The Definitive: Top 5 Heavyweights of All-Time.

KID Yamamoto said:
I really don't know how people can debate Pride vs UFC back in the day. Pride was obviously the better org.
Guys like Cain and JDS came a little bit too late for them to really be compared to Prime pride guys. Minotaro started his pro career 7 years before Cain's first fight and didn't fight Cain 10 years into his career with a shit load of damage.
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Fanaticism. All of the best HW's were in Pride with maybe one or two exceptions. That is why the Pride HW champ was the consensus #1 according to everyone but Dana.
 
arcadeperfect said:
PRIDE had the better fighters period, especially at HW and 205. People seem to disregard that fact because of how poorly Wanderlei and Cro Cop did, even though both were well past their primes by that point.
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Yeah, people who did not watch prime Wanderlei had no idea how terrifying he was. Then he fought Hunt and Cro-cop took his head off. That, on top of endless prior damage, and he was a shell of himself when he came to the UFC.
 
arcadeperfect said:
That's technically the most powerful bodytype. He's not the same type of fat as your typical couch potato, he's just not super cut and leaned.
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Agreed. He had a pretty optimal proportion going of fat and lean muscle. He got noticeably softer once he left Pride and world sambo competition. Some will declare that evidence he was off juice yet that logic fails because he was actually free from WADA testing at this point and could've juiced to the gills like everyone else in the US pre-USADA

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Eater of Souls said:
Yeah, people who did not watch prime Wanderlei had no idea how terrifying he was. Then he fought Hunt and Cro-cop took his head off. That, on top of endless prior damage, and he was a shell of himself when he came to the UFC.
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It should also be noted that Shogun and Rampage actually won the LHW titles, and Big Nog won the interim title, all 3 were PRIDE fighters and 2 of them were arguably past their primes (Shogun and Nog) yet they were still able to win title fights. It's funny when people think Liddell and Ortiz could compete with PRIDE fighters.
 
faustian said:
Agreed. He had a pretty optimal proportion going of fat and lean muscle. He got noticeably softer once he left Pride and world sambo competition. Some will declare that evidence he was off juice yet that logic fails because he was actually free from WADA testing at this point and could've juiced to the gills like everyone else in the US pre-USADA

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Mesomorph looks great and all, but I've never seen those overly jacked guys have great chins or a good gas tank. It's those endomorphs that have great durability and functional strength. People who think otherwise watch too many movies.
 
arcadeperfect said:
It should also be noted that Shogun and Rampage actually won the LHW titles, and Big Nog won the interim title, all 3 were PRIDE fighters and 2 of them were arguably past their primes (Shogun and Nog) yet they were still able to win title fights. It's funny when people think Liddell and Ortiz could compete with PRIDE fighters.
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Yeah, quite a few of the Pride fighters came over and did well, including Anderson Silva
 
acannxr said:
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
ufc155_12_velasquez_vs_jds_045.jpg

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-696x392.jpg

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
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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
jdsbelt.jpg

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
Antonio.jpg

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
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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:
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).
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Nice list but-

How is DC not on here?
Hes beaten a couple of these guys.
Strikeforce Grand Prix winner(that some on list have participated in)
UFC LHW
UFC HW champion.

Hes lost 1 round his entire HW career to a champion hes beaten before. Plus he likely beats everyone on this list now or any points in the career.
 
Eater of Souls said:
Yeah, quite a few of the Pride fighters came over and did well, including Anderson Silva
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Yup, it's weird how there's this false narrative that PRIDE fighters all got beat. Only Wanderlei and Cro Cop did poorly and that was because they were already past their primes.
 
1 Fedor
2 Overeem
3 Werdum
4 DC
5 The rest
 
I think that JDS is disrespected and underrated overall.

He is the best UFC HW ever, period.
He had to jump through more hoops than anyone to get a title fight.
He fought and beat the best opponents of his era.

He’s not the HW GOAT because of Pride, but no UFC HW deserves to be ranked higher than JDS.
His long term record is simply phenomenal, just behind Fedor and Big Nog.
 
Bouboumaster said:
I understand really well, but the caliber of the fighters back then was shit.
More than today.
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that’s absolutely false when it comes to the HW division. In reality, it has regressed a ton
 
tenniswhiz said:
I think that JDS is disrespected and underrated overall.

He is the best UFC HW ever, period.
He had to jump through more hoops than anyone to get a title fight.
He fought and beat the best opponents of his era.

He’s not the HW GOAT because of Pride, but no UFC HW deserves to be ranked higher than JDS.
His long term record is simply phenomenal, just behind Fedor and Big Nog.
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cains two wins over him make him not the best ufc hw ever even though his wins are better than Cain. Weird situation but he’s certainly up there.
 
markg171 said:
Glad you didn't include Cro Cop on the list.

It's mindboggling to me how often people say a guy who was never #1 in the world is so often cited as being a top 5 all-time great. You deserve credit for being ranked #2-3 at one point, but that doesn't put you ahead of people who were #1.
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Like Chuck Liddell?
 
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