Usman did fight the best guys available though. Who did he duck?
This, not witnessing it in real time matters. You see that these guys fell off and lost a bunch of fights after the fact. Like Matt, Fedor and BJ new fans today or future fans can do this same thing to a Spider, Izzy or any great champion who fizzled out.
Who said he fucking ducked anyone? That's a stretch Doctor, and your words not mine. He could have fought a lot of guys. He fought Colby and Mas mostly, as a champ. Like I said before, those fights didn't age well. I also said he was a great fighter and made a very clear point. What are you on about mate?
<JagsKiddingMe>
Well, who could he have realistically fought? He beat everyone that was highly ranked already.
Doctor, he could have fought a lot of dudes. Here is a link for your research. https://www.fightmatrix.com/historical-mma-rankings/generated-historical-rankings/ I'll pass on doing it for you. I didn't say he ducked anyone, and I didn't say that he didn't fight the highest ranked guys either. I said those fights did not age well. Pretty clear in hindsight that having Colby and Mas as top contenders at that point was pretty fucking weak. It's what the UFC wanted. Maybe not even what Usman wanted. Regardless, hard to be super enthusiastic about those wins in a GOAT discussion.
You could have just typed one or two names instead of typing that paragraph though. There aren't really any guys he could have fought. Masivdal, Covington, Burns, Woodley, and Edwards were all rightfully in the top 5 for a lot of his reign and he fought all of them. So who else is there? He had also beaten RDA and Maia prior to his title reign.
And Hughes had Frank Trigg and Royce Gracie. Almost every champion has at least one questionable contender on their list.
It's 2025. I don't think anyone here still has Woodley or Usman above GSP or Izzy above Anderson etc.
It's not "phrasing"...it's true to a degree. Let's keep this conversation in the context in which my original context was made also. We were talking about why some would put Usman above Hughes in the GOAT WW list. I wouldn't personally. I'm talking about championship, career defining fights. He did fight a some great fighters on the way up...and so did the rest of them...but his title reign was not "Great". Perhaps through no fault of his own. Again, the Mas and Colby fights have not aged well. I disagree that Mas and Colby were "rightfully ranked" so high as well. Mas caught lightning but was never very good, and Colby was the UFC MAGA poster boy who in hindsight...was just Colby. I said it then and I'll say it now, they were both massively overrated. Doesn't help Usman's legacy. Neither does beating Tyron - probably the UFC's least popular champ of all time. Usman was/is great, but he didn't "shine" at the end of his career IMO.
40% of Usman's reign was Masvidal, a jobber.
Those who put him over Hughes, are either new to the sport, do not know any better or have no clue what they are watching.
When you first look at the list of guys Usman beat before his title shot, some of the names look good. But Usman beat Leon & Sean when both guys were unranked & both guys hadnt gotten any big wins yet in their career. Usman beat Maia when Maia was coming off back to back losses & almost 41 yrs old. His only standout win before his title shot was vs RDA, & even then, RDA was coming off a loss. Usmans win streak before his title shot seemed impressive but none other than possibly RDA were top 10 ranked at the time
