How good was Prime Colby?

[mkt]

He would've been champ at some point if Usman wasn't in the division. He gave Usman two very competitive fights. People forget Colby was debatably winning before his jaw was broken very late in the first fight. The second fight was also close. Colby's problem was that Usman was a bigger, stronger version of himself who hit harder. It was also an aging division and they beat a lot of the same guys (Maia, Woodley, Masvidal, etc.).

 

[mkt]

lol at anyone putting hughes in front of usman

also lol Colby would destroy 80 percent of this list

Pat Miletich？ Woodley？ Diaz？ Rory? Condit? Lawler?

are you fucking retarded?

That's the problem with these discussions. People use current 2024 standards to judge past fighters, like a 1998 version of Pat Militech. He fought in the early years of NHB/MMA and was very good for his era. You have to judge by how fighters did against the competiton of their era.

You should also consider how stacked divisions were. for example, UFC HW circa 2002-2005 (Barnett, Rizzo, Couture, Ricco Rodriquez, up-and-coming Mir and Tim Sylvia) was very stacked--much more than now. That's not to say HWs 20 years later aren't a bit more evolved, but Aspinall doesn't have 4 or 5 high quality competitors to face like those guys did.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

Colby was always better. has looked better against every common opponent. Destroyed him in the gym and made him quit. Fought him didn't lose a round and first person to finish him in the UFC. Got destroyed by Usman, While Colby pushed usman to his limit twice.


Colby > Woodley

not a single one of woodleys opponents would beat colby. colby is only not a champ because woodley ducked him to lose to usman instead. He thought he could beat usman, but KNEW he'd lose to colby.

There is footage of him publicly ducking colby after he beat maia aswell. this was live on fox.


woodley is one of the most disgraceful champions this promotion ever had. the end of his career is a glorious reckoning that was years in the making. I hope he comes back to fight and get KO'd 3 or 4 more times.

1. Colby beat more shopworn versions of the same opponents. Woodley (and Usman) fought better versions of the same fighters.

2. Woodley didn't duck Colby. Colby won the IC title in June. Woodley defended the undisputed title in August. Colby elected to get a non essential nasal surgery which ruined the UFC's time table and they punished Colby by stripping him of the IC. Let's ignore the fact that Woodley was on ESPN in an interview where he said he felt bad for Colby bringing stripped and he would guarantee that he would fight Colby after Usman. You really think Woodley has that power to strip an IC in the UFC? You really believe any fighter can force the UFC to strip someone?

3. Woodley's championship reign was good. Spectacularly knocked out Robbie as a -275 underdog. Fight of the year candidate in the first WB fight. Knocked out and subbed Till in the same fight. Defended 21 of 21 TD attempts against Maia after injuring his shoulder in my first round. I think Woodley had the second best WW title reign in the UFC behind GSP (I think prime Hughes is better fighter but Woodley's opponents were better). Usman's merry-go-round of Colby, Masdival and Burns isn't impressive to me.

 

[JBJ was here]

Covington's only finish against a fighter you've ever cared to hear of is an injury stoppage against a Woodley so gassed that a typical woman's atomweight probably could have finished him. He was, however, submitted by Warlley Alves.

Covington was, at one point, a L&P no-damage monster, so I guess he wasn't terrible, but that's the best that can be said of him.

 

[Hog-train]

Rogan hyped him up enough to make you think he was better than he was. He was an ok contender and that's about it.

 

[Lord Pyjamas]

We will probably never know since he never faced Jon Fitch.

 

[IIIIIIII]

Covington's only finish against a fighter you've ever cared to hear of is an injury stoppage against a Woodley so gassed that a typical woman's atomweight probably could have finished him. He was, however, submitted by Warlley Alves.

Covington was, at one point, a L&P no-damage monster, so I guess he wasn't terrible, but that's the best that can be said of him.

you can say a lot of things about colby, but lay and pray is not one of them.

