It’s a strong point, empirically speaking. I’d go so far as to say the champs have fought the stiffest competition also (overall).
And don’t forget the GOAT. Jon Jones.
Lol at the Cormier pic.
CRETARD -Bivabiva -And putting Whittaker on the list of best MWs ever, dude, don’t smoke during the week.
Jacare was 24-4 and 7-1 in the UFC(only loss a split decision to Romero) when Whittaker beat him. Romero was 8-0 in the UFC when he lost to Rob. Brunson was 7-1 in the UFC, riding a 5 fight win streak.
What I’m saying is he never lost at MW and never had any controversy.
Big fan of Whittaker, but he does not compare to 2011 Silva, he just doesn’t. And his biggest two wins are Romero (who lost the Jacare fight - everyone bar the dogshit judges could see that, and he clearly lost by TKO to Tim Kennedy, overrated as fuuuuck), and Brunson - again, I’m a fan of Brunson but are you saying that’s a bigger win than Vitor, Franklin, Hendo, Marquardt, etc? Their accomplishments are not even close. Put prime Silva in there, Whittaker gets wrecked.
put prime GSP in there against Woodly, it’s easy 10-9s across the board for GSP.
Put Jones in there with anyone ever and it’s a walk for him - and roids versus DC only counts out the rematch, in the first match Jones treated him like a toddler after not bothering to train.
But, having said all that, loving the debate mate.
To me the best era would be penn aldo gsp Silva machida and Cain, all those guys were killers and I’d favor most against the champs today in their primes
Just prior to BJ Penn moving up to fight GSP in that superfight the UFC was at its peak, whether that's been overtaken today is a matter of opinion but it's gotta be a strong contender.
BJ Penn greatest LW of all time and a true legend of the sport.
GSP greatest WW of all time having just avenged both losses with complete dominance and looked unstoppable.
Anderson Silva unified the UFC and Pride belts, stepped up to LHW and made James Irvin look stupid. He was in full matrix mode at this point in his career and was amazing to watch.
Rashad Evans undefeated LHW champ, handed Bisping his first loss and then went on to KO Chuck Liddell in brutal fashion, shocking the world.
Brock Lesnar, finished Randy Couture for the HW belt and became the biggest draw in the organisation.
Good thread
evh -and other than conor and dc to a much lesser extent they are total duds in terms of personality
Go watch the kardasians my man.
Beelze -Just prior to BJ Penn moving up to fight GSP in that superfight the UFC was at its peak, whether that's been overtaken today is a matter of opinion but it's gotta be a strong contender.
BJ Penn greatest LW of all time and a true legend of the sport.
GSP greatest WW of all time having just avenged both losses with complete dominance and looked unstoppable.
Anderson Silva unified the UFC and Pride belts, stepped up to LHW and made James Irvin look stupid. He was in full matrix mode at this point in his career and was amazing to watch.
Rashad Evans undefeated LHW champ, handed Bisping his first loss and then went on to KO Chuck Liddell in brutal fashion, shocking the world.
Brock Lesnar, finished Randy Couture for the HW belt and became the biggest draw in the organisation.
After BJ beat Sherk, he feasted on guys from TUF and used his boxing to win fights. That boxing would make BJ look like a man in slow motion, fighting in quicksand, against Conor McGregor. McGregor would make Penn quit on his stool. The beating would be horrific.
GSP-Woodley is a hell of a fight. Tyron is a great MMA wrestler with dynamite KO power in his punches, and he’s not going to fight the other guy’s fight. GSP has beaten the much stiffer competition, but Woodley could be a stylistic nightmare. GSP won by being a supreme athlete. What happens when the other guy is a better athlete and has more power. The only path to victory (and it’s fairly likely) is GSP jabbing and ducking.
2010/11 Anderson Silva isn’t even getting tested by any MW who isn’t a power wrestler, but prime vs. prime, Anderson smokes Weidman and Rockhold.
Rashad is an odd choice here. He would get wrecked by Cormier or Jones.
I truly believe that the Lesnar who beat Mir, Heath and Couture would abuse Stipe. Micocic is lucky that he’s catching the Pride guys at the end of the line, and that the UFC hyped up a Bret Rogers from Cameroon as the guy to take over the UFC HW division.
^ You make some good points but my post was relative to the times without knowing the future, imo it's hard to beat that specific time frame as it happened and I'm sure that the OP can be picked apart in a similar way not long from now, as the game evolves there's always better fighters, that's the nature of sport.
