Media Who is the Greatest MMA fighter of all-time?

[BFoe]

Lmao you can’t be serious. Crazy rings rules that didn’t allow ground and pound to the head? Pride rules that banned elbows on the ground? Fedors record wasn’t very good in the cage under unified rules. Granted he was old by then, but still. Hell Strikeforce didn’t even allow elbows on the ground when Fedor fought there.

Who
Cares
About
Ruleset?

If you have a GOAT debate, the logical candidates are the GOATs of each division. That’s Mighty Mouse, Cruz, Aldo, Khabib, GSP, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, and Fedor.
Adding Stipe because he was really successful HW in the octagon under unified rules isn’t any more logical than adding Bas Rutten because he was so successful in Pancrase. Both are good fighters, but neither are GOATs.

 

[I WILL CUT YOU]

I actually rank every single fighter mentioned in this poll above Khabib.

Every one, by a lot.

Khabib just doesn't have the wins to compete with the real GOATs.

 

[I WILL CUT YOU]

Nagonnou. No one in mma could do anything to him.
He was winning Wilder also until he lost.

Huh? Stipe and Black Beast beat him.

Wtf who says Frank is a goat lmao

 

[jeff7b9]

This is an all time goat poll not ww goat poll. And even if GSP was WW goat now as 15 years ago, what about LW, FW, LHW, HW?

My my comment isn’t just about 15 years, it’s about time passing and things change. In general, fans pick fighters as Goats during the time that they watch them. So in 50 years when we’re all dead, new MMA fans in 2074 is not going to know GSP or Jon Jones are. They are going to know the fighters in their time. And they are more likely to anoint their great fighters Goats or say “Anderson Silva or Khabib doesn’t stand a chance against their guys”.

People in generally wants to anoint fighters in the era that they watch as GOATs because they want to be a part of the best. No one ever wants to be a part of the 2nd best.

Not necessarily.

Boxing fans will still put guys like Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, and Muhammed Ali in prominent positions in similar polls even though their primes were 50 or more years ago.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

In terms of the level and length of domination measured against quality of opposition, its Jon Jones. Yeah hes a sociopath, hes a cheat, he should have lost at least one of those Reyes/Santos fights and hes ducking Aspinall like he ducked Ngannou, but it is what it is - 16 years in the UFC, never knocked out or tapped out, rarely even tested.

 

[Dionysian]

Come on bro, other than Nog (x2) and Mirko, who did Fedor beat when he was champ?

He became the #1 HW on the planet in 2003. After that he remained undefeated for 7 years, also obtaining the #1 P4P spot which is unheard of before or after for a HW (minus Dana all by himself trying to sway the rankings now to benefit a HW with exactly 1 win).

In that time he beat basically every single ranked HW of that period (minus three that fate robbed us of in Josh, Sergei, and Randy) to include Nog, Herring, Coleman, Randleman, Sylvia, Arlovski, Hunt, Cro Cop, and fought a beyond-active schedule also having no blemishes vs a litany of HWs that all had the HW-puncher-chance to upset any of his fights.

He did all this in the golden age of HW, which had more skill than any time before or after, and which looked 100X times better than today where there grappling is almost nonexistent and the premeire org somehow gave a dude who had 0 grappling and fought 0 grapplers in his lifetime two title shots.

In addition to dominating his division, dominating P4P rankings as a HW, and having the most ranked wins of any HW in MMA history, he always came to fight to finish every single time (making his streak of not getting caught even more amazing). He, more than any other HW in MMA history, had the most obvious "Tyson effect" where his opponents were intimidated before they even competed against him. He also was always the most well-rounded HW in the sport (both before and after his era) and represented the sport as a complete mixed martial artist.

He also did all this while never cheating.

So yeah... Fedor.

 

[Pierced7681]

Who
Cares
About
Ruleset?

If you have a GOAT debate, the logical candidates are the GOATs of each division. That’s Mighty Mouse, Cruz, Aldo, Khabib, GSP, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, and Fedor.
Adding Stipe because he was really successful HW in the octagon under unified rules isn’t any more logical than adding Bas Rutten because he was so successful in Pancrase. Both are good fighters, but neither are GOATs.

