Picking the top 30 best ever

[WolfPackHunter]

 IS a list like this even possible? Watching a G.O.A.T Pyramid video with 300,000 views and i thought to myself i would give a pyramid a bash later.... However how in the hell do you do such a list when right now just the Featherweight division has Aldo, Volk and Max still fighting, How do we rate the greats of Pride vs the greats of that UFC Era, How do we rate the absolute brilliance we watching in WEC. Do guys who achieved some but injury cost them careers like Cain Velasquez count?

Can we ever have a consensus number 1 never mind trying to squeeze so many greats into brackets?

 

[Reach4theSky]

The best thing to do is to forget about that sh!t, and just enjoy the fights. Opinions are always going to vary to who is the best. There will never be a consensus..

 

[OldBoy91]

Sports fans are always so consumed with who is the best ever instead of just enjoying the sport.

Messi or Ronaldo dominates the discussion around football, when people should just be appreciative to live in their era and be able to watch both dominate the sport. Before them it was Pele vs Maradona.

Same with MMA. I'm lucky enough to have watched Sakuraba, Fedor, Mark Hughes, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, GSP, Jose Aldo and countless others. I can't be bothered to argue with people over who was marginally better than the other guys based on subjective criteria.

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

The best thing to do is to forget about that sh!t, and just enjoy the fights. Opinions are always going to vary to who is the best. There will never be a consensus..

This. Rankings are subjective and always HEAVILY influenced by marketing/recency bias. In a sport with as high of a turnover of fans as MMA has, most of the current viewers probably don't even know who Randy Couture is and will be swayed into thinking flavor of the month "greats" like Renan Barao are better than all who have proceeded them so I wouldn't put much stock into what the average fan thinks.

There was a time when new viewers from TUF Season 1 were considered casuals/noobs. Then it was the Lesnar crowd. Then it was the McGregor crowd. The the Khabib crowd. Only a small portion of the fandom are here longterm so very few people are actually educated enough to make fair comparisons.

Just watch the fights, get depressed when your favorites get old, and then lose interest. That is the traditional life cycle of the MMA fan and these deep dive analysis for such a young sport (that will surely not last long term with all of the CTE discoveries) are pointless.

 

[LEWIS540]

LOL

Picking a top 5 will cause all the simps to rip each other’s eyes out.

Top 30 would be a catalyst for WW III

By about reply number 12:

“Dan Henderson #7!!!!! Fuck you cunt, I’m gonna rape your mother!!!!!”




All GOAT lists in any sport are totally subjective and asinine.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

 IS a list like this even possible? Watching a G.O.A.T Pyramid video with 300,000 views and i thought to myself i would give a pyramid a bash later.... However how in the hell do you do such a list when right now just the Featherweight division has Aldo, Volk and Max still fighting, How do we rate the greats of Pride vs the greats of that UFC Era, How do we rate the absolute brilliance we watching in WEC. Do guys who achieved some but injury cost them careers like Cain Velasquez count?

Can we ever have a consensus number 1 never mind trying to squeeze so many greats into brackets?

The consensus number 1 is Amanda Nunes. If you don’t realize that. Then there’s some sort of issue with you.

If you think you’re ever going to get a male as the consensus number 1, good luck. You can’t rate people that never fought eachother. That’s why imo, there is no male GOAT. And never will be.

Just people saying their favourite is the GOAT with zero empirical proof of it being a fact.

 

[WolfPackHunter]

The consensus number 1 is Amanda Nunes. If you don’t realize that. Then there’s some sort of issue with you.

If you think you’re ever going to get a male as the consensus number 1, good luck. You can’t rate people that never fought eachother. That’s why imo, there is no male GOAT. And never will be.

Just people saying their favourite is the GOAT with zero empirical proof of it being a fact.

I agree with you that we will never ever have more than 75% of fans classimg a fighter as consensus number 1, I believe Jon Jones I'd the greatest fighter to ever walk this earth though I'm not a Jones fan and can see the argument as to why others pick other fighters.
Again I agree Amanda Nunes is the woman's GOAT but that's not consensus either with many claiming Cyborg, Holm (UFC/Boxing champ) and even now you have Kayla Harrison being mentioned

 

[The Siege]

It's natural to make lists in sports because the whole point is to be better than the competition and win the match or whatever end of season award is up for grabs.

So, making an all time great list is just a natural progression of the on-field/pitch/court/cage competition.

Having said that, there needs to be an agreed upon criteria and a way to normalize the differences between promotions and time periods if we ever want to get a good list going.

For example, in the NBA, is Bill Russell (11 rings) the GOAT or is Michael Jordan (6 rings) the GOAT? Clearly Bill has more championships, but Jordan seems to be the consensus GOAT because of other factors such as the strength of his competition in the 90s, the rules at the time, his skills, etc.

