1) BJ Penn
2) Benson Henderson
3) Frankie Edgar
4) Tony Ferguson
5) Takanori Gomi
6) Rafael Dos Anjos
7) Sean Sherk
8) Conor McGregor
9) Anthony Pettis
10) Khabib Nurmagomedov</p>
I put Ferguson so highly because of 10 straight wins in UFC @ 155 lbs. the era he competes in being stacked and more modern and how well he would do head to head in conceptual fantasy matchups with other great LWs. Khabib can't be ranked super highly because of the weight issues and inactivity, plus he hasn't won a world title yet.
Gomi sinks down due to quality of opposition as time goes on and repeatedly losing even if it's post prime hurts a legacy. He came over to the UFC and got finished repeatedly, Florian took him out in his UFC debut even.
Conor would have to rank up there based on his presence/impact and potential having been a two weight concurrent Champion that stopped Aldo's streak and he made Alvarez/Poirier/Holloway look awful. Sherk is overlooked and prime Benson will never get the respect he deserves because of poor Bellator performances and not being the most exciting Champ.
Peak Penn is an issue with that jab, ground game and bloodthirst. Marinovich Penn could wrestle and everything.
More comments later. For now: I think Khabib is a tough matchup for any LW ever (as others have mentioned, that doesn’t mean his accomplishments make him the greatest LW ever).
The toughest all-time matchups for him IMO are prime Frankie and BJ.
I would pick khabib over anyone who has ever fought at LW and damn near half of the WW roster as well. When he said in the post fight interview that he only needed an hour of rest before beating Tony or Conor I believe him.
At this point he would be fairly low on my list, but with serious potential to reach number one at some point. If his career ended today, we would say he displayed some of the best grappling, top control, and G&P we have seen, but we wouldn’t know how he could have done against the best of the best. He just needs to prove himself a few more times against the division’s elite to warrant the ranking.
IMO the Gleison fight was not a close fight, it was a loss for Khabib.
That’s funny. The same shit orcus used to argue. Lol.
Like me and Orcus are the only guys who thought Gleison won that fight. The guy has zero fans but the commentators thought he was robbed, every MMA site thought he was robbed, and the crowd booed the decision like crazy.
Thinking more, I think Gomi probably drops down on this list. Ranking Showtime is difficult. During his prime, his wins list is really good: Bendo x 2, Cowboy, Gil. But he had the weakness to wrestlers. I tend to not punish people too hard for the tail end of their careers when making these lists.
I think he can beat connor, but ranking him top 5 lw all time is laughable. Out side of rda i wouldnt class wins over johnson and barbosa as massive wins on anyones record, good wins yes but not enough to make you top 5. Maybe in a year or 2 he will be
If all he did was win those fights, I’d agree. But that’s not what happened. He gave those fighters some of the worst beat downs we’ve ever seen.
IMO the Gleison fight was not a close fight, it was a loss for Khabib.
That’s funny. The same shit orcus used to argue. Lol.
Like me and Orcus are the only guys who thought Gleison won that fight. The guy has zero fans but the commentators thought he was robbed, every MMA site thought he was robbed, and the crowd booed the decision like crazy.
1) BJ Penn
2) Benson Henderson
3) Frankie Edgar
4) Tony Ferguson
5) Takanori Gomi
6) Rafael Dos Anjos
7) Sean Sherk
8) Conor McGregor
9) Anthony Pettis
10) Khabib Nurmagomedov</p>
I put Ferguson so highly because of 10 straight wins in UFC @ 155 lbs. the era he competes in being stacked and more modern and how well he would do head to head in conceptual fantasy matchups with other great LWs. Khabib can't be ranked super highly because of the weight issues and inactivity, plus he hasn't won a world title yet.
Gomi sinks down due to quality of opposition as time goes on and repeatedly losing even if it's post prime hurts a legacy. He came over to the UFC and got finished repeatedly, Florian took him out in his UFC debut even.
Conor would have to rank up there based on his presence/impact and potential having been a two weight concurrent Champion that stopped Aldo's streak and he made Alvarez/Poirier/Holloway look awful. Sherk is overlooked and prime Benson will never get the respect he deserves because of poor Bellator performances and not being the most exciting Champ.
Peak Penn is an issue with that jab, ground game and bloodthirst