Luckiest Fighter In UFC

[AnotherOldGuy]

We often talk about bad luck in the fighting game, but who is the luckiest fighter in the UFC?

Lucky punch wins, awarded robbery decisions, opponents make mistakes...

Who is highest in the rankings due to luck?

The three luckiest were (in no particular order) Anderson, GSP, and Jones, for being given the right genetics and upbringing that allowed them to become dominant champs. If their genetics were that of the average person, or their upbringing like most people (who end up sitting round playing computer games and watching TV) they'd never have gotten into the UFC at all.

Luck in something like high level sport is a very vague term, and different people mean different things by it. I go with the saying I've heard a lot of athletes (including Michael Jordan) say, "The harder I practice, the luckier I get".

 

[Kha'bless]

Jones, slap on the wrist for constant PED violations and behaviour outside the ring. In the cage refs allow him to eye poke as much as he wants and when he loses in the ring judges are there to make sure they have his back. Oh and 99% of his opponents werr absolute midgeta he had ove 3 feet of height and reach over.

 

[Caoimhin]

Alvarez, 2-1 in the UFC, 2 wins by split decision, get a title shot in the stackest division in the sport, without facing the 2 big contenders being tony and khabib.

And Conor only having him to beat for the belt

Face RDA who had a terrible weight cut and get the lucky punch win. RDA beat up Alvarez 9 times out of 10 ....

 

[Moscardino]

Derrick Lewis, 90% of his wins are come from behind victories where he gets beaten up before landing one big shot.

 

[cheesus]

I'd say Conor. Whilst he wasn't awared any controversial decisions and certainly early on took advantage of his opportunities and self promotion, once he dethroned Aldo he turned into Dana's protected golden child. Gifted a title shot at LW after going 1-1 with Nate Diaz at WW, Dana let's him box Floyd for 50+ million despite an obvious mismatch, manages to keep ranking despite being inactive, continually given a pass on his poor behaviour, sits on the sidelines and gets to skip contenders, rewarded with squash matches. No one else has been given as many opportunities and passes as Conor.

 

[jeff7b9]

The UFC HW and LHW champs during PrideFC era who got famous and wealthy without fighting the killers in Pride certainly benefitted from those circumstances.

 

[jeff7b9]

Yet, he got a clear KO over the reigning, defending, in the biggest fight of his life. There was nothing lucky about it. The only part of that, that was lucky was that he got the fight on short notice because Weidman (I think) pulled out.

Even that isn’t luck though. He got the shot

1) because he earned his place near the top
2) because he was willing to take what was going to be his one and only title shot in 11 days notice when he wasn’t training

he was in the right place at the right time but he earned the right to be in that place thru a decade plus of hard work.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Serra

 

[BoxingMMA]

Jon Jones by far. 3 fights in which at least one, possibly two (and if you are a hater, all 3) he should have gotten the loss.

plus a bunch of cheating and criminal shit that would get any other fighter banned from the organization and maybe the sport, for life.

yet there he is and even has some retards backing him as one of the best ever

lucky as hell

 

[UFCIsNOTRigged]

Jon Jones by far. 3 fights in which at least one, possibly two (and if you are a hater, all 3) he should have gotten the loss.

plus a bunch of cheating and criminal shit that would get any other fighter banned from the organization and maybe the sport, for life.

yet there he is and even has some retards backing him as one of the best ever

lucky as hell

If criminal shit would get you banned from the organization 'The Notorious' would have been out of the UFC long before his 'amazing' knockout of Cowboy.

 

[Richard Fannin]

Jon Jones by far. 3 fights in which at least one, possibly two (and if you are a hater, all 3) he should have gotten the loss.

plus a bunch of cheating and criminal shit that would get any other fighter banned from the organization and maybe the sport, for life.

yet there he is and even has some retards backing him as one of the best ever

lucky as hell

Hey, I'm a Jones hater and I'll gladly call him a steroid fraud and put an * next to all of his fights, but he is still one of the best ever
(for reference, I have Jones losing to Reyes, getting a perfect draw against Gus in their first fight, and another draw against Santos).

His criminal shit is shameful dispray, but it doesn't change what he did in the octagon. Lightning Lee Murray is still counted as one of Anderson's big wins, and dude is 1000 times the criminal Jon Jones is.

I do think JJ spent most of his career enjoying a sweet size/height/age advantage against his opponents; take his title win against Shogun, that looked liked a small HW beating down a regular sized MW.

