Five legends. (in no order) Dan Henderson, Matt Hughes, Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell, Mauricio Rua How would you rank them 1-5? Vote for who you would place 1st, then post your 1-5. :good
1. Chuck 2. Hendo 3. Hughes 4. Rua 5. Wanderlei Chuch is #1 even though he is arguably not the best of the five. He had an amazing reign in the most popular UFC weight class. 2 is Henderson for being the only 2 weight division champ amongst the bunch. 3 is Hughes 4 is Shogun who could be higher if he was ever a champion I think. Since Shogun was never a dominant champion he gets 4. 5 is Wanderlei who has to be, imo, ranked below Henderson and Lidell. I think his long reign in pride could actually put him above Shogun, but I chose not to.
I voted Wanderlei Silva based on what each man has done thus far but by the time everyone has retired I expect Shogun Rua to top the list unless he burns out very soon or has to retire thru injury etc.
Very difficult to split these 5 into an exact order but my guess would be (no doubt contraversially as its very close) Silva Liddell Rua Henderson Hughes All have had spells of domnance in their careers but the top 3 have been regarded as the best p4p at one stage. At 1st it might look wrong having Wanderlei over 2 men that beat him but he was barely half the fighter he was in PRIDE at his peak by the time of the 2nd Henderson & Chuck fights.... Silva dominated Henderson when both were in their primes, handing him his 1st loss & won the PRIDE Grand Prix MW tourney that included an absolute peak version of Chuck Liddell, KOing Rampage in the final (who had of course KO`d Chuck in the semi`s) I think only Fedor has had a longer period of domination than Silva had in PRIDE & he has some great names on his record during that amazing 5 year run.. p4p no1 ranked Sakuraba X3, Henderson, Rampage, Cro-cop (was ruled a draw as it went the distance but Silva dominated) I think Rua is just as good if not better than Silva was at his peak but he`ll need more names on his record to surpass him in terms of `greatness` :good
Predictably great mma contribution from you as usual. I haven't seen Wanderlei's first fight with Hendo or his 'draw' with Cro Cop. Will need to track those down for sure.
damn close i had hughes and wand tied but voted for hughes because he peaked and stayed prime longer.
Why is Hughes even in this thing? Pretty rough to compare these guys.. Considering they seemed to peak at different times.. I tend to think Shogun at his best was better than any light heavy at their best, ever. Greatness, as far as accomplishments? So, Liddell dominated the UFC when all the best fighters were in Pride, he lost to Rampage when he ventured there, that drops his value a lot. Wand at his best wasn't a very polished fighter, but you cant argue with his accomplishments in pride.. Hendo, beat Wand when he was on the decline, but really was fighting a handicap match *though he lost to Wand as well* Hendo also beat a green Nog.. I tend to think this comparison, in greatness is really between Henderson and Wand, as this is an accomplishment comparison. Rua, really never won a belt, but he beat some amazng fighters, even though I think he is the best fighter of the bunch, as far greatness, he ends up being at the bottom.. Wand, Hendo, Rua, Liddell. With Hendo arguably taking the top spot.
Oh, possibly for running a division for longer than pretty much anybody else? Considering that the vast majority of the talent in the world at 170 was concentrated in the UFC, it is pretty easy to rank him number one. Liddell or Wanderlei could be in the discussion, but they shared the division sort of because the talent was split; although Liddell certainly was a more impressive champion. Wand beat Saku for the title, but only defended it against Tamura, Kanehara, Rampage (good defence), and Arona (good defence, terrible fight). Hughes beat Newton for the title, defended against Mach Sakurai, defended in the rematch with Newton, Gil Castillo, Sean Sherk, Frank Trigg, lost to BJ, beat GSP for the title, beat Trigg again, and then beat BJ in the title rematch. To not think that Hughes is in serious contention, let alone to think that he doesn't deserve mention is ****ing stupid, period.
