i just explained why thats not the case. but no its cause he's beaten a who's who of HWs. nobody's defended the title more times or more times consecutively. Stipe beat JDS and Reem.
some poster on here tried to say roidy boy Barnett was better than Stipe. Barnett has to be the most overrated HW ever. never won against a good opponent unless he juiced and got stripped of a title because of it. Stipe is over-hated by people. Fedor, Werdum and Stipe are the 3 top HWs, simple as. whatever order you have them in comes down to preference because they all have resumes that outshine every other HW.