Forget weight classes and P4P, just talking about the HW’s and fighters that could bump up to HW as they were in 2010 to fight at HW/OW. I do not think you can go into any year of NHB/MMA history from 1993 to 2023 and find forty fighters that could beat the 2010 group in a dual meet where #1 fights 1, 2 fights 2, 40 fights 40 etc…
I’m strictly talking about the year that had the best 40 fighters on the planet that could beat the top 40 from any other year.
My pick is 2010, what year are you picking where you can find 40 fighters that will beat the 2010 version of these 40 in a dual meet? I’m not sure the order of the list is how I think it should be for the dual meet but you get my point. No year beats 2010 in a dual meet.
Lesnar and Carwin had arrived. Anderson was killing LHW’s. Shogun was champ. Werdum would shock the world. Fedor was still very dangerous. Roger Gracie and Jon Jones were starting to run through people. DC, Stipe, JDS, Konrad etc… were starting to climb the ranks. Couture, Coleman, Rizzo, Sylvia etc… were still around.
- Fedor
- Werdum
- Cain
- JDS
- Lesnar
- Big Nog
- Mir
- Overeem
- Carwin
- Barnett
- DC
- Gonzaga
- Arlovski
- Jones
- Sylvia
- Rizzo
- Crocop
- Kharitonov
- Anderson Silva
- Konrad
- Russow
- Stipe
- Bigfoot
- Couture
- Struve
- Pe de Pano
- Coleman
- Aleks
- Shogun
- Roger Gracie
- Vera
- Evans
- Nelson
- Hendo
- Rothwell
- Monson
- Ivanov
- Kongo
- Oleynik
- Hunt
Honorable mention: Aburakhimov, Nastula, Lashley, Lungu, Wuiff, Ishii
Editing messed up the list but you get my point
I can even edit in 10 more HW’s and LHW’s and the 2010 version of them if you want to take it all the way to 50 fighters from 2010 vs the 50 fighters from any other year in MMA history.
Minakov
Rampage
Teixeira
Bader
Davis
Aburakhimov
Wiuff
Yvel
King Mo
Ishii