It’s Yoel. Look at the skills and look at the fact that he has never been blown away in a fight at MW and that his only convincing loss is the loss in the first Whittaker fight. He’s put every opponent he has fought through absolute hell. The belts cloud people’s judgements. Yoel causes any and every middleweight ever a ton of problems. I doubt many people will agree but in my book I’d seriously put him as #2.
Yoel would wreck Rich Franklin and would wreck most of the guys who were Franklin’s signature wins. Franklin was a good fighter but he just would not beat many of the elite middleweights of the past 5 years. In fact I think he’d be blown away by them.
Whittaker is up there but Yoel kicked his ass in the rematch and then he got blown away by Izzy and didn’t look on his level. Something something about Yoel having a bad eye and ignoring the fact that Whittaker was on his last legs on three occasions. He’s certainly one of the best ever already but I think to get to #2 he would have to beat Adesanya or at least beat Gastelum and Costa and hope that Adesanya is beaten by Costa. I see Whittaker unfortunately falling off and declining.
Weidman has the best win at MW ever but apart from that he didn’t do much. His win over Machida is quality but then he beat a deflated Vitor and then was destroyed in every fight since except for getting a nice win over Gastelum. I can’t take him seriously as the #2 after seeing him get exposed time after time in his prime against opponents who were in their primes. Wins over Maia and Munoz on his run to the title are cool but I really feel that he was a product of good timing more than anything else. You just can’t get blown away in your prime the amount of times he has either.
I don’t think it’s Hendo. He’s right up there but he had his losses and I just don’t find him as impressive as Yoel when we are talking about middleweights. Hendo at least put in work over a number of years and picked up several good wins.
It’s not Jacare. Good fighter with a lot of really solid wins and consistency over the years, but unfortunately he wasn’t given the opportunities he deserved. Great fighter though and I had him beating Gastelum which would have been another excellent win.
Luke has some great wins and only 2 defeats at MW in his prime but the gaping holes in his game mean that he can’t be #2. He’d get murdered by Whittaker, Adesanya, Costa, and Prime Anderson. I also think somebody like Rich Franklin could also beat him.
Mousasi has some good wins but he’s too hot and cold. Jacare is probably his best win but after that he has wins against fighters who were mostly out of their primes. Vitor. Hendo, even Weidman etc.
Vitor hasn’t been mentioned but he fought 9 times as a middleweight in what could be considered his prime and won 8 fights all by finish and only lost once to the best ever. Vitor was juiced but who wasn’t. Guy gets underrated sometimes I feel.
Adesanya will most likely become #2 after a few more fights as time is on his side and there’s not really any match ups for him that I would consider nightmare ones.
