How dominant were the other GOATs candidate up until their 3rd title defense?

HHJ said:
Probably. But it would have been harder work to get there. He could have done it though.
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I really don't think that the guy that fought Shalorus and tibau in 2012 was ready for prime Benson henderson, Prime Frankie, Prime Maynard, Prime Melendez......Obviously he became better, but at 2012 he wasn't at that level yet in my opinion.
 
fortheo said:
I see people mention this a lot, but I don't believe it. Khabib was still fairly green and developping his skillset when he came into the UFC. I think his career was managed correctly by giving him progressively more difficult opponents while khabib continued to grow as a fighter (he especially started improving quickly after moving to AKA). Had he faced Benson henderson for the belt in 2012, I do not think that version of Khabib would have won against that version of Benson.
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Not only that, but I think the biggest reason is the time in which you give your peers to study and adapt to your style while you’re still all the time fighting 5 rounds against the best the division can offer pretty much giving the most effort they can.
 
HHJ said:
This is why you cannot solely judge a fighter on title defenses. Every career is different. Youll have fighters who win several titles and seldom ever defend them,or in conor's case,never defend them at all.

Some dont get a shot due to a belt being in limbo,but dominate the opposition all the same ;)
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You a Ferguson fan?
 
fortheo said:
I really don't think that the guy that fought Shalorus and tibau in 2012 was ready for prime Benson henderson, Prime Frankie, Prime Maynard, Prime Melendez......Obviously he became better, but at 2012 he wasn't at that level yet in my opinion.
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There def was a big difference when he started w AKA
 
Bend NvR Break said:
You a Ferguson fan?
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Yes. I dont see how you cant be a fan of his in ring action. Outside the ring,hes a bit of a basket case,but this is the fight game. He's come to the right place.
 
ElCasca said:
Page and Shad were not far removed from their prime in my opinion. Rashad was coming from maybe his best perfomance ever against Phil Davis, with only 1 loss in his record and Rampage had a nice streak going on for him
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<{cruzshake}>

Rampage's streak was 2 fights, and he got boo'd for both of them. He got a UD over Matt Hamill and got boo'd cause the fight sucked, and got in his SD over Machida because they did nothing for 2 rounds, then Machida whooped his ass in the 3rd and Rampage was gifted the decision. He went on to lose the next 2 and left the UFC.
 
Fesaine said:
Khabib would've had 11 title defense if he got his title shot in his second ufc fight like Anderson silva.
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If he had won the belt in his second fight, he would have been forced to fight the best fighters in the division when he was still raw. Chances are he would have lost to a few of those fights at the very least.
 
cmw43 said:
If that was the case he would've been fighting tougher guys than Darrell Horcher, #11 Raging Al, Tavares, Trujillo etc
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Anderson got his title shot after a win against leben. You should go watch that fight tell me how's Chris is not worse than Iaquinta and Horcher.
 
Nightgunner05 said:
If he had won the belt in his second fight, he would have been forced to fight the best fighters in the division when he was still raw. Chances are he would have lost to a few of those fights at the very least.
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That say more about how stacked the LW division is compared to the middleweight division during silva reign.
 
nostradumbass said:
<{cruzshake}>

Rampage's streak was 2 fights, and he got boo'd for both of them. He got a UD over Matt Hamill and got boo'd cause the fight sucked, and got in his SD over Machida because they did nothing for 2 rounds, then Machida whooped his ass in the 3rd and Rampage was gifted the decision. He went on to lose the next 2 and left the UFC.
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Its weird. Rampage got the win but it was a shit win,similar to Franklin vs Okami,in that the loser looked more skilled than the winner,but just didnt do that much until the 3rd.

Machida hit Rampage w the same shit that he koed rashad with. Rampage's epic chin saved him there
 
Fesaine said:
Khabib would've had 11 title defense if he got his title shot in his second ufc fight like Anderson silva.
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But when FW Conor who has shown he out of his depth at LW is your 2nd or 3rd best win you certainly didn't have 11 title defence quality fights.

Also Silva was fighting at high level outside of the UFC. Many his fights outside UFC came against future UFC fighters.
 
DestinedAussie said:
But when FW Conor who has shown he out of his depth at LW is your 2nd or 3rd best win you certainly didn't have 11 title defence quality fights.
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His point being,that Khabib probably wouldnt have lose regardless of who was in there with him,or wether a belt was on the line or not.






Its a good point!
 
cmw43 said:
You know Leben was 5-0 in the UFC at the time right?
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You do realize the middleweight was a wasteland at that time, right?

Leben striking = marching forward and throwing arm punches with his chin straight up in the air. I've seen newbies in boxing gym with better boxing than this.
 
HHJ said:
Its impressive how Izzy is doing in the shark tank that is MW now.
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you fucking kidding me? MW is a god damn dumpster of talent, the worst division in the sport.
 
HHJ said:
His point being,that Khabib probably wouldnt have lose regardless of who was in there with him,or wether a belt was on the line or not.


Its a good point!
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I don't know about that. Champions can often look dominant for a few fights and then fail. It is pretty common. Will never know if Khabib could have withstood the biggest challenders over and over.

I mean T-wood for a while looked dominant as a champion and look at him now. He is level with Khabib on title defences.
 
DestinedAussie said:
I don't know about that. Champions can often look dominant for a few fights and then fail. It is pretty common. Will never know if Khabib could have withstood the biggest challenders over and over.

I mean T-wood for a while looked dominant as a champion and look at him now. He is level with Khabib on title defences.
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No one knows,and it would have been harder to do it that way,but he couldve. I believe! lol
 
Fesaine said:
You do realize the middleweight was a wasteland at that time, right?

Leben striking = marching forward and throwing arm punches with his chin straight up in the air. I've seen newbies in boxing gym with better boxing than this.
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Cote and Benji Radach were talented strikers and he damn near put Radach in a coma and out of the sport for years.
 
cmw43 said:
Cote and Benji Radach were talented strikers and he damn near put Radach in a coma and out of the sport for years.
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I'm sorry but anyone with a slight boxing knowledge could tell you how garbage leben stand up was.

PortlyFixedDalmatian-max-1mb.gif


This is Ronda level of boxing. The fact that silva got a title shot for beating this guy should tell you how trash the middle weight division was.

Cote is a decent striker, especially at that Era. But he's also massively undersized compared to silva.
 
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