Top 5 GOATs of each weight class?

[Grapplefest]

HW:
Fedor
Stipe
Crocop
Big Nog
Werdum

LHW:
Jones
DC
Shogun
Liddell
Rampage

MW:
Silva
Weidman
Franklin
Whittaker
Romero

WW:
GSP
Hughes
Woodley
Lawler
Condit

LW:
BJ
Frankie
RDA
Khabib
Gomi

FW:
Aldo
Holloway
Conor
Faber
Mike Brown

BW:
Cruz
Dillashaw
Barao
Garbrandt
Faber

FW:
MM
Who cares

 

[Koimpact]

Take out Chuck and throw in Rampage and we're good. Never forget 2x

 

[SOAzmayesh]

people saying khabib lol

 

[wilKO]

I fail to understand how these dudes didnt make it, wherever:

SAKU GOAT
Hoyce
Hendo
Bustamante

They were all bar Royce arguable. Saku and Hendo didn't commit to one weight class enough. Though both all time greats but Hendo at MW is fair.

 

[wilKO]

Wrong, Khabib has beaten 2 top 10 guys and 2 top 5 guys. Still not goat material yet, though

1. Pat healy, ranked number 10 at the time

2. RDA, ranked 5th at the time:

3. Johnson, ranked 6th:

4. Barboza, ranked 4th:

RDA was actually ranked 6th there. UFC don't rank their champion for some stupid reason. But solid points all round .

 

[SteveMR]

You're both correct. I completely overlooked DC.

I'll still argue cain over JDS due to JDS falling hard.... but at least he's fighting unlike cain.

Tito has become pretty underrated imo, he completely dominated the sport for years. Randys record hurts him for me. I wouldn't argue shogun over him though

Honestly, Tito is the one who got me into MMA. My favorite fighter for years. And yes, he was the UFC’s most dominant champion ever until Chuck came around and then Anderson/GSP.

But we can’t overlook the fact that Ortiz was defending against MWs and Ken Shamrock. I’m happy to say he’s a fringe top 10 LHW of all-time, and there’s no shame in that in MMA’s premier weight class. But clearly there’s at least 9 guys ahead of him (I forgot Machida too).

 

[Number 8]

Is Garbrandt really above Barao? Not hatin' just askin'.

 

[gono btw]

They were all bar Royce arguable. Saku and Hendo didn't commit to one weight class enough. Though both all time greats but Hendo at MW is fair.

OK about the SAKU GOAT & Hendo argument.

But Hoyce @ WW is Rushmore-style.

 

[RonnyB]

Honestly, Tito is the one who got me into MMA. My favorite fighter for years. And yes, he was the UFC’s most dominant champion ever until Chuck came around and then Anderson/GSP.

But we can’t overlook the fact that Ortiz was defending against MWs and Ken Shamrock. I’m happy to say he’s a fringe top 10 LHW of all-time, and there’s no shame in that in MMA’s premier weight class. But clearly there’s at least 9 guys ahead of him (I forgot Machida too).

I just can't put guys ahead of him that weren't UFC champions. Tito won and defended the most important belt... shogun has pride so that gives him credibility. Machida just didn't reach those heights

 

[SteveMR]

I just can't put guys ahead of him that weren't UFC champions. Tito won and defended the most important belt... shogun has pride so that gives him credibility. Machida just didn't reach those heights

But Shogun and Machida were both UFC champions lol. And even though Machida only had one suspect defense he was clearly the superior fighter to Tito.

 

[IsNormal]

Even though we all know Barao has been greatly surpassed in skill now, his 4 UFC title fight wins and long history of domination has to put him on the list ahead of Cody, who just hasn't defended enough yet.


Just look at Barao's massive record (not that most of those pre-UFC fights mean much, but still!)


Cody has nice UFC wins, but just hasn't fought enough yet


Give it time before throwing fighters like Cody too high on the GOAT list

 

[IsNormal]

Not a single mention of Cerrone? I'd expect to see him at least at the bottom of some LW list.
Even with his recent triple losses, he's still at 33-10, a good record for the most active fighter ever who takes any god damn fight he can find.

In 2016 he had, within just three years, gone on an 11-1 run against mostly top ten opponents.
Beating everyone from Alvarez, Matt Brown, Jury, Story, Barboza, Cote, avenging his losses to Bendo, only loss being a title fight against RDA.
Sure, some of them were at MW though...
I guess LW is just too stacked to include him.