 

[josh345]

Much better than what he showed last night. That cut from the grazing punch didn't help him either. But it seems like his pace and pressure isn't quite the same anymore. Buckley is good though. Would have been a tough fight even in his prime.

 

[jenst]

Colby > Woodley

Hahahaha even Colby's mommy would dispute this, if she loved him enough to do so.
CC-zero won exactly 0.00 trophies and he wont be rememberd at all. A fart in the wind.

 

[Superzorro]

I think he was a stylistic nightmare for Woodley imo. Dunno why he rejected the fight.

I think Woodley would have done to Colby what Buckley just did last night. Colby’s biggest problem has always been that he’s just not strong enough. Stronger welterweights overpower him and put enough damage on him early that the cardio ends up being irrelevant.

 

[Superzorro]

Much better than what he showed last night. That cut from the grazing punch didn't help him either. But it seems like his pace and pressure isn't quite the same anymore. Buckley is good though. Would have been a tough fight even in his prime.

From what I remember, he’s always been prone to cuts like that.

 

[Kertol]

IMO it’s not that he has significantly declined athletically, it’s that inactivity has caught up to him which has caused him to kind of doubt himself. He used to be a bull that charged forward with confidence to outwill his opponent but he doesn’t do that no more. He also jumped around from trainers as well which is partially to blame for his style change, I think he’s done at the top.

Anyone know why he separated from mma masters?

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Good contender, but not good enough to be a champion

He definitely was but he just happened to be active at the same time ad one of the goat welterweights. This is coming from someone who hates Colby

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

Clearly not good enough to beat anyone who wasn't already on a losing streak. In all seriousness, I would say he is a top 15-top 20ish WW of all time at best. None of his wins are particularly impressive even at the times they occurred and his best perfomances were all losses.

If he wasn't consistently on the shelf and then inexplicably inserted into the title picture over and over again, I think he would have had many more losses to other contenders.

1) GSP
2) Matt Hughes
3) Kamaru Usman
4) Jake Shields
5) Leon Edwards
6) Jon Fitch
7) Belal Muhammad
8) Pat Miletich
9) Tyron Woodley
10) Robbie Lawler
11) Johny Hendricks
12) Rory Macdonald
13) Nick Diaz
14) BJ Penn
15) Carlos Condit


Should I list more? I'm sorry but barely blanketed a LW with a career long history of struggling with wrestlers is not exactly a career defining win nor is getting sloppy 3rds on Woodley and Lawler when both were clearly done. Even Thiago Alves, Demian Maia, and Wonderboy Thompson had much more impressive roads to a title shot than Colby did. I'd bet money that Martin Kampmann would have beat Covington too Prime vs Prime if Colby actually showed up.

The guy was absolutely spoonfed his entire UFC career and still couldn't notch an impressive resume in an extremely thin era of the division. WW has a long and storied history... recency bias and the UFC hype machine has clearly worked on you but Colby is not, nor was he ever, an elite fighter

Bumping this as apparently people have finally realized that Colby has been one of the most overrated fighters of all time for years now

 

[ComfortablyNumb55]

Top 5 WW all time.

 

[LostMyBlackBelt]

Not as good as his cardio

 

[Local Plata]

Garbo. Avoided all contenders, given preferential treatment due to his gimmicky character. He's a welterweight Clay Guida, capable of lay and pray, but gets destroyed anytime he fights someone decent.

 

[IIIIIIII]

Garbo. Avoided all contenders, given preferential treatment due to his gimmicky character. He's a welterweight Clay Guida, capable of lay and pray, but gets destroyed anytime he fights someone decent.

fighting the champ usman twice means you avoid contenders. got it.

 

[Local Plata]

fighting the champ usman twice means you avoid contenders. got it.

I didn't say he didn't get gifted undeserved title shots multiple times due to his pro wrestling/shithole state gimmick. How has he faired in title fights again?