UFC/Pride Lightweight Champions with least-to-most Top 10 ranked wins at Lightweight.

[El Panteron]

Brent Primus is a top 5 lightweight as well.

Shite website with shite arbitrary rankings.

True, but rankings are arbitrary by definition. I mean are UFC rankings any better? It's still stupid to behave like having more "ranked" wins = GOAT, but I see this thread more as a stat curiosity thing than trying to make an actual point.

 

[acannxr]

I updated Oliveira's resume.

 

[acannxr]

Updated Oliveira's resume.

 

[acannxr]

Added Islam Makhachev.

 

[acannxr]

IMO Oliveira, Volk and Dariush >>>>> real estate agent, coked up McGregor, Poirier and no grappling Gaethje

Islam only has two top ten ranked wins on his resume (based on FightMatrix), so a win over Dariush wouldn't even place him in the top five for all-time Lightweights.

 

[acannxr]

Updated Oliveira's resume.

 

[Escabar]

Solid thread must have taken a while to go through all those old ranking and match everything up.

 

[Noraaq]

I’d like to see a stat that shows the roster size during these ranked wins.

A top 10 win doesn’t mean much when theres only 10 LWs rostered in the org at the time.

 

[BFoe]

I’d like to see a stat that shows the roster size during these ranked wins.

A top 10 win doesn’t mean much when theres only 10 LWs rostered in the org at the time.

He’s not using org rankings, he’s using worldwide rankings. The UFC didn’t even have their own rankings until like 2014.

edit: 2013 actually.

 

[Noraaq]

He’s not using org rankings, he’s using worldwide rankings. The UFC didn’t even have their own rankings until like 2014.

We could combine the roster size of the major orgs back then and compare them to today.

the size of the talent pool is important for gauging the quality of the talent if we’re comparing fighters across different eras.

 

[acannxr]

So much has changed. What do u guys think?

See the OP for more info.

 

[pankrat]

Just did this for an FYI.

Ferguson's resume (based on FightMatrix):

#2 Rafael dos Anjos
#8 Kevin Lee
#6 Anthony Pettis
#4 Donald Cerrone

Ferguson has 4 top ten wins.





Sato was 18-4-1 and had defeated Yves Edwards by the time he fought Gomi.
Mishima was 11-1-2 when he fought Gomi and would later go on to defeat fighters like Masakazu Imanari and Marcus Aurelio.
Gracie was 6-0 and had defeated the aforementioned Mishima by the time he fought Gomi.
Pulver was 18-4-1 and the former UFC Lightweight Champion when he fought Gomi.
Kawajiri was 15-2-2 and had defeated Luiz Firmino, Vitor Ribeiro, and Yves Edwards by the time he fought Gomi and would later go on to defeat Joachim Hansen, Gesias Cavalcante, and Josh Thomson.
Sakurai was 27-6-2 and had defeated Joachim Hansen, Jens Pulver, Shinya Aoki, Takase and Azeredo (who'd both defeated Anderson Silva) by the time he fought Gomi and would later go on to defeat Shinya Aoki.
Aurelio was 14-3 and was rematching Gomi after having defeated him.
Ishida was 14-2-1 and had defeated Aurelio by the time he fought Gomi and would later go on to defeat fighters like Gilbert Melendez.

Yeah but thats kinda my point, there was t that many LWs in the world so obviously any of them that were fighting would be deemed some of the best LWs in the world and therefore would get higher rankings.

Theres some great wins in there but Gomi is top of that list but has one of the weaker resumes compared to others on the list still, hes top purely because of the infancy of the sport when he was fighting.

There were LWs in the world who would be a legit threat to the LWs in Pride
The problem is that they were forced to get paychecks fighting above their natutal weighclass.

The prime example of it is Sherk, who inexplicable didnt get a 2nd call from Pride and the reason for it is obvious to anybody who isnt ignorant or cynical: Pride didnt want to risk their fan favourite Gomi getting grinded by the rather dull American wrestler.
The reason certainly wasnt that Sherk wasnt thought to be good enough, or that he wasnt able to make the LW limit. It was a pure business move

 

[acannxr]

I just watched Benson vs Pettis 3 in karate combat, and although it wasn’t terrible… it wasn’t very good. So it got me thinking about lightweight and how deep it is. Although some of these guys legacies aren’t completed yet and still seemingly in their prime, I’d like for you to rank them in order on who you think had the better career.

See OP.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

All in all, Bendo did OK in UFC

 

[Doctor Grudge]

lol people bringing up Healy. Guys having a hard concept of not understanding that UFC rankings...only rank people in the UFC.

 

[Barteh]

Khabib has a total of three top 5 wins in his entire career and people pretend he's in the GOAT discussions lmao. This thread completely destroys that narrative.

 

[Benoitthegr8]

I loved me some Prime Fireball Kid, when he was actively at the top of his game and still his passionate about competing IMO he was a top 3 lightweight all time. He could take the fight anywhere, was dangerous everywhere, from 2004-2008 just after pride folded Gomi went on a 17-1-1 tear, he not only beat a majority of the names seen below, he was finishing off the crème of the crop. IMHO Gomi was the best LW on the planet during that stretch, although most people forget is that BJ Penn beat a somewhat green Gomi who was 25 and only 15 fights into his 52 fight career. Gomi said that the loss to BJ was one of the best things that fueled him to become his absolute best, which was yet to come, him winning the Pride LW GrandPrix and onto the Pride LW title, which was not only much deeper, but more prestigious than the UFC titles among the lighter weight classes.

Takanori Gomi

Gomi's resume:

#5 Rumina Sato
#5 Dokonjonosuke Mishima
#7 Ralph Gracie
#2 Jens Pulver
#3 Tatsuya Kawajiri
#2 Hayato Sakurai
#3 Marcus Aurelio
#2 Mitsuhiro Ishida

Gomi has 8 top ten wins.

 

[Benoitthegr8]

 

[Benoitthegr8]

 

[Benoitthegr8]

One of my favorites even if it’s an loss, both fighters performed well