Where do you place Cain on the list of all time great heavyweights?

[Legendary]

Wins over JDS x2, Bigfoot x2, Rothwell, Kongo, Lesnar, Big Nog, Browne

Lost to JDS, Werdum, and Ngannou

Pretty straght forward career with not a ton of fights, lots of rematches, and he either got stopped or dominated his fights.

Cardio Cain is a myth. He only went 5 rounds twice, and went 3 rounds twice, one of which he got submitted. Yes he had better Cardio than most Heavyweights, but that isn't saying much. 11 of his 17 fights ended in the first round. Statistically he was more of a Knockout artist than a grinding wrestler. He never got a submission victory.

Super entertaining fighter and went to decision only twice in his career. I miss heavyweights like him.

Best win? Either Brock or JDS 3. I am going to side with JDS 3 because it was a rubber match between the top 2 heavyweights that were both 29 and 31 years old in their prime. This fight felt huge. Brock was his breakout win, but I would place JDS accomplishments and skills over Brock.

Random thought: Prime Stipe vs Prime Cain would have been a great fight.

I think I still have Fedor as GOAT because he fought Prime Cro Cop and Prime Big Nog, but Stipe has a good argument too.

 

[VAfan]

one of the all-time greats for sure. so many careers cut short due to injury, it's a damn shame.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Wins over JDS x2, Bigfoot x2, Rothwell, Kongo, Lesnar, Big Nog, Browne

Lost to JDS, Werdum, and Ngannou

Pretty straght forward career with not a ton of fights, lots of rematches, and he either got stopped or dominated his fights.

Cardio Cain is a myth. He only went 5 rounds twice, and went 3 rounds twice, one of which he got submitted. Yes he had better Cardio than most Heavyweights, but that isn't saying much. 11 of his 17 fights ended in the first round. Statistically he was more of a Knockout artist than a grinding wrestler. He never got a submission victory.

Super entertaining fighter and went to decision only twice in his career. I miss heavyweights like him.

Best win? Either Brock or JDS 3. I am going to side with JDS 3 because it was a rubber match between the top 2 heavyweights that were both 29 and 31 years old in their prime. This fight felt huge. Brock was his breakout win, but I would place JDS accomplishments and skills over Brock.

Random thought: Prime Stipe vs Prime Cain would have been a great fight.

I think I still have Fedor as GOAT because he fought Prime Cro Cop and Prime Big Nog, but Stipe has a good argument too.

Probably somewhere between 4-5 all time.
Fedor
Stipe
Big nog

Those three are a lock for the top 3 for me. But I have to say he’s in my top 3 most favorite heavyweights to watch all time next to JDS and big nog.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

one of the all-time greats for sure. so many careers cut short due to injury, it's a damn shame.

Jds vs Cain was one of those matchups that got me really into the ufc. Fucking classic man

 

[Legendary]

one of the all-time greats for sure. so many careers cut short due to injury, it's a damn shame.

Yeah the AKA guys all had relatively short Primes dues to way they trained, but also had a lot of champions too.

Jds vs Cain was one of those matchups that got me really into the ufc. Fucking classic man

Couldn't agree more brother. That was the Prime years for the UFC imo.

 

[Elvis.]

I wanted prime Cain vs Ubereem so bad , oh well , that’s life

 

[ledonk]

His potential was greater than his legacy. I think he could have been the best ever if he had more luck with injuries.

 

[Shaolin Alan]

Big Daddy Cain is top-3 in my book

 

[Legendary]

I wanted prime Cain vs Ubereem so bad , oh well , that’s life

Someone was getting KTFO'd.

 

[Fight Professor]

Cain would be the favorite over any fighter in his prime at sea level. But his legacy is probably not top 10.

 

[dog y]

I was sure he'd get demolished by JDS when they faced. No one could touch Ciggie then.
I was just as sure the second time. Ciggie couldn't be more guaranteed to reign on.
Cain did a fantastic job, but his reign is not that impressive. Kongo knocked him down and almost got the finish. Rothwell was a bs stoppage. 3 of his biggest fights were against the same guy, one with gigantism who then wasn't allowed to juice... Anyway.
Id have him around #10-15 all time.

