Stipe's resume would be ridiculous at that point. Beating Jon Jones would be the single greatest win in MMA history. Beating HW DC twice are enormous wins, as is beating Francis. He also stopped a streaking Werdum, JDS, Overeem etc.LOL! Heavyweight goat maybe. Mount Rushmore of mma?! Not a chance!!! How many title defences does he have?! No where close to GSP, Jones, Silva, Aldo, Johnson, etc
There is a lot more randomness at HW than the lighter weight classes. You have to take that into account. You could put him over Aldo and DJ at that point I think. I'm not even sure Aldo is the FW GOAT anymore anyway, you could make a serious argument for Volk