Anderson and GSP's title defenses were more impressive, as every single one of them were against the top contender in his prime
(and for GSP and the Nick Diaz fight, well it was after a controversial loss, but he kinda owed Nick that one; even if the first cancellation was Nick's fault, the second time was because Georges had a badly torn ACL... and had that fight no happened, GSP haters would still be screaming to this day that he ducked Diaz, who had been on a hell of a Strikeforce run as the champ before that weird draw against Condit)

(and for Anderson, yeah I guess there were more)

Yes, Jones should fight at HW, but no, he won't do it.
And even if he fought a geriatric row of MWs, he didn't slip against one of them; he avoided that armbar against Vitor, finished Chael before the end of the round when the bad guy brutally tore one of his big toes off...

Like Fedor not slipping once in 10 years at HW, what JJ did still puts him in the top 5 GOAT (if we count steroid users), even if it was mostly against underweight fighters way past their primes, and even if JJ was juiced to the tits for his very important/dangerous fights, like against DC or for that Gus rematch.

Final Form Bones who fought DC in the rematch, that's who I want to see against Francis Ngannou or Ubereem. That would be a lot of fun, but sadly I don't see it happening.

 

[Booksmasher]

Who is highest in the rankings due to luck?

Definitly Usman & Colby. Why? Because of the current flawed reward system. Being a harmless hugger, being a harmless blanket, tagging without significant damage, octagon control, ....all these stupid meaningless minor things will result in unimpressive 10-9 round decision wins. And this is root cause why we get boring limited neutralizing fighters on top by luck who are actually lacking lethal skills.

 

[Booksmasher]

Khamzat is a lucky fighter. He doesn't even have to fight anyone of note, and is getting skyrocketed in the division.

If you are a UFC fighter today it means you are not some average Joe. So dont forget how easy he obliterated those 3 guys. It shows you at least he must be legit.

 

[Booksmasher]

Yair for KO'ing Zombie in the last second of their fight

Nonsense. It was intensional and skillfull. Yeah ofcourse luck is always a factor to find the target, but it was not pure luck.

but im going to say khabib for 2 reasons.

1. won the title by beating an 11th ranked real estate guy

2. unified the title and was made famous, and very wealthy, for beating a delusional liquor salesman.

Today LW division is the toughest and deepest division there is in all of MMA history. Being the number #11 LW is much more impressive than being the #2 HW. And we all hate Conor as a person, but we can never deny his legitimacy as a fighter.

Quality beats Quantity. Khabibs resume is much more impressive than GSP or Jones

 

[Swarthy]

LOL the Conor and Bisping haters found a home in this thread.

Diego and Garcia 100% is the correct response.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Nonsense. It was intensional and skillfull. Yeah ofcourse luck is always a factor to find the target, but it was not pure luck.



Today LW division is the toughest and deepest division there is in all of MMA history. Being the number #11 LW is much more impressive than being the #2 HW. And we all hate Conor as a person, but we can never deny his legitimacy as a fighter.

Quality beats Quantity. Khabibs resume is much more impressive than GSP or Jones

More impressive than Jones? Ok.
More impressive than GSP? No way lol

GSP's strenght schedule is absolutly unmatched. Khabib doesn't have the names, nor the longevity of GOAT St-Pierre ^^
Still top 5 tho, but no #1.

 

[pater13anthemios]

I'd say Conor. Whilst he wasn't awared any controversial decisions and certainly early on took advantage of his opportunities and self promotion, once he dethroned Aldo he turned into Dana's protected golden child. Gifted a title shot at LW after going 1-1 with Nate Diaz at WW, Dana let's him box Floyd for 50+ million despite an obvious mismatch, manages to keep ranking despite being inactive, continually given a pass on his poor behaviour, sits on the sidelines and gets to skip contenders, rewarded with squash matches. No one else has been given as many opportunities and passes as Conor.

All of that is not luck. Its his star power. He didnt got lucky, he worked hard in promoting himself

 

[pater13anthemios]

Its definetely Benson. So many split decisions going his way at the highest level

 

[IsNormal]

im going to say khabib. for 2 reasons.

1. won the title by beating an 11th ranked real estate guy

2. unified the title and was made famous, and very wealthy, for beating a delusional liquor salesman.

allah lined them stars up for old khabib.

not taking anything away from his skills and talent, one of the best to do it for sure.

he walked into a pretty good thing having never beaten a unified champion.

But that delusional liqour salesman WAS the unified champion before Khabib.
If Conor had not got stripped - we would've probably seen Conor vs Khabib in 2017.
Instead they fought in 2018.
Was that really a huge deal? Was 2017 Conor really that much better than 2018 Conor?

PS: I'm not trying to sound like a Khabib hugger here, just wanted to argue that specific point.
Overall I could agree he's been a bit lucky. In fact I would even add an item to your list:
3. When the belt was vacated - we all know that the plan Tony vs Khabib. If Khabib had been the one who got injured, Tony would've likely fought for the belt versus someone else - and then maybe Khabib would've had to wait around for Tony vs Conor before getting his title shot.

 

[Romo Gracie]

Luckiest ever ? Mark Hall