per overall, yeah, but not at MW only
Jacare
Manhoef
Sobral
Hunt
Vitor
Hendo
Latifi
OSP
Goodridge
Rory
Carvalho
Shlemenko
Santos
Leites
Lombard
All these were top fighters or good fighters. (inb4 "leites, you gotta be kidding me?" but 43 years old Silva is worth mentioning)
I would add a few more but sherdoggers believe only top top opponent wins matter
Sure, you can make an argument for some of them (out of their prime argument or the Shlemenko argument), same as others can make arguments for Adesanya's opponents.
- Yoel - over 40, didn't engage, being 1-4
- Silva - over 40, came for fun, being 1-6 and that win being controversial
- Costa - not much of a resume, only Hall and close fight Romero, just being young and undefeated doesn't make you better than others from Moose's list
But still, Moose, fought in several weight classes and I wouldn't put him at MW since many of his good wins are at LHW, OW, HW.
Guys like Moose, Hendo, Saku should be on a different kind of list, imo.
Whittaker is better than almost everyone on that list around the time Moose fought them.
-Vitor was in his I think either 39 or 40 when Gegard had beat him. This was him of TRT and clearly in a large downward spiral. Getting stopped in every fight post his Hendo match barring Nate marquart.
-Dan Henderson was also in a heavy downward drop. Only relevant win was picking up a knockout over Lombard (who was also on a heavy spiral down)
-Babalu was always bipolar with his preformances. His biggest win a lot of people site is his win over early career Shogun but outside of that he was never elite
-Rory is a welterweight who isn't the same guy who beat Woodley.He beat Lima priot be fair but i'd consider it close to Kelvin in terms of importance. Good win but nothing that fantastic.
-Santos was a drained MW who had a rocky career there. LHW was his division and everyone knows it.
-Lombard was beaten prior to him even being in close to the Bellator champ. His only other high level comp at the time was Gono who he lost to. Fine win but nothing great.
-Carvalho is fine. Nothing amazing but a good win
-Shlemenko is another ok win. It was a close fight and Shlemenko lacks a ton of high level scalps on his name. His record is def more quantity over quality (still good though)
-Goodridge, dude come on lmfao. He was in his mid 40s when gegard slept him and he was done done.
-Jacare is a great win you can't take away from him. But hes 1-1 and Jacare beat him badly in their most recent fight.
-Leites was near the end of his career and was losing to a lot of guys. Fine win IMO but nothing that great.
-OSP and Latifi are good wins but not elite. They both lack big names on their resume.
-Manhoef is another good win but nothing crazy.
Gegard was never consistent enough at MW to ever build a major resume. Thats his biggest issue. Bouncing between beating up gatekeeping LHWs and whoever the UFC wanted to give him at MW has slowed down his actual resume.
Yoel was older sure but is more explosive and better than most of who Moose fought. Old Yoel isn't the same as old Hendo or Vitor. Yoel scalped multiple UFC champs in his run to the title. One of them being Machida who Moose couldn't beat in his prime.(Note Yoel beat Machida a year after he beat Gegard)
Whittaker is obviously his best win. Can't even debate that one.
Costas resume isn't that strong but neither is most of the guys you listed. Lombard was murking randoms at bellator cause their division at the time had no one. In the UFC he started out ok but started to fall flat quickly.
You should have mentioned Hall over a lot of guys on that list. Weidman too, those are very good wins of Gegard that people just don't bring up. Izzy slept Costa who was 13-0 with a big win over Romero and Whittaker who had yet to take an L at MW. Gegard dropped multiple fights to guys like Hall, Lyoto and Jacare in his prime. Izzy never has as of now and its not like he isn't fighting high level comp.
I respect moose a ton for fighting at any weight class. Seriously dudes a gangster. But he isn't Izzy in terms of resume or even skill.
