Imagine I started to bring up Ngannou losing to Zoumana Cisse as a serious arguement? you'd call me out saying it was far too early in in MMA career to judge him yet Mirko against Wand the first time was 9-10 months into a part time MMA career, before fighting Fujita the first time he literally was almost totally green, that fight was sposed to be feeding a kickboxer to a MMA cold as we saw a few other times in that era.
Its not that I'm not giving any credit to any modern fighters, its that I'm questioning your posting which is I think as often excessive dismissing of the talents of older fighters and buying into UFC evolution hype much too strongly.
Again really your talking up the anti grappling of someone like Gane based on IMHO very little actual evidence, it just seems to be "Gane is a highly ranked modern MMA fighter and modern MMA has evolved thus Gane MUST have a strong anti grappling game", which quality grapplers has Gane beaten to show this? when has he shown great anti grappling? the one time his grapplign was seriously tested by Francis honestly I felt it looked pretty lacking.
Really as well I think the example in this thread shows you WHY this is such an issue, watch Nog/Sergei and tell me thats not a very entertaining match with very enjoyable technique? I fucking hate this modern hype that claims that somehow the more the sport "evolves" the worse it looks technically, as if Derrick Lewis would be dancing around Sergei like Ali but its only his modern evolved opponents who make him look like a brawler. Its just dishonest nonsense IMHO that wouldnt be accepted in any other sport and tis quality sport I want not huffing Dana Whites farts.