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

The UFC could use some HW's like Cain Velasquez right about now.
Cain would've demolished a guy like Ciryl Gane or Tai Tuivasa.
 
Zebra Cheeks said:
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.
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Holy shit. Haven’t seen you in a while.
 
I dunno. Where do you put JDS? Right above him.

I would think Fedor, Couture, Barnett, Werdum, Big Nog, and such would be above him just because they won so many fights in that division and had so much more longevity.
 
Somewhere in 5-10 range.

Tier 1:
Fedor
Nog
Stipe
Werdum

Tier 2:
Reem
Cain
JDS
Cro Cop
Barnett

Tier 3:
Brock
Francis
Coleman
Randy
Arlovski
Kerr
Bas
 
Goatenstein said:
Prime Cain slaughters any Stipe in under two minutes.
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Hmmm stlyistically Cain isn't bad for Stipe. He is open to getting punched, Stipe is a boxer with wrestling. Kongo rocked Cain 3 times. Also ragdolling, Cains style, overwhelm, high pace, ragdoll. Stipe is light on his feet, a boxer and can wrestle. Stipe gets either over or underrated. Due to the timeline he fought in. But he is very legit.
 
Fedor. Then, in no specific order:
Ciggie, Ngannou, Nogueira, Werdum, Stipe, Cain, Barnett, Mir, Couture... JDS and Ngannou both looked unstoppable at their peaks, carcassing everyone swiftly on their ways to the belt. No one had that "unbeatable" aura again. So far.
...
MMA being so young makes this discussion too limited, unlike other sports that have been around for decades or even centuries.
I'm sure most would agree on a top 30 rank ever. It's my top 10, plus Reem, Bigfoot, Nelson, Hunt, Yoshida, Lazer, CroCop, Ricco, Cormier, Sylvia, Arlovski, Coleman...
 
Prime JDS Vs prime Ngannou, both on their ridiculous KO streaks, most of which were seconds into the first round... Both would have total belief they'd KO the other.
IMO JDS would touch Francis' chin with the quickness, a straight out of the bell, while Francis' looping shovel would be his downfall, seconds in.
I used to love MMA so much. I miss it.
 
top 10 definitely. lowkey jds has a better ranking all time than cain, even though he's 1-2 vs him. his win over cain was the most dominant of the trilogy, plus he had better wins on the way up. jds beat werdum, mir, stipe, hunt, cain, cro cop, carwin. his resume is retarded.
 
Legendary said:
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.

ufc-166-velasquez-v-dos-santos-3.jpg
cain-vs-jds-3-one-of-the-gnarliest-beatdowns-i-never-hear-v0-op26aj6vx8kc1.jpeg



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.
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So many ways to look at it.

They way I see it is that Champion run Cain is favored over any champion in any organization.

Others may have better Marque wins, but just two guys in a cage? I think Cain beats all of them.
 
Lawrence said:
So many ways to look at it.

They way I see it is that Champion run Cain is favored over any champion in any organization.

Others may have better Marque wins, but just two guys in a cage? I think Cain beats all of them.
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i don't think prime cain survives against prime fedor's boxing. fedor didn't have fantastic TDD but he did get up well, and had all kinds of sweeps and subs off his back. depends on the ruleset too, i guess. if there's no rules, cain isn't taking fedor down. he can just grab the cage and stay up lol then cain has to box with maybe the best boxer we've ever seen at HW
 
KAZSoliloquy said:
i don't think prime cain survives against prime fedor's boxing. fedor didn't have fantastic TDD but he did get up well, and had all kinds of sweeps and subs off his back. depends on the ruleset too, i guess. if there's no rules, cain isn't taking fedor down. he can just grab the cage and stay up lol then cain has to box with maybe the best boxer we've ever seen at HW
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Hey…. The top guys all had instant finishing powers.

Sure Fedor could win !!!!

I wish we could have seen them go at it.
 
Skills in a vacuum I would bet on him to beat every heavy weight from any era
 
Trabaho said:
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.
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It was in Mexico against a Mexican Cain as well.

Werdum was owning him everywhere giving interviews to Mexican TV in perfect Spanish while was barely putting together sentences.

Cain might just have been done then, he had the belt but he only won one more fight after that Vs Travis Browne.
 
Last edited:
he gets the belt and then half of his career is JDS and antonio silva. I can't rank him higher than 5. Other guys beat more dudes and I think are just more skilled.
 
I have Cain top 5 at least. Surprised more folks aren't rating him this high. I also think that Prime Cain - which only lasted for a short while - was the best heavyweight ever to do it.
 
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