 

[jabelar]

I'm still confused by how there can be 40 "greatest of all time". I understand that due to the disagreements around this topic, we can't get down to one. But 40 seems excessive.

Also, whoever said "it is all preference anyway" -- that's not how it works.

I think that if you're going to attempt to declare a GOAT, you need to very clearly define your criteria for candidacy. For example, I think that even some tough motherf*ckers who may not have best record but were true warriors (e.g. Randy Couture) were "great".

So, for GOAT I think they obviously have to be recognized as champion by a legit organization, they need to have successfully defended the title for some significant run, they need to be frickin tough (good chin, fighting through injuries), have impressive skills (give us those "wow" moments), I think GOAT has to come from higher weight classes (but I understand some might think differently), I think a GOAT has to have had a long career -- again why I like guys like Randy who were fighting serious fights while older, and I think that fighting and winning while moving up a weight class (depending on what that actually means relative to their natural class) gives a big boost to their case as a GOAT.

Anyway, just giving an example of how threads like this should start: with a definition so that there is actually a chance of coming to some relatively factual conclusion.

 

[myjohnson9]

I have included PED cheats. MW was extremely hard to rank. After Anderson there are about 10 guys who could be considered top 5. And I don't know about FLW and BW was a struggle.

HW:
Fedor
Nog
Stipe
Werdum
JDS

LHW:
Jones
Shogun
Chuck
Wanderlei
DC

MW:
Anderson
Weidman
Whitaker
Romero
Bisping

WW:
GSP
Hughes
Shields
Woodley
Lawler

LW:
BJ
Edgar
Gomi
Henderson
Alvarez

FW:
Aldo
Conor
Holloway
Faber
Edgar

BW:
Cruz
Dillashaw
Garbrandt
Torres
Barao

FLW:
MM
Benavidez
Horiguchi
...
...

I'm sure you will all agree 100% and there will be no need for discussion...

I like your list. Only thing I would change is rich Franklin for Bisping on the MW list

 

[House Adams]

I have included PED cheats. MW was extremely hard to rank. After Anderson there are about 10 guys who could be considered top 5. And I don't know about FLW and BW was a struggle.

HW:
Fedor
Nog
Stipe
Werdum
JDS

LHW:
Jones
Shogun
Chuck
Wanderlei
DC

MW:
Anderson
Weidman
Whitaker
Romero
Bisping

WW:
GSP
Hughes
Shields
Woodley
Lawler

LW:
BJ
Edgar
Gomi
Henderson
Alvarez

FW:
Aldo
Conor
Holloway
Faber
Edgar

BW:
Cruz
Dillashaw
Garbrandt
Torres
Barao

FLW:
MM
Benavidez
Horiguchi
...
...

I'm sure you will all agree 100% and there will be no need for discussion...

Pretty solid list..

It’s all opinion and up in the air depending on your criteria and personal bias... But I think the following need to be added/considered/argue for some fun/parody...

Josh Barnett
Andrei Arlovski
Tim Sylvia
Randy Couture
Cro-Cop

Rampage
Hendo
Tito
F. Shamrock

Rich Franklin
Hendo
Busta
Saku

Fitch
Alves
Sherk
Karo

Sherk
Hansen
List was pretty hard to argue with..

Mendes
Lamas
Pioier
KZ

Faber (agree with him currently being in top 5 FW, but believe he has been/was one of the best BW ever).
Assuncao
Mizugaki
Wineland

Uncle Creepy (This is an obvious one for me..)
Formiga(another obvious one for me)


Again.. I know some of these fighters probably aren’t top 5 historically for their division.. But just something to argue about.. for fun.. this should not be a crazy serious topic..

 

[Bamboozled]

Mach Sakurai is one of the best WW's of all time. Probably top 3.

After his loss to Anderson Silva he got into a bad car accident and was never his old self. Prime Mach was insanely good. You can also make the argument he beat Silva. Silva pummeled Mach while he had his back at the end of round 2 but Mach controlled the majority of the fight and Anderson just held guard trying to negate Mach the whole time.

 

[RonnyB]

But Shogun and Machida were both UFC champions lol. And even though Machida only had one suspect defense he was clearly the superior fighter to Tito.

Machida was UFC Champ? .... why do I not remember that?

Edit: wait... he won the belt from Rashad. Jesus my memory is going to shit

 

[TAK47]

So you want to me to list my top 5 GOATs of atomweight and flyweight and whatever the fuck it's called?