In 2005, Top 3 lightweights were better than the ones in 2021.

RainyMonday said:
lol @ listing coaches 3 times as if they're not in the business of pedaling crap to wannabe fighters

The "evolution of mma" is sort of a broad term that can be interpreted in different ways. Has the sport "evolved" in that different, more encompassing training philosophies have been adopted? Sure. But the idea that this "evolution" has produced some sort of linear progression in the quality of fighters as time goes on is just nonsense.

I generally wouldn't go as far back as 15 years, but for the most part, the elites of the divisions 5-10 years ago were better than the elites today. I could list dozens of examples, but I feel like this should be fairly evident when we have guys like 44 year old Glover and Vettori fighting for (and winning) belts in 2021.
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I obviously listed coaches three times and in capital letters intentionally. Since coaches around the world improve their craft and learn from each other, and young athletes benefit of it. Denying this is not being realistic, period.

If there is a reson why the elites from few years ago were arguably better than today is mainly due to stronger anti-doping policies. Anyways, this trend is only possible in the upper weight-classes, since there was already money i there some years ago but from LW and lighter weightclass its clearly better today than 10 years ago
 
Gomi vs Justin is about the only matchup I think 2005 could win. I don’t favor him either, I just give him a decent shot because he hit like a truck and Justin has a tendency to eat shots on the chin

I love all those guys but it really is a different era from 2005.
 
Back in the day when ya heard someone was fighting Gomi it was like you were going to watch someone die in the ring possibly. Sean Strickland would approve.

<{Red Card}>
 
different times. people didn't know anything about nutrition, conditioning, sparring, cte, weight cutting like they do today.

if prime edgar was inserted into the UFC today he's not even top 10 LW, probably get tooled up by everyone at FW too.
 
kekiss said:
Little boy, haha make yourself a more of a clown, yeah feinting, punches not being telegraphed that much, and superior conditioning doesn’t count i guess, but i get that you can’t look at anything not Pride related without foaming from your mouth. Also opponent quality doesn’t count as well for you?
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Justin defense is shit!!

And

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And


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now tell me do you think Justin would last 1 round against Lyoto Prime?! Motivated BJ is a monster soo badass, he fought better against Lyoto than many LHW.

here comes a clown like you and tell me that Justin is more evolved than BJ peen<mma3>


Bj prime>>>any version of CTE Justin!!<mma4>

 
Lots of old school dudes in every division could slap around the new guys but everyone will keep calling you an idiot because they didn’t watch mma then and they’re obsessed with the newest shiniest thing shoved in their face everyday
 
pankrat said:
If Gaethje fights as he did Luis Palomino back in WSOF, he probably lose to Gomi.

This mature, polished and disciplined Gaethje dismantle any version of Gomi with pace and leg kicks who would mess with Gomi's standup badly as he used to step very heavy in the lead leg.



Gomi in his early years wasnt a striker, he used his wrestling base to grind out Ws
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I know.

No, Gomi doesn't lose shootouts. Leg kicks are a bit worriesome, but Gomi doesn't lose a slugfest.
 
MartinGibson86 said:
Prime BJ lost to Jens Pulver and drew with Caol Uno.


I'm sure hd beats goday's best tho
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Early in his career. Wouldn't you say he improved a lot by the time he beat Hughes for the WW title? He had a real close fight with GSP. And then of course he was probably at his absolute best and most dominant during his Lightweight title reign.
 
Big Tuppy Hole said:
He looked huge in Pride alot thicker than everyone he fought
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He looked big vs Pulver who is a bantam but didnt look huge at all for a LW man, ever, not even vs Gomi who is a small LW himself.
Sakurai had BIG balls for fighting all the WW-MWs he fought
 
JustOnce said:
I know.

No, Gomi doesn't lose shootouts. Leg kicks are a bit worriesome, but Gomi doesn't lose a slugfest.
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Saying "doesnt lose shootouts" is a vague idea that doesnt tell much about how he'd handle this recent version of Gaethje who yeah, uses leg kicks a lot and mercilessly.
 
VitorReem said:
Lots of old school dudes in every division could slap around the new guys but everyone will keep calling you an idiot because they didn’t watch mma then and they’re obsessed with the newest shiniest thing shoved in their face everyday
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I love how

(a) the posters who're rightfully pointing out that the elite fighters in the deepest divisions today are superior to fighters from 16 years ago use a lot of technical analysis about technique and concrete stats to prove their points conclusively

(B) the old school meathead response to all these facts is "Derp, you must not have watched Pride" and maybe some isolated GIFs from old school fighters' best moments and new school fighters' worst.

Gomi literally fought at half the pace of Gaethje (and I mean literally half in terms of significant strikes landed per minute), had 20% worse accuracy, used worse footwork, threw less sophisticated combos, had a worse finishing rate, and had less tools to use in the standup overall.

He's still entertaining to watch when flipping through old Pride vids, but let's be real, bro.
 
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