Who is the smallest fighter that could have been the UFC heavyweight champ in the modern era?

[Hatorade]

We will start the modern UFC era with Tim Sylvia/Andre arlovski. True cross-trained heavyweights with knowledge of striking, and grappling/submissions that trained at a real camp.

Since that time, Randy couture has been the smallest heavyweight at 6'2" 220 lbs

Who do you think could have been the absolute smallest fighter at heavyweight that could have won the strap, and who would they have beat?

My first thought would be rumble Johnson who fought at welterweight at one point touching Andre arlovski's chin, but he would actually be quite a bit bigger than Randy couture heavyweight.

I could see Dan Henderson at a bit over 200lbs putting anyone with a suspect chin to sleep at HW, particularly Arlovski or couture, but it's probably not very likely. Couture would wrestle fuck him into a living death, and Arlovski would definitely tool him up outside of getting clipped with how much size he has on him.

I wonder if GSP at 200 lbs could hold his own with some of the mediocre grapplers like Timmeh? I just don't know though. As massive as the discrepancy in skill is between those two, we're talking like at least 65lbs in weight difference and almost a foot in height. As much as a big slug as Tim was, his cardio honestly was never that bad, which sort of rules out him gassing against someone that much smaller than him.
I would love to see it though.

Who do you got?

 

[Luckyme]

Are you forgetting about DC? He was undersized even for LHW but still managed to KO Stipe

 

[BJJ Lover]

Are you forgetting about DC? He was undersized even for LHW but still managed to KO Stipe

He weight more than Stipe both times.

His frame is small but he loves to get fat.

 

[BJJ Lover]

To answer OP's question-> it depends on how easily the 206-215 lb. guy gets a titleshot.

Dan Henderson could KO Tim Sylvia or Andrei Arlovski in their respective champion eras but that doesn't mean he'll be able to build up a meaningful win streak to earn those titleshots.

So if he would get an instant titleshot, then yes, Dan Hendo would meet your qualifications.

Dude weighed in at like 208 lbs. for HW bouts and he got wins over Fedor & Nogueira, the 2 HW PRIDE GOATs.

There's a boxing video on this. At a certain weight limit (heavyweight), guys can knock each other out easily even if there's a 60 lb. difference between them. At that point even the small heavyweights have enough size and power to KO any human on the planet.

 

[ferrisjso]

It's probably somewhere like 5 ft 10.

 

[Chomsky Honk]

Igor and Sakuraba

 

[eiyuu]

Minowaman

 

[Theofficialemo]

Anderson silva in his prime im sure, if not him then rampage

 

[SmoothPies]

I think prime Anderson would have a shot with the right matchups.

Would probably get squished against a giant grappler like Lesnar

 

[Larzon]

Bald Volk

 

[chinarice]

Prime GSP 50-45s Big Timmeh.

Sorry Goober!

 

[DoubleTrouble]

We will start the modern UFC era with Tim Sylvia/Andre arlovski. True cross-trained heavyweights with knowledge of striking, and grappling/submissions that trained at a real camp.

Since that time, Randy couture has been the smallest heavyweight at 6'2" 220 lbs

Who do you think could have been the absolute smallest fighter at heavyweight that could have won the strap, and who would they have beat?

My first thought would be rumble Johnson who fought at welterweight at one point touching Andre arlovski's chin, but he would actually be quite a bit bigger than Randy couture heavyweight.

I could see Dan Henderson at a bit over 200lbs putting anyone with a suspect chin to sleep at HW, particularly Arlovski or couture, but it's probably not very likely. Couture would wrestle fuck him into a living death, and Arlovski would definitely tool him up outside of getting clipped with how much size he has on him.

I wonder if GSP at 200 lbs could hold his own with some of the mediocre grapplers like Timmeh? I just don't know though. As massive as the discrepancy in skill is between those two, we're talking like at least 65lbs in weight difference and almost a foot in height. As much as a big slug as Tim was, his cardio honestly was never that bad, which sort of rules out him gassing against someone that much smaller than him.
I would love to see it though.

Who do you got?

Anderson could have KO'd Randy

 

[sleepyguard85]

People aren’t gonna like to hear it but almost anyone under 205lbs would get pressed against the cage, worn out then KOd by prime Timmeh. Most of the 205ers too.

the only exceptions would be Jones, DC and the select few with insane KO power, like Hendo and Rumble being mentioned by OP.

 

[G10]

Hard to say. As the sport has evolved, so has the weight-cutting. Igor Vovchanchyn was very successful in heavyweight and open weight from the mid 90s to early 00s, but he would probably have to compete at WW to be competitive today.

I think for the modern era, DC is probably the smallest a guy can be while still being a championship-level fighter at HW. Considering that he's a two-time Olympian, I'm not sure who could out-do him.

 

[Exarch01]

Rumble and Hendo are great suggestions, but one man has wins over both and I think is smaller than either of them: Vitor Belfort.

 

[RightToBareKnuckles]

TRT Vitor could have a shot

 

[runjay]

Tanner Boser

Spoiler

just you wait

 

[n2xs4life]

Prime Ronda could beat any man that entered the cage with her.

This is the first time I'm ever trying that trolling stuff. How'd I do?

 

[Jose Beehive]

 

[Exarch01]

I've been for a fan of Penn for like 18 years, but I don't see it. Mostly because he's fought at heavyweight and looked like the Buddha. You think he'd have a chance against any of the recent HW champs?

I don't think anyone smaller than a natural MW is in the discussion. Not even GSP.