Who is the least skilled male UFC Champion of all time ?

filthybliss said:
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Skarsgard said:
Modern era: Tim Sylvia. He was just big in an era where that was enough. His boxing and kickboxing weren't anything to write home about. His grappling was nonexistent.
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Total revisionist bullshit. By your logic, Gan McGee would be the best HW champ back then; he was bigger and more athletic than Tim but had nowhere near the skill. How about Wes Sims?

Tim trained at a top camp for YEARS and had many elite wins over guys who were still relevant for a decade + after that. Many fighters are big but Tim actually could use his reach extremely well, he had heavy hands, a great chin, and had good cardio which is very surprising for a huge guy.

Everyone on here blows Fedor but yet completely shits on Tim despite the latter being one of Fedor's most credible wins. Funny how that works, eh? No one seems to think Nog is a bum or a "product of his time" and yet he got his ass handed to him by Tim until scoring a miracle submission.

Did Tim start to panic-tap after having his arm broken for not tapping against Mir? Yes. Did he suffer some extremely embarrassing losses and become very undisciplined with his weight in his later career? Yes.

But that doesn't nullify the success he had in his prime. If the UFC had a 16-0 undefeated HW Champion with 14 finishes in modern day, people who be creaming their jeans hyping him as a GOAT contender (Remember the Sergei Pavlovich hype??). Tim is not a candidate for best HW of all time but if you think he is the most unskilled male champion of all time, you are an absolute noob.
 
Pierced7681 said:
He’s a stud athlete, but was never great at anything other than having cardio. I think Forrest is a solid pick for least skilled. He had zero pop in his punches and his wrestling and submissions weren’t great.
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I think his skill was there. I just don't think he had the raw athleticism that creates finishes. Sort of the opposite of someone like Guillard.
 
FreddieRoachsVoice said:
Total revisionist bullshit. By your logic, Gan McGee would be the best HW champ back then; he was bigger and more athletic than Tim but had nowhere near the skill. How about Wes Sims?

Tim trained at a top camp for YEARS and had many elite wins over guys who were still relevant for a decade + after that. Many fighters are big but Tim actually could use his reach extremely well, he had heavy hands, a great chin, and had good cardio which is very surprising for a huge guy.

Everyone on here blows Fedor but yet completely shits on Tim despite the latter being one of Fedor's most credible wins. Funny how that works, eh? No one seems to think Nog is a bum or a "product of his time" and yet he got his ass handed to him by Tim until scoring a miracle submission.

Did Tim start to panic-tap after having his arm broken for not tapping against Mir? Yes. Did he suffer some extremely embarrassing losses and become very undisciplined with his weight in his later career? Yes.

But that doesn't nullify the success he had in his prime. If the UFC had a 16-0 undefeated HW Champion with 14 finishes in modern day, people who be creaming their jeans hyping him as a GOAT contender (Remember the Sergei Pavlovich hype??). Tim is not a candidate for best HW of all time but if you think he is the most unskilled male champion of all time, you are an absolute noob.
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good points, and he did shit his pants in the ring (and still won, iirc)
 
Michael bisping and Sean Strickland, off the top, those are like the luckiest fighters I can think of at the moment
 
Dr. Rose said:
good points, and he did shit his pants in the ring (and still won, iirc)
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He did lol. Tim is a very easy person to make fun of and he was actually bullied his entire upbringing and at Miletich (I read many UFC fighters' books back in the day including Tim's).

He had an awkward build, an awkward demeanor, he was on Blind Freakin Date (and didn't get the 2nd date lol), he crapped his pants in the cage while fighting with an illness, he got absolutely dummied by 2 of the most popular fighters of all time, and he showed up massively overweight to a freak show fight with a dinosaur boxer who knocked him out cold in seconds. His weight issues/scooter appearances in later years have also became more remembered than his career for modern fans.

With that being said, the guy was a legitimately good fighter in his prime and was absolutely a contemporary of all of the Pride legends who still get slobbered over today despite them having many embarrassing performances themselves in their later years.

Tim absolutely massacred Ricco Rodriguez who went on to get completely robbed of a decision against Prime Nog in his very next fight. Tim himself whooped Nog for 2 rounds (nearly a 10-8 1st round) years later before insta-tapping to a choke.

He beat Arlovski twice (and survived an overhand right from Prime Arlovski when he actually let the hands go and had a 100% finishing rate)... the same Arlovski who was giving Fedor problems not long after and was still in the UFC until this year.

People laugh to no end about him losing to Ray Mercer but less than a year before that, he was Fedor's 1st top 5 opponent in 3 years so if Tim is a joke, what does that say about Fedor? lol

In fact, examine this stat: the Mighty Undefeated Fedor fought 7 times between 2005 and 2008 and only fought 2 top 10 opponents (Cro Cop and Mark Hunt) despite being the undisputed #1 in the world. Apparently the world needed to see Zulu and Hongman Choi try to make history <lmao>
 
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HHJ said:
SHUTTIN THE HATRED DOWN


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Bisping was incredibly skilled , he just lacked the raw athleticism. Can't believe anyone is saying him.

