How would you rank the Caucasus fighters from best to worst?

[g*r*b]

Is Saparbeg Safarov still fighting somewhere? I always think of him when I need to remind myself that not all fighters coming out of Dagestan are equal. 10-3 looks on the surface like a decent record, but two of those loses were against Tyson Pedro and f'king Gian Villante. Ew.

And where is Roman Dolidze? (Besides in Cheyanne Vlismas' bed, allegedly.)

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

Is Saparbeg Safarov still fighting somewhere? I always think of him when I need to remind myself that not all fighters coming out of Dagestan are equal. 10-3 looks on the surface like a decent record, but two of those loses were against Tyson Pedro and f'king Gian Villante. Ew.

And where is Roman Dolidze? (Besides in Cheyanne Vlismas' bed, allegedly.)

roman dolidze would be at number 9 with tagir, dude fluked a win against hermansson and lost to vettori

 

[Luckyme]

Topuria is 100% Georgian blood and lived there.

This is true but he moved to Spain as a teenager and that's where he began his MMA training. Kind of hard to call him a product of the Caucasus when most of his development happened in Europe.

Mokaev is a similar case. Dagestani by ethnicity but his formative training happened in UK, not Russia.

 

[MarioLemieux]

This is true but he moved to Spain as a teenager and that's where he began his MMA training. Kind of hard to call him a product of the Caucasus when most of his development happened in Europe.

Mokaev is a similar case. Dagestani by ethnicity but his formative training happened in UK, not Russia.

What the... he got his wrestling base in Georgia.

 

[nostradumbass]

Nobody considers Merab the GOAT at 19-4 either, the point is a few old losses don't matter. What you do in your early fights aren't very relevant once you become UFC champion.

Anderson is a perfect example of the irrelevance of early defeats.

Merab having some losses on his record excludes him from nothing. Making excuses for Anderson's defeats doesn't really work when most of Merab's defeats are questionable too.

If you don't think he's a GOAT either, then I don't really know what you're arguing. The other poster said he'd put Merab above everyone else because "his resume is better". Islam has 4 title defenses and 1 loss, on a 15 fight win streak and finished 8 of his last 9, including rematching and decapitating the one guy who went the distance with him, while Merab has 4 losses and 1 defense where he lost everywhere for half the fight, and has 1 finish in all of his UFC fights where he got dropped and came from behind there too.

#2 is about right since we're not counting Topuria, but it's a distant 2nd, and Khamzat could take spot if he wins the title this year via being more dominant and running guys over.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

This is true but he moved to Spain as a teenager and that's where he began his MMA training. Kind of hard to call him a product of the Caucasus when most of his development happened in Europe.

Mokaev is a similar case. Dagestani by ethnicity but his formative training happened in UK, not Russia.

Then Merab isn't from the Caucasus either then. He didn't do MMA until he went to America.

 

[Harlekin]

Topuria was in Georgia from age 7 to 15. But yes he is georgian.

 

[MarioLemieux]

Then Merab isn't from the Caucasus either then. He didn't do MMA until he went to America.

Khamzat is blonde blue eyed Swede then as well.

 

[swizztony]

1. Islam
2. Ilia
3. Merab
4. Khamzat
5. Musaev
6. Umar
7. Ank
8. Evloev
9. Armab
10. Usman
11. Vartanyan
12. Mokaev
13. Fiziev
14. Imavov
15. Khizriev

 

[Preston broadus]

Merab should retire and compete in crossfit

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

My ranking would be something like
1. Islam - p4p #1, ended charles and volk's 12 and 11 fight winstreaks, finishing top 10 contenders in his division in 1 round
2. Merab - Dominated Yan, Omalley, beat umar, cleared out his division
3. Khamzat - Made a former MW champ look easy
4. Umar - Beat Sandhagen and gave merab his toughest fight
5. Arman Tsarukyan- Beat Oliveira
6. Magomed Ankalaev - Long unbeaten streak, went to a draw with Jan but has looked a step above other contenders like rakic, volkan, krylov
7. Movsar Evloev - Has scraped by Aljo and Allen but still impressive overall
8. Usman Nurmagomedov(dropped a few spots after nearly losing to Hughes)
9. Tagir - Mostly unimpressive
I didn't include Ilia since I don't know if he counts as one of these guys but I would have ranked him at 1 or 2 if I did include him

Good list. Must be someone better than Tagir. That kungfu kind dude for example?

 

[MarioLemieux]

Good list. Must be someone better than Tagir. That kungfu kind dude for example?

Tagir is underrated if anything. He's basically undefeated in the UFC and his one loss was highway robbery.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Tagir is underrated if anything. He's basically undefeated in the UFC and his one loss was highway robbery.

He‘s good of course but he‘s nowhere near his Caucasian peers. People have too high expectations of him. He s good but nothing special. Like fringe top 10 IMO. Which is a great achievement but he shouldn t be in the conversation of this thread. IMO.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Why is Usman here? He isn't in the UFC. If we're including non UFC then shouldn't there be more guys than just him?

 

[MarioLemieux]

Why is Usman here? He isn't in the UFC. If we're including non UFC then shouldn't there be more guys than just him?

He does have the most title defences in Bellator history afterall, and their LW division is pretty damn good.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I thought he was raised in Spain for some reason but apparently he learned wrestling in Georgia so maybe I should have put him there. He would be 2 or 1

I think he learned greco in Georgia which is a top greco country.

 

[HHJ]

I don't really get where you're coming from.

"Losses too"?

So is Anderson Silva not a P4P GOAT contender because he was also 19-4 after 23 fights? He also suffered some early career defeats, but it's been a long, long time since I heard anyone pretend they exclude him from being an elite all-time fighter?

Yep.

These are ppl who probably just look at wiki records or something.

They like to clown guys like Penn, Couture and Hunt for their losses but that really doesn't tell the stories of their careers.

You gotta do real research buddeh.

Anderson had a problem w submission defense and he GOT BETTER and went on a tear.

Sam Sheridan has a chapter in his book, covering the event where Anderson lost to Chonan.

It was said Anderson was absolutely devastated and thought about quitting.

He found a new team and got way better after that.

 

[chinarice]

Khamzat and he would smesh all of them, even if Khabib was active. Smeshed.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Then Merab isn't from the Caucasus either then. He didn't do MMA until he went to America.

It really demonstrates the power of stereotypes and preconceived notions we have in our heads as humans. Literally the only reason he's treating Ilia differently is that he looks different, he's super stylish in a Western way and doesn't have the stereotypical look of Khamzat, who moved to Sweden as a teenager like Ilia did to Spain.

 

[Luckyme]

Then Merab isn't from the Caucasus either then. He didn't do MMA until he went to America.

Merab didn’t come to the US until he was an adult. He had already trained extensively in wrestling, sambo, and judo in Georgia which is his base.

Ilia dabbled in Greco-Roman as a kid in Georgia but he didn’t train martial arts until he moved to Spain.