Brendan Fitzgerald calls Volkanovski the consensus GOAT featherweight

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

I think people like Fitzgerlad wouldn't even know what WEC was, if you asked him, another new person who got into UFC in Covid Lockdown, they know very little about the history of the sport.

 

[metal7555]

They must think we're idiots.

Does it really matter though?

Recency bias says VOLK, especially if he wins the next one...

Nostalgia bias and insane WEC and UFC 2006-2014 run says ALDO.

The real thing that bugs me is he didnt get a rematch off the 13 second loss -- made worse by the fact that McG never had a single defense anyways....People don't even know wtf WEC was and probably only know aldo for losing that fight, and then shitting on everything he did BEFORE it. It's a massive blind spot that new fans and trolls won't admit because they join the convo or started watching and didn't witness ALDO in WEC or literally anything before McG...

 

[Private Whatley]

Lol, because jones removed himself from the playing field by being stupid.



Yes, it was premature then for max, and it's still a bit premature now for Volk, but there are a lot of other factors going in volks favor (him having zero losses at FW and having wins two of the other all time greats in Aldo and Max)

We'll see how their resume's compare when volk is retired.

Correct, no one has actually beaten jones in the cage. You claimed that none of his prior opponents won the belt after he did which is false. To be fair, only DC got to win the belt directly on account of Jon’s stupidity. Glover won following Jon’s decision to leave the division for heavyweight. My Jones fuckup recall is a little hazy though, so I’m sure he also did something stupid around that time but I don’t think that that was the cited reason for his no longer holding the belt.

 

[fortheo]

Correct, no one has actually beaten jones in the cage. You claimed that none of his prior opponents won the belt after he did which is false. To be fair, only DC got to win the belt directly on account of Jon’s stupidity. Glover won following Jon’s decision to leave the division for heavyweight. My Jones fuckup timeline is a little hazy but I’m sure he did something stupid as well around that time but I don’t think that that was the cited reason for his no longer holding the belt.

I did not make that claim. I was just chiming in to point out that the jones/dc/glover stat is a little silly and a bit of a technicality that doesn't really disprove any major point that was being made in this thread.

 

[Dr Fong]

Your stat triggered nobody. You were factually shut down and then said "look at this useless stat as a bonus"

The fact that you're still rambling about that nonsense stat after already acknowledging that it's pointless tells us all we need to know about your agenda here.



I shut it down yesterday and he spiraled into nonsense. You can say the same shit about 99 percent of champs. Woodley's competition did bad against usman, usman's comp is doing bad against Leon. Faber's comp did bad against Aldo, aldo's comp did bad against Conor and max, conor and max's comp did bad against Volk. It is the absolute norm divisional turn over rate, and this guy holds it against Aldo because he's clearly not arguing from rational but from his feelings.

Oh, it definitely triggered you and here you are back for more. You shut nothing down yesterday. As I told you then, the 0-7 is just the bonus round. The cherry on top of how weak Aldo's record looks when compared to Volk. The 0-4, compared with Volk's 4-0 vs fellow FW champs is the main course.

Aldo simply wasn't beating guys that were on Conor's/Max/Or Volk's level except for a prime LW Frankie. Mark Hominick title defences mean little.

Zombie and Frankie fought for the belt long after losing to Aldo. Mendes for an interim belt. These guys did pretty well against non-Max/Volk/Conor comp - just like Aldo. But they were a step below those guys - just like Aldo.

Mendes was proven as a bust while still young vs Conor and relatively young vs Volk. You can't just handwave the fact that Aldo's second best win in his UFC run was finished by Volk and Conor. His best win, while admittedly old, was also dominated by Max.

Knocked out brutally wice by Max. Knocked out brutally by Conor. 30-27d by Volk in Brazil. All before he turned 33. Never beat another UFC FW champ. That's the reality you will never be able to escape.

 

[Benoitthegr8]

If he beats Ilia , yeah I’d say he’d surpassed Aldo, their on equal footing now. Thing is that Volk has loses in his prime, Jose didn’t and had a span of absolute domination that newb choads dont remember, just saying.

 

[Mike]

Does it really matter though?

Recency bias says VOLK, especially if he wins the next one...

Nostalgia bias and insane WEC and UFC 2006-2014 run says ALDO.

The real thing that bugs me is he didnt get a rematch off the 13 second loss -- made worse by the fact that McG never had a single defense anyways....People don't even know wtf WEC was and probably only know aldo for losing that fight, and then shitting on everything he did BEFORE it. It's a massive blind spot that new fans and trolls won't admit because they join the convo or started watching and didn't witness ALDO in WEC or literally anything before McG...

Yeah there's a lot of newer fans that just read records on wikipedia and come up with nonsensical talking points based on that. When you weren't there and didn't watch the fights in real time, context gets lost.

 

[RockyLockridge]

If he beats Ilia , yeah I’d say he’d surpassed Aldo, their on equal footing now. Thing is that Volk has loses in his prime, Jose didn’t and had a span of absolute domination that newb choads dont remember, just saying.

Aldo lost to conor and max in his prime

 

[Dr Fong]

Aldo lost to conor and max in his prime

And Volk lost in another division. While 2-3 years older than Aldo was when Volk 30-27d him.

But you'll find that such basic facts will not sway the feelings of people in this thread.

 

[Private Whatley]

I did not make that claim. I was just chiming in to point out that the jones/dc/glover stat is a little silly and a bit of a technicality that doesn't really disprove any major point that was being made in this thread.

