Idk about you but I’m ready to crown Dustin Poirier as the second greatest lightweight ever

[daniel san]

Not even remotely close. Great fighter though. Did he almost finish Khabib, or was it one of the most one-sided fights amongst elite fighters? The latter is probably true.

 

[CasualBot]

Currently beat Max, Justin, Conor

Diamond goat,
right after Lobov

 

[muaythaidon1]

 

[FanofC]

Bendo, Frankie and Penn are above him at this point of time.

Penn's LW resume is a joke compared to Dustin's

Who's his best win? Gomi?

 

[muaythaidon1]

Penn's LW resume is a joke compared to Dustin's

Who's his best win? Gomi?

 

[The Penetrator]

Whats the deal with beating Conor anyway?

Dude won 1 fight in last 5 years... And it wasnt even at LW, and it was 40 year old Cerrone whos on a 5 fight losing streak...

I mean cmon i know hes hyped but, cmon guys, is it really that special to beat McGregor at LW, in this day and age?

 

[Ladron4sherdog]

Penn
Khabib
Edgar
Bendo
RDA
Pettis

All of them were actual champions and stylistically give Dustin a hard time. Maybe he beats prime Pettis or Edgar whosBW, but his chin used to be titanium. Prime BJ Diego's him, Khabib already beat him. I like Dustin but dont conor fan over him.

Current Dustin is better than everyone on that list besides Khabib. He may lose to BJ by a hair but there isn't much in it. His striking is so much better than BJs that I don't see him losing more than 5 out of 10 fights.

The only LW heads and shoulders above him is Khabib.

 

[Ladron4sherdog]

Bendo
Frankie
Penn
RDA
Khabib

Were all better. They actually won the main belt and defended it.

He beats them all except Khabib.

 

[VinceArch]

I'd gotta say Dustin now starches tony, benson and probably frankie in their primes

I doubt it but unfortunately we never know when we start thinking of 'who would win in their prime?' match ups.

 

[HHJ]

Even if he beats Conor,he could lose to the winner of chandler/olivera and never get the belt. How can he be #2 all time without ever really being #1 at any time?

 

[kalabula]

Curious how you were even able to post this thread with that much obvious brain damage

It just depends how you judge these things. I think you could make a strong argument that the LW division of today is a lot more talented then that of BJ Penns era. I’m a huge Penn fan. But if he was fighting khabib, Dustin, Justin and Tony instead of Joe Stevenson, Sherk, Kenny Florian and Diego Danchez it’s very doubtful he would have looked as dominant. That being said, I don’t think it’s fair to judge these sort of things outside of the eras the fighters were in. For one, it’s pure speculation. And second, if bj was around today it’s possible he would have been an even better version of himself due to the better competition. Also, your post was a bit rude.

 

[Iron Nick]

It's pretty hard to crown someone the second best of his division when ha hasn't won the title when so many other great fighters have.

That being said, Dustin Poirier is one of the best lightweights ever, there's little doubt about that for me.
He's got wins over:

Alvarez (TKO)
Conor (TKO)
Gaethje (TKO)
Holloway x2 (U-Dec & Sub)
Pettis (Sub)
Dan Hooker (U-Dec)

...which is extremely impressive and though he has a couple of losses on his record, only the losses to Khabib and maybe Michael Johnson happened in what i'd say is his prime, which isn't just about physicality, but also about the evolution of a fighter; Dustin Poirier's striking - though always good - has only in recent years really started to blossom, so one might make the case, that Dustin has only lost to Khabib in his prime.

Another win over Conor and then winning the belt would be the cherry on the cake of what has already been a fantastic career.

 

[gunlok]

Rewatch the Aldo fight. That punch Conor received in the end was the beginning of the end for his chin....

 

[BFoe]

Top 5... but seems to be just reaching his prime.

Khabib
Ferguson 12-0 run, interim champion
BJ Penn

I actually don’t have Tony in my top 10. Dustin is #3 for me. Zebra threatened to not talk to to me for at least 3 minutes because I rank BJ Penn higher <45>
My list:
1. Khabib
2. BJ Penn
3. Dustin Poirier
4. Gilbert Melendez
5. RDA
6. Benson Henderson
7. Frankie Edgar
8. Eddie Alvarez
9. Takanori Gomi
10. Shinya Aoki

maybe Pettis at #10. I could go either/or.

 

[acannxr]

if he beats Conor again (a former champ champ who has KO’s in 3 weight classes) then Dustin Poirier stamps his ticket as a top 25 mma fighter of all time and 2nd best lightweight fighter in mma history.

Gomi, Henderson, Alvarez, Penn, and Nurmagomedov all have more top ten wins than Poirier and were all legitimate champions; at best Poirier could be the #6-8 all-time Lightweight with the likes of RDA and Edgar.

 

[Kono dio da!]

Chill playa. One of the greatest, no doubt. Number 2? Shit man. It's just, was it a khabib thing OR is Dustin's defensive wrestling not all there? Plus rda, prime eddie and tony would need to be there too. Was eddie in his prime when dustin best the dog shit out of him? Also would love to see rda vs dustin. Rda, at lw, is a lesser khabib, relentless takedown threat. Can he avoid being held down?

 

[Kono dio da!]

Michael Johnson disagrees

That fool beat tony and edson. He's an anomaly.

 

[CerebralKnievel]

Khabib
Ferguson 12-0 run, interim champion
BJ Penn

Amend Frankie Edgar, possibly Benson Henderson.

Poirier is a great fighter, but he hasn't even won a title, let alone defended one. Any self righteous nuthuggers who want to proclaim his victory over a featherweight who'd never even competed in the UFC at 155 to be a legitimate title win can spare me the absurdity.

 

[CerebralKnievel]

That fool beat tony and edson. He's an anomaly.

Hardly an anomaly unless you never actually watch his fights. His striking was vicious. Unfortunately, when you have one skill set that is glaringly sub par and can be readily exploited, youre going to have mixed results.

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Top 5 for sure. Not so sure about almost fished Khabib tho