Is Robert Whittaker the goat MW?

I don't see how anyone can be a candidate for GOAT without carefully examining their career.

 

Re-read the OP... And by that criteria almost no one is GOAT material in MMA. What do you say about Silva's embarrassing losses to Chonan and Takase in pride? OP is making a case for Whittaker being GOAT in a H2H sense, not in terms of resume.

 

I see clearly now.

 

I didn't realize their are different types of GOAT's?? I thought it was a universal title given to the "best of" in all aspects.

 

That's riduclous how long have you been watching combat sports lol? There is endless examples of fighters losing at the start of there careers against inferior opposition and then going on to become champions. For starters Wonderboy is no scrub he is a legit top welterweight almost winning the title,the fight was 3 and half years ago and Whitaker was only 22 and has made major improvements since.

 

What have you examined other then a loss at the start of his career against 1 of the best in a different division as your only argument? In his last 2 fights he has destroyed 1 of the best Middleweights of the last decade like nobody else had done then defeated the top contender fairly easily with 1 of his legs ****ed up for most of the fight. He may not be the best Middleweight GOAT as of yet but at 26 he has plenty of time to prove his worth and his recent record already is as good as anybody else.

 

So which is it? Did Whittaker lose to a inferior fighter in Wonderboy or not? Give Whittaker at least 5 more fights to see where he stands as far as an overall evaluation is concerned. You can't rush greatness.

 

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I remember Jacare getting knocked out in Pride by Mousasi ages ago. He didn't just suddenly get old overnight, he is old. He looked every bit his age in the fight with a fresh Whittaker. And Romero is a 40 with a small gas tank and has a difficult time cutting off the ring. A good win to be sure but it had as much to do with Whittaker's style as it did with his talent level.

 

I never considered Anderson to be the GOAT.

 

His knee was injured by a kick from Romero and he beat Romero 3 rounds to 2. The 5th round was fairly even until Whittaker secured the mount with less than half the round left. That is not a thorough domination.

"Life and death with Travis Lutter" When did this happen? Lutter was submitted in the second round and Silva never looked like he was in danger of losing that fight. A cheating Chael Sonnen fought an injured Anderson Silva with a T/E ratio of 16 to 1. I don't even know what that means but the Hulk version of Alistair Overeem was 14 to 1 when he was busted. His style proved to be a challenge but Sonnen's performance was not quite as enhanced in their rematch. I would also like to add that Romero is a far more accomplished wrestler than Chael Sonnen but he does not have the stamina to fight like Chael. Especially when Chael is roided to the gills.

Silva's problem with striking isn't lack of weapons, it's his lack of respect for his opponent. I've used this clip many times as evidence of this:

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Silva is fast enough that he should be able to out maneuver Nogueira but his hubris causes him to lose this sparring session. I realize this is only a sparring session but when you compare it with Anderson's professional performances the pattern is still there.

Silva would not be at a speed disadvantage against Whittaker. Whittaker isn't a pressure fighter and doesn't pose any threats as a wrestler looking to take Silva down. I think Silva would stand in the center of the cage and be a very difficult puzzle for Whittaker to solve.

 

I gave Romero the first round as I thought he landed the more damaging strikes, particularly the leg kick that hurt Whittaker's knee. There was another leg kick that almost immediately bruised the inner leg of Whittaker in the first as well. I too scored the 2nd for Romero. We both agree on the final 3 rounds scoring wise. I did think the 5th round was close until the last minute or so, which Whittaker went on to win without doubt. 3 rounds to 2 with a competitive final round is not "thoroughly dominated" and definitely isn't made to look like a journeyman in my opinion. Winning a fight 4 rounds to 1 is a bit more dominant, which is how you scored it and the reason we see this so differently.

I watched the fight then and I just watched it again moments ago. That was not life and death and Silva was no where near getting stopped. Anderson was doing virtually all the attacking while Lutter was in his guard. Lutter passed Anderson's guard with 1:07 left in the round. Lutter got the mount with 44 seconds to go and lost it 13 seconds later. Lutter landed 2 clean punches from the mount and Silva did not appear dazed in the least. Especially while bucking Lutter off and standing immediately after the last punch landed and Lutter made that lazy arm bar attempt. That fight wasn't close to being over in the first round at all. Lutter took Silva down seconds into the 2nd round and Silva had the triangle that Lutter never escaped wrapped around his neck 37 seconds into the round.

Poor choice of wording on my part. I wasn't talking about show boating. I was referring to his lack of respect for his opponent's offense. Silva often acts like he has no regard for his opponent's ability to hurt him. I posted the sparring video because he takes unnecessary punches from the larger Nogueira and that lack of regard is what cost him against Weidman. I honestly thought the showboating was working against Weidman until his total lack of regard for Weidman's power caught up with him.

 

I want to briefly expand on Silva and Weidman. I think Silva's showboating was getting to Weidman after stuffing a couple take downs, and Weidman began to open up with his punches. This gave Silva his chance to counter, but when you make someone miss you have to make the pay. If you don't counter, your opponent can keep swinging....and you end up looking like an ass and unconscious on the floor.

 

Funny how you using the age as a reason they lost despite both Jacare and Romero dominating the middleweight division and being ranked top 2or3. You also claim Whitaker beat Romero based on styles yet I would argue he is far more talented and won with his superior technique his TD defense forcing majority of the fight to be a stand up contest where Whitaker was always going to dominate. He doesn't have a lot of obvious weaknesses with solid BJJ and excellent on his feet ,he will beat Bisping fairly easy being better everywhere then him.

 

I actually don't think he is the GOAT middleweight but at 26 with his resume of wins already to put him in the discussion but obviously time will tell how good he really is.