How do you decide and define who the greatest fighter is?

sgtpepper

sgtpepper

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Is it by how many wins he has on his records?

Is it by how many records he's broken?

How many title defenses?

His character?

How he wins rather than how many wins?

Just curious to see what people say since so many disagree on who they think is the greatest of all time in MMA.

Thoughts?

I would have GSP at the GOAT based on records, Silva as the GOAT in terms of how he wins and JBJ in terms of how many wins he has on his record and how he fights.
 
The quality of his opponents.
 
countswagula said:
By watching fights and drawing my own conclusions
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Pretty much. Doesn't matter who you beat, it's the fights.

And there's no such thing as a GOAT. Only when there's no more time will we know who the GOAT was.
 
To me its not just about winning. The fight game is about delivering exciting performances for the fans. We pay to be entertained, not to see people play the points system and win boring decisions.

Theres been plenty of long, dominant champions in boxing. The ones people remember are the ones who were exciting.

For that reason, Fedor and Anderson take the cake over GSP or Jones on my list
 
For me I feel like successful title defenses via stoppage is the thing that tips the scales and why I feel like Anderson is the best fighter ever. Title defenses are so difficult both mentally and physically. To continually beat the best fighters in your division over and over again is so difficult in today's MMA. To finish each contender is even harder.

I think Fedor and GSP are also right up there for combinations of other reasons. We have to nitpick to choose one person and GSP's lack of finishes puts him behind Anderson, and Fedor's lack of consistent clear #1 contender fights is his one knock.

Despite the fact that Jones hasn't finished a LHW contender in 3 years he will most likely be the clear best in the world despite the lack of finishes. He's basically a shoe-in to hold the record for most title defenses and even though he's not finishing these guys now, he's clearly beating them.
 
NoContest said:
And there's no such thing as a GOAT. Only when there's no more time will we know who the GOAT was.
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Settle down philosophy boy. The greatest of all time sounds better than the greatest of all time between the early 1990s and the present, but I am pretty certain that that is how everyone is taking it.
 
RJ43 said:
For me I feel like successful title defenses via stoppage is the thing that tips the scales and why I feel like Anderson is the best fighter ever. Title defenses are so difficult both mentally and physically. To continually beat the best fighters in your division over and over again is so difficult in today's MMA. To finish each contender is even harder.

I think Fedor and GSP are also right up there for combinations of other reasons. We have to nitpick to choose one person and GSP's lack of finishes puts him behind Anderson, and Fedor's lack of consistent clear #1 contender fights is his one knock.

Despite the fact that Jones hasn't finished a LHW contender in 3 years he will most likely be the clear best in the world despite the lack of finishes. He's basically a shoe-in to hold the record for most title defenses and even though he's not finishing these guys now, he's clearly beating them.
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I agree, for me Jon Jones will be the best there has ever been sofar but in my opinion the greatest is Anderson Silva. I think Jon Jones is a better fighter, simply because of his size and reach advantage but Silva's performances were something special and often had me puzzled or took a while for me to comprehend.
 
Greatest is strictly resume. Quality of competition, top ten wins. Finishes are great but not required. Dominating most of your opponent is a must.

"Best" is skill wise.


I think Jones needs another's 3 more top ten wins or so without a loss to be goat over Fedor and gsp and Anderson.!
 
Last edited:
First criteria: His name must start with F and end with an R.

GOAT is the most subjective of them all. Rankings are pretty straight forward and are solely based on resume but GOAT is all encompassing.

For me, it not only includes resume but style, division, schedule, persona, charisma, quality of wins, how they won and how they carried themselves.

Fedor remains GOAT in my eyes by fighting at Heavyweight, being well rounded, fighting in the best promotion in the world at the time, going undefeated for 10 years, finishing fights, fighting guys at their own strengths, having a strange charisma to him and acting like a champion.

Resume wise, I think Jones with his Cormier win has surpassed Fedor, Silva and GSP but he doesn't have that aura or longevity that Fedor had. If Jones eventually moves to Heavyweight and gets a few wins, it will hard to deny him at that point.
 
Jones by far is the goat. 2nd is gsp followed by Liddell. Anderson has made a living beating mostly average at best fighters who couldn't cut it at ww or Lhw and tried their luck at me.. The 2 great fighters he faced were a dehydrated hendo in his mid-late 30's and Weidman which he was abused by twice
 
sgtpepper said:
Is it by how many wins he has on his records?

Is it by how many records he's broken?

How many title defenses?

His character?

How he wins rather than how many wins?

Just curious to see what people say since so many disagree on who they think is the greatest of all time in MMA.

Thoughts?

I would have GSP at the GOAT based on records, Silva as the GOAT in terms of how he wins and JBJ in terms of how many wins he has on his record and how he fights.
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You can't, it's entirely subjective.

Some will say resume, but not everyone is going to agree that someone's resume is great. Usually because of hate.

Can't use skill set, because not everyone values the same skills.

Can't use the way they beat their opponents. Some like quick finishes and some like 5 round convincing wins.

Goat and PFP discussions or articles are nothing but opinion. It's all about fandom.

For instance ppl will keep gsp out of the discussion for lack of finishes, but will say Jones is the goat, even though he hasn't finished a lhw since 2011. That's four opponents. Now ppl will say his competition had gotten better, and it has but so was gsp's. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trashing Jones and making a case for gsp, my point is that unless fandom and bias is completely taken out of the equation, goat discussions are exercises in futility.

Fans of gsp, Jones, AS, Aldo, Fedor or anyone else can make an argument for their favorite to be called goat. The problem is, there is no one unbiased enough to decide whose argument is correct.
 
Greatest of All Time = GOAT = Fedor

Best of All Time = BOAT = ConBoat McBoater
 
its a combination of things for me. resume, titles and or title reigns, and lastly...how beatable or unbeatable the fighter appears to be within his weight class. in my mind, by that criteria, jones is the clear choice with his streak...but cain and aldo are hot on his heels. that said, the hw division is always very unpredictable with injuries and freak ko's. that's the nature of large guys. cain is having some health issues and inactivity as such. aldo obviously has been on top of the game in his class for quite some time. another few fights and hes going to be right in there with jones. id also give honorable mention to Anthony pettis, although not a long streak at the moment, but has the makings to extend it for quite a while. unfortunately, as is the nature of this sport, none of my favorite fighters fit this criteria. lol they all suck.
 
Italian Brock said:
Jones by far is the goat. 2nd is gsp followed by Liddell. Anderson has made a living beating mostly average at best fighters who couldn't cut it at ww or Lhw and tried their luck at me.. The 2 great fighters he faced were a dehydrated hendo in his mid-late 30's and Weidman which he was abused by twice
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I almost fell for this until I got to liddell. nice try tho.
 
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