Can we just admit that seeing GSP and Aldo get destroyed and knocked out in their careers makes them seem mortal?
I want my GOAT to have an aura of invincibility, GSP and Aldo lost their aura’s.
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I agree, but I would also add Mighty Mouse to the group
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Anyone with a functioning brain agrees
Khabibs greatest accomplishment is having a 0 on his record that is only there because 3 judges were nice enough to give him the nod over Tibau.
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Not anyone. There are some people that aren’t concerned with PED use that include people like Jon Jones and Anderson Silva, there are people that think that loses after fighting way after their primes and/or out of their weight classes don’t count as much that include people like BJ Penn and Fedor, and there are also people that are retarded, batshit crazy, or just believe everything Joe Rogan and Dana White tells them to believe that think Conor and Ronda Rousey are GOATs.
Love Aldo and think he’s unfairy overlooked in GOAT conversations, but he’s probably outside the top four or five.
That said I thought he was clearly the best P4P for a few years and didn’t get proper recognition.
Aldo recently responded to Khabib’s criticisms of him and revealed that Khabib turned down a fight against him years ago…
“(Nurmagomedov’s) saying you can’t peak again, but we just saw an example with Glover [Teixeira], who got there, lost, and got there again at age 42 and won [the UFC title], completely dominated the champion, took him down and submitted him,” Aldo said. “[Israel] Adesanya himself fought [Jan Blachowicz] for five rounds, a pretty boring fight, two high-level athletes, and Glover, who’s older than me [won]. Sometimes Khabib talks too much. He’s not doing much these days, he’s retired, so he’s looking for [attention] that way.”
There is history between the two future Hall of Fame fighters.
Back in 2016, after Aldo regained his UFC featherweight title, he told MMA Fighting that he had been offered an interim lightweight title fight against “a guy we never thought would turn it down,” who then “turned it down, because his father didn’t think it was good.”
Aldo declined to reveal who that opponent was at the time, but now stated that it was indeed Nurmagomedov.
“I was traveling when [my coach] ‘Dede’ [Pederneiras] called me,” Aldo said. “The [UFC] had offered me this fight and we took it. I said, ‘What? I want that, I’m in.’ I respect everybody, but that opportunity … I was the featherweight champion, and [Nurmagomedov] didn’t think it was a good [idea]. I don’t know if he was expecting to fight somebody else, I don’t know what he was thinking at the time. I think it could have been a great fight.
“I wanted to test myself. Everybody always asks me. … It’s funny, everybody thinks I train wrestling a lot. No, man, I usually do the same training with my team, so, to me, it would have been a really tough test. I’ve always fought against American wrestling and it was hard to take me down, so it would be a tough test against him, if he would be able to impose his takedown game against me knowing that I have pretty good takedown defense as well.”
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Aldo absolutely has a G.O.A.T claim. He has been a champion or top contender in what has been historically one of the most competitive divisions.
In all his fights the only time when it wasnt competitive was a fluke performance on his part against Conor. Other than that he has fought the best if the best.
Every fighter on earth is going to lose every now and then when you fight nothing but champions and former champions in their primes. He has always been a constant there for 15 yrs
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Just a few fighters off the top my head who are objectively greater and more accomplished than Khabib
- GSP
- Jones
- Anderson Silva
- Fedor
- BJ
- Jose Aldo
- DC
- Couture
- Hughes
- Hendo
- Mighty Mouse
- Stipe
- Cejudo
- McGregor
- Nogueira
- Frankie Edgar
- Sakuraba
- Liddell
- Usman
- Max Holloway
Khabib isn’t even top 20. Only fought against 4 elite opponents in 1 weight class.
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Who in MMA who’s completed their career or is nearly done has that Aura? Khabib was unbeaten, but if you wanna watch the Tibau fight, he lost his aura of invincibility there.
No slight on him, I don’t think invincibility is possible in this sport. That’s why it’s better than boxing, with so many facets to learn, you’ll always find your kryptonite eventually
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GOAT conversations will never end, people tend to just pick favorites and bash others. Too many variables to discuss in reality.
length of career, strength of schedule in early, middle and late stage of career, number of weight classes competed in, number of losses, number of title defenses, etc…
Aldo made his pro debut when he was just 17 years old, his only loss before WEC was up at LW vs a fighter who would soon head to PRIDE to compete vs Sakurai and Aldo was only 19 years old at the time. Someone like Tito, GSP, Jones never went up a weight class and took a tough fight like that when they were just 19.
Even in his WEC debut Aldo was fighting a man who won his first world title nine years prior to that. Alexandre Franca Nogueira was 30 at the time and had been Shooto champ for seven years while Aldo was a 21 year old kid yet Aldo TKOed him and got the W and that was just his big show debut outside Brazil.
Look at all the weight guys like Fedor, Saku, Bustamante, BJ etc… gave up in their careers… are we so sure GSP, Jones, Usman etc… would have those pretty records if they had done the same? I doubt it very much.
Like I said, there are a lot of variables in GOAT conversations but Aldo is for sure one of the GOATS.
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I agree with most of this. I judge a fighter based on their wins not their losses. Generally guys with the least losses just didn’t take as many risks.
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Losses are part of the equation to me but careers are way more detailed than wins and losses and records alone mean nothing. 32-15 Dan Henderson is a great example of this.
32-15 Hendo is way higher ranked on the GOAT list than say 127-19 Dan Severn or 11-0 Rickson Gracie.
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He’s lost 5 times after he lost to Conor
I love Aldo, but I started finding him boring lately. He’s very accomplished, and great but lately isn’t a “must watch” fighter anymore. Used to always watch him, now just a decision machine. I’d watch him vs TJ for sure.
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I agree. He has nearly as many decisions (13) thanks ko’s (17) now
Remember that Irish janitor? What was his name?
ha! Anyone who would argue Khabib is better than Aldo in terms of overall skillet let alone accomplishments is either from Dagestan or a Muli.
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Now that he’s even smaller it’s more likely going to decision. I didn’t even watch the fights yesterday that’s how uninterested I was. 3 years ago I would of definitely watched. He’s got a ton of miles and seems ok doing just enough to win. No killer instinct. He is one of the best but I personally don’t enjoy watching him as of late.
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Khabib quit because his mommy told him to.
That ended talk about goat for me.
I noticed a lot of those Russian fighters quit early in their careers.
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The most frustrating thing with Khabib is he looked fully capable of dominating for several more years and removing all doubts about him, but then the guy just fucks off at 32 maybe 3-4 fights before his resume had serious GOAT candidate depth to it.
Aldo bounced back from that devastating Conor loss fairly well. Hes had his fair share of losses since but only to elites (and that questionable Moraes decision). I dont think many people would have expected to see him still operating at this level 6 years after the Conor fight.
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