Nobody in Fedors era fought top competition consistently because the matchmaking landscape was completely differnt in those days.
He still fought elite HWs at their peak consistently enough to measure his success against them while averaging 5 fights per year.
Fedor fought Magomedov and Oleinik in full contact, combat sambo in 2003- a year in which Fedor already had 5 fights and a championship fight. The Oleinik fight was full contact bare knuckle. That's 7 fights in one year.
By the time Fedor lost by KO at 33 he had over 35 fights and had been a pro for 11 years.
Stipe got knocked out by Struve when was 30 years old, in his 10th fight, 3 years into his career- Fedor was already fighting for a world title against the best HW on the planet and winning in dominant fashion.
Werdum was 39 years old and went 4-5 in his next 9. It's a good win buts not as good as beating an all time great HW at their peak.
36 year old Overeem had been fighting for over 15 years and had been knocked out like 16 times by the time he fought Stipe and had been stopped in the UFC 3x before he fought Stipe. A good win at best.
JDS beat Stipe when he still had some youth left in the tank the first time they fought even though he was already a shell of his former self by that point due to the beatings he took from Cain. By the time Stipe finally beat JDS he was officially washed up and never won two in a row ever again. Good win but nothing special.
Arlovski had been knocked out like 10x by the time Stipe beat him. Never went on another run after that. Good win but nothing special.
Francis was dangerous but still very green and mentally weak. He lost to Derrick Lewis in his very next fight. Still a good win but its not a coincidence that he absolutely melted Stipe in the rematch when he hit his peak. It was congruent with my narrative.
Name one all time great HW Stipe beat during their peak. You can't and his consistent crushing of senior citizens doesn't offset that. Does that mean Stipe sucks? No. He's an all time great HW who is probably top 5-7 all time depending on who you ask.
For me personally its hard to put Stipe ahead of guys like Fedor, Nog, Werdum, DC and Cain who destroyed some of the greatest HWs ever while they were at their very best. For me thats more important than crushing washed up HWs with consistency.
Maybe Cain is the only guy from this bunch which I could put Stipe ahead of in terms of legacy because of Cains short career but even then Cain absolutely smashed peak all time great JDS twice- something Stipe has never accomplished.
This isn't even a knock on Stipe. Being a top 5 HW of all time is an incredible achievement.
Good sparring bruv.
You contradicted yourself when you said Stipe never beat an all time great yet he beat DC (in your top 5 above). Your qualifier is in their PRIME. You claim Prime HWs are youthful and that premise is faulty. You claim losses after Stipe fought many opponents means they were washed. Winning streaks happen at the beginning of careers as level of opponents is weaker and (If you follow the usual track) gradually increase in quality. Stipe's level of competition rose and then never dropped off at all. In the current era once you get to the higher level they don't drop down massively. You don't have Stipe fighting #35 ranked HWs and same goes for his opponents. Werdum's record is one you pointed to being 4-3 (1NC) and should have been 5-3 as Ferreira tapped out. (Bare Knuckle is a different sport IMO.) Not a bad record and all top 10 opponents (save Alex Gus being his HW debut).
You discount the win over Francis as he was too young and green so I guess Francis was better when they fought the second time. Doesn't that fly in the face of discounting Stipe's wins due to the age of his opponents (35 not 40). Experience matters as you pointed out with Frank so why are all Stipe's more experienced opponents all inferior in your mind? 35 is ancient at lower weight classes. Fighters over 35 have a horrible record in title fights in WW and lower.
HW is a whole different story. HW history is full of 35 plus fighters at the top.
Randy won all his titles over the age of 35 at HW & LHW.
Mo Smith over 35 when he won UFC title
Bas Rutten was 34 when he won UFC title
Carwin was 35 when he won Interim UFC title
Werdum was 37 when he won Interim UFC title & 38 when he won UFC title
Stipe was 35 when he won UFC title and 39 when he last defended against DC
DC was 39 when he won UFC title
Francis was 35 when he won UFC title
Jon Jones was 36 when he won UFC title
LHW
Alex Pereira is 36
Glover was 42
Blachowicz was 37
DC was 36 when he won and 39 in his last defence
Chuck was 36 when he won UFC title
Randy was 40 when he won UFC title, 41 when he won it again .
That is a lot of Champions 35 and over. Your assumption that PEAK for HW is in your 20's (if 35 is Ancient) is clearly faulty. You ask for context when looking at Fedor's resume and then use no context when assessing Stipe's and specifically dismissing his wins as having poor records (Werdum's post Stipe record which was a winning one BTW).
Good sparring but we aren't looking at the world through the same lens. My assessment is that Fedor gets a lot of love for his streak but it was littered with cans and he was very much like Royce Gracie. He had skills in areas where his opponents had glaring holes. When he faced opponents that were more well rounded he had a number of losses. Stipe's entire career has been against more well rounded opponents and IMO Fedor would not achieve the same or better against that string of opponents. It can never be proven either which way unless one of us invents a time machine and can take 33 year old Fedor and put him in a cage with 33 year old Stipe.