Is Whittaker the third greatest MW of all time?

The myth that the MW division was weak back then was because anderson dominated everyone. UFC HW has always been bad.
 
Bearknuckle said:
UFC HW has always been bad.
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Not when Cain and JDS were in their primes. You also had Brock, Carwin, Mir who was still pretty good then all the Strikeforce guys came over (Werdum, Bigfoot, Barnett, Overeem). It was also pretty good in the early 2000s when Couture, Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo and Josh Barnett were battling it out.
 
Bobby is a great fighter but in a way he is lucky that the majority of his opponents are not elite strikers. Fighters like prime Anderson and Vitor as well Perriera would have no problems with Whittaker's technical brawling.
 
I guess you are talking about the UFC? Because he's also behind Mousasi and Hendo if we are talking about everyone.
 
JustOnce said:
Actually Rumble's wins are not that far behind. It's just that Rob had the belt. Rumble's might be even better if you compare top 5.

Top 5 Wins over Glover(UFC champ), Davis(Bellator Champ), Bader(Bellator Champ), Gustaffason(Gave prime Jones toughest fight), Lil Nog

Top 5 Wins over Vettori, Kelvin, Romero, Jacare, Brunson/Jared .

He probably does have better top 5 wins.
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I would also like to add that Rumble destroyed the guys you mentioned, those fights weren't even close. I love both guys so just adding a little more detail to the argument. Rumble ripped through all the top guys. Off the top of my head, Davis was the only guy that made it to a decision with the names you mentioned.
 
He's a great fighter but I think most people could name 3 better. It's tough making a judgment call on someone who's still actively fighting and may still have plenty of highs and/or lows to come.
 
CerebralKnievel said:
It's clearly Hector Lombard. Using simple logic, we can deduce this.

Hector Lombard > Shlemenko > Kendall Grove > Derek Brunson > Lyoto Machida > Chael Sonnen who retired undefeated and the undisputed best there ever will be

So as you can see, clearly, the answer is Hector Lombard.
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Pretty much the actual logic people use to try to justify Mousasi as a top 5 MW/GOAT candidate despite having one of the most padded resumes OF ALL TIME. Love the guy but Mousasi, Lombard, Shlemenko, Kang, etc are amongst the most overhyped fighters of all time and none are sniffing top 5 IMHO
 
Just read OP's post about Rumble and jesus that has got to be one of the most retarded posts I've ever seen. Dying doesn't make you a top 3 GOAT candidate and his resume sure as shit doesn't either. Might as well rank Evan Tanner as the MW GOAT then goddamn *actual face palm*
 
JustOnce said:
Evans is no better wrestler than Davis or Bader. Rampage struggled with Dong Sik Yoon. Rampage might not be easy but he's not beating the shit out of Rumble. You think Rampage beats Andrei at HW? I don't think so. For me, Rampage and Machida is the most interesting match up for Rumble. Randy...oh man...

Rumble is kinda like Vitor yes, they have that in them if things doesn't go their way, but you gotta, at LHW, be able to take it and give it to him like Cormier did. At his peak, I think he's right behind Cormier/Jones everything considered.

But yeah, I think this thread is getting sidetracked, have a good one!
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Evans in his prime is a better wrestler and striker than Phil. He big brothered the shit out of him when they fought. He pitched a complete shutout against him. I'm not trying to hate on Phil whatsoever who is a good fighter, but Evans was really good for a short while there.

As for the question in the OP, it's Silva, Izzy and Whittaker pretty clearly in my eyes.
 
FreddieRoachsVoice said:
Pretty much the actual logic people use to try to justify Mousasi as a top 5 MW/GOAT candidate despite having one of the most padded resumes OF ALL TIME. Love the guy but Mousasi, Lombard, Shlemenko, Kang, etc are amongst the most overhyped fighters of all time and none are sniffing top 5 IMHO
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I don't see too many people identifying Denis Kang as a top 5 all time amongst anything, or really any of those guys, outside of Mousasi, who definitely does host a large gang of delusional fans.
 
Whitaker is the most complete. Prime Weidman is also up there.
 
Weidman. Dethroned Anderson, defended against him, and defended two more times.

If he hadn't thrown that spinning kick and beat Rockhold, he would be even higher. He was also winning the Romero fight. That knee from Bolivia against Romero was really unfortunate. The damage he took from those two losses really derailed his career.
 
mkt said:
Are we talking MW or LHW? Rumble didn't fight enough at MW to make a splash. At LHW, I honestly would pick prime Rumble over anyone except prime Jones or Cormier. Having said that, I can't rate him at #3 because he didn't win a title or fight enough at LWH. He sadly wasted too much time making ridiculous weight cuts at WW and MW and fighting lesser competition outside the UFC before coming back.

I will say this, though. Rumble finished a still-good (coming off two wins) version of Little Nog along with prime Bader, Gustaffson and Glover in a combined total of less than 5 minutes. That's literally unheard of. He also finished a still-good Manuwa (who beat Jan and Corey Anderson) and dominated Phil Davis (still a top Bellator contender).
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It's definitely hard to say that anyone else would be favoured over Jon and Cormier over Rumble at LHW. He was that dominant, and his striking was on point, and so was his TDD game as well. You gotta be extra special like Cormier was to take advantage of a situation where Rumble might fold, but it's hard to say who else could do that really.

I mean, Hill and Jiri has been looking good on the feet, but they ain't no Rumble, and his run was like you mention incredible.
 
no, there is no "third greatest mw" because only two had lengthy reigns

maybe in a world without izzy he could be on his title reign streak right now, but this is not our reality

he never even defended his beld when he had it
 
mkt said:
As for Whittaker, it's tricky. Objectively (based on title defenses) the UFC MW list should be
  1. Anderson
  2. Izzy
  3. Rich Franklin
  4. Probably Whittaker
Whittake only won the interim MW belt and his only defense against Romero was considered non-title since Romero missed weight (not Whittaker's fault). Having said that, wins over Brunson, Jacare, Romero X 2, Cannonier, Till and Gastelum are impressive. It reminds me of Frankie Edgar at FW when Aldo was champ. Frankie beat many other top FWs and didn't lose a non-title fight for years. But he just couldn't beat the champ. Fitch was kind of like that with GSP as well.

I love Rich Franklin, and it's not his fault that MW wasn't too strong (and still pretty new) when he entered the scene. But the level of competition he faced wasn't close to Whittaker's, even giving him slack for fighting in an earlier era where the sport was less evolved. Then he went to LHW and "Franlinweight" afterwards, so he can't get credit for some of his later wins at MW either.
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Rich is a tough one, because he's actually really good, but got destroyed by Silva, but you can't really have Franklin at 3 over Hendo who beat him head to head and probably had a better career at MW, kinda hard to distinguish his MW and LHW run sometimes though.

Now, how would Rich vs Whittaker go? That is an interesting question we would never know an answer to.
Before losing a split to Hendo, Rich was 26-3 with only losses to anderon and Machida. He was really, really good, but so is Rob.
 
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