Simply due to the fact that his accomplishments will never be equaled.
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, but you already know this just by looking at all the PRIDE/Fedor fanboys over here.
GSP, Fedor, Silva and Jones were all great champions, GOATs in their respectful divisions. But there is only one champion without a single asterisk to his name, and his name is Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Retired undefeated at 29-0. Undefeated retirements don’t happen in MMA.
He’s only lost one round in his entire professional career.
Has never faced serious adversity for longer than a minute in a single fight.
Never bled in the Octagon.
Dominated every single fighter they put in front of him, objectively the most dominant Mixed Martial Artist of all time.
By far the greatest MMA grappler of all time.
Did it without PEDs.
Literally the only thing that’s being held against him objectively is his somewhat “low” amount of title defences.
The argument of his level of opposition being subpar is complete bullshit. RDA, Barboza, McGregor, Poirier and Gaethje is at least as good a resume as Fedor’s, Anderson’s and GSP’s.
The only GOAT candidate that faced a higher level of competition is Jon Jones. But being a habitual PED abuser disqualifies you from being the GOAT anyway, because one cannot be the greatest in any field if the person had to cheat in order to be considered as such. If you cheat, you don’t play the same game.
No matter how many titles and championships Lance Armstrong won, after the public found out about his EPO use, the reputation went completely down the gutter, and rightfully so.
People still in denial about this are immature little children, in 10 years they will have gotten a little older and wiser. Other groups that will come around in this timespan are the salty McGregor fanboys.
In 10 years,
People will remember GSP for his greatness, but will also remember him tapping to strikes, losing twice and getting the living shit beat out of him by Johny Hendricks.
People will remember Anderson for his greatness, but will also remember his many losses (in particular to Weidman), and occasional steroid use.
People will remember Fedor for his greatness, but will also remember his low level of competition, him getting KO’d multiple times (when he was older, but still) and getting subbed by Werdum.
People will remember Jones for his greatness, but will also remember his habitual steroid abuse, forever casting a shadow over all his accomplishments, and his lackluster performances/robberies, him looking like a shadow of his former self after juicing was no longer an option.
But in 10 years, what people will remember about Khabib is that not a single fighter has even come close to beating him. They will remember only dominance, an undefeated 29-0 record, the annihilation of the UFC’s poster boy, a perfect career without a single mistake.
In 10 years, Khabib will unanimously be considered the GOAT.
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