Yan is a good reminder to you goofs calling every fighter the GOAT during the middle of their career

[HatKick]

I still think he beats prime Cruz, TJ and Garbrandt. He would outstrike them and stuff their takedowns. It's just that BW is batshit insane right now with Aljo, Merab, Sean, Umar all in their primes. Even the B tier fighters like Sandhagen, Chito and Font could have won the belt in previous eras.

We fans give the heavy divisions a lot of flack for their lacking skills, but look at current BW. It's the best the sport has to offer and one of the strongest divisions ever.

 

[ExitLUPin]

I still think he beats prime Cruz, TJ and Garbrandt. He would outstrike them and stuff their takedowns. It's just that BW is batshit insane right now with Aljo, Merab, Sean, Umar all in their primes. Even the B tier fighters like Sandhagen, Chito and Font could have won the belt in previous eras.

Chito is better than Sean lol at grouping him at some next level. Sean is not some all time talent hes very beatable. Yan beats Cody but hard to see him beating prime Dom or TJ. We saw Aljo lose to a few BWs like prime Marlon and Assuncao not long ago he is hardly unbeatable same with Merab. Umar is unproven.

 

[Chillez]

Its not just Sherdog. Its a recent phenomenon. If you follow other sports its common there too where a lot of recent players are crowned a GOAT immediately. Calling someone GOAT used to mean something several years ago. Now everyone is GOAT and the term has been beaten to the ground to the point it doesnt mean much anymore. It just means great lol.

That's a very true statement. People throw that word GOAT around too loosely towards athletes it means very little as time goes on. I hate to say but you see tons of sports fans nowadays thinking their era is the greatest and past greats couldn't hang today which isn't true any transcendent athlete will transcend more times than not imo.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Yan still deserved to win the decision but Sean is as tailor made a matchup for him in the whole division and he struggled and was hurt many times in a war.

Sean isn't tailored made for Yan at all, I, Aljo and many others said he had a style to give Petr a lot of trouble.

 

[Rationality]

Yep, he was and is Petr Can . /sarc

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

i never bought that he was some juggernaut. i always thought his striking defense was sus as hell. people don't remember, but old ass Uriah Faber was catching him early on before he eventually destroyed Faber.

 

[The Last King]

This is a brutal sport. Yan should have won 3 of his last 4 if it wasn't for shitty north American rules, politics and poor judging.

Instead he's lost his last 4 and most likely on a decline that it will be impossible to bounce back from.

Like Jay-Z and Too Short said:

"IT WAS ALL GOOD JUST A WEEK AGO"

 

[HatKick]

Chito is better than Sean lol at grouping him at some next level. Sean is not some all time talent hes very beatable. Yan beats Cody but hard to see him beating prime Dom or TJ. We saw Aljo lose to a few BWs like prime Marlon and Assuncao not long ago he is hardly unbeatable same with Merab. Umar is unproven.

- "Chito is better than Sean lol"
If you base that claim solely on how their fight went I can't really take that seriously. But I'll give you I don't know who is better. Time will tell. Sean is beatable by a good wrestler but he is an all time BW striker.
- "Yan beats Cody but hard to see him beating prime Dom or TJ."
I can see it. They are good matchups for Yan. All good strikers but not as good as Yan. All good wrestlers but not good enough to dominate Yan.
Aljo and Merab having a couple of losses doesn't mean much. No one is unbeatable and that Moraes knee was flukey. They are still all time BW talents.
- "Umar is unproven"
True...

 

[GrantB13]

I’ve completely lost interest in goat discussions. I don’t care who gets called goat anymore because it doesn’t matter. You can call whoever you want whatever you want but it doesn’t make it true or change anything about reality. A fighter doesn’t get better just because you say they’re the best.

 

[Willek]

Renan Barao will always be the Bantamweight GOAT.

 

[Lax617]

I don't remember anyone calling Yan GOAT, but the term is overused for sure. I used to think Yan was one of the most well rounded and technical fighters, but not so much anymore.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

Before and heading into the first Aljo fight many here were saying Yan is the best BW ever. Or he might not have the resume but hes gonna be the best BW ever. Current Yan beats any BW ever. No one is taking the belt from him for a long time blah blah. Reality check time.

Alot of weirdos have a necessity to call everything a GOAT not just in MMA but other sports as well. This is a good reminder to you goofs who do this why you wait a career out where we have a larger sample and can see their whole story instead of jerking off in the middle of it when theyre still relatively unproven.

Yan is a GREAT fighter but nowhere close to a GOAT BW.

GOAT is used way to much even though it's fun to talk about stuff that has no real meaning. The word great gets used way to much as well. It's diluted the word so it doesn't have it's real meaning anymore. Count me as one who thought Yan would be doing better. He needs to drop down in the rankings and get his confidence back. He also needs to sharpen his skillset a little more. I still love to watch him fight. He looked really down after the decision.

 

[BodybagJohnny**]

What a silly, newb post.

Yan WAS the goat but now Sugar Sean and Merab are co-goats.

 

[otis604]

He's definitely no Funk Master and his out of the ring poor sportsmanship antics is not winning any fans in this house

 

[DestinedAussie]

Before and heading into the first Aljo fight many here were saying Yan is the best BW ever. Or he might not have the resume but hes gonna be the best BW ever. Current Yan beats any BW ever. No one is taking the belt from him for a long time blah blah. Reality check time.

Alot of weirdos have a necessity to call everything a GOAT not just in MMA but other sports as well. This is a good reminder to you goofs who do this why you wait a career out where we have a larger sample and can see their whole story instead of jerking off in the middle of it when theyre still relatively unproven.

Yan is a GREAT fighter but nowhere close to a GOAT BW.

Most interesting thing, is honestly 3 of those losses could have easily been wins. Things would be looking a lot different if that was the case.

Yan is a case study of razor thin margins and now his window has probably closed.

 

[Gregoire1]

Yea, reminder for Khabib fanboys.

 

[J-Pac]

The way he was dismantling people at one point he looked like the best 135er we had ever seen. All we had to compare him to was TJ (steroids, doesn't count), Garbrandt (looked like a god vs. Cruz but then fell off drastically), Barao (looked unstoppable but the game surpassed him) and CCC (who is probably the best fighter ever, but took a beating against Moraes before the uno reverse). The way Yan was dominating guys he for sure looked like one of the best fighters we have ever seen, and it took two very very good grapplers to expose this hole in his game. I still don't really accept the O'Malley fight as a loss, I think Yan took that.

I still think Yan is an absolute beast, he just clearly has a weakness we didn't see before.

 

[CashMoney1991]

It’s recency bias , ppl were saying the same shit with usman and Izzy , Yan is good but he’s flat footed and doesn’t change angles much prime Cruz and TJ beat him and Aljo

 

[mraa1]

This is a brutal sport. Yan should have won 3 of his last 4 if it wasn't for shitty north American rules, politics and poor judging.

Instead he's lost his last 4 and most likely on a decline that it will be impossible to bounce back from.

Like Jay-Z and Too Short said:

"IT WAS ALL GOOD JUST A WEEK AGO"

Nope, he lost every one of those fights, fair and square. He's simply overrated

 

[Rektkid]

Biggest fan boy has been DC - Yan likes to get a read for a round or 2 before picking you apart almost like he purposely loses rounds and his boxing is the best in UFC lol.