Hello. Who would win this in an octagon over five rounds you think? I understand there is a weight differential i'm just curious to know how much this would matter and who would win just a fight. Secondly, is the winner of this the real-terms best fighting practitioner in history or is there someone else?
I liked Fedor a lot more but tbh i'd favour Jones. DC is honestly likely better than anyone Fedor beat and would be an extremely tough fight for Fedor himself. And even though Fedor was a career HW he was pretty undersized for the division while Jones was a huge LHW with literal Tyson Fury reach, and his walk around weight was probably around the same as what Fedor fought at too. Fedor tends to be well liked and benefits from Pride nostalgia, while Jon is a ***** and not very well liked. So that does tend to cloud peoples opinions. As for your follow up question, I mean...I guess? I do think its possible that there were some MMA HWs in history who might have beaten Jon though. Not necessarily even better fighters than Fedor, but guys who matched up better stylistically. Basically big tall guys with big punching power and solid takedown defence would be the types to give Jones trouble.
Prime Fedor was amazing. He would win on the ground and on his feet. Although he was a small heavyweight, many of the top legends that Jones beat were natural middleweights themselves past their best.
In the ring Fedor, in a cage JJ I think the smaller the arena, it favors Fedor, but Jon could out strike Fedor afar with his superior reach and cancel his wrestling.
Fedor for me, Cain folds Jones like a deck chair. Jones looks good against smaller dudes from the Pride era, not so well against dudes the same size. Reyes arguably beat Jones IMHO.
Fedor is my pick. He had a way of turning elite strikers into scared strikers and robbing half their game from them. On the ground he steamrolled even the best BJJ guys. In his prime he was insane. The guy just fought on for too long and he's one dude whose chin definitely got worse with age.
Fedor in all time sense is very trivial for me. He got knocked out 3 times in his prime… albeit after 10 years of not losing, but 3 in a row by stoppage. Also the sport was in its early days, but he was basically fighting juiced up body builders. There seems to be this conception that back in the PRIDE days fighters were just tougher, because their muscle mass and aesthetic roused bodies made up for in lack of skill. Fedor’s best wins are basically over fighters that are going .500. Yes they were the best at the time and Fedor sticks out like a sore thumb, but could you imagine if, let’s say Stipe, Khabib, Jones, GSP etc etc got stopped 3 times in a row at 33?!?!?!? They wouldn’t be close to the GOAT conversation whether it was in their division or all time. I don’t see how anyone can make Jones anything less that 50-50 here and that’s on the pure basis that he has 1 fight at heavyweight.
Fedor is a HW ATG in MMA, Jones hasn't done anything at HW to suggest that he would beat a prime Fedor who was so dominating in PrideFC. I got to go to with Fedor in this one.
