Fighters that lack credentials or accolades but are arguably the best in a certain area

[Nightwish]

Aldo's wrestling in terms of defense is top notch with no accolades i think.

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

Aldo has been training MT for a very long time as well. He absolutely has a background in striking.

Source? All I can find is that he trained capoeira and then gave that up for bjj.

 

[Hdfi]

prime JDS and Ngannou are some of the best "mma boxers" at HW and they don't have a boxing background.

 

[JinKazama]

gsp and jj come to mind

volk and olive are good as well

 

[Lawrence]

What are some examples of this? For me there are 2 that standout. The first being GSP's wrestling and the second being Oliveira's bjj. GSP doesn't have a wrestling background. Now with Oliveira he does have bjj background but doesn't have the accolades that the other top bjj guys in the sport have. Maia, souza, Werdum, Burns etc.. They've all won gold at big bjj tournaments. I feel like a lot of strikers have little or sometimes even no background at all but for grapplers it's very rare for whatever reason.

During his time Uriah Faber was champion in the premiere org, and also elite in the UFC…

Faber submitted more than a couple respected BJJ black belts and pounded out a few more.

Faber regularly gave those Blackbelts his back and neck and gave no fucks about it. They did nuttin….

No belt and his wrestling pedigree was average at best when you look at the other UFC elite wrestlers.

 

[oscerthegrouch]

prime JDS and Ngannou are some of the best "mma boxers" at HW and they don't have a boxing background.

WHat??? Ngannou is not highly technical at all he just has power!... JDS on other had in prime was much better but he fell in love with kos and became a head hunter

 

[Banana Tree's Nemesis]

Sean Brady's wrestling.

Striking doesn't really have someone comparable. Pretty much all exceptional strikers have at least some experience in amateur competition.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Shout to Diego Sanchez and his ability to grapple-fuck all of WW in his prime

 

[kingghidrah]

Black Beast and Ngannou are among the most feared strikers (and most feared men overall) in the world and neither has a combat sports background or any accolades in other sports.

Can't imagine where they got their punching power

 

[chiefwiggum]

Hmm…Volkanski doesn’t have a striking background —in fact he has a wrestling base— and I believe he is without question the BEST STRIKER at 145

View attachment 944059

you could kind of throw him in for most areas.

I always root against him but he’s the best guy in the sport today imo

 

[kingghidrah]

prime JDS and Ngannou are some of the best "mma boxers" at HW and they don't have a boxing background.

Since when is Ngannou any sort of a boxer? He swings wildly with looping shots until he connects. Granted he is pretty accurate for as wild as he is but how does that make him a boxer?

 

[chiefwiggum]

Wasnt he in low 20's, how did he got 100 KB fights? And fighters coming off striking sports tend to have better defense, for a 100 fights guy he doesnt move his head a lot.

He was in tgebufc really young too maybe 20-21

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Ryan hall….
That crab walk ankle pick….best in the Biz…

So the decorated BJJ guy is good at BJJ? I think you missed the OP's point.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Max Holloway has had over 100 kickboxing fights before joining the UFC but no one seems to talk about it. He talked about when he was on Rogan

Wasnt he in low 20's, how did he got 100 KB fights? And fighters coming off striking sports tend to have better defense, for a 100 fights guy he doesnt move his head a lot.

I seriously doubt he had 100 ammy KB bouts. Were they all unsanctioned events? Cause ammy kickboxing has sanctioning and record keeping.

I think he was just spewing. Sure he boxed a lot as a youth and had kickboxing matches as well.


That podcast is a spew-fest. Joe rambles on and on to his guests about him being a “fighter” cause he won some TKD tournaments. Almost all of his guests, even the fighters, somehow believe Joe fought in his day and is a complete badass.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Wasnt he in low 20's, how did he got 100 KB fights? And fighters coming off striking sports tend to have better defense, for a 100 fights guy he doesnt move his head a lot.

Rhonda had no background but had the best head movement in WMMA until she forgot to use it that one time.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Ryan hall….
That crab walk ankle pick….best in the Biz…

He is frozen out as he found a loophole in MMA rule enforcement and judging. look at the Gray Maynard fight. Gray knocked him down multiple times just by raising his fist. If you don't call those knockdowns then they have to be timidity and the ref needs to enforce that. Grays striking put Hall down multiple times.

 

[aerius]

Rhonda had no background but had the best head movement in WMMA until she forgot to use it that one time.

She was all set to take over boxing.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

She was all set to take over boxing.

That is a great picture. Art Jimmerson is kicking himself though. If he had worn 1 boxing glove and one MMA glove he probably wins UFC 1 and Gracie BJJ dies in obscurity.

 

[EJRMAN513]

Jon Jones’ early career is the definition of this thread.

His striking was highly regarded and he said he learned many techniques from YouTube. His submission grappling as well was very dangerous despite having 0 credentials.

Very credentialed in his drug test failings though

 

[Hamalcar]

Donald Cerrone is very accepted as for being a cowboy but there is no evidence of he ever leaving New York City!