Who Has the Better Wins - Merab or Cruz?

Cruz. Everyone in his list he beat in prime form including a MM, Faber and TJ. Yeah yeah DJ is a natural FlyW but he was 7-2 at BW before a 125 division was made.

Merab's best wins are over Umar and shot versions of Aldo and cejudo.
 
Cruz fought a lot more peak fighters and that makes a huge difference. Cruzs career spans multiple generations of fighters too.
 
Merab's style is more dominating, but Dom's resume is stronger. What solidifies Dom's resume is beating Mighty Mouse & Urijah Faber compared to Merab beating an aged Aldo & a washed up Cejudo. The rest of Merab's resume is pretty good tho.
 
Merab by a country mile.

A-level wins for Merab: Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, Sean O’Malley, Umar Nurmagomedov

A-level wins for Cruz: T.J. Dillashaw

I'm talking about legit championship level.

It was a green and out-of-weight class Mighty Mouse who was not champion level at 135 at any point in his career.

Faber was a champion in the infancy of the division but not on that level once the division started getting deep.
 
In hindsight maybe Merab but at time fights occurred Cruz by a mile.
 
Today’s fighters are better but for their time … Cruz’s opponents were better.
 
fortheo said:
People will forget the context of a lot of Cruz's fights while remembering the recent context of Merab's fights.

Joe B was undefeated when Cruz beat him. Cruz gave him the first two losses of his career.

Bowles was an undefeated champ who stopped Miguel Torres' 17 fight win streak to get the belt.

Faber was a former champ and on a tear beating everyone who wasn't a champ.

TJ was in his peak and on roids

Mizugaki was on a 5 fight UFC streak and on the streak of his life when Cruz came back from injury and stopped him in one round.

Merab has a lot of great wins, arguably against bigger names, but from the 7 you listed, only o'malley, umar and aldo were coming off win streaks when facing him.
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^ This.

Although I will say that Cruz and Merab have dominated in such distinct ways.

Cruz is arguably the GOAT at movement-based angle striking. No one made people miss as badly as Cruz during his prime. Until Cody, no one could figure him out.

Merab has the greatest non-stop pressure game I've ever seen. No one can handle it.
 
Bend NvR Break said:
Cruz. Everyone in his list he beat in prime form including a MM, Faber and TJ. Yeah yeah DJ is a natural FlyW but he was 7-2 at BW before a 125 division was made.
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DJ killed himself to make 125. He looked horrible. Way too emaciated.

135 was his natural weight class.
 
theincognito said:
Faber was a champion in the infancy of the division but not on that level once the division started getting deep.
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Urijah in his prime was a savage. Had hands, could wrestle, & had a ground game. Most of his tenure in the UFC was when he was on the decline, but the first couple times fighting Dom, he was a legitimate threat. Beating Urijah is a big reason why Dom became known as one of the best 135'ers in the game.
 
fortheo said:
People will forget the context of a lot of Cruz's fights while remembering the recent context of Merab's fights.

Joe B was undefeated when Cruz beat him. Cruz gave him the first two losses of his career.

Bowles was an undefeated champ who stopped Miguel Torres' 17 fight win streak to get the belt.

Faber was a former champ and on a tear beating everyone who wasn't a champ.

TJ was in his peak and on roids

Mizugaki was on a 5 fight UFC streak and on the streak of his life when Cruz came back from injury and stopped him in one round.

Merab has a lot of great wins, arguably against bigger names, but from the 7 you listed, only o'malley, umar and aldo were coming off win streaks when facing him.
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You're very right but Yan is a really really good fight even though he was coming off multiple losses. he's a fantastic fighter
 
KO Shotz said:
Urijah in his prime was a savage. Had hands, could wrestle, & had a ground game. Most of his tenure in the UFC was when he was on the decline, but the first couple times fighting Dom, he was a legitimate threat. Beating Urijah is a big reason why Dom became known as one of the best 135'ers in the game.
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I know he was very good (so was Benavidez) but I was limiting it to champions.

(I know he was WEC champion but there were like 10 people in the division at the time so it's not quite the same as those other champions)
 
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