Media Is it finally time for Conor to be bumped out of the All-Time FW Big 3?

Conor belongs on no FW list.

He played the money game EXTREMELY well, but that's about it.

20 years from now, the consensus among fans will be 'Oh yeah, that clown who made more money losing to Floyd Mayweather than he possinly could by defending his titles in the UFC'.

His path to FW and LW champ was paved by Dana to be as easy as possible, and when you couple that with that flash KO he delivered to Aldo, you have the ingredients to create the luckiest man on Earth.

If he has one highlight to his resume, it's that he lasted as long as he did with Khabib. That was sort of impressive. And he still got mauled.

1744869389787.png
 
Doctor Grudge said:
super legit, beat a guy that should be ranked above McGregor himself lol.

I actually think Topuria knocking out Holloway is still undersold. Holloway had never been closed to getting knocked out before.
Click to expand...
Like the recent Paddy v Chandler match; I suspect Ilia’s speed, kicks, power, & pressure will be a problem at 155 & 145. Ironically more than Conor’s speed, kicks, power & movement was a problem at both weight classes.

Anything short of Conor’s peak, in which he beat Alverez emphatically, will be a disappointment for Ilia. His dominant of KOs of Max & Volk put the expectations just that high.

Max couldn’t get his distance because the kicks were killing him at range. Then like prime McGregor, you have to worry about his Boxing if you do get past kicking range.
 
CedricBee said:
Like the recent Paddy v Chandler match; I suspect Ilia’s speed, kicks, power, & pressure will be a problem at 155 & 145. Ironically more than Conor’s speed, kicks, power & movement was a problem at both weight classes.

Anything short of Conor’s peak, in which he beat Alverez emphatically, will be a disappointment for Ilia. His dominant of KOs of Max & Volk put the expectations just that high.

Max couldn’t get his distance because the kicks were killing him at range. Then like prime McGregor, you have to worry about his Boxing if you do get past kicking range.
Click to expand...
I agree, the speed and power make give him a very ideal skill set for moving up in weight. He has a super champ in front of him so I wont say he should win the title, but at the very least he should be able to beat the other contenders or it's a flop.
 
Top 3 is pretty clearly Aldo/Volk/Max. Though Ilia & Conor are easily above Faber, the difference in quality of opposition is massive. Frankie Edgar is also above Faber imo, he has wins over Yair, Swanson 2x, Stephens, Mendes, Faber, BJ Penn, Oliveira.
 
When was he EVER in the FW top 3?

Even when he won the title, he never had a single defense.

FW Top 3 (at that time).

Aldo 11 title wins
Faber won world title WEC 145 + 9 straight
Mike Thomas Brown took Fabers title and defended twice.


Then

Aldo, Faber and Max

Then Volk enters and shuffle it how you like from there.

Conor was never in the top 3.
 
Last edited:
MRT said:
It is hard to rank Faber above Conor at 145 because of how much Faber split his time between 135 and 145.

I like Aldo, Volk, Max as 1, 2, 3 though.
Click to expand...

I'd presume that anyone ranking Faber is doing so with consideration to his WEC tenure, during which he defended the belt five times in dominant fashion. And while he was never a champion during UFC, he did challenge for it a number of times while knocking off quite a few contenders. His body of work (at 145) surpasses Conor's by a wide margin.

Edit: I've lost my mind. His ufc challenges were clearly all at bantamweight. Nonetheless, 5 defenses versus Conor's none is pretty conclusive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MRT
laleggenda27 said:
This is a fun game...let me try:

Zalal, Jackson, Hall?
35 year-old Volk on a short turnaround after being KO'd stiff by Islam?
A completely drained FW Max after bulking up to LW?
Super old Josh Emmett?

LOL

How'd I do?
Click to expand...
The Zalal win aged great he's on a tear. Max I don't think the cut affected him he was looking great and arguable won the first round of the fight. Ilia just hits that hard.
 
