Where do you rate prime Gomi on the all time lw list

[kickpuncher]

15-20 range maybe. Last decade of his career brings him way down. One of the bigger UFC busts, probably even worse than Cro Cop's UFC run. You can't ignore the run he had in Shooto and Pride. Still I'd say he's been surpassed by a few names through the years in the all time rankings.

Same thing as with BJ: the longer you stick around past your prime and take those hard L's, the more you damage your legacy.

If you actually compare Gomi's decline vs BJ, it started much sooner for BJ, around 2010, whereas Gomi's really starts at 2011. BJ only had 1 win after 2010, whereas Gomi had 4 wins after 2011.

 

[kickpuncher]

Low. I know sherdog loves Gomi bit he was never the best lw imo. And like Penn he hung around a long time racking up losses. Guys I'd have to rank over him off the top of my head:

Penn
Alvarez
Bendo
Pettis
RDA
Khabib
Ferguson

Yeah I think when you consider best of all time you really have to look at a person's record and fights during their prime. Unless guys start to retire at 32 like GSP, many will fight into their twilight years raking up losses. Even the greatest of all time like Fedor and Anderson S have racked up consistent losses past their physical peak. I've always argued that the physical peak is around 24-30(ish). Mileage is also a big factor.

 

[kalabula]

6,7,8ish?

Penn really f'd his legacy up, so id have khabib, alvarez, henderson, and BJ before 2010/2011 ahead of 'em, but it's really cluttered. RDA, Aoki, Melendez are somewhere in the clusterfuck.

It’s a weird thing that a fighter can almost erase his great prime wins with losses later in there career. I don’t necessarily disagree because in bj’s case, I kind of feel the same. But, when I look at it rationally, it shouldn’t have an impact.

 

[Mike]

Yeah I think when you consider best of all time you really have to look at a person's record and fights during their prime. Unless guys start to retire at 32 like GSP, many will fight into their twilight years raking up losses. Even the greatest of all time like Fedor and Anderson S have racked up consistent losses past their physical peak. I've always argued that the physical peak is around 24-30(ish). Mileage is also a big factor.

I don't necessarily disagree, but like it or not fans do factor losses. When I was growing up a lot of people had RJJ as the P4P best ever. Pretty much nobody thinks that anymore though.

At any rate if we do stack up just his prime wins, we're left with the fact that his resume doesn't stack up and hasn't aged well. There are a lot of guys with more wins over better competition, with fewer losses in their prime.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

If you actually compare Gomi's decline vs BJ, it started much sooner for BJ, around 2010, whereas Gomi's really starts at 2011. BJ only had 1 win after 2010, whereas Gomi had 4 wins after 2011.

Gomi's decline started in 2008, before he came to the UFC. He was #1, and lost to an absolute nobody called Golyaev, it was Sherdog's upset of the year. Then got submitted fast by Kitaoka.
At this point he wasn't training hard.

 

[Gambit MMA]

At this point hes #5 if not out of the top 5 now like in the 6-10 range

Think on my list he might be 6. With the rise of khabib and tony hes fallen a few spots

 

[wlu.29]

I don’t know about his ranking

at one time, he definitely had a claim to be legit #1 LW in the world

Whenever that time was, bj was there, so bj always had one up on him

 

[chinarice]

Low end of top 10 at the absolute best but I'm thinking he's lower than that

 

[fedorlegenda]

Top 10

 

[JKS]

I'd have him anywhere from 5-10

 

[spinitch]

In the year of the rodents, I rank the hamster one of my favorites. He fought for the fans. No background BS. Wish him well.

 

[Escabar]

Top 5, in his prime he was a beast and the number 1 guy in the most stacked division in mma. Additionally nearly all the top lightweights were in Pride minus Shaolin and Penn was fighting at welter and even middle at the time. A prime Gomi would wreck majority of lightweights today.

 

[acannxr]

I think you have to really judge his career pre ufc and put that guy on a list with Khabib, Aoki, bj, tony, frankie, Chandler, Benson, RDA, Eddie, Ceronne..etc....where would you put Gomi. is he top 10? top 5? not top 10?

Gomi is top five.

 

[Bacco]

Khabib is #1 based on domination, Penn would be #1-3 if he stopped fighting in like 2011

15-20 range maybe. Last decade of his career brings him way down.

If we don't speak current ranking, when talking about best ever i don't consider how fighters handle the later part of their career

You got some like Fedor who keept fight well beyond prime and "ruined" his record, on other hand you got a GSP who retired as soon he felt decline arrived

Even if they handled careers in opposite ways, for both i think the greatness is to find in their best period/prime years

PS: i think Khabib is easily LW goat

 

[cmw43]

Back when he had 24 wins and 2 losses he was an absolute beast but he stayed in the game waaaay too long and age and injury caught up to him.

 

[dildos]

#2 behind BJ.

 

[KID Yamamoto]

I think you have to really judge his career pre ufc and put that guy on a list with Khabib, Aoki, bj, tony, frankie, Chandler, Benson, RDA, Eddie, Ceronne..etc....where would you put Gomi. is he top 10? top 5? not top 10?

He won the Lightweight tournament which had every relevant Lightweights on earth fighting each other at the time outside of Thompson and I guess Caol uno (Gilbert melendez was a FW and Penn was fuckin around at Openweight/Welter)
Most modern fans won't rate this at all though because they lack a historical understanding.

 

[KID Yamamoto]

He also slept the UFC LW champ Jens Pulver who was a consistent top 5 LW and FW in the world at the time. Pulver Held wins over Penn, Caol Uno and Hallman. Pulver IMO is one of the best boxers the divisions have seen.

Gomi slept him in the first.
On a technical level Gomi is pretty much a Gatheje prototype but was very ahead of the game in his use of body shots to slow down his opponents, Something many to this day still cannot achieve.

His main issues were careless double legs which would get him caught in subs and losing passion for fighting post knocking out MACH. Instead of training with Genki Sudo's gym and doing rounds at AKA he pretty much just did low amount of work and relied on his ability to launch absurd power. He wasn't gifted like Conor and Penn in terms of power and hand speed. But his crazy chin/big ass head and his form while throwing produced absurd power.

 

[Logan M]

I think you have to really judge his career pre ufc and put that guy on a list with Khabib, Aoki, bj, tony, frankie, Chandler, Benson, RDA, Eddie, Ceronne..etc....where would you put Gomi. is he top 10? top 5? not top 10?

Top 10. He was dominant over very good competition but was too much of a lazy drunk to really make it over the top. He had the talent and chin to be a GOAT but never trained that hard.

 

[Fesaine]

1. Baby Jay
2. Gomi

The rest.

LOL thanks for the laugh.