 

[Söze Aldo]

one of the all-time greats for sure. so many careers cut short due to injury, it's a damn shame.

 

[Goatenstein]

Wins over JDS x2, Bigfoot x2, Rothwell, Kongo, Lesnar, Big Nog, Browne

Lost to JDS, Werdum, and Ngannou

Pretty straght forward career with not a ton of fights, lots of rematches, and he either got stopped or dominated his fights.

Cardio Cain is a myth. He only went 5 rounds twice, and went 3 rounds twice, one of which he got submitted. Yes he had better Cardio than most Heavyweights, but that isn't saying much. 11 of his 17 fights ended in the first round. Statistically he was more of a Knockout artist than a grinding wrestler. He never got a submission victory.

Super entertaining fighter and went to decision only twice in his career. I miss heavyweights like him.

Best win? Either Brock or JDS 3. I am going to side with JDS 3 because it was a rubber match between the top 2 heavyweights that were both 29 and 31 years old in their prime. This fight felt huge. Brock was his breakout win, but I would place JDS accomplishments and skills over Brock.

Random thought: Prime Stipe vs Prime Cain would have been a great fight.

I think I still have Fedor as GOAT because he fought Prime Cro Cop and Prime Big Nog, but Stipe has a good argument too.

Prime Cain slaughters any Stipe in under two minutes.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Best.

But not the greatest. All time greats i have to put stipe, JDS, fedor and big big ahead of him

 

[Legendary]

I was sure he'd get demolished by JDS when they faced. No one could touch Ciggie then.
I was just as sure the second time. Ciggie couldn't be more guaranteed to reign on.
Cain did a fantastic job, but his reign is not that impressive. Kongo knocked him down and almost got the finish. Rothwell was a bs stoppage. 3 of his biggest fights were against the same guy, one with gigantism who then wasn't allowed to juice... Anyway.
Id have him around #10-15 all time.

Kongo caught him with one of the biggest shots of his career. He improved a lot over that fight, but yes I agree that his resume doesn't look as good as it once did. The JDS fights are still great victories though. He should have fought Reem and Stipe at some point and that would definitely make his resume look better.

He also was kind of fat. I know that fighters don't have to be super lean to be successful, but it goes to show he still had areas he could have improved on.

Look at him Next to Ngannou. I don't think any version of Cain would have beat Ngannou to be honest. Just too big and only see him having a chance if he got the fight in the 4th or 5th.

 

[tritestill]

Fedor only HW better than Prime Cain.

 

[Aurelian]

Fedor
Stipe
Francis
Cormier

Then Cain. So at #5 I suppose.

I'm basing this on who I think wins most fights against the others, not necessarily resume.

 

[PaulieVegas27]

Eff Cain, Jon Jones is the HW GOAT. Period.

 

[Trabaho]

The Werdum loss was altittude. Werdum announced it, said Cain is comming to late there to aclimate. Cain had the best cardio in mma and totally looked flat and gassed vs Werdum.

Prime Cain can get a top 3 ranking from me. Even at 1 I won't complain.

JDS and Cain in their primes are forgotten. They are easily top 5 all time HW. Just when you fight past prime and lose you get deranked. Unless you are Bj Pen.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Kongo caught him with one of the biggest shots of his career. He improved a lot over that fight, but yes I agree that his resume doesn't look as good as it once did. The JDS fights are still great victories though. He should have fought Reem and Stipe at some point and that would definitely make his resume look better.

He also was kind of fat. I know that fighters don't have to be super lean to be successful, but it goes to show he still had areas he could have improved on.

Look at him Next to Ngannou. I don't think any version of Cain would have beat Ngannou to be honest. Just too big and only see him having a chance if he got the fight in the 4th or 5th.

See I would argue that if you can take prime JDS to the championship rounds, you’re probably capable of the same against ngannou. That was the JDS whose entire title run was something stupid like 9 minutes of ring time or something. He was just killing people with shots as soon as he got in there