You were claiming that Aldo not holding any victories over future champs doesn’t impact his legacy and incorrectly cited Jones as an example of someone who didn’t beat any future champs. I’m assuming that the reason you cited Jones is that he is the undisputed light heavyweight GOAT. Unfortunately, your logic was flawed.

DC and Glover won Light Heavyweight championship matches and DC even defended the belt a couple times. No, neither of them ever beat Jones but that only reinforces the fact that Jones is the best 205er ever, which wasn’t the point you were trying to argue.

 

[gosuasus]

Fritzgeral started watching MMA in 2020. Totally irrelevant opinion.

 

[wwkirk]

Aldo never beat a past, present or future UFC FW champion.

Wow! I never knew this! Very contextualizing. Aldo's still great, but facts are facts.

 

[StonedLemur]

The UFC shows so much disrespect to their older fighters when it comes to promoting new fights. They pulled the same shit with GSP. And I bet when a new dominant featherweight emerges with half the title defenses of Volk they will start calling him the GOAT as well. It's like you're only the GOAT as long as you're active and selling ppvs.

Brendan Fitzgerald and Brendan Schaub, can you prove they're not the same person?

They both say some of the dumbest things about fighters, it's almost like they have no idea wtf they're talking about sir lol.

 

[Neck&Neck]

The Inclusive Era
#AllGoats

 

[RonDante]

There’s no way people actually think you need to match defenses right? People can’t be that simple minded?

beating max 3 times is better than hominick, Florian, Swanson, faber, brown, gamburyan, Stephens, lamas, mendes and edgar combined. Max Holloway would literally be the greatest fighter in mma history if volk didn’t exist

Finished chad mendes, 30-27 over aldo, tripling his strikes, 50-45 over ortega, dropped tkz 3 times, dominated yair and finished him

has never lost at featherweight, has lost 3 rounds total in his entire featherweight career, skill wise is superior to anyone who’s ever fought in the division and you know this is true

oldheads clinging to the past. and I bet there’ll still be people saying Aldo is greater even when volk passes the defenses

 

[RonDante]

Oh, it definitely triggered you and here you are back for more. You shut nothing down yesterday. As I told you then, the 0-7 is just the bonus round. The cherry on top of how weak Aldo's record looks when compared to Volk. The 0-4, compared with Volk's 4-0 vs fellow FW champs is the main course.

Aldo simply wasn't beating guys that were on Conor's/Max/Or Volk's level except for a prime LW Frankie. Mark Hominick title defences mean little.

Zombie and Frankie fought for the belt long after losing to Aldo. Mendes for an interim belt. These guys did pretty well against non-Max/Volk/Conor comp - just like Aldo. But they were a step below those guys - just like Aldo.

Mendes was proven as a bust while still young vs Conor and relatively young vs Volk. You can't just handwave the fact that Aldo's second best win in his UFC run was finished by Volk and Conor. His best win, while admittedly old, was also dominated by Max.

Knocked out brutally wice by Max. Knocked out brutally by Conor. 30-27d by Volk in Brazil. All before he turned 33. Never beat another UFC FW champ. That's the reality you will never be able to escape.

If these guys were arguing in good faith they’d acknowledge the fact that aldo went down to a division where speed, which is impacted by age, is even more important and arguably went 4-2 (I think he beat moraes although it was close) and was extremely competitive with yan until the 4th round, and also won the first round off merab

 

[RonDante]

And Volk lost in another division. While 2-3 years older than Aldo was when Volk 30-27d him.

But you'll find that such basic facts will not sway the feelings of people in this thread.

I saw someone trying to argue that Aldo’s wins over vera font and munhoz should factor into his featherweight goat status

 

[Lee Danger]

Aldo never beat a past, present or future UFC FW champion. GSP and Jones beat a bunch of past, present and future champs of their division.

he was the first ufc fw champ, how could he defeat a past ufc fw champion?
he beat the previous WEC fw champ, who'd have eventually be the first ufc fw champion if the merge have happened before.

Aldo dominated his generation, only fighting title contenders since 2009 until his retirement.

 

[JKS]

If Volk wins this Saturday, I will have him as the goat at FW. And this is coming from a long time Aldo fan.

If you line up their FW careers side by side, it's very close. I think if we compare the UFC title runs, both are very impressive. Volk has the biggest win beating Max 3x, but I think overall Aldo has more better wins and that goes back to the WEC days too. I think it's pretty even.

The main reason why I put Volk ahead though is that he owns a win over Aldo and also 3 wins over the man that beat Aldo 2x by TKO. Also, a big factor is that Volk hasn't lost while Aldo lost 4x to two other top FWs. It's hard for me to have Aldo as the goat at FW when he lost to Volk, Conor and Max 2x. Part of being GOAT is actually being able to beat all the best guys.

 

[Dr Fong]

If these guys were arguing in good faith they’d acknowledge the fact that aldo went down to a division where speed, which is impacted by age, is even more important and arguably went 4-2 (I think he beat moraes although it was close) and was extremely competitive with yan until the 4th round, and also won the first round off merab

They want to pretend Aldo was somehow old and passed it at age 29. After he lost to Conor, he dominated Edgar. After he lost to Max x2, he smashed Moicano and Stephens. After he lost to Volk, as you say, he had an impressive final act at 135.

This is not what happens to shot fighters. They don't just randomly pull off performances like Aldo did vs Edgar, Moicano, Stephens, Munhoz, Vera, Font, and even losing performances vs Yan, Moraes and Merab.