Who is your pick for ‘best that never was’?

[J Danger]

Good evening sir

@J Danger

 

[Deleted member 405583]

Hope everything is good and that you're safe, stateside

 

[JoeRowe]

Shane Carwin

 

[Kingofthestreets]

Phil Davis was kind of the full package but always lost to Ryan Bader.
He won the Bellator world light heavyweight tournament where he fought 3 times in one night and finished with a knockout!
Unfortunately the acheivment was kind of overlooked in the great scheme of things and he isn't the top guy in Bellator at the moment and never fought for the world title in the UFC.

 

[J Danger]

Hope everything is good and that you're safe, stateside

in the middle of a move down to a base in riverside. Just sent a lot of my guys overseas to help with the evacuations. Shit is crazy right now.

 

[Pious Augustus]

Lando Vannata

 

[Rationality]

Romero
Carwin
When Holly beat Ronda I thought she'd be champ a long time
Ferguson
Crocop
Pig Rig

 

[randumo24]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Brock yet. Sure he was the champion, but nobody missed out on more potential than him. Had he started out his career earlier to have a chance at being a well rounded fighter and never gotten sick to where he lost his absurd athleticism; he would be one of the fighters we discuss when talking about GOATs.

 

[PokerMage]

im gonna say Chris Lytle

he was always a full time firefighter with lots of kids to feed. He really was never a full time fighter ever.

shit Chris Lytle in the gym starting young like at 15, he had everything. length, good athlete, boxing, liked a good scrap and did it for fun on the side. underrated ground game with great flexibility, he was a gamer all round.

except he came up when there wasnt enough money to feed a big family and he never could really go at it like a full time Pro can nowadays

 

[Mesos]

Who was the person you looked at in terms of pure talent and ability and thought ‘they will achieve greatness’ who, for whatever reason, didn’t get there?

I’m taking people who you still feel annoyed we’ll never see what they could have done.

(I’m personally going for Velasquez - I know he was champ but I remember watching him in his prime and being sure he’d be HW GOAT, stolen by injury etc and now a bit forgotten outside serious fans)

Melvin Guillard, so much wasted talent

 

[Deleted member 405583]

in the middle of a move down to a base in riverside. Just sent a lot of my guys overseas to help with the evacuations. Shit is crazy right now.

I'm glad that you are home, safe

 

[Tyr XIII]

Dominic Cruz. Never mentioned in the goat conversation but he’s head and shoulders above many of the all time greats.

injuries outside the cage robbed of us seeing the true goat

 

[rjmbrd]

Phil Davis was kind of the full package but always lost to Ryan Bader.
He won the Bellator world light heavyweight tournament where he fought 3 times in one night and finished with a knockout!
Unfortunately the acheivment was kind of overlooked in the great scheme of things and he isn't the top guy in Bellator at the moment and never fought for the world title in the UFC.

The way Rashad dominated him, there wasn't much coming back from that. Davis was a gifted athlete but 'good not great' at adapting to MMA.

My pick, as others have mentioned in the thread, TJ Grant. Absolute monster with a well rounded skill set at 155lbs.

Second pick is Chris Holdsworth - BJJ black belt by 21 and a special talent. Goes 4-0 as an amateur, 3-0 on TUF and 6-0 as a pro. Out of 13 career fights, he had 12 stoppages.

Unfortunately, training concussions took both of these guys out of the sport.

 

[TitoSchaubHighIQ]

Rumble
Gustafsson
Jacare
Romero
Lombard
Koscheck
Guillard
Sage
Barboza
Mendes
Dodson

I believe all of them had potential to be champions but for different reasons things didn't work out for them.

 

[HOLA]

Romero didn't have his first fight in the UFC until he was 36.

KO'd Rockhold for the interim title, but didn't get it because he missed weight. Then lost a title fight most media gave him the W in, fighting 3.5 rounds with a smashed orbital bone.

If he started after 00 Olympics, he would have been, imo, the GOAT.

 

[Kono dio da!]

cody

 

[SKITZADACTYL]

joe duffy should have done so much better in the UFC.

 

[Titleboxe]

 

[Cowboy Kurt Angle]

CM Punk