toughest competition in UFC history?

[Choco]

W-L records of opponents is probably the most subjective measure.
Somewhere there was a list of the then won-loss records of opponents fought in championship bouts and GSP's was at the top by a comfortable margin. Hughes, Penn, Shields, Fitch, Hendricks all had championship-caliber W-L records and some had very long win streaks when Georges fought them.
I'm sure JBJ has something similar and he is the GOAT anyway.

GOAT Run

 

[RiseAboveHat]

When taking into account skill for skill, CM Punk

 

[Banana Tree's Nemesis]

Based on name value and competitiveness of the weightclass, I would probably give it to Charles.

Spoiler: resume includes

Elkins, Jim Miller x2, Cerrone, Swanson, Edgar, Jeremy Stephens, Holloway, Myles Jury, Pettis, Ricardo Lamas, Will Brooks, Felder, Kevin Lee, Ferguson, Chandler, Poirier, Gaethje, Makhachev, Dariush

Some guys may have a higher quality density, but due to weight class and the sheer number, Charles takes this imo. RDA and Edgar are crazy as well. Edgar might even be more impressive than Charles. Aldo is crazy too.

 

[VAfan]

this was the run JDS went on before getting his title shot:

Fabrício Werdum, Stefan Struve, Mirko Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel, Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson, Shane Carwin

and then his next nine fights were cain x3, mir, hunt, stipe x2, reem and rothwell. if that's not the gauntlet of all gauntlets, it's pretty damn close.

 

[pick999]

Paddy and bo

 

[Fioretti]

JDS and Mir never get the respect they deserve in this category.

Jones, Vitor, Hendo, and Rampage have all had tough schedules too.

 

[chaos_36]

Sonnen fought:

Anderson Silva
Jon Jones
Fedor Emelianenko

 

[Cartiac]

Jon Jones had a pretty sick run where he ran through all the all time greats at LHW. Like Mashida, Shogun, Rampage, Evans, Bader, Gustafsson, Glover and DC.

I'd say he has the best strength of schedule of all time.

yea, answering Jon Jones to any greatest... anything MMA question has nearly the same odds of winning pin the tail on the pedophile at a Catholic priest convention, it is really hard to miss.

 

[DoctorTaco]

Tony Ferguson has been facing absolute dogs in his last handful of fights

 

[bjjwar]

Jones easy, and won all of them.

Who are we talking about here because the list looks pretty underwhelming. Fighting Rua who was a shell of himself, a fat out of shape washed up Ranmpage and then Vitor, Machida and Sonnen who are 3 MW's is not really impressive. And Vitor and Sonnen were out of their primes already...

His list is so overrated. Cormier is an amazing win, but the rest honestly is underwhelming if you look at the circumstances. It's like somoene beating Fedor, Silva, etc now and say they just beat legends lol. Yeah, great...

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

In just the UFC, going with Vitor. Fought the MW GOAT, LHW GOAT, and the best available at the time across 3 separate weight classes. It's actually insane that a guy who was around in 1997 was still fighting in the UFC 20 years later and was given virtually no tune up fights.

If we're including fights outside the UFC as well though, Dan Henderson easily gets my vote. He is a freak of nature

 

[Harlekin]

Seems like everyone has forgotten about Junior Dos Santos

Werdum
Struve
Cro Cop
Yvel
Gonzaga
Nelson
Carwin
Cain
Mir
Hunt
Stipe
Overeem
Tuivasa
Lewis
Ngannou
Blaydes
Gane

I'd mention Overeem from that list, in multiple sports, weightclasses and organisations
He faced top competition for 20 years

 

[RemyR]

Dustin Poirier was the first guy I thought of going back to like 2017

 

[NicholasJBasile]

Dan Henderson is someone that always comes to mind to me, especially given he was a 185 lber fighting at lhw and hw.

 

[JKS]

I would say Jon Jones. He's had like double the title fights than non title fights. And he's faced all the best LHWs.

 

[BabyBlue_Bomber]

Couture fought:

Barnett
Lesnar
Liddell
Ortiz
Nogueira
Sylvia
Machida
Belfort
Rodriguez
Randleman
Coleman
Smith

All held a UFC Title at one point…

*edit*
I mentioned Sylvia twice

 

[arcadeperfect]

Seems like everyone has forgotten about Junior Dos Santos

Werdum
Struve
Cro Cop
Yvel
Gonzaga
Nelson
Carwin
Cain
Mir
Hunt
Stipe
Overeem
Tuivasa
Lewis
Ngannou
Blaydes
Gane

Always baffles me when people forget about him, especially when discussing greatest HWs. There's not a single easy fight on that list. Most guys get a couple of softballs for their first 3 fights or so, JDS got a murderers row from his debut.

 

[Unfinished Sentenc]

Brunson had a tougher opposition than Tavares

Forgot about Blondeson

 

[Rationality]

If you consider UFC fights only, and his experience ratio compared to his opponents, Lesnar has to be at least on the list. Run was short lived but dude went straight to the deep end having had only 1 fight prior to coming in.

He should get more respect for what he did.

 

[Rationality]

this was the run JDS went on before getting his title shot:

Fabrício Werdum, Stefan Struve, Mirko Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel, Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson, Shane Carwin

and then his next nine fights were cain x3, mir, hunt, stipe x2, reem and rothwell. if that's not the gauntlet of all gauntlets, it's pretty damn close.

Surviving that at HW is some kind of miracle lol.