BJ Penn, GSP, A. Silva all looked unbeatable at this point in time. Rashad was unbeaten and was similar to the Tyron Woodley of today, his KO of Chuck Liddell was something no one thought possible, though Chuck lost against Rampage he had just beat Wandy in one of the greatest fights of all time so seeing Rashad go toe to toe with Chuck and then land that devastating KO, and then going on to quite easily beating Forest for the belt made him look very impressive at the time.
Lesnar was a freight train, a huge draw, and I agree if Stipe fought that Lesnar he'd likely lose.
Beelze -^ You make some good points but my post was relative to the times without knowing the future, imo it's hard to beat that specific time frame as it happened and I'm sure that the OP can be picked apart in a similar way not long from now, as the game evolves there's always better fighters, that's the nature of sport.
BJ Penn, GSP, A. Silva all looked unbeatable at this point in time. Rashad was unbeaten and was similar to the Tyron Woodley of today, his KO of Chuck Liddell was something no one thought possible, though Chuck lost against Rampage he had just beat Wandy in one of the greatest fights of all time so seeing Rashad go toe to toe with Chuck and then land that devastating KO, and then going on to quite easily beating Forest for the belt made him look very impressive at the time.
Lesnar was a freight train, a huge draw, and I agree if Stipe fought that Lesnar he'd likely lose.
You’re right. Without knowing the future, the champs of 2008/9 seemed much more unbeatable than this current crop.
Holy shit the memory of MMA fans is short.
Out of that list, only DC and DJ belong.
The overall level of competition in MMA is the lowest it’s been since the sport began. Lots of average guys who are decent at everything but not great at anything. Tons of guys with no cardio. Lots of “athletes” and not enough fighters. There’s also a serious lack of competition in heavyweight. In light heavy. In welterweight.
Bobby Lupo -Beelze -^ You make some good points but my post was relative to the times without knowing the future, imo it's hard to beat that specific time frame as it happened and I'm sure that the OP can be picked apart in a similar way not long from now, as the game evolves there's always better fighters, that's the nature of sport.
BJ Penn, GSP, A. Silva all looked unbeatable at this point in time. Rashad was unbeaten and was similar to the Tyron Woodley of today, his KO of Chuck Liddell was something no one thought possible, though Chuck lost against Rampage he had just beat Wandy in one of the greatest fights of all time so seeing Rashad go toe to toe with Chuck and then land that devastating KO, and then going on to quite easily beating Forest for the belt made him look very impressive at the time.
Lesnar was a freight train, a huge draw, and I agree if Stipe fought that Lesnar he'd likely lose.
You’re right. Without knowing the future, the champs of 2008/9 seemed much more unbeatable than this current crop.
Also just to add to that era if you think of the lighter divisions which at the time was WEC, you had 20-4 Mike Brown who ran through 21-1 Urijah Faber to get the FW belt. And you had Miguel Torres running shit at BW, 36-1.
Ferguson looks like a god damn terminator in that pic
Beelze -Bobby Lupo -Beelze -^ You make some good points but my post was relative to the times without knowing the future, imo it's hard to beat that specific time frame as it happened and I'm sure that the OP can be picked apart in a similar way not long from now, as the game evolves there's always better fighters, that's the nature of sport.
BJ Penn, GSP, A. Silva all looked unbeatable at this point in time. Rashad was unbeaten and was similar to the Tyron Woodley of today, his KO of Chuck Liddell was something no one thought possible, though Chuck lost against Rampage he had just beat Wandy in one of the greatest fights of all time so seeing Rashad go toe to toe with Chuck and then land that devastating KO, and then going on to quite easily beating Forest for the belt made him look very impressive at the time.
Lesnar was a freight train, a huge draw, and I agree if Stipe fought that Lesnar he'd likely lose.
You’re right. Without knowing the future, the champs of 2008/9 seemed much more unbeatable than this current crop.
Also just to add to that era if you think of the lighter divisions which at the time was WEC, you had 20-4 Mike Brown who ran through 21-1 Urijah Faber to get the FW belt. And you had Miguel Torres running shit at BW, 36-1.
IIRC, Torres was the FOTY according to a lot of people.
That was a great crop of fighters.
IMO, MMA sort of peaked with fighters and fans just a little bit after this…around 2010. The sport has been slowly losing something every year since.