Your Top 10 All Time Heavyweight List

Who do you rank as the top 10 heavyweights head-to-head?


My own list--although admittedly I haven't given it much thought--is as follows. This is my first attempt to rate them, and I'm sure that I've missed a couple along the way:

1) Fedor Emelianenko
2) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
3) Mirko Crocop
4) Mark Coleman
5) Mark Kerr
6) Randy Couture
7) Bas Rutten
8 ) Josh Barnett
9) Igor Vovchanchyn
10) Andrei Arlovski or (sadly) Tim Sylvia, boring though he is...although if you're talking all-time, I suspect that there's a pre-1980 fighter who could fill this spot (Jeffries, Bluming, Dolmen, etc.)

 

Hard to rate, since he declined rapidly with the drug abuse. In his prime, a rather scary opponent, and looked upon as a successor to Coleman. This is prime-for-prime, peak for peak.

Nevertheless, you have a point: I might rate him a bit too highly.

 

Quite so. :good

Nevertheless, I'm interested to hear your arguments against Kerr's high ranking. That is, after all, part of the reason I created this thread in the first place: so that ESB's MMA section can hash out some criteria for rating H2H ability in past fighters.

 

Fair point, although many of those losses came after his "prime". Like Tyson, Kerr's peak is difficult to pin down, although admittedly this adds the temptation to argue that only his wins count.

Part of it has to do with the fact that Kerr's style--although based on a single discipline--ages well. As of 2010, Lesnar's style in the UFC is not far removed from Kerr's. Maurice Smith and Don Frye, on the other hand, were both early versions of a grappler/striker synthesis, but each was missing pieces. One dimension where Kerr did have more depth to his game than, say, Randleman was in submissions.

 

Well...

Jeffries could probably pull it off. Gama, no. Tani's far too small. Barton-Wright was more of a promoter than a fighter. In China, the Lei Tai guys wouldn't have any ground OR grappling game (aside from the Shuai Jiao guy, who might get in there but not as a top 10 fighter). Gotch might beat some of the best in the world if he's lucky, but he's one dimensional. Roeber's more one-dimensional than Gotch, and even Muldoon couldn't claim to be a well-rounded fighter. William Miller might--might--be able to beat some of the better fighters today if he learned to deal with kicks. A little earlier, Sullivan, Kilrain, and Smith might have done reasonably well, but wouldn't have landed in the top 10.

Going back even further, the only guys who I'd trust in a top-flight MMA match be Vigneron, Cribb, Molineaux, Gully, and maybe Pearce. Belcher was too small, Heenan too crude, Spring too light-hitting. Perhaps Jackson, but I suspect not. I even have my doubts about the first group.

I would only bet on Jeffries for a lower top 10 spot. Hesitantly.