The Definitive: Top 5 Heavyweights of All-Time.

[NuMe]

1. Fedor
2.-3. Stipe & Nog
4.-6. Werdum & JDS & Cain

 

[acannxr]

Josh Barnett?

It's been long enough that I decided to run Barnett's career through my criteria (didn't really feel up to it at the time of your post because of how much time I had already spent creating this thread).

Honorable Mention - Josh Barnett

Barnett's resume:

#2 Semmy Schilt
#2 Randy Couture
#10 Semmy Schilt
#6 Kazuhiro Nakamura
#6 Mark Hunt
#3 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
#7 Frank Mir
#7 Andrei Arlovski

Barnett defeated eight, top ten opponents.
Barnett was ranked in the top five from 7/1/01 to 10/1/04, 7/1/06 to 4/1/07, 10/1/07 to 1/1/08, 7/1/08 to 10/1/08 for a combined total of 4 years and 6 months.

 

[Grenades]

Prime Brock would smash anyone on that list if they weren't cheating with steroids

Can’t tell if you’re joking or not. Prime Brock was (allegedly) pumped to the gills with gear.

 

[DayV]

It's been long enough that I decided to run Barnett's career through my criteria (didn't really feel up to it at the time of your post because of how much time I had already spent creating this thread).

Honorable Mention - Josh Barnett

Barnett's resume:

#2 Semmy Schilt
#2 Randy Couture
#10 Semmy Schilt
#6 Kazuhiro Nakamura
#6 Mark Hunt
#3 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
#7 Frank Mir
#7 Andrei Arlovski

Barnett defeated eight, top ten opponents.
Barnett was ranked in the top five from 7/1/01 to 10/1/04, 7/1/06 to 4/1/07, 10/1/07 to 1/1/08, 7/1/08 to 10/1/08 for a combined total of 4 years and 6 months.

Don't use Fightmatrix for anything older than 2008. It is wrong. Schilt was never even close to #2.

Authentic rankings from those times exist (Stephen Quadros, MMA Media, Black Belt Magazine, Associated Fight Press Fightsport, MMA News, MMA Collective MMA Ranks, MMA Weekly, MMA Fighting, International Valetudo, Tatame etc...) but you need to search them through webarchive.com

 

[boss429]

Criteria:

• Number of top ten opponents at Heavyweight.
• Time spent ranked as a top five fighter in the Heavyweight Division
• Only listing #1-10 Heavyweight ranked opponents in candidates' resumes.

Honorable Mention - Cain Velasquez

Velasquez' resume:

#3 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
#1 Brock Lesnar
#9 Antonio Silva
#1 Junior dos Santos
#3 Antonio Silva
#2 Junior dos Santos
#8 Travis Browne

Velasquez defeated seven, top ten opponents.
Velasquez was ranked in the top five from 1/1/10 to 1/1/15 and 7/1/15 to 10/1/17 for a combined total of 7 years and 3 months.

The overly redundant resume and the fact that a large portion of the time that Velasquez was ranked in the top five he was inactive due to injury, is why he gets only an honorable mention.

#5 - Fabricio Werdum

Werdum's resume:

#4 Gabriel Gonzaga
#1 Fedor Emelianenko
#5 Travis Browne
#5 Mark Hunt
#1 Cain Velasquez
#8 Travis Browne

Werdum defeated six, top ten opponents.
Werdum was ranked in the top five from 4/1/08 to 10/1/08, 7/1/10 to 10/1/11, 4/1/12 to 1/1/13, 7/1/13 to 4/1/18 for a combined total of 7 years and 3 months.

#4 - Stipe Miocic

Miocic's resume:

#5 Mark Hunt
#3 Andrei Arlovski
#1 Fabricio Werdum
#3 Alistair Overeem
#5 Junior dos Santos
#2 Francis Ngannou
#1 Daniel Cormier

Miocic defeated seven, top ten opponents.
Miocic was ranked in the top five from 4/1/14 to 7/1/14 and 4/1/15 to Today for a combined total of 4 years and 11 months.

#3 - Junior dos Santos

dos Santos' resume:

#4 Fabricio Werdum
#9 Mirko Filipovic
#6 Shane Carwin
#1 Cain Velasquez
#4 Frank Mir
#9 Mark Hunt
#6 Ben Rothwell
#4 Derrick Lewis

dos Santos defeated eight, top ten opponents.
dos Santos was ranked in the top five from 10/1/09 to 4/1/10, 10/1/10 to 1/1/16, 7/1/16 to 1/1/18, and 4/1/19 to Today for a combined total of 7 years and 11 months.

#2 - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Nogueira's resume:

#5 Valentijn Overeem
#5 Gary Goodridge
#3 Mark Coleman
#6 Ricco Rodriguez
#5 Mirko Filipovic
#10 Heath Herring
#9 Fabricio Werdum
#3 Josh Barnett
#9 Tim Sylvia
#5 Randy Couture

Nogueira defeated ten, top ten opponents.
Nogueira was ranked in the top five from 4/1/01 to 1/1/10 for a combined total of 8 years and 9 months.

#1 - Fedor Emelianenko

Emelianenko's resume:

#8 Renato Sobral
#6 Semmy Schilt
#1 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
#9 Gary Goodridge
#9 Mark Coleman
#7 Kevin Randleman
#2 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
#4 Mirko Filipovic
#4 Mark Coleman
#7 Mark Hunt
#8 Tim Sylvia
#6 Andrei Arlovski
#8 Brett Rogers

Emelianenko defeated thirteen, top ten opponents.
Emelianenko was ranked in the top five from 4/1/02 to 1/1/11 for a combined total of 8 years and 9 months.

