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I feel basically the exact same way as you & agree with pretty much everything you just said. I hope it’s mostly talk, because I really want to see Khabib get tested by the top 5, now that he has the belt. It would be a shame if he retires in a couple fights, I just wanna see the guy show us how good he is & if he’s truly 1 of the GOATs.
He’s just about GOAT-worthy already in my opinion. What you do as champion definitely matters, but so does your entire resume.
Let’s ignore the travesty of BJ’s later career and focus on his lightweight prime. Pulver, Stevenson, Sherk, Florian, Sanchez, all by very dominant stoppage. Then two losses to Edgar. He stopped some other very good lightweights earlier in his career, and it’s up to each individual person to decide how much weight—if any—to place on his welterweight work.
Frankie Edgar beat a lot of solid lightweights as well, though in far less dominant fashion. Jim Miller, Tyson Griffin, Spencer Fisher, Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca, 1-1-1 vs Maynard, and of course BJ twice before 0-2 vs Henderson.
Henderson has Diaz, Melendez, Guida, Edgar 2x, Cerrone 2x (should be 3 IMO) , Josh Thompson, Jim Miller, Jaime Varner.
By comparison, Khabib has RDA, MJ, Barboza, Raging, and Conor. I’d say he’s been more dominant against those 5 than Edgar and Bendo were if you let them pick the best five fights of their career. BJ’s peak was slightly more ferocious. But of course what sets Khabib apart—in both ways—is being undefeated. If all else were equal you’d have to say that if peaks are close then no losses has to be the tiebreaker. But first we need to see if Khabib’s Edgar/Bendo/Pettis is out there. If Poirier or Ferguson beats Khabib twice, then he loses once or twice more and retires or moves up to welterweight, it’s a mess again. But if he beats Poirier and Ferguson I think he takes the crown for sure, almost regardless of what comes after that.
And by the way, I think Tony Ferguson is in the mix too. At some point he probably needs to win the belt for most people, but I think what he’s done the past five fights is nearly as good as many guys’ title reigns.