Most people acknowledge MJ was vastly better than his record would indicate, but those Gym wars didn't do him any favors, especially being the smaller man and absorbing the kind of punishment he did.
Too many gym wars and not enough actual evolution in his game, if he was consistently evolving and adding to his game he really could've beaten at least half the guys he lost to. Imagine being around Usman and instead of learning as much wrestling technique possible, you go tooth and nail to kill each other smh.
Usman needed that "bite down on your mouthpiece grit" as he wasn't an experienced striker, he took those experiences and accomplished everything he ever wanted. On the other hand look at MJ, he really wasn't getting shit from those wars except more damage and ego. Now he's damn near a .500 fighter, you have to make good choices if you wanna be successful long term.
The guys who know how to control their ego go far, that's something that GSP, Jones, Fedor, and Silva all had in common. When they were coming up they knew how to play their part. Even though Jones was arguably the best guy at Jacksons, he wasn't trying to one up Rashad and embarrass him, he learned a lot from Rashad. Silva was considered the most skilled fighter at Chute Boxe, and you'd never know by the way he praised his teammates. GSP was a great teammate by all accounts and learned from his mistakes, never thought he was too good to learn something new. All the greats were that way at some point.
