Who have been the best ever exponents of the 4 main disciplines in MMA?

Muay Thai is Anderson Silva

BJJ... currently Damian Maia or Jacare historically it's up for grabs, but I wouldn't argue against Royce or Rickson

Wrestling is very debatable. IMO it's a mean to an end, so the most effective guys might not always be the most visible. Anyways, currently GSP. Historically Mark Coleman pretty much made a career out of his double leg. Randy Couture was still manhandling guys at the age of 68 using his greco. Sakuraba took out how many guys using almost pure catch/shoot/pro-wrestling? Then you've got all the sprawl-n-brawl guys (Liddel, Igor, CC, early Pulver).

Boxing... Dos Santos

 

Gsp.

 

maia - bjj
karo parysian - judo
spider - muay thai
gsp - wrestling
randy/diaz - boxing

 

Boxing: Junior Dos Santos

Muay Thai: Jose Aldo

Wrestling: In terms of actual MMA wrestling taking a guy down and controlling him its GSP imo, in terms of upper body grappling Randy is a good shout.

Jiu-Jitsu: This is hard because in terms of what fighters have shown at the level they are fighting the answer is Roger Gracie, who is so good its scary.

But in terms of vs high level comp, BJ Penn on top of you is a bad day and its not a great thing to put Maia on his back. Id say Jacare probably is the best guy all round for MMA BJJ, but id say that Roger will eventually be the best.

 

Boxing - Gegard Mousasi

Muay Thai - Spider

Wrestling - GSP

Ju-Jitsu - Shinya Aoki

 

Boxing = BJ Penn

Muay Thai = A. Silva

Wrestling = Ben Askren

Ju-Jitsu = Maia

Judo = Rick Hawn

 

JDS's boxing is garbage. He has heavy hands no question about that. And compared to his peers above averaged striking. But considering striking in MMA from a purist perspective is so poor that's not much of an accomplishment. Head to head Arlovski has better technique and the better hands. What lets him down though is his chin.
Of course classical boxing is very difficult in MMA unless modified to suit. That said JDS's boxing would certainly not translate into boxing under Marquis of Queensbury. Id go as far to saying Kharitonov has better hands than him and better boxing acumen.

 

Quoted for truth:happy:happy:happy

 

But, JDS has arguably used it more successfully, as per the original question: "I'm asking about who has used these skills the best within MMA competition IYO"

Which is why I'm not sure why people are saying Karo for judo or ben askren for wrestling when there are guys around who have used those disciplines to achieve far greater levels of success

 

MMA boxing I thought this was for. Also Arlovski's head movment and body punching is not great. He also backs up in a straight line (his biggest problem).

Boxing as I am sure you know Scurla is not just about how you throw hands.

 

If you'd asked that question 10 years ago it would have been much easier to give you an answer. The problem with MMA now is its a new martial art and discipline in its own right. The days when fighters represented one particular MA are gone. And thus the lines have blurred.
Completely see your point though but it's just not that cut and dried with the current crop of fighters.

If i was to go by 5-10 years ago id say:

Kerr/Coleman = Wrestling

Big Nog = BJJ

Anyone from ChuteBoxe (Wandy Shogun) = Muay Thai

CC = Kickboxing

 

Absolutely i agree. But im looking at it just from a purist perspective. AA has good technique in respect of boxing. But his faults aside none of those skills would translate at all under Queensbury rules because his chin is so poor and like you say some of his other fundamental flaws.
For me there is no one in MMA ever that has represented boxing to its fullest.

Actually there is one man. Yōsuke Nishijima. He fought 5 times in PRIDE and the K1 and lost every match against some of the best competition the sport had to offer. Unfortunately for Nishijima he used pure boxing technique to try and beat mixed martial artists. Bad idea. :yep