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Hot Take Pick one fighter from the pre-2005 era to become champ today.

Randy Couture would be intriguing at LHW and possibly HW too. There just aren't any good grapplers there any more, really.

Big Nog, Fedor, CroCop, and Josh Barnett (in particular) should all be able to get it done at HW. Unless Jon Jones is entered into the equation, of course. The HW division is really lacking and has been for a while now, tbh.

The lighter divisions are so far ahead of where they were pre-2005 (most of them didn't exist in the form they do now) but BJ at LW would be very interesting too. Iron chin, ridiculous submissions, maybe the best TDD of the era, and devastating boxing. And he was tough.

It's already been mentioned but GSDP in 2004 wasn't champ yet but he was still a true force of nature and would certainly touch up any Dagestani that's ever competed at WW or below. They can't take him down, he can take them down, he doesn't get tired, and he outpoints them standing.

Those are the only ones that occur to me off the top of my head.
 
TRYHARD 2001 said:
Randy Couture would be intriguing at LHW and possibly HW too. There just aren't any good grapplers there any more, really.

Big Nog, Fedor, CroCop, and Josh Barnett (in particular) should all be able to get it done at HW. Unless Jon Jones is entered into the equation, of course. The HW division is really lacking and has been for a while now, tbh.

The lighter divisions are so far ahead of where they were pre-2005 (most of them didn't exist in the form they do now) but BJ at LW would be very interesting too. Iron chin, ridiculous submissions, maybe the best TDD of the era, and devastating boxing. And he was tough.

It's already been mentioned but GSDP in 2004 wasn't champ yet but he was still a true force of nature and would certainly touch up any Dagestani that's ever competed at WW or below. They can't take him down, he can take them down, he doesn't get tired, and he outpoints them standing.

Those are the only ones that occur to me off the top of my head.
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Surprised nobody has said Frank Shamrock. I think he needs to work some tdd and boxing defense, but everything else would transfer well to the current MW division.
 
TRYHARD 2001 said:
Randy Couture would be intriguing at LHW and possibly HW too. There just aren't any good grapplers there any more, really.

Big Nog, Fedor, CroCop, and Josh Barnett (in particular) should all be able to get it done at HW. Unless Jon Jones is entered into the equation, of course. The HW division is really lacking and has been for a while now, tbh.

The lighter divisions are so far ahead of where they were pre-2005 (most of them didn't exist in the form they do now) but BJ at LW would be very interesting too. Iron chin, ridiculous submissions, maybe the best TDD of the era, and devastating boxing. And he was tough.

It's already been mentioned but GSDP in 2004 wasn't champ yet but he was still a true force of nature and would certainly touch up any Dagestani that's ever competed at WW or below. They can't take him down, he can take them down, he doesn't get tired, and he outpoints them standing.

Those are the only ones that occur to me off the top of my head.
Click to expand...
how did you come to the conclusion that GSP would be able to just outpoint, let's say, Islam in the feet just like that? I think that fight is way closer than it looks. I still favor GSP in striking but he got hit by Condit and Hendricks; I just find it hard to imagine that Makhachev would get the Josh Koscheck treatment.
 
Dom Frye as a LHW, Frank Shammy and Gomi San
 
Fedorgasm said:
You could also pull 2004 GSP in to fight Islam. But that's the version of GSP that just lost to Matt Hughes so he was not exactly in his prime yet.

But if you got him right after that loss, he'd be very motivated and would train like crazy. It's the start of his prime.
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But any part of his prime is beyond Islam or Khabib.. and I’m not even Canadian
 
Bowel-forged Stool said:
As a chuck fan, I think Poatan would crumple him
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Literally no one ever "crumpled" Chuck in his prime. No one. He was barely ever even hurt. He'd get dropped and be fine immediately. Pele kicked him in the head twice, Jeremy Horn kicked him in the head, Mezger dropped him, Rampage smashed him. He would take people's hardest shots like they were light jabs. Pereira's only way to win would be to do what Randy and Rampage did: Beat on him until he gassed and then TKO him. In his prime, Chuck was right there alongside Nogueira and Hunt in the unknockoutable crew. Meanwhile, Adesanya put Pereira's lights out, which means Chuck with his insane power would flatline him if he connected.
 
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