Come on. We just gotta admit it. Yeah, yeah roids. Who isn't on roids? He made Gane look like a baby.
There are caveats to his career, but overall yeah, I think so when you look at his level of competition measured against the length and level of his domination. Personally I have it Jon > GSP > Fedor > Anderson. On a side note, seeing Ilia derailed just now, and Khamzat not long before that. I'm starting to doubt that those Mt Rushmore guys are ever going to be matched/surpassed. There have been several guys that have come along and looked like they had the potential but so far the wheels have come off for every one before they managed to build the resume.
Khabib had 4 title fights, come on. And if you bring up robberies then there is a forgotten Khabib fight out there, before his UFC run.
like? He beat a couple of ranked guys, and I literally mean a couple: dos Anjos and Barboza. Yes, that is the resume that got Khabib a title shot. Jon Jones beat Bader, I think this was Jones´ only ranked opponent before his title challenge. So what exactly had Khabib accomplished?
RDA went on to have a great run. Johnson and Barbie’s were both legit top 10 guys. Khabib has wins over Dustin and Justin - both top 10 lightweights of all time. And he won both fights without controversy. we have to look at quality. What Khabib lacked in quantity, he more than made up for it in quality. And dominance. Khabib isn’t the goat since he only won in 1 division but he has a solid case for top 5 IFC.
No, no, no, stick to what you said: "Khabib did a ton before winning the title". That "ton" is fighting 2 ranked opponents, one who went on to become champion. Lets play the numbers game, since you keep insisting on it. Khabib fought a total of 6 UFC ranked opponents, maybe 7, with 3 of them being champions former or future champions. Jon Jones fought 17 ranked opponents, and I am not including retired Miocic in this. Out of those 17, 6 were former or future champions, and I once again am not including Miocic in these numbers. Oh, and Gane is likely to be elevated to champion soon, so it would put Jones at 7, without Micoic. Oh, and Jones won titles in 2 divisions, with a lot of these guys being hall of famers. So purely by the numbers game, Jones has Khabib easily beat. Your entire argument is based on "controversy/dominance". You are conveniently excluding the arguable robbery Khabib got before getting to the UFC. You are also ignoring the fact that Khabib was champion for 2 years and retired in his prime. Jones´ first title reign lasted 4 years, before being stripped. He then fought for another 4 years at the top of his division - with lots of controversies - before "retiring" and then coming back at heavyweight.
Imo Khabib has 3 elite level wins in his whole career - RDA, Poirier and Gaethje. Thats it. I don't rate Conor as an elite win at 155 because Conor has only 1 top level win above 155 in his career. Khabib whilst an elite guy at 155 just didn't do enough and left too early to be considered in any goat conversation. He had to kill himself to make 155 and was scared to test himself at 170. Remember his laughable suggestion that an old GSP should come down to fight him at 155 rather that him go up to 170 to face the legend GSP. That was so weak by Khabib and he should be called out for that.
I dont disagree with the overall principle of that, but the level of talent that GSP and Jon faced to build up their resume was every bit as good as anything that could be thrown at them today. The LHW division that Jon ruled over was far better than what we have now.
