- MM clearly #1
BW - Dom, I'd say #1
FW - Conor/Aldo - I can't say for sure
LW - Alvarez - Nope, not clear #1
WW - Woodley - Nope
MW - Bisping - Nope
LHW - DC (tricky, I'd say yes but only b/c Bones gonna do what Bones do)
HW - Stipe - Nope

Historically?!
Historically it's even worse (aside from the Anderson, GSP)