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Fedor fought 5 times in 2003.If that's all the mud you got we can consider this argument over. GSP has only 2 losses on his record. One to an all time great in Matt Hughes and the other to Matt Serra. Both losses were emphatically avenged. Though the lose to Serra may seem egregious because he lost to an undersized "journeyman" Fedor too was floored and stopped cold by perennial MW Dan Henderson.
GSP's fight ledger is also free of any cans, freak shows, and senseless/underserved fights, so we can just hop him over Ali and McGregor when it comes to combat sports greatness too if you want.
3 hard opponents and 2 extra fights to make money (one was actually a favor)
He fought three weeks after winning the world title from Nog. THREE WEEKS! Could you imagine any UFC champ doing that? He went to Lithuania to fight on their card as a favor to his contacts and smashed that dude.
He fought at the Inoki show on NYE that year versus Nagata. It wasn't even PRIDE. Fedor had a contract dispute with PRIDE and ended up fighting for Inoki to make big money to smash Nagata.
You can laugh all you want about Nagata as an opponent but Fedor grew up very poor. We can't fault the man for taking one extra fight. He had already fought 4 times that year! Should he have not accepted that paycheck and stayed home and just take a whole year off like Stipe is doing now??
No. He took that extra fight to make money. I wish we could see Stipe fight 5 times in a year, even if 2 are cans. Look at Werdum fighting Walt Harris and Tybura. To me he is a warrior staying active and taking risks but you same damn kids will probably nitpick his record one day too and say he fought cans!