He's (finally) beaten a clear top 5 hw in the division. He showed great heart, chin and power in doing it. Meanwhile, he's now in the top 10 or so all time in successful consecutive HW title defenses. Ko'd every opponent he's ever faced, so one of the best ko % of all time. Sure his comp before this fight was bad, but even the lower level opponents he was regularly beating were the type of guys who would upset lesser champs historically. The comp matters, so he's clearly not top ten or even remotely close to it yet imo. BUT, I think it's fair to say that he is in the conversation now as someone who might be a top 30 or 40 HW.
He definitely entered the top 3,000 last night. Maybe 2,998 because he did get the stoppage. But he needs to step up the competition and lay off the late 40’s Senior guys, Stivernes and washed up fighters. Plus he’s already 33, Only managed Bronze in arguably the weakest HW Olympics, title reign opponents have been weak up until taking out Ortiz, and his skills obviously aren’t getting much better so... Steps it up and he still has time to get into the top 1000. But his time with the belt is running out with what’s on the horizon at HW.