For those who will undoubtedly ask about Daniel Cormier:

Spoiler

Cormier's resume:

#6 Antonio Silva
#8 Josh Barnett
#7 Frank Mir
#1 Stipe Miocic
#5 Derrick Lewis

Cormier defeated five, top ten opponents.
Cormier was ranked in the top five from 7/1/12 to 1/1/14 and 10/1/18 to Today for a combined total of 2 years and 8 months.

Cormier has the least amount of top ten wins and the shortest amount of time spent in the top five rankings out of everyone in this list (including Velasquez).

Well done, thanks for this. Unfortunately even with undeniable facts Fedor will still be called a can crusher by the UFC only crowd.

Also I'd argue Cain actually only beat 5 top 10 opponents for that total of 7 top 10 wins and Fedor only (only, lol) has only beaten 11 since 4 of Cains and 4 of Fedor's come from rematches. (Also weren't Arona and Lindland also top 10 at the time or does it not count unless it's in the official ranking at the weight the fight takes place at?. Though to be honest I'm not sure Arona ever actually managed to crack any top 10 despite being extremely talented due to his lack of dedication)

Multiple wins over the same guys shouldn't be counted as separate wins over top 10 opponents imo but should be included in top 10 wins over all, if that makes sense. (I realize I maybe nitpicking a bit here mind you, lol)

 

[acannxr]

Don't use Fightmatrix for anything older than 2008. It is wrong. Schilt was never even close to #2.

Authentic rankings from those times exist (Stephen Quadros, MMA Media, Black Belt Magazine, Associated Fight Press Fightsport, MMA News, MMA Collective MMA Ranks, MMA Weekly, MMA Fighting, International Valetudo, Tatame etc...) but you need to search them through webarchive.com

All rankings are subjective, but unlike all the sources you listed, FightMatrix is at least consistent, and has ranks for every quarter of the year.

Take Stephen Quadros for example: he worked for Pride and in all likelihood had a bias for that organization, which would make his rankings favor those fighters; this applies to any number of those magazines whereby their contributors/editors had biases towards certain organizations.

As for Semmy Schilt never being "close to #2", he'd gone on an 8 fight win streak at a time when the UFC title was vacant and Pride didn't even have a Heavyweight title. Bas Rutten had left the Heavyweight division before retiring, the previous UFC champion (Couture) had lost two in a row immediately after leaving the UFC, and Pancrase still had a pretty good roster of fighters (which is where Schilt was fighting at the time). I may not agree with the number two ranking, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that he'd be a top ten fighter at that point in the Heavyweight division's history.

Also weren't Arona and Lindland also top 10 at the time or does it not count unless it's in the official ranking at the weight the fight takes place at?. Though to be honest I'm not sure Arona ever actually managed to crack any top 10 despite being extremely talented due to his lack of dedication.

Arona was 2-0 when he fought Fedor; he'd defeated 3-5 Andrei Kopylov (HW) and 50-10-4 Jeremy Horn (176 lbs).

Lindland primarily fought at Middleweight, with one bout at Light Heavyweight; he was not ranked at Heavyweight.

 

[ImNotMirsadBektic]

1. Stipe
2. Fedor
3. Reem
4. Werdum
5. Cain

 

[wearetheromans]

Where's "very fantastic body" obareem

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Werdum was 28-29 years old when he lost to Big Nog. He wasn't some rookie.

You completely misread my post. I never said he was. I even said in the post that you quoted that they were both closer to their primes in the first fight than in the second since Big Nog was years passed his prime.

 

[DayV]

All rankings are subjective, but unlike all the sources you listed, FightMatrix is at least consistent, and has ranks for every quarter of the year.

Take Stephen Quadros for example: he worked for Pride and in all likelihood had a bias for that organization, which would make his rankings favor those fighters; this applies to any number of those magazines whereby their contributors/editors had biases towards certain organizations.

As for Semmy Schilt never being "close to #2", he'd gone on an 8 fight win streak at a time when the UFC title was vacant and Pride didn't even have a Heavyweight title. Bas Rutten had left the Heavyweight division before retiring, the previous UFC champion (Couture) had lost two in a row immediately after leaving the UFC, and Pancrase still had a pretty good roster of fighters (which is where Schilt was fighting at the time). I may not agree with the number two ranking, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that he'd be a top ten fighter at that point in the Heavyweight division's history.

Fightmatrix did not exist before 2008, and thus has no impact on how people from those times before 2008 saw order and positions of fighters.

Authentic and genuine rankings from those times represent opinions and value that MMA fans, media and community had about fighters in those historic times.
Authentic rankings are the real picture of those times.

 

[boss429]

1. Stipe
2. Fedor
3. Reem
4. Werdum
5. Cain

Fedor is undeniably #1 imo. I've been a Stipe fan since he first showed up but I would have a hard time even putting him at #2.

I would say Werdum is #2 having beaten 3 of the 4 on your list and several other all time greats. On strength of wins alone Werdum is probably #1 really.

On a side note are you by any chance Mirsad Bektic?..... Lol

 

[Glove]

For me in no order:

Fedor Emilanenko
Antonio Rodrigo Nougeria
Junior Dos Santos
Josh Barnett
Stipe Miocic

 

[acannxr]

@medium rare See the OP.