Who's the smartest fighter to ever fought in the UFC?

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Phil Davis

In his 12-fight run during the hey day of the UFC's 205-lb division, he was never finished or even knocked down. He was the only LHW to ever take Rumble Johnson to a decision. He went 9-3 in the UFC, including dropping a split decision to Ryan Bader that a majority of the MMA media thought he won, and was consistently ranked in the Top 5.

Then he had the foresight to sign with Bellator when he was still a highly ranked LHW in the UFC. He was paid more to do so, and Bellator's LHW division has since surpassed the UFC's in terms of Top 10 talent.

Davis hasn't been finished during his 11-fight run in Bellator. Like his UFC run, I can't recall him ever being knocked down in Bellator either. He has gone 9-2 in Bellator, but both of the losses are split decisions that a majority of the MMA media again thought he won. Both were against fellow Top 5 opponents: Nemkov and Bader.

He's 36 years old and approaching 25 fights in major promotions, for which he's been paid handsomely without ever being knocked down or subjecting himself to a high risk of CTE, because he is extremely talented at controlling where the fight goes. In all but 2 of those fights, he has managed to convince at least one judge (and the majority of the MMA media) that he won.
shit I forgot all about Phil Davis, he was good, but a very boring fighter from what I can recall, he certainly made Gus a better fighter
 
Khabib has the highest fight IQ in MMA history.

Not only that but he's the biggest clutch performer. The circumstances of the Conor and Gaethje fights were insane amounts of pressure and emotion yet he conquered.

KhaGOAT bless.
god you guys are fucking corny
 
GSP was probably the smartest fighter I've ever seen, I think after the first Serra fight, he took things a lot more carefully and kept playing scenarios in his head where he could lose the fight and avoid that, he was also a solid coach on TUF, one example of a great but yet simple plan was jabbing Koscheck to death for 25 minutes in their rematch to negate his hooks
 
The smartest man is the man who gets the smartest advisers.

I totally agree, this ability to be honnest with yourself and to sourround yourself with the best is what made Georges so successful (beside freak athlete and hard working).
He learned Muay Thai from the best (Thailand and Jean-Charles Skarbowski)
Boxing with Freddie Roach
Wrestling with olympian canadian team
BJJ with Renzo Gracie and Danaher
Strenght and conditioning : Gymnastic
Management and lawyer : best team
MMA with Jackson and Firas

But this is no fight IQ. When he is in there he just listen to what his coach tell him and apply.
 
GSP
Jones
DC
Cruz
Mouse
 
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