I don't know if we will ever agree on one specific criteria for MMA, maybe it's because it's such a young sport. Who knows what the landscape will look like in 50 years.

 

[LEWIS540]

I agree with you that we will never ever have more than 75% of fans classimg a fighter as consensus number 1, I believe Jon Jones I'd the greatest fighter to ever walk this earth though I'm not a Jones fan and can see the argument as to why others pick other fighters.
Again I agree Amanda Nunes is the woman's GOAT but that's not consensus either with many claiming Cyborg, Holm (UFC/Boxing champ) and even now you have Kayla Harrison being mentioned

75%?

That would be pretty fucking definitive.

Try 25%.

 

[WolfPackHunter]

Sports fans are always so consumed with who is the best ever instead of just enjoying the sport.

Messi or Ronaldo dominates the discussion around football, when people should just be appreciative to live in their era and be able to watch both dominate the sport. Before them it was Pele vs Maradona.

Same with MMA. I'm lucky enough to have watched Sakuraba, Fedor, Mark Hughes, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, GSP, Jose Aldo and countless others. I can't be bothered to argue with people over who was marginally better than the other guys based on subjective criteria.

Great reply,I think the media force these votes upon us, I am old enough to remember Maradona but not Pele, I have obviously seen Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane etc and I am TOLD Pele was the best but football today is nothing like it was in Pele's day.

Just enjoying the action as it unfolds is the best course of action

 

[WolfPackHunter]

75%?

That would be pretty fucking definitive.

Try 25%.

I think the consensus number 1 is between GSP, Jones, Silva, Fedor. Those are the main 4 always spoken of in this matter

 

[LEWIS540]

It's natural to make lists in sports because the whole point is to be better than the competition and win the match or whatever end of season award is up for grabs.

So, making an all time great list is just a natural progression of the on-field/pitch/court/cage competition.

Having said that, there needs to be an agreed upon criteria and a way to normalize the differences between promotions and time periods if we ever want to get a good list going.

For example, in the NBA, is Bill Russell (11 rings) the GOAT or is Michael Jordan (6 rings) the GOAT? Clearly Bill has more championships, but Jordan seems to be the consensus GOAT because of other factors such as the strength of his competition in the 90s, the rules at the time, his skills, etc.

I don't know if we will ever agree on one specific criteria for MMA, maybe it's because it's such a young sport. Who knows what the landscape will look like in 50 years.

Most successful is objective. Most talented or best is subjective.

Like in tennis, Djokovic has surpassed Federer in terms of achievements. Prime vs Prime you can argue the case.

Occasionally you get a Usain Bolt, which is almost impossible to argue against, but that is rare.

 

[LEWIS540]

Sports fans are always so consumed with who is the best ever instead of just enjoying the sport.

Messi or Ronaldo dominates the discussion around football, when people should just be appreciative to live in their era and be able to watch both dominate the sport. Before them it was Pele vs Maradona.

Same with MMA. I'm lucky enough to have watched Sakuraba, Fedor, Mark Hughes, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, GSP, Jose Aldo and countless others. I can't be bothered to argue with people over who was marginally better than the other guys based on subjective criteria.

Team sports is even dumber than individual sports.

 

[LEWIS540]

I think the consensus number 1 is between GSP, Jones, Silva, Fedor. Those are the main 4 always spoken of in this matter

So try getting 75% to agree on those 4.

Then add, for example, Aldo, Khabib, Nunes and Mighty Mouse.

 

[MySDName]

The consensus number 1 is Amanda Nunes. If you don’t realize that. Then there’s some sort of issue with you.

If you think you’re ever going to get a male as the consensus number 1, good luck. You can’t rate people that never fought eachother. That’s why imo, there is no male GOAT. And never will be.

Just people saying their favourite is the GOAT with zero empirical proof of it being a fact.

...says the guy who provides zero empirical proof and thinks Temple of the Dog is cool.

 

[ultra321]

Oh joy... yet another shitty white belt thread....

 

[Bork Neslar]

Stop thinking about lists and rankings. They're not that important. Just watch fhe fights and shut up.

 

[HHJ]

lol @ wasting your time doing that, when in a week or two youll have to change it (by listing Jiri as #1)

 

[HHJ]

The consensus number 1 is Amanda Nunes. If you don’t realize that. Then there’s some sort of issue with you.

If you think you’re ever going to get a male as the consensus number 1, good luck. You can’t rate people that never fought eachother. That’s why imo, there is no male GOAT. And never will be.

Just people saying their favourite is the GOAT with zero empirical proof of it being a fact.

All about Val

All about Val

Then Joanna

Then Nunes/Rousey tied for third

 

[Lydia Roman]

The best thing to do is to forget about that sh!t, and just enjoy the fights. Opinions are always going to vary to who is the best. There will never be a consensus..

But I dont think there has to be a consensus. Thats what makes it fun.