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So, with all the 'double champs' that's going around, seemingly more frequent than actual champs defending belts, I feel like the only fighters who really fought up their natural weight class and fought the best of the best are BJ Penn and Saku.
However, in modern MMA anyways, being good in your own division arguably can be just as impressive as anything, especially nowadays with people doing jackshit in their own division then moving up to fight favourable matchups. I'm not talking about Islam btw.
You can see some parallels between the two even though they don't fight remotely alike.
Khamzat is 31 years old, 9-0 in UFC, debuted in 2020 and probably the biggest prospect since Conor and just won the belt and yet to defend the belt.
Tom Aspinall is 32 years old, 9-1 in UFC (a loss due to a freak injury), debuted in 2020, and probably the best HW prospect since Cain, and retired the GOAT duck and yet to defend the belt.
But to be fair, as impressive as they look, I reckon there's a decent chance that they could lose both their next fights too. As dogshit as Gane's grappling is and as terrible as he looked against Volkov, I mean he shouldn’t be near the title shot, I can see Gane outstriking Aspinall on the feet if he can keep it standing. Matchups make fights, just like how Jones wiped the floor with Gane, but Ngannou couldn't do much against Gane, though Ngannou probably would've sent Jones to a shadow realm. I don't think Gane's style ages well though, so we will see if it is or not.
For Khamzat, as amazing as he looked, he has yet to fight a true middleweight grappler in UFC, as crazy as it sounds. And I think Hernandez or RDR could give him a good run for his money actually, especially Hernandez due to his pace and volume. I don't know who wins that fight, but I wish they wouldn't make RDR fight Hernandez, and just give the title shot to Hernandez and then RDR next maybe. Even Robocop would be interesting as well and the list isn't all that short. He lowkey bypassed almost the entire MW division all the way to the title shot.
With that said, MW and HW, in my opinion, are maybe the only two weight classes that could have some legitimate case against in the future for the GOAT debate. Anderson Silva, though a great resume, never cared for the guy, with roids on top of that, I mean using roids in MMA is criminal and disgusting behavior, and just skillset-wise, imagine what Khamzat would've done to him if Sonnen could make him look like CM Punk on the ground? And I've been worshipping Fedor as much as the next guy on Sherdog and as long as anybody around here, but, it's also true that there could be some arguments if Aspinall goes on a great run that hasn't been seen before and cleans out the entire HW division, though it's not that strong atm. He's not that far off lol. Outside that, MM, Merab, Volk, GSP, Jones, Zhang, Shev, Nunes all seem to be pretty safe given the current MMA landscape.
Having partaked in GOAT debate for almost last two decades around here, I know how fruitless that debate can be. It's entirely subjective, and completely unproductive. This is more of a prediction thread about arguably two of three super propects that we've seen in this decade, all of whom realized their true potential and became the super stars.
Do you think Khamzat and Aspinall will be the GOATs in their respective divisions after everything said and done?
However, in modern MMA anyways, being good in your own division arguably can be just as impressive as anything, especially nowadays with people doing jackshit in their own division then moving up to fight favourable matchups. I'm not talking about Islam btw.
You can see some parallels between the two even though they don't fight remotely alike.
Khamzat is 31 years old, 9-0 in UFC, debuted in 2020 and probably the biggest prospect since Conor and just won the belt and yet to defend the belt.
Tom Aspinall is 32 years old, 9-1 in UFC (a loss due to a freak injury), debuted in 2020, and probably the best HW prospect since Cain, and retired the GOAT duck and yet to defend the belt.
But to be fair, as impressive as they look, I reckon there's a decent chance that they could lose both their next fights too. As dogshit as Gane's grappling is and as terrible as he looked against Volkov, I mean he shouldn’t be near the title shot, I can see Gane outstriking Aspinall on the feet if he can keep it standing. Matchups make fights, just like how Jones wiped the floor with Gane, but Ngannou couldn't do much against Gane, though Ngannou probably would've sent Jones to a shadow realm. I don't think Gane's style ages well though, so we will see if it is or not.
For Khamzat, as amazing as he looked, he has yet to fight a true middleweight grappler in UFC, as crazy as it sounds. And I think Hernandez or RDR could give him a good run for his money actually, especially Hernandez due to his pace and volume. I don't know who wins that fight, but I wish they wouldn't make RDR fight Hernandez, and just give the title shot to Hernandez and then RDR next maybe. Even Robocop would be interesting as well and the list isn't all that short. He lowkey bypassed almost the entire MW division all the way to the title shot.
With that said, MW and HW, in my opinion, are maybe the only two weight classes that could have some legitimate case against in the future for the GOAT debate. Anderson Silva, though a great resume, never cared for the guy, with roids on top of that, I mean using roids in MMA is criminal and disgusting behavior, and just skillset-wise, imagine what Khamzat would've done to him if Sonnen could make him look like CM Punk on the ground? And I've been worshipping Fedor as much as the next guy on Sherdog and as long as anybody around here, but, it's also true that there could be some arguments if Aspinall goes on a great run that hasn't been seen before and cleans out the entire HW division, though it's not that strong atm. He's not that far off lol. Outside that, MM, Merab, Volk, GSP, Jones, Zhang, Shev, Nunes all seem to be pretty safe given the current MMA landscape.
Having partaked in GOAT debate for almost last two decades around here, I know how fruitless that debate can be. It's entirely subjective, and completely unproductive. This is more of a prediction thread about arguably two of three super propects that we've seen in this decade, all of whom realized their true potential and became the super stars.
Do you think Khamzat and Aspinall will be the GOATs in their respective divisions after everything said and done?
