Is Fedor the 1st GOAT?

[HHJ]

There is only one.

 

[thobra]

Probably Frank Dux

 

[Aerosol]

I’d say Couture was before Fedor
He was undefeated 2 time HW champ contemplating retirement at age 39
Royce was the first goat
Rickson maybe 2nd
Interesting topic

 

[COBRA03]

I would say Royce Gracie was first GOAT, Fedor came next.

 

[chamcham]

Rickson Gracie

 

[Drugstore Cowboy]

Royce and Hughes are first two.

 

[Drugstore Cowboy]

I would say Royce Gracie was first GOAT, Fedor came next.

Nah, Hughes is second.

 

[WhiteMousse]

????

I'm at work dying of laughter and I can't tell anyone why

 

[Danielator]

He was definitely the first GOAT! When Royce was dominating there wasnt even any history to compare him with... The GOAT discussions came after Fedor

 

[Communion]

Inoki was the man through the 70s-80s, and Ron Tripp and Rickson were through the 80s-90s, although neither had much of an MMA presense but they were universally considered the scariest men on Earth at that point.

Even when Royce won UFC 1, 2, and 4 people still considered Rickson as the greatest Gracie.

Late 90s and early 2000s it was Randy Couture, Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr, and...Enson Inoue (no joke)
By early 2001 there were rumblings of this Russian terminator from the Ural mountains hip tossing trees and putting bears in guillotines.

By the time he destroyed Big Nog the first time, he was already considered "TBMOTP". The rest is history.

Taking a trip down memory lane like this really reminds me how amazing and dominant Fedor was during his prime. 2000-2008 Fedor could maul anyone from any era. Anyone that says any different is just a UFC teet sucking millennial.

 

[Wangtang]

Frank Shamrock!

 

[Sweater of AV]

Igor - Saku - Big Nog - Fedor

 

[Shaddows]

I wasn't following MMA before Fedor was already the certified GOAT, and then came Andy and GSP as legit contenders. But was there any GOAT talk before Fedor reached supreme legend status? Apart from Bruce Lee myths of course.

AFAIK Fedor was the 1st consensus #1 P4P and GOAT.

But MMA (Vale tudo) existed long before Pride or UFC, so there may be. I just don't think people thought on these terms, as it was never globalized enough for such labels.

 

[Communion]

Frank Shamrock!

True. He was as domimant as any fighter in the late 90s but I think people never considered him as GOAT because he was not a heavyweight. HW was all people cared about in MMA back then, outside of Japan.

Igor - Saku - Big Nog - Fedor

IGOR!! I forgot about him. Sad thing about Igor was he was already on the tail end of his prime with 40+ fights by the time he hit the international stage.

 

[fishNjits]

Rickson

By arm bar, of course.