If you wanted to stand your ground you would bring plenty of lighter fighters with better wins skill for skill than Fedor/Jones. not calling GSP.
Be real mate
I think Fedor is a top 10 GOAT but I'm going to play devil's advocate here. If we're talking purely skill for skill there's no comparison between Fedor's level of competition and even a non-champion like Dustin Poirier. This becomes pretty apparent when we go down Fedor's significant wins.
Big Nog: Had decent-ish boxing and mediocre wrestling; mostly relied on being great off his back. Yet still somehow the second greatest HW at the time. At lightweight he'd have a middle-of-the-pack skillset, akin to Oliveira if Oliveira didn't have dangerous standup.
Cro Cop: A kickboxer with decent takedown defense (I say decent because it was pretty good in the ring but not so good in the cage). Would get eaten alive by the grapplers at LW. He would be most similar to Edson Barboza, who also struggled with pressure.
Andrei Arlovski: One of the few fighters Fedor fought who was dangerous anywhere the fight went.
Ricardo Arona: Arona is like Jose Aldo if Jose Aldo had really shitty boxing.
Kevin Randleman: His LW equivalent would be Melvin Guillard—wrestling background, super athletic, powerful, but also lacks much development at all both on the feet and on the ground (particularly regarding submissions).
Mark Hunt: There is no one like Hunto at LW, because all of Hunt's strengths have to do with him being a 280 lb Samoan. Regardless, no one with the submission defense of Mark Hunt would ever make it in the UFC at LW. Dude was getting submitted by middleweights.
Tim Sylvia: Infamously, most of Sylvia's advantages have to do with him being fucking huge rather than actual appreciable athleticism/skill. It is hard to imagine someone with the skills of Sylvia becoming champion at any division other than heavyweight. And even then he's probably still more well-rounded than Randleman or Mark Hunt.
Mark Coleman: Mark Coleman's skillset is that he can wrestle at a high level for one or two rounds before gassing out. That's pretty much it.
Pedro Rizzo: Like Arlovski, dangerous everywhere except the version Fedor fought was shot.
Heath Herring: More well-rounded than a lot of these dudes; would probably still be a middle of the road lightweight like Jim Miller or something.
Gary Goodridge: Was never all that good anywhere; developed
decent striking later in his career?
Semmy Schilt: Fedor's win over Schilt is like if Giorgio Petrosyan suddenly decided to enter the cage with Islam Makhachev. Like it wouldn't tell us anything that we didn't know.
Renato Sobral: Actually skilled; but very one-dimensional and of course undersized. At LW he'd be an even less well-rounded version of Renato Moicano.
Jeff Monson: Also far too one-dimensional to get anywhere at LW.
Satoshi Ishii: Karo Parisyan with worse standup.
Matt Lindland: Pretty good on the ground but hardly should be a commendable win for Fedor considering that he's a bona fide middleweight.
Skill for skill only a couple of these guys have the well-rounded skillsets of LWs. Most of them are only really skilled at one thing or another, and would get horribly exposed at lightweight. The reason why Fedor is a GOAT regardless is because he's in a division where just having power or a lucky punch can trump all your skill advantage and yet he still went 28 wins in a row. And relative to their division, a lot of these guys are still great wins. Not really comparable to LW skillsets though.
