Right off the bat, I’m gonna disagree with weighing the fact that Pavlovich had no-name opponents with kickboxing backgrounds. I mean, when Fedor returned from retirement, lots of fans complained that he fought Jaideep Singh—and understandably so. Jaideep has never done a damn thing in MMA. He does meet your criteria you just listed, however: multiple kickboxing championships (K1, RISE JNetwork) and. 40-10 kickboxing record. Should we weigh that? I sure don’t.
I also want to state again, as I have before, that the cans on Fedor’s record
have no bearing whatsoever in my ranking. You frequently mention how guys today can’t “pad their record” like Fedor, but those fights don’t factor in at all for me. Pretend they don’t exist if you like. It makes no difference.
I have some disagreements about the way you characterize some of these fighters:
- Nog was not one-dimensional. Nog had good hands.
- You characterize Tim Sylvia as “at the end of his career,” when in fact he was only 16 months removed from being UFC champion, was coming off a UFC Interim HW title shot, was still 5 years away from retiring, and was ranked #5 in the world.
- I’m on board with JDS and Volkov being better than Herring, but Lewis and Tai? Ehhhh.
- Like @Taric alluded to, It’s bizarre that you call people like Nog one dimensional—but not Ciryl Gane, who has almost no wrestling to speak of and is a literal white belt on the ground. Tai and Lewis likewise have no real wrestling or grappling skills.
- Fujita is not a can crusher. He’s got wins over Gilbert Yvel, Kerr, Ken Shamrock…none of those guys are cans.
Yes, I can list the ranked wins Fedor has. A couple things about that: firstly, there were no UFC Rankings or PRIDE Rankings at the time, so a ranked fighter meant one of the 10 best in the world, in any org. The UFC is really making this comparison tougher and tougher with their gifted title shots, unearned rematches, and blatant rankings manipulation. Stipe may be UFC HW GOAT, but he’s looked washed for awhile, hasn’t fought in almost 2 years, hasn’t won a fight in 2 1/2 years, and yet is allowed to hang out at #2 for no good reason. If someone punches his old ass all around the cage, they’ll get a win over the “#2 ranked heavyweight.”
I also don’t count people ranked outside of HW for Fedor. Babalu was ranked at LHW, and Lindland at MW, but those are not ranked wins. Good opponents though. I only list opponents with verifiable rankings at HW, from the time period (no “generated ranking” bullshit). In order, they are:
- Semmy Schilt = Great win even though he lost to cans in MMA. He is the HW GOAT of kickboxing so props to Fedor for avoiding the KO vs this 7 foot 300lb monster.
- Heath Herring = can crusher. And an inferior version to any of the top guys Stipe or Gane smashed.
- Nogueira = good win for that time
- Kazayuki Fujita* = yeah...... really?
- Mark Coleman (first fight) = 1 dimesional also small for a HW
- Kevin Randleman = the size of a LHW and 1 dimesional who a dog would submit
- Nogueira = 1 dimesional but good win for the time
- Cro Cop = Great win but he weighed 225lbs for most of his career. There are LHWs weighing more.
- Hunt = Green in his career and 1 dimesional
- Sylvia =, Okay win
- Arlovski = Great win
- Rogers = Inferior to Lewis or Tai
The asterisk next to Fujita is because most MMA outlets had him just outside the top 10 at the time, but MMA News had him at #10 and they are a legitimate, reputable outlet.
I couldn’t agree more. HW is finally starting to show some life and come back around a bit, but it’s been a dismal last several years.