Who's the best "one-dimensional" fighter ever?

[DanDragon Machi]

It is about fighters who rarely wins fights outside your specialty and when they can't impose their game, they would hardly have a plan B against a well-rounded fighter. Their opponents don't care about anything other than their specialty (this not means they are completely raw in other areas)

Holloway? Poatan? Adesanya? McGregor?

I'm not sure if Merab striking is poor enough to fit him on this class

 

[Gregoire1]

Merab and Khabib

 

[Koro_11]

Mirko.

 

[jeff7b9]

Khabib. One way- ragdoll and smash.

Never had to even try an alternate approach.

 

[jeff7b9]

Rumble, maybe? God he was fun to watch

He diverted to his wrestling base pretty often.

Worked with Bader, not so much with DC.


Sure was fun to watch him fight though, I agree with you there.

 

[DanDragon Machi]

Merab and Khabib

Khabib is not one dimensional

wrestling+sambo+jiu-jitsu

 

[DanDragon Machi]

Rumble, maybe? God he was fun to watch

Rumble was a beast on foot and had a good wrestling

 

[Cucumber Slice]

Rumble, maybe? God he was fun to watch

He was but I wouldn't call him one dimensional really.

 

[Cucumber Slice]

Maia has to be up there.

 

[DanDragon Machi]

Maia has to be up there.

I don't think Maia was on these guys level

I could mention Liddell because he rarely used offensively a weapon beyond his striking, his wrestlin was used only to avoid take downs

 

[RockyLockridge]

Izzy was the first thought

 

[DanDragon Machi]

My ranking:

Conor
Merab
Adesanya
Holloway
Liddell
Poatan
Ngannou
JDS
Mirko
Wanderlei

These guys were better than many well-rounded fighters

 

[Prologue]

Maia is the GOAT one dimensional fighter. Never champ but came close several times while dealing minimal strikes. It was always amazing to see him impose his game on many top fighters at the time.

K-1 Maia would have beat GSP's WW title streak.

 

[MisfitsBR]

Khabib is not one dimensional

wrestling+sambo+jiu-jitsu

I think there's two dimensions: stand up and ground, so wrestling and jiu jitsu work on the same dimension (I'm just adding something to debate)

 

[KillerIsBack V2]

My ranking:

Conor
Merab
Adesanya
Holloway
Liddell
Poatan
Ngannou
JDS
Mirko
Wanderlei

These guys were better than many well-rounded fighters

I came into this thread with Holloway and Poatan in mind.

But you know what, it is mildly effy for to call Max that after basically winning the Yair fight only by ragdolling him with many takedowns and wrestling control.

 

[GolovKing]

Khabib is not one dimensional

wrestling+sambo+jiu-jitsu

So then Alex isn't either. Kickboxing+boxing+muay thai

 

[Daniel Henry]

You can't call Poatan one dimensional he showed he has some wrestling to his game with last lost.

Israel too has grappling chops.

Merab is one dimensional has hell

 

[El Fernas]

Ryan Hall.

Edit: He might not be the best, as in world champ, but as far as being one-dimensional he is one dimensional as it can get and not able to switch gameplan when it fails, Demian Maia is probably the best at this, most guys that make it to the elite level could be "one dimensional" but they are competent enough to survive or try to keep the fight where they want, Poatan/Adesanya come to mind, average TDD with elite strking.

 

[BJJ4Tone]

Khabib is not one dimensional

wrestling+sambo+jiu-jitsu

I was kinda thinking the same thing.
If you separate grappling into wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu, he's not one-dimensional.
There have been good wrestlers with bad ground games. Takedowns are kinda pointless if you can't do anything with them.
People don't wanna admit this, but Khabib's Jiu-Jitsu is just as good as his wrestling and about as good as anyone's in the UFC.
How many mounted triangles have we seen in the UFC? Not many. Especially not against a high-level opponent.


And to answer the original question, success-wise, it'd be hard to argue with Poatan.
Granted, he was given incredibly favorable matchups, but a 2-division champ that only does one thing is pretty impressive.

 

[Lord_Impaler]

Big Nog
Cro cop
Liddel
Igor vovchanyn
Matt hughes
Tim Sylvia
Mark Coleman
Sean Sherk
Royce Gracie
Kevin Randleman
Wanderlei
Tito
Don Frye
Tank Abbott