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Least naturally/genetically talented fighter to take the title?

Fair enough. I think you could say Royce but he was a multi tournament winner

Champion wise sad to say but id say the late and great Evan Tanner.
Royce was certainly not an elite athlete, but he had been training in BJJ since he was a toddler and doing Gracie Challenge matches for years before the UFC. So he had a huge edge in skill and experience. Ken Shamrock had only been doing Pancrase for a year and had a high school wrestling background. There were some talented strikers at UFC 1 (Gordeau and Pat Smith) but they were clueless on the ground.

All of that to say I wouldn't count Royce in this because he had a huge edge in other areas until NHB caught up with him. What's really impressive is to see an average athlete work really hard and succeed in a sport where his competitors have similar skills and training.
 
Why all this Nate talk when he never held a belt? That's what this is about. I'll grant the Diaz bros aren't great athletes at all besides cardio (probably some genetic and a lot from hard work) and chin/durability.
You could swap him with Nick if we're counting strikeforce titles. The Diaz brother on the surface, physically, look like 7/11 employees in a rough area.
 
You could swap him with Nick if we're counting strikeforce titles. The Diaz brother on the surface, physically, look like 7/11 employees in a rough area.
Yep, lol. If we're counting other orgs like Stikeforce and Bellator, then Ben Askren is also up there. I hate to bring his name up with all his health issues right now, but he wasn't a high-level athlete. Anything he did in wrestling and MMA was due to hard work.
 
Bro's style is boxing and nothing else and he ain't even that good at it (sidenote: have you guys noticed that the people the best at 1 aspect of MMA usually aren't completely one dimensional
Yeah, Hill is proof that LHW has gone down since the Jones era. There are a few good fighters, but I don't think Hill could've even won a belt 20 years ago with Liddell, Randy and Tito in their primes.
 
Machida fits the description... he won the LHW title while being small for the weight class, not especially athletic, and not especially strong. All of his advantages were due to drilled in skill and tactics. When he lost fights it was almost always due to the other guy just being physically more elite than he is.
 
Royce was certainly not an elite athlete, but he had been training in BJJ since he was a toddler and doing Gracie Challenge matches for years before the UFC. So he had a huge edge in skill and experience. Ken Shamrock had only been doing Pancrase for a year and had a high school wrestling background. There were some talented strikers at UFC 1 (Gordeau and Pat Smith) but they were clueless on the ground.

All of that to say I wouldn't count Royce in this because he had a huge edge in other areas until NHB caught up with him. What's really impressive is to see an average athlete work really hard and succeed in a sport where his competitors have similar skills and training.
I think what I was going for was how small he was. Small and unathletic. Sure he was an incredible grappler, been learning since he was little. They chose him to represent because he was the smallest, allegedly

And his abilities were based off nurture and not nature
 
I think what I was going for was how small he was. Small and unathletic. Sure he was an incredible grappler, been learning since he was little. They chose him to represent because he was the smallest, allegedly

And his abilities were based off nurture and not nature
Right, but he had a huge advantage in training and experience. It's like training a average athlete in high-level tennis for 3 years and putting him in a tournament with guys who are better athletes but never played anything more than a few games of ping pong.

I don't believe the "we chose Royce cause he was the weakest and worst," BTW. If that's the case, why didn't they send in Rickson after Royce skipped town? Once Ken Shamrock showed he could at least neutralize Royce for 30 minutes (and after Royce had progressively tougher fights with Kimo and Severn), none of the Gracies wanted anything to do with the UFC. If Rickson were so special, he would've come later to battle Ruas, Frye, Frank Shamrock, Coleman, Kerr, etc. Instead he fought cans in Japan.
 
Interim title
he lost three actual title fights and two BMF title fights. Dude always shit the bed when it mattered the most.
interim title is the same as bmf title
we only have champions
lol
 
Lol. Tim was a great fighter. 7ft 300lb fighters are not going to look like ballet dancers when throwing shots. He was the top heavyweight in his prime.
He was the top UFC heavyweight. Fedor was the top heavyweight during that era. PRIDE > UFC.
 
I don't like him but I'll say belal no punching power and not that fast on top of starting late. Hell of a chin though.

I agree with the Belal take.

I really didn't expect him to become champ.

Bisping is like #2 after that. Didn't think there would be a champ less physically gifted than Bisping to become champ (they both have good cardio though).
 
Least naturally genetically talented???

They way you americans view sports is dumb and weird. Wtf you guys even mean with least talented genetically???
 
Genetics sadly play a role in sports
Not the way Americans interpret it. I think Americans legitimately mix up American Football with sports. This idea that "explosiveness" is the only type of athleticism or the one that matters the most, even though we literally know this isn't true since like...most sports do not have those type of athletes at the top.

Just on this page someone is saying the Diaz brothers "only" have top tier durability and stamina...like those are pretty much the best attributes to be top tier at in fighting (plus they have long arms). Who cares if Nick can't run fast or jump high.
 
I agree with the Belal take.

I really didn't expect him to become champ.

Bisping is like #2 after that. Didn't think there would be a champ less physically gifted than Bisping to become champ (they both have good cardio though).
I think Bisping and Belal's cardio is natural, even if you need to train a lot to reach your potential

The least genetically gifted fighters should be the technical experts
 
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