Is McRunner even a top 5 FW? Hasn't this Topuria fella done enough to be top 5?

Aldo, Volk, Max, Faber, Topuria have had more respectable FW careers than Canor imo.
 
All I remember Connor for is holding the FW belt for nearly 3 years

Everything else kinda got diminished by his nonsense
 
Conor is still by far greatest fw of all time. At his prime he would have beat Volk and Topuria by knockout.
 
CerebralKnievel said:
I'd presume that anyone ranking Faber is doing so with consideration to his WEC tenure, during which he defended the belt five times in dominant fashion. And while he was never a champion during UFC, he did challenge for it a number of times while knocking off quite a few contenders. His body of work (at 145) surpasses Conor's by a wide margin.

Edit: I've lost my mind. His ufc challenges were clearly all at bantamweight. Nonetheless, 5 defenses versus Conor's none is pretty conclusive.
Click to expand...

Faber in my opinion is one of the most under rated and under appreciated fighters of all time. It is a shame that everyone remembers him mainly for losing a bunch of title fights during his downside and not for his amazing run prior to coming to the UFC.

Faber was the face of power weight class MMA and I would argue he is a HUGE part of the reason why the UFC added those weight classes, his role in sub 155 mma is very very similar to Rondas role in WMMA.

Faber won the WEC title which was the premier 145 title in the world at the time. And if you look at the roster of guys in WEC 135, 145, 155, they were a huge part of the success of the UFC in the post merge era.

After winning the WEC title, yes he did defend 5x iirc, but that was in the era prior to exclusive contracts, so all total he won 9 straight while having the biggest target on his back as the #1 FW and "the guy" holding the most prestigious title. Boxing would call these lineal title defenses.


A title run of 9 wins following a world title win puts him in ELITE company.

Fedor Emilianenko 19 won PrideFC HW title + 18 straight HW bouts as world lineal champ

Jon Jones- 15/17 (13 @ 205 2 @ HW

Demetrius Johnson - 12 straight (title win + 11 lineal defenses)

Anderson Silva- 11 straight MW title wins (+3 LHW wins during streak)

Jose Aldo - 11 (WEC win 2 def + UFC def)

GSP 10/12 (2nd WW title win + 9 def, 1 prior int title win and 1 following MW title win = 12 straight title fight wins)

Uriah Faber- 10 (WEC title.win + 9 straight)

** Wanderlei Silva had a tremendous run holding PrideFC MW title but it is a MESS to calculate due to tournaments & non title fights out of weight class, but he would definitely be somewhere in this group depending on how you chose to interpret it.


Nunes had 9 consecutive title wins split between 135 + 145


TLDR: MMA fighters with a lineal title run of 10 or more fights:

Fedor
Jon Jones
Mighty Mouse
Anderson
GSP
Aldo
Faber
 
Cameron said:
The Zalal win aged great he's on a tear. Max I don't think the cut affected him he was looking great and arguable won the first round of the fight. Ilia just hits that hard.
Click to expand...
I don't necessarily disagree.
 
CerebralKnievel said:
I'd presume that anyone ranking Faber is doing so with consideration to his WEC tenure, during which he defended the belt five times in dominant fashion. And while he was never a champion during UFC, he did challenge for it a number of times while knocking off quite a few contenders. His body of work (at 145) surpasses Conor's by a wide margin.

Edit: I've lost my mind. His ufc challenges were clearly all at bantamweight. Nonetheless, 5 defenses versus Conor's none is pretty conclusive.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you are right and I have to take that back...there is a very reasonable argument for Faber above Conor.

I am a big proponent of title defenses in rankings and GOAT debates, so I should have considered that more here. I have long maintained that Conor's zero defenses at 145 and 155 are a huge stain on his legacy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,280,337
Messages
58,276,167
Members
175,990
Latest member
dobetterinc

Share this page

Back
Top