How much this version of Stipe was from his peak form (Ngannou 1?) ?

[Gregoire1]

If we consider peak Stipe as 10, give please scoring for following versions:

vs Ngannou 1
vs DC 1
vs DC 2
vs DC 3
vs Ngannou 2
vs Jones

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Honestly thought he looked like s*** in those DC fights. Stipe was just lucky DC was obese and couldn't wrestle with his bad back.

 

[Gregoire1]

My take:

vs Ngannou 1 - 9/10
vs DC 1 - 7/10
vs DC 2 - 7/10
vs DC 3 - 6/10
vs Ngannou 2 - 6/10
vs Jones - 5/10

 

[Michael Wetzel]

vs Werdum and Overeem: 9
vs Ngannou 1: 8
vs DC 1: 6
vs DC 2: 8
vs DC 3: 7
vs Ngannou 2: 4
vs Jones: 2

 

[Portland8242]

You could easily tell Stipe was exiting his prime by the 2nd DC fight. By the 3rd DC fight he was shot, he was only saved by DC being shot too. The 2nd Francis fight was a big slap in the face that he should not be fighting top guys anymore.

 

[SirRealKiller]

Definitely not close to prime.

Hard to say how good Stipe could have been if he had started in MMA earlier. He was almost 30 before he made his first UFC appearance. Jones was like 21 when he made his UFC appearance.

So Jones was basically in the MMA game early on in his life where as Stipe only got in when most fighters only have a few prime years left.

 

[Red Lantern]

Bout tree fiddy. This answers all your questions.

 

[moongaze]

Not much difference to be honest. People keep talking about age but don't consider the opponent he's facing. Its easier to look fresh and prime against a reckless Francis chasing a ko and having little to no cardio and offensive wrestling. If Stipe fought Derrick lewis on Saturday instead of Jones people would be talking about how good he looked. You consider him being in his prime up to that point because he was facing guys like Mark Hunt, JDS, Werdum and Overeem. Much different than a nicksick coached and calculated Ngannou and Jon Jones.

 

[blaseblase]

Honestly thought he looked like s*** in those DC fights. Stipe was just lucky DC was obese and couldn't wrestle with his bad back.

The second fight in particular stands out to me. They were both so sloppy. Until Stipe randomly decided to throw body shots and easily took DC out.

 

[mister piscadinha]

stipe was already washed by the second dc fight, mesosoic by the second ngannou fight and jurassic against jones

 

[Versez]

Peak stipe was the 2018 stipe against ngannou 1. Dude was strong , quite fast and agile, after ngannou 1 it went downward pretty quick

 

[Señor Dudu Bird]

Not even close to the same man.

But in combat sports, even losing just 5-10% is enough to retire you.

 

[gosuasus]

In my opinion prime Stipe is 2016/17 Stipe. He torpedoed Arlovski, Werdum, Overeem and Dos Santos in around 10 minutes of fight time and they all looked resurged before the fight.

 

[HHJ]

You could easily tell Stipe was exiting his prime by the 2nd DC fight. By the 3rd DC fight he was shot, he was only saved by DC being shot too. The 2nd Francis fight was a big slap in the face that he should not be fighting top guys anymore.

I dunno. He actually clipped Francis there. The problem was he rushed in on him and Francis recovered really fast and knocked him out

 

[HHJ]

I agree that stipe was probably past it in this period, but he popped Francis before going down in flames

 

[Portland8242]

I dunno. He actually clipped Francis there. The problem was he rushed in on him and Francis recovered really fast and knocked him out

Yeah but Francis had just dropped him with that step in jab weird punch and was smelling blood in the water, Francis threw defense to the wayside going for the kill and Stipe did get him (although I don't think he was nearly as hurt as you're making him out to be).

Plus we can't just ignore the entire 1st round where Stipe looked utterly garbage. That single leg he tried on Francis was the most telegraphed slowest TD he's ever shot in his career.

For the topic at hand - Jones calling this guy out of retirement 4 years later is such garbage cherry-picking of a guy who shouldn't even be fighting anymore.

 

[JBJ was here]

vs Ngannou 1: 9
vs DC 1: 7
vs DC 2: 5
vs DC 3: 4
vs Ngannou 2: 4
vs Jones: 3

And, frankly, I think I'm being conservative about Stipe's decline from DC2 forward. Stipe was a punching bag with arms by DC 2, and DC was coming in old and heavy off of back surgery. The DC of that second fight with Stipe was himself shot and should have already retired. Stipe fought smarter but older in DC 3 than DC 2.

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

If we consider peak Stipe as 10, give please scoring for following versions:

vs Ngannou 1
vs DC 1
vs DC 2
vs DC 3
vs Ngannou 2
vs Jones

Ngannou 1 - 10/10, best speed and head movement stipe has every shown, great timing on takedowns, overall looked like a well rounded skilled HW

DC 1 - 3/10 - got lazy in the clinch and ko'd by 40 year old DC

DC 2- 4/10 - good adjustment but he was getting his face boxed off and losing badly to DC who had back issues and was 40, I thought stipe looked very sloppy and more like a scrappy fighter than a championship level fighter

DC 3 - 3/10 - Both of them looked slow and old in this fight

Ngannou 2 - 3/10 - didn't land any punches until the last second and shot a bad single leg, I think ngannou would have beat him regardless but stipe certainly didn't look good.

Jones - 1/10 - slow as molasses, stiff, didn't look threatening at all, I think this version of stipe loses to anyone top 10 at HW

 

[Fedorgasm]

If we consider peak Stipe as 10, give please scoring for following versions:

vs Ngannou 1
vs DC 1
vs DC 2
vs DC 3
vs Ngannou 2
vs Jones

vs Ngannou 1 - 9

vs DC 1 - 8

vs DC 2 - 7

vs DC 3 - 6

vs Ngannou 2 - 5

vs Jones - 2

 

[DoctorStoppage]

People forget how bad Stipe looked in the 2nd DC fight until he figured out the body shots in Round 3