Sylvia wasn't nearly as bad as he's made out to be either. Just slow. Still made it work (to our entertainments detriment later in his title reign)
 
Jamahal is a fair answer for modern day standards. His striking has some glarinf technical flaws and I don't surmise his ground game is anything to write home about)

What Alex lacks in the grappling department he more than makes up for extremely technical striking.
 
Belal, he's been finished, knocked down, and had his head bounced all over the canvas several times

He's champ due to luck and timing


 
Also, to answer OP's question, I will go out on a limb and say Kevin Randleman. I can instantly hear the Pride fanboys cry out as he was responsible for several legendary highlights but here are my thoughts:

Find 1 other champion from the non-tournament days who is as one-dimensional as Randleman. The guy started as a pure wrestler, had a 15 year career in MMA, and yet still never notched a single submission win.

Sure he could take a lot of people down but we're talking about a guy who was in top control for about 99% of the time in a title fight against Bas Rutten and lost a decision based on damage scored from the bottom. That is absolutely insane.

People love the Fedor slam but seriously... how bad is your ground game when you slam someone on their head, nearly kill them, and still manage to lose about 30 seconds later?

Randleman had a subpar chin, horrible submission defense (submitted by Cro Cop FFS), poor cardio, and really was not a dangerous puncher in his career besides that 1 famous fight which was a performance he was NEVER able to duplicate against any level of opponent and was thus a fluke.

I love Randleman too but it is shocking how a guy could be around for that long and not improve AT ALL. The Cro Cop win is an all time classic upset but really, I find it hard to argue that someone with this many flaws is not the least skilled champion ever. Even Tim Sylvia improved his ground game enough to attempt submissions against Monson and he developed takedown defense to compliment his striking. Randleman never improved and was really not that dangerous despite how scary he looked so to me, he is probably the least skilled.

If this was based on resume though, Randleman at least has some decent wins (despite not showing new skills) so I would probably say Evan Tanner had probably the worst resume. He was a nice guy and is remembered as such but when Elvis Sinosic and Phil Freakin Baroni are amongst your top wins, your resume is horrible.

RIP to both
 
Everyone already said Menne, but I'll throw in Evan Tanner (RIP), cool dude, but kind of a literal average guy who made it to the top. Steve Jennum or Kenichi Yamamoto probably worst tournament champs.

Actually pretty difficult to find bad men champs, most were just early in the sport while it was evolving. You can pick some pretty unskilled wmma champs though, Pennington/Monatano are so bad.
 
Pancake Sprawl said:
people aren't going to like this, but Pereira. from the little i've seen, his grappling sucks balls. i don't think there's ever been a male UFC champion who looked as lost on the ground as Pereira did. sure, he's knocked out fair amount of UFC champions, but the key here is he knocked them out. he's fightng kickboxing matches in MMA, how much skill does he need when the guys just play his game anyway? he's supposed to be the striking God and nearly got wrecked by Khalil "i got folded by 1 elbow from Johny Walker" Rountree.
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Nathan LaMontagne said:
Bisping was incredibly skilled , he just lacked the raw athleticism. Can't believe anyone is saying him.

Sylvia wasn't nearly as bad as he's made out to be either. Just slow. Still made it work (to our entertainments detriment later in his title reign)
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Bisping was /is s black belt in BJJ has some solid wins.
He had good stand up.
Same with Forrest, dude broke his arm during a fight kept on fighting and won by sub (IIRC).
Both are solid all round fighters.

Sylvia got his blue belt in BJJ years after leaving UFC again IIRC.
Never a fan of the man, I do believe he was some what not as skilled.

I think Evan Tanner might be up there with least skilled fighter.
Also Nicco M just because of all her BS refusing to fight Val and claiming Val need to win some more fights and prove her self.... then she just disappeared completely from UFC..
Did she even really win the belt? Was it not via TUF so she had no real road to the belt.
 
Elegant said:
Belal, he's been finished, knocked down, and had his head bounced all over the canvas several times

He's champ due to luck and timing


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Yes, but that was non dagestani camp non Uber Belal. Now he has orangejuice on his side.

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Mike said:
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i'm the hater? but nobody has refuted what i said with any logical evidence. the only reply i see is "ridiculous! Poatan has stopped takedowns before!" yeah? against WHO? Jiri the kickboxing brawler? people are giving Tim Sylvia the nod on this title and it's wild when he literally BEAT an ADCC grappling champion and easily survived on the ground with him. but people call me hater because i think Poatan stopping a kickboxer's takedown is a laughable level of ability compared to surviving a 2x ADCC champion's ground game.

when all the other UFC champions know how to grapple AND strike, the guy who can ONLY strike is the least skillful. the truth hurts.
 
Bisping knocked out Luke Rockhold or did you goofs forget that?

Also this board thinks GSP is the goat, guess that makes GSPs MW title win a nothing burger
 
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Pancake Sprawl said:
i'm the hater? but nobody has refuted what i said with any logical evidence. the only reply i see is "ridiculous! Poatan has stopped takedowns before!" yeah? against WHO? Jiri the kickboxing brawler?
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Just following your reasoning here, how is he then worse than Jiri? Or Hill?
 
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