Out of your entire list there, only Fedor didn’t fight in his prime under the unified rules. Seems odd to include him over the actual unified rules goat Stipe. Why not add Wanderlei for his 16 fight win streak under Pride rules? Hell Igor was 42-2 under nhb/Pride rules before he lost to Coleman. He should be on the list as well shouldnt he?

 

[fedorthegoat777]

For your selections:

1. Fedor
2. GSP
3. MM
4. Aldo
5. Jones
6. Silva




7. Khabib

I like it.
You could almost put a little gap between #1 & #2.

 

[AmonTobin]

Out of this list, Demetrius Johnson, Georges St. Pierre, and Jose Aldo have been standouts in the sport and yet never failed a drug test. They are superheroes without the super soldier serum.

 

[pick999]

Conor if you count who has the biggest influence in mma

 

[BigOlJeet]

I don't know for HW, I don't think anyone will surpass Fedor. He was quite unique fighter/specimen.

But don't get back to what you said, yes that's part of the evolution of this sport or any sport for that matter. You can say that it will always be constantly changing, it's never going to be stagnant the athletes you consider the GOATs of their respective sports.

The sport didn’t evolve, people just fought safer.

 

[Iroh]

It's sad that people still start off with; it's Jon if you don't disqualify him for PEDs... And what about all the eye pokes? Why do people seemingly forget about that or just not take it seriously?

 

[Elegant]

It's nice to see people have finally came to their senses around here and have Jones rightfully placed ahead of GSP on the votes

Jones going up to HW and flawlessly beating the #1 guy in the division everyone was saying was a nightmare matchup for Jones only further cemented that

You can't have a guy who was finished twice in his career ranked ahead of a guy who never even lost let alone was finished

 

[pamirec]

GSP in my book. Jones could’ve been number one if it wasn’t for the fighting related controversies. I’m not against Fedor being #1 for some people, either. He had that unbeatable aura for so long back then.

 

[pamirec]

You're overlooking the eye pokes, the cherry picking of fights, the rules the UFC has bent or broken for Jones and the mysterious lay-off that ended when Francis left. Jones has single-handedly turned the HW division into a joke.

It's a lot more than the PEDs that prevent us from calling him the GOAT.

True. That’s why, I say “fighting related controversies”, cause it’s not just teh juice. Dude’s definitely GOAT champ for the number of fuckups both inside and outside the cage.

 

[AstralPanda]

Jones if PEDs are ignored. GSP if not.

No comment on this one lol

 

[AstralPanda]

You're overlooking the eye pokes, the cherry picking of fights, the rules the UFC has bent or broken for Jones and the mysterious lay-off that ended when Francis left. Jones has single-handedly turned the HW division into a joke.

It's a lot more than the PEDs that prevent us from calling him the GOAT.

Seems like yourself and many hate Jones too much for your opinion to be worth much anyways.

A goat poll isn't about how much a fighter hurt your feelings

Or how much you dislike their personality

It's about who is, objectively, the greatest fighter who has ever fought in the sport.

Who has accomplished the most, has the most impressive resume.

I think a lot of fans are disqualified by this basis alone.

 

[AstralPanda]

True. That’s why, I say “fighting related controversies”, cause it’s not just teh juice. Dude’s definitely GOAT champ for the number of fuckups both inside and outside the cage.

Mike Tyson has a worse resume outside the cage. Far worse.

I don't think that's really relevant when analyzing just how Good Mike was at his peak either.

This isn't the ultimate personality championships

A lot of fighters are crazy, polarizing humans who are chaos embodied. This has been the case since fighting has existed.

They're warriors.

Add cameras, no privacy and the vices and vultures of Hollywood into the mix.. you have a recipe that would make a lot of people look pretty bad.

People that believe they're these virtuous judges looking down on these athletes or public figures would be swallowed whole by like 10% of what they deal with.

Those things need to be separated.

 

[Urluberluu]

GSP 2 belt , long win streak
Beat the only two guy who beat him

 

[Kb7]

It’s Jones and it’s not close. Lol at people saying a Fedor, he had 4 great wins in his entire career and was “out of his prime” once he started fighting great comp consistently.

Jones
GSP
Anderson
Demetrius
Aldo

Fedors management ruined his prime and tail end of his career.