Is Rumble the third greatest LHW of all time?

Yeah, I think that was probably his best version, but he also got finished by Wand (twice), by Shogun and Sak, had a close fight with MW Lindland, etc. He had some great ups and some downs in Pride, but I wouldn't call him an all-time #3 based on that, either. The Arona win was a bit questionable as the headbutt seemed to do most of the damage (whether intentional or not).
lol no it didn't.
The headbutt blaming crowd has as much brain damage as Arona.
Arona headbutted rampage because it was slammed so hard off the canvas that it came back up toward Rampage.
The force required to get a head to bounce like that is easily beyond what is required of a KO.
 
Yeah, I think that was probably his best version, but he also got finished by Wand (twice), by Shogun and Sak, had a close fight with MW Lindland, etc. He had some great ups and some downs in Pride, but I wouldn't call him an all-time #3 based on that, either. The Arona win was a bit questionable as the headbutt seemed to do most of the damage (whether intentional or not).

I wouldnt either although I think career lenght does mean he's pretty high, just not quite that high.
 
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Cant believe Anthony Smith isnt everyones choice
 
Sorry no disrespect but that's legitimately the worse ranking I've ever seen
 
Cant believe Anthony Smith isnt everyones choice
How about the home intruder who gave him a good fight? Oh wait, he was more like a WW that doesn't cut weight, right?
 
Chuck, Rampage, Wanderlei, Randy, Machida, Vitor. All those guys would be favorites over Rumble in their primes. Tito would be his best bet but folks overlook how good Tito was at his best.

I don’t agree with this. Chuck would get his head knocked off by rumble

Vitor vs rumble was nonsense

randy and wanderlei would both get chinned and done

rampage is the beta version of rumble

machida might have won though
 
Nah. Guy is one of my top 5 favourite fighters of all-time but that's a huge no. As others have noted, he'd be lucky to get into the top 10 at LHW.

Had he spent his entire career at LHW this might be a more realistic take. RIP big fella.
 
Sorry but no, too many guys with champ runs that put them ahead of him on the all time list, no matter what you think he might've done against them head to head.

Subjectively, heavily, maybe. Objectively, no.

Edit - I'm not dissing Rumble with that, dude was a beast with otherworldly power. Just doesn't have the title history to put him that high all time.
 
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So it got me wondering, if you have Jones as the first, then DC for the second, for the argument's sake, the spot for the third spot is pretty wide.

Shogun
Hendo
Machida
Glover
Rampage
Wanderlei
Chuck/Tito/Couture
Bader/Davis/Anderson
Gustaffson

I'd like to think Shogun, but then against Shogun lost to Hendo twice, who in turn lost to many guys on that list.

Then, it just dawned on me, though his LHW career was short, and may he rest in peace, perhaps Rumble is the third greatest LHW of all time.

Rumble is 11-2 in LHW with only losses to Cormier. Wins over Glover, Gus, Bader, Davis and Lil Nog.

He had a pretty good wrestling, shut down wrestling of Davis and Bader, who are really great wrestlers in their own right, but just Cormier was better everywhere, and he had great power and was a great striker and he could wrestle too. The only downside is that he had questionable fight IQs at times, his submission defense wasn't the greatest, and with all due respect, he seemed to wilt if things didn't go his way.

But overall, I wonder if Rumble isn't the third best LHW that we've seen so far, even considering briefness of his LHW tenure and his relative weaknesses.

Thoughts?
Yes
 
I've never seen a non title rewarding run like Rumble's and we probably never will again, he would smash every LHW champion that came before Jones.
 
He choked against DC. That's acceptable.
That's like saying Draymond Green is better than Karl Malone because green has championship rings and Karl doesn't. Karl had to play against prime MJ. That's not a knock.
Great example! Cheers
 
Chuck, Machida, Shogun, Rampage are all up there

I'd say Shogun or Rampage for 3rd and all others I mentioned close behind
 
In an alternate timeline, Rumble KO's DC and gives Jon Jones his first KO defeat.
 
So it got me wondering, if you have Jones as the first, then DC for the second, for the argument's sake, the spot for the third spot is pretty wide.

Shogun
Hendo
Machida
Glover
Rampage
Wanderlei
Chuck/Tito/Couture
Bader/Davis/Anderson
Gustaffson

I'd like to think Shogun, but then against Shogun lost to Hendo twice, who in turn lost to many guys on that list.

Then, it just dawned on me, though his LHW career was short, and may he rest in peace, perhaps Rumble is the third greatest LHW of all time.

Rumble is 11-2 in LHW with only losses to Cormier. Wins over Glover, Gus, Bader, Davis and Lil Nog.

He had a pretty good wrestling, shut down wrestling of Davis and Bader, who are really great wrestlers in their own right, but just Cormier was better everywhere, and he had great power and was a great striker and he could wrestle too. The only downside is that he had questionable fight IQs at times, his submission defense wasn't the greatest, and with all due respect, he seemed to wilt if things didn't go his way.

But overall, I wonder if Rumble isn't the third best LHW that we've seen so far, even considering briefness of his LHW tenure and his relative weaknesses.

Thoughts?

He was exciting. Puts the paddy cake and crotch sniff sus Era to shame.

Rumble bless
 
I wouldnt either although I think career lenght does mean he's pretty high, just not quite that high.
Yeah, if we consider Pride and other orgs, it gets tougher. There's definitely a stronger case for Rampage and Shogun. Based purely on title defenses, it would have to be Liddell. But he fought nothing but grapplers in title defenses (Horn, Babalu, Tito, Randy). He matched up well with his superior striking and strong TDD.
 
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