Who Has Fought The Toughest Competition Upon Entering UFC?

PrepareForGlory said:
I'll go for a lesser known one.
Desmond Green

Fought Emmett (11-0), Prazeres (23-2), Khabilov (21-3), Tibau, and now Taisumov (27-5).

Take out Tibau, who is a solid veteran gatekeeper, and the guys have a record of 82-10 when Green fought them.

And because Emmett moved down, Prazeres moved up, and the UFC hates Russians..not one of those guys is ranked despite their gaudy records and UFC records. These guys aren't can crushing either. Prazeres (7) , Khabilov (5) and Taisumov(5) are on a combined 17 fight UFC win streak right now

LW is a fucking shark tank.
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I doubt that Taisumov fight is happening at this point, unfortunately.
 
Cylence said:
Eddie himself faced a murderers row considering who they were in the division at the time.

- Cowboy, during his reign of terror over contenders in the lightweight division. Was on a four fight win streak, would go on to win three more, and eventually challenge for the title.

- Melendez, who was one fight removed from challenging for the title and who everyone had ranked at least top five, if not top three at the time.

- Pettis, who was one fight removed from being champion.

- RDA, who was the champion, 10-1 in his last eleven, and on a five fight win streak with names like Bendo, Nate, Pettis, and Cowboy.
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And to extend: Conor, poirer, gaethje, poirer. Insane
 
Make Sherdog Great Again said:
According to who? All sources say Mir was ranked in the UFC top 10 in 2008, some say top 5.
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You need new sources then.

Out for 2 years then 2-2 in your last 4 with your wins being Dan Christison and Antoni Hardonk is not top 5 or 10
 
YOLOGOGOPLATA said:
This crossed my mind after the Gaethje fight this weekend. He was immediately thrown to the wolves against Michael Johnson, who is never an easy out and has some of the fastest hands out there. Then he fought the ex-champ and renowned brawler Eddie Alvarez. Next was Dustin Diamond who, again, is a very skilled brawler and if the UFC made fights based on merit has a great claim to a title shot behind the LW holy trinity. Vick was a step down but still respectable.

I'm a relatively new fan so while I've watched all the legends, I wasn't around to witness the Pride greats crossing over to UFC. In recent times Brock Lesnar comes to mind as well. He definitely got matched up with killers to start his UFC career and did very well, eventually capturing the belt.

Who comes to mind when you all think of a fighter who immediately began facing elite competition as soon as they began fighting in the UFC?
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Jake Ellenberger has to be up there:
Condit
Shields
Koscheck
Kampmann
Gastelum
Masvidal
Lawler
Brown
Wonderboy
Rory
Marquardt
Diego
Saffeidine
Hieron


That is a fucking murderers row and some of the best WWs of all time. God damn
 
Lawrence said:
It's a really good question... With a lot of good answers.

Jake Shields fought some greats.

Condit's lineup is all top guys until recently.

Jose Aldo entered as Champion and fought #1 contenders

Faber fought only top 5 guys I think until he stooped down to fight Bruce Leroy.

Reem fought all top guys.

Big Nog

Heck.. Tonya Evenger made her UFC debuit against Cyborg.
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I dunno why I didn’t think about Aldo, obviously being WEC champ he fought monsters. Wasn’t his first 3 round UFC fight just a month ago? Good lookin out!
 
Charles Oliveira comes to mind - I was always high on him as a prospect but thought he was given some lofty challenges upon entering the UFC.

1 - Elkins
2 - Escudero
3 - Jim Miller
4 - Lentz
5 - Cerrone

Also went on to fight Swanson, and Edgar, Stephens, Holloway, Pettis. I think given a better shake he might have fared differently.
 
Mamou said:
You need new sources then.

Out for 2 years then 2-2 in your last 4 with your wins being Dan Christison and Antoni Hardonk is not top 5 or 10
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First you said "not top 10 or 15", now you've changed that to "not top 5 or 10". Your back-peddling will not go unnoticed.

Are you referring to your own personal ranking? If so, that's irrelevant.

