Stipe is a product of circumstances and good timing

[Ivancho]

I don't want to sound like a hater, but Stipe made his name by beating grandpas and past-their-prime fighters. The only good win was against Ngannou in the first fight (who fought like a newbie). Then DC was old and way overweight. The guy was terrible for the division because of his long inactivity and living rent-free in the top 3 forever. He hasn't fought a single contender in the last seven years. My god, we are in mid-2024, and this guy will fight for the title once again. What a joke. Meanwhile, we have very talented and active fighters who can't get a title shot after a long run of victories. Talk about injustice. Well, that's all the rant for now.

Edited> I forgot to mention that Stipe has 24 matches at 41 years old. Jones, who is younger, already has more fights even after long layoffs due to his personal issues.

 

[haj02]

Yeah but for Jon's legacy this fight makes sense, beating the guy who is apparently the UFC's best ever HW does nothing but build Jon's legend in the sport.

 

[AstralPanda]

Even a past prime DC is a very high level win

Especially after getting outstruck for 3 rounds in the 2nd fight.

 

[SamuraiBro]

Would be good if you spelt ‘circumstances’ correctly

 

[ryun253]

Khabibs top tier victories were JG, Doostin & Conor

 

[Alpha_T83]

You can't really question Stipe's status as the greatest heavyweight of all time. People do this as time goes on: they qualify MMA fighters' wins based on revisionist history. Many people criticize GSP's quality of wins, but he consistently fought the best fighters in his division at the time. People say that Jon Fitch was never that good, but he was on a 15-fight win streak leading up to his fight with GSP, and went on another 5 fight win streak afterwards.

So you can't be qualifying Stipe's wins like this based on how his opponents look now.

But with that said, Stipe hasn't fought in over 3 years and hasn't won a fight at heavyweight in almost 4 years. He should NOT be fighting for the title.

 

[Tnellie30]

He also has wins over Roy Nelson, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum, Allistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos (in addition to his win over Francis Ngannou and 2x over Daniel Cormier that you mentioned).

Not a bad resume. Doesn't exactly support your narrative. He had a good run and beat good fighters.

 

[markys00]

Everyone is

 

[WhiteMousse]

To the dump with this bullshit

 

[Ivancho]

Khabibs top tier victories were JG, Doostin & Conor

yeah but they were at their best

 

[Clark Rogers]

Still one of these a day, eh?

 

[Koro_11]

I don't want to sound like a hater, but Stipe made his name by beating grandpas and past-their-prime fighters. The only good win was against Ngannou in the first fight (who fought like a newbie). Then DC was old and way overweight. The guy was terrible for the division because of his long inactivity and living rent-free in the top 3 forever. He hasn't fought a single contender in the last seven years. My god, we are in mid-2024, and this guy will fight for the title once again. What a joke. Meanwhile, we have very talented and active fighters who can't get a title shot after a long run of victories. Talk about injustice. Well, that's all the rant for now.

Werdum?

 

[doggo]

He also has wins over Roy Nelson, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum, Allistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos (in addition to his win over Francis Ngannou and 2x over Daniel Cormier that you mentioned).

Not a bad resume. Doesn't exactly support your narrative. He had a good run and beat good fighters.

All those guys where not on a tear when he beat them apart from Werdum who fought like a dumbass and just ran forward and then got comically KO'd. When he fought not over the hill JDS he lost. He also lost to struve badly. The fact that quite a few people can objectively think like this really does indciate he isn't that much of a GOAT.

First Francis fight is a really good win though.

 

[World eater]

I don't want to sound like a hater

Well, you do. Bye.

 

[Bojka]

Nah. It's hard to go on winning streaks at the top of HW mma. He is well rounded with high fight IQ.

 

[thorcorm]

Stipe's resume is better than Khabib's.

Also - I love how we act like Jones' beat a killers row of fighters when all the "legends" he beat were undersized and fought in lower divisions at some point, were old and on the way out. Stipe though - no credit.

 

[Ivancho]

Stipe's resume is better than Khabib's.

Also - I love how we act like Jones' beat a killers row of fighters when all the "legends" he beat were undersized and fought in lower divisions at some point, were old and on the way out. Stipe though - no credit.

Stipe is 41 years old and has only 24 fights in his entire career

 

[HHJ]

No Stipe is a great fighter.

Dude goes 2 and 1 w Daniel cormier just so some nerds can tear it down with skewed wiki-stats

 

[HHJ]

Stipe is 41 years old and has only 24 fights in his entire career

So what???
Look who he fought.


There's guy w 50 fights aint fought nobody

 

[HHJ]

Stipe's resume is better than Khabib's.

Also - I love how we act like Jones' beat a killers row of fighters when all the "legends" he beat were undersized and fought in lower divisions at some point, were old and on the way out. Stipe though - no credit.

I fuckin hate Jones but there is zero wrong with his resume