If Stipe beats Jones, he is the HW GOAT without question.

Oris79

Oris79

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Stipe already is the HW greatest, but by defeating Jones would cement it.
It would see Stipe with wins over seven HW champions.
He already holds the record for most title defenses in HW history.
He has very strong wins over top tier fighters in Ngannou, Cormier, JDS, Overeem, Wedrum, and Hunt.
How could he be denied GOAT at that point ?
You gonna give it to Francis who only defended his belt once ?
You gonna give it to Fedor who ducked the UFC ?
 
Yeah agreed for all the reasons you state.

Some doubt over whether he fought guys in their prime, but he has the best case around IMO. Jones looked imperious vs Gane, certainly isn't washed. if Stipe puts him away he gets to do the bleating.
 
Oris79 said:
He already holds the record for most title defenses in HW history.
Click to expand...
By pure technicality.

Because most PRIDE HW fights didn't bother doing weigh-ins the fights were classified as open weight instead of HW, even if both the fighters would have weighed within the HW limit. As a result most of Fedor's fights as champion can't technically be classified as HW fights... and that goes for most PRIDE "HW" fights in general.

It's a pure technicality and a goofy argument. From 2003-2010 Fedor had 19 victories as the #1 ranked HW in the world. You can cut his wins as champion down to 1/3rd and he'd still have more wins as #1 than Stipe does.
 
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Oris79 said:
Stipe already is the HW greatest, but by defeating Jones would cement it.
It would see Stipe with wins over seven HW champions.
He already holds the record for most title defenses in HW history.
He has very strong wins over top tier fighters in Ngannou, Cormier, JDS, Overeem, Wedrum, and Hunt.
How could he be denied GOAT at that point ?
You gonna give it to Francis who only defended his belt once ?
You gonna give it to Fedor who ducked the UFC ?
Click to expand...

Yes, agreed.

Stipe already has incredible names on his résumé, but a legit when over Jon Jones would be *the* greatest trophy name possible to win in the UFC.
 
Taric said:
By pure technicality.

Because most PRIDE HW fights didn't bother doing weigh-ins the fights were classified as open weight instead of HW, even if both the fighters would have weighed within the HW limit. As a result most of Fedor's fights as champion can't technically be classified as HW fights.

It's a pure technicality and a goofy argument. From 2003-2010 Fedor had 19 victories as the #1 ranked HW in the world.
Click to expand...

Not correct. Pride wanted to protect their HW champions (and champions in general), thats why fights weren't declared as title fights. Fedors belt was only ever on the libe against Mirko and Nog, and it has nothing to do with technicalities or weigh-ins.
 
Cracked_Rib said:
Not correct. Pride wanted to protect their HW champions (and champions in general), thats why fights weren't declared as title fights. Fedors belt was only ever on the libe against Mirko and Nog, and it has nothing to do with technicalities or weigh-ins.
Click to expand...
It is a statement of fact that like 90% of PRIDE HW fights did not have weighs-in. They simply didn't bother because they didn't have to since they had no athletic commission to appease... because PRIDE wasn't sanctioned no different than how old UFC used to be.

Nogueira's fight with Sapp was open weight and he literally almost had his neck snapped when piledrived into the mat by an opponent who weighed 100 pounds more than he did. So the fight will forever not go down as an official title defense, because his opponent weighed 350lbs, despite the fact that Nogueira nearly died in the fight. But somehow he was being protected by the organization? Absolute idiocy.

You can make up any conspiracy theory you want, but what I just said is reality.
 
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Taric said:
By pure technicality.

Because most PRIDE HW fights didn't bother doing weigh-ins the fights were classified as open weight instead of HW, even if both the fighters would have weighed within the HW limit. As a result most of Fedor's fights as champion can't technically be classified as HW fights... and that goes for most PRIDE "HW" fights in general.

It's a pure technicality and a goofy argument. From 2003-2010 Fedor had 19 victories as the #1 ranked HW in the world. You can cut his wins as champion down to 1/3rd and he'd still have more wins as #1 than Stipe does.
Click to expand...
in those 19 wins he was also fighting pro wrestlers and complete tomato cans in between his world title fights against the best HWs so "19 wins" is a very narrow argument. Fedor is the HW goat tho.
 
GOAT positions will always be questioned. No matter what.

Mighty Mouse defended his strap 11 times (or something like that) including beating Henry Cejudo in the first, and I've seen people question whether Cejudo is ther "real" Flyweight GOAT. Nothing is ever chiseled in stone.
 
jx820 said:
GOAT positions will always be questioned. No matter what.

Mighty Mouse defended his strap 11 times (or something like that) including beting Henry Cejudo in the first, and I've seen people question whether Cejudo is ther "real" Flyweight GOAT. Nothing is ever chiseled in stone.
Click to expand...
This is true, but even moreso at HW since it’s more difficult to judge when a fighter is in their “prime”.

I’ve noticed that everybody uses the “prime” argument to confirm their bias in HW arguments. This fighter only lost because he was out of his prime and this fighter only dominated because his opponents were past their prime, etc.
 
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