If you are referring to somewhat documented/official HW rankings for the time, then provide sources that show he was not in the top 10 or 15 at the time.

Here's 3 sources stating that he was ranked in the top 5:

https://www.mmafighting.com/2008/08/12/mmafightingcom-ufc-rankings-for-august-2008
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/86339-ufc-total-rankings-november-2008
https://insidepulse.com/2008/03/03/ufc-rankings-march-2008/

Let's see your sources showing him not to be top 10 or 15.
 
Brock. Dude fought killers with less than 5 fights under his belt. Never ducked or dodged like another HW pride “goat” fighter that nerds on here like to idolize.
 
Make Sherdog Great Again said:
First you said "not top 10 or 15", now you've changed that to "not top 5 or 10". Your back-peddling will not go unnoticed.

Are you referring to your own personal ranking? If so, that's irrelevant.

If you are referring to somewhat documented/official HW rankings for the time, then provide sources that show he was not in the top 10 or 15 at the time.

Here's 3 sources stating that he was ranked in the top 5:

https://www.mmafighting.com/2008/08/12/mmafightingcom-ufc-rankings-for-august-2008
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/86339-ufc-total-rankings-november-2008
https://insidepulse.com/2008/03/03/ufc-rankings-march-2008/

Let's see your sources showing him not to be top 10 or 15.
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So your sources are from after their fight... Brilliant

Here's mine

http://www.fightmatrix.com/historic...ated-historical-rankings/?Issue=73&Division=1
 
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Mamou said:
So your sources are from after their fight... Brilliant

Here's mine

http://www.fightmatrix.com/historic...ated-historical-rankings/?Issue=73&Division=1
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That's what I could find as close as possible to when the fight occurred. Are you of the belief that Mir getting a win over an unranked fighter in 2008 propelled him from outside the top 15 into the top 5?

You've provided 1 single source, which you obviously didn't even look at properly because it's an overall HW ranking for the time, not UFC HW rankings and therefore completely irrelevant. Also, remove all the non-UFC fighters from your rankings and Mir is placed at number 13.

Try again please.
 
Make Sherdog Great Again said:
That's what I could find as close as possible to when the fight occurred. Are you of the belief that Mir getting a win over an unranked fighter in 2008 propelled him from outside the top 15 into the top 5?

You've provided 1 single source, which you obviously didn't even look at properly because it's an overall HW ranking for the time, not UFC HW rankings and therefore completely irrelevant. Also, remove all the non-UFC fighters from your rankings and Mir is placed at number 13.

Try again please.
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So #13 isn't top 5?

And I looked at it properly, because MMA has been and always will be more than just the UFC. More than half of the top 15 HWs were outside of the UFC at that time. Being a top 10 UFC HW wasn't that impressive, and the fact that Mir wasn't even that proves my point even more.
 
Greco_Wiz said:
Lesnar.

Mir (top 5)
HH (top 10)
Randy (top 5)
Mir again (top 5)
Carwin (top 5)
Cain (top 5)
Overreem (top 5)
Hunt (top 10)

Most were actually top 3 in the division when Lesnar fought them. Out of his 8 UFC fights, 8 have been against top 10 ranked opponents.
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This.

No MMA fighter has ever had a higher percentage of absolute killers on their resume.

Not even close, really.
 
JDS had a hell of a run. 1st fight against freaking Werdum. One of the best SOS I've seen.

  1. Werdum
  2. Struve
  3. Cro Cop
  4. Yvel
  5. Gonzaga
  6. Nelson
  7. Carwin
  8. Cain
  9. Mir
  10. Cain
  11. Hunt
  12. Cain
  13. Stipe
  14. Reem
  15. Big Ben
  16. Stipe
 
Jake O'Brien fought Heath Herring, then Andre Arlovski, then Cain Velasquez. He finally got a step down against Christian Wellisch, but after winning he got fed to a young Jon Jones and then was cut.

Post UFC he got two wins in lower organizations and then debuted in Dream against Mousasi.
 
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