Kamaru Usman never surpassed Matt Hughes

achoo42 said:
I'm always surprised when people place Usman ahead of Hughes and had him threatening GSP. I think it's a clear case of recency bias at play. Let's compare their title wins by using Fight Matrix historical rankings of each title contender at the time of their fights.

Matt Hughes:
Carlos Newton (#1)
Hayato Sakurai (#6)
Carlos Newton (#5)
Gil Castillo (#3)
Sean Sherk (#2)
Frank Trigg (#2)
GSP (#9)
Frank Trigg (#4)
BJ Penn (#3)

Kamaru Usman:
Tyron Woodley (#1)
Colby Covington (#3)
Jorge Masvidal (#2)
Gilbert Burns (#3)
Jorge Masvidal (#4)
Colby Covington (#2)

Even if you give Usman's wins more weight due to modern welterweight being deeper, I still think it's pretty clear that Hughes' resume is on the same level, if not better.

In fact, the only two fighters on Hughes' title resume who weren't top 5 welterweights at the time he fought them are GSP and Sakurai, which in hindsight are two of his most impressive wins. So GSP and Sakurai were underrated at the time while Colby and Masvidal were arguably overrated in their rematches.

To sum it up, Hughes had more title wins against a bigger variety of opponents, and his best wins are as good as Usman's best wins.

I just don't see why everyone's so sure that Usman is ahead of Hughes as a champion. He needed the win over Edwards to make the argument.
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The WW division right now is weaker than its ever been.



2 mediocre LWs (gilbert and jorge) who got run out of the division... were WW title contenders. Thats pitiful.
 
kumitechamp said:
Celebrate them both with a country breakfast.
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HavokHarmon said:
Yeah he said GSP fought a lot of one-dimensional guys like Hughes, Sherk and Trigg but then for no real reason sort of hand waves away guys like Maia and Masvidal who are also one-dimensional.

He doesn’t ever really go into either of their resumes other than just saying “monster” after listing Usmans wins and calling guys like Mas “gnarly”. What exactly makes Masvidal a “monster” at WW?
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I like Masvidal but he literally fought in the same era as GSP and was never a champion then either. So did Maia. Maia, Woodley, and Lawler all lost to “one-dimensional” Jake Shields. I mean, things haven’t evolved as rapidly as people say. Hughes’ prime was from a different era but GSP I would still be fine today.
jx820 said:
He was. He fought and beat Leon.

When they rematched Leon was proven to be the better fighter, but that's the first moment we can point to and say there is a demonstrably better WW.
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He beat Leon in 2015 lol. That doesn’t prove that he was better in 2021 when he was champion and rematching Masvidal.

I understand what you’re saying, but “proven” is kind of a stretch when people can believe what they want to believe and you’re not fighting the top contenders.
 
hughes beat better fighters, usman was more consistent. i personally give the edge to hughes for beating GSP.
 
i agree title fights aren’t everything.

but they are generally more important, because it’s generally a safe assumption that title challengers are among the best fighters in the division.

also, hughes looked excellent in most of his non-title wins, and there are some good names in there.

i also dispute the idea that divisions are necessarily deeper or better than they used to be, even in early 2000’s when mma as a whole was less evolved. 2 of usman’s title wins were over jorge, who, respectfully, had no business in the title picture. was there really nobody else, twice?

matt hughes was a tough, talented dude. he would likely excel in any era. his resume speaks for itself. his career tops usman’s easily.
 
Usman has yet to be defeated by a locomotive, and has not beaten his family up. he wins imo.
 
orca said:
thats right but the fighters that usman fought was far better than hughes
far harder
matt hughes wont be even top 10 today
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Maybe, maybe not. Training and gameplanning is also different today. Who's to say he wouldn't have been a better fighter with modern camps?

This is why different eras are harder to compare.
 
ima say it again
GSP
USMAN AND TYRON

How yall tryna downplay my mans tyron.
who got a better resume, was a title holder, and has the skills to go toe to toe with
prime 2017 Tyron woodley! If he beat usman he was set to eclipse GSP. who else aside
from usman is close to gsp status? Matt was not that dangerous. Usman and tyron had
that danger. Prime 2017 tyron kills colby, jake, nick nate mate hughes, GSP, etc etc.
 
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WokeWarrior said:
ima say it again
GSP
USMAN AND TYRON

How yall tryna downplay my mans tyron.
who got a better resume, was a title holder, and has the skills to go toe to toe with
prime 2017 Tyron woodley! If he beat tyron he was set to eclipse GSP. who else aside
from usman is close to gsp status? Matt was not that dangerous. Usman and tyron had
that danger. Prime 2017 tyron kills colby, jake, nick nate mate hughes, GSP, etc etc.
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Oh hi Tyron. For reference “2017 Tyron” won a lackluster majority decision against Stephen Thompson and a lackluster unanimous decision against Demian Maia. Plenty of people beat “2017 Tyron”.
 
StewDogg11 said:
Oh hi Tyron. For reference “2017 Tyron” won a majority decision against Stephen Thompson and a lackluster unanimous decision against Demian Maia.
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StewDogg11 said:
Oh hi Tyron. For reference “2017 Tyron” won a majority decision against Stephen Thompson and a lackluster unanimous decision against Demian Maia.
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its up to the challenger to go after the champion......go get it like usman or burns did...
hell even colby went after it, but by then tyron was a shell of his former self and was older.
but he still went for it and took it to tyron.
however in his prime that same lackluster tyron would of TKO'd or decisioned colby USMAN askren masvidal hughes rory or who ever.
remember his main problems was and always has been mental.

BTW tyron did most his camps by himself independently. and he still accomplished that. And had the pressures of the UFC on
his back. he didnt have the privilege to get easy lay ups, or big pay days. got a divorce, had money issues, and the fans didnt want to back him or support him. like francis
tyron will get his flowers later on down the line once this sport's audience grows.

matt hughes not even in his best prime tip top shape could fck with Tyron or usman. Gsp was scared his first time
so that really dont count.
 
StewDogg11 said:
Hahahahahahaha…not. Too bad a comedic genius like Colby Covington already beat you to the joke. Imagine being that pathetic.
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no clue what you are talking about? source? also get matt hughes dick out ya mouth, son.
 
WokeWarrior said:
its up to the challenger to go after the champion......go get it like usman or burns did...
hell even colby went after it, but by then tyron was a shell of his former self and was older.
but he still went for it and took it to tyron.
however in his prime that same lackluster tyron would of TKO'd or decisioned colby USMAN askren masvidal hughes rory or who ever.
remember his main problems was and always has been mental.

BTW tyron did most his camps by himself independently. and he still accomplished that. And had the pressures of the UFC on
his back. he didnt have the privilege to get easy lay ups, or big pay days. got a divorce, had money issues, and the fans didnt want to back him or support him. like francis
tyron will get his flowers later on down the line once this sport's audience grows.

matt hughes not even in his best prime tip top shape could fck with Tyron or usman. Gsp was scared his first time
so that really dont count.
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You really have no clue what you’re talking about lmao.
 
jeskola said:
no clue what you are talking about? source? also get matt hughes dick out ya mouth, son.
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Colby Covington already made the same joke you did 4 years ago. Imagine being such a lame pathetic basement dweller like yourself that you regurgitate old Colby Covington jokes lmao.
 
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