There's been domination from both, but who's the best to date? Jones has looked pretty fantastic tearing through LHW. The remaining old favorites (machida, rua etc.) fell in his wake, the current crop looks ill equipped to prevail. It doesn't seem like any can get past his physical advantages of length, speed and skill. Fedor went into battle against the beginnings of a fantastic heavyweight division and dominated it, cro-cop came and went, the UFCs best seeped out to face him and were bludgeoned into submission. Until his later physical decline he seemed unstoppable. What really separates the two is one defining factor... One was fighting all comers at unlimited weight: fighters who either couldn't, or didn't need to, boil down to a lower weight to win. The other seems vastly oversized in a division that has showcased the best middleweight talent rising to challenge larger men and some smaller heavyweights who couldn't deal with the massive behemoths at the maximum weight. Fedor is currently the goat, not just for his H2H achievements, but also for his dominance despite adversity. DC has just come down from heavy, he looked tiny in there. It's not slimming world, folks.
Jon Jones' advantages in height, reach and athleticism are off the radar. No one can get near him except Gus who showed that Jones has no ability with boxing, even DC outboxed him when he was getting in close in the early rounds. If Jones can improve his boxing he can be ATG but at this stage someones going catch up with him sooner or later. Jury is still out
1. Anderson Silva - How he finished fights. Anderson was / is awe inspiring. He might not have the best resume, he might have some weak wins, but Anderson's streak is still on all the records and he still has I think second most post fight bonuses of all time as well. 2. Jon Jones - I think the Cormier win puts him above GSP now. Jones gets abuse for his opponents sometimes but I think it's ridiculous. Just look at his championship streak. Shogun Rua - Legend. Current UFC Champion. Pride GP Champion. Rampage - Legend. Former UFC Champion. Lyoto Machida - Former UFC Champion. Rashad Evans - Former UFC Champion. Vitor Belfort - Former UFC Champion. Chael Sonnen - Ehhh?. Alexander Gustafsson - Number 1 Contender. Glover Teixeira - Number 1 Contender. Daniel Cormier - Number 1 Contender. 3. Georges St. Pierre - It's disputed that he is the greatest of all time. Absolutely destroyed his division. While contenders kept churning out of such a great weight class, outside of Hendricks, GSP easily answered the call every time, dominating time and time again to beat anyone they named as his next victim. A good few of his opponents don't have the long lasting names in the sport however (Kos, Hardy etc). 4. Fedor - I won't try and spell the second name. People say Fedor can't be the best because he didn't fight in the UFC. This is cutting out that the best weren't in the UFC at the time. Fedor's win streak was absolutely incredible, and really he beat the best heavyweights of all time. He overcame a lot in some fights and that always adds to your legend. Unlike a lot of people, I don't think he fell out. The Hendo and Werdum losses were unfortunate situations which could have easily happened at any time. The harsh one to take was the Bigfoot fight. Fedor landed some ridiculously heavy shots on Bigfoot and couldn't finish a guy that was recently KOed by Andrei Arlovski. Maybe Bigfoot was roiding at the time but none the less. I think if we're talking skillsets alone, Fedor wouldn't stand much of a chance against DC or Cain's wrestling and control.
The same Cain that got sparked out by Junior within a minute? Or the same Cain that wall-stalls every opponent for 25 mins, hasn't got the best TD's and lacks KO power? Fedor mauls him. Prime Fedor, the one that beat CC at his own game and Nov at his own game is the baddest man to ever live in unarmed combat.
Fedor just had awesome fights and was exciting as ****. His actual opponents were 'alright' for the most part. A lot of Brett Rogers and Mark Coleman eske names in there.
The Cain that wall-stalls every opponent for 25 minutes (including two of the worst beatings in UFC history over the guy you mentioned, JDS). I'm no Cain fan. He's boring as hell. But Cain's record is pretty much just as good as Fedor's at this point (knocked out Big Nog which Fedor couldnt. Stopped Bigfoot who beat Fedor twice easily). Cain will most likely smash Werdum who also beat Fedor pretty soon. That being said, Fedor's similar level of opponents lasted sooooo much logner than Cains and he was the greatest HW in the world for sooooo much longer, so Fedor ranks WAY above Cain in the all time ranks. Cain Vs Fedor aside, why do you guys feel that Fedor ranks above Jones, GSP and Anderson?
I don't really see how it can be the case. Let's just put him against Jon Jones. Cro Cop - Decision Big Nog - Decision Tim Sylvia - Submission Andrei Arlovski - KO Tsuyoshi Kosaka - TKO Mark Coleman - Submission Brett Rogers - TKO Kevin Randleman - Submission Heath Herring - TKO Vs Daniel Cormier - Decision Lyoto Machida - Submission Shogun Rua - TKO Rampage Jackson - Submission Alexander Gustafsson - Decision Glover Teixeira - Decision Rashad Evans - Decision Vitor Belfort - Submission Chael Sonnen - TKO Ryan Bader - Submission On the names of their top 10 wins alone, I'd defo say Jon Jones is winning there. Cro Cop and Big Nog are by a landslide the biggest wins of Fedor's career and arguably are more impressive than anyone of Jones' wins, but the likes of Sylvia, Arlovski, Rogers etc. don't come close to the guys Jon Jones has been beating. Then you can look at the individual accomplishments. Pride Heavyweight GP Winner Pride Heavyweight Champion Rings GP Winner Essentially 34-3 (Illegal Elbow received caused first Loss) Vs UFC Light Heavyweight Winner Most LHW Defences (Over Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell) 3rd Most Title Defences in UFC History (Behind GSP & Silva) Essentially Undefeated at 21-0 (Illegal Elbow used caused first Loss) Accomplishment wise it's closer. Being the greatest LHW of all time isn't quite as prestigious as being the greatest HW of all time, but with guys like Couture, Chuck, Vitor and Tito all being UFC LHW belt holders, it still has it's merits. Both guys beat the best PRIDE had to offer (Fedor in Cro Cop and Big Nog, Jones in Shogun and Rampage). Fedor is awesome. I'm not discrediting the guy in any way. I think that because he's more nostalgic or because PRIDE wasn't quite as popular as UFC, people like to romanticize both the abilities and the opponent level that Fedor was facing. Losses to Fabricio Werdum, Bigfoot Silva and Dan Henderson are defo costly to his legacy as well.
Zombie Nog, you mean. Junior has ZERO ground game and has only learned to kick! Go and do your history on where Nog and Mirko were and how good they were when Fedor beat them (at their own game no less), you clueless fool.
I'm not so sure that is true now, and may seem less true as time goes by. Part of the point I was making was that ,by most metrics, Jones is actually larger than Emelianenko... He certainly possesses the advantages over his competition that weight classes are meant to remove, which is why I referenced "slimming world". Many of Jones' victories came against fighters who did, would or could fight at middle weight. I have a feeling that many of the fighters you listed for Jones would struggle royally with choi Hong man, let alone pride-era cro-cop. The only way that Jones (who is absolutely a fantastic fighter) can prove his billing as TBE is to step up and compete with the best, as FE did. Competing with the best fighters, regardless of artificial weight handicapping, being the best without the asterisk. To beat fedor he needs to fight where he belongs. Heavy.
kostya tszyu got stopped by Ricky Hatton, Tyson got stopped by Kevin McBride, Roy Jones got stopped by danny green, Eric Morales got stopped by danny Garcia, Julio César Chávez got stopped by Grover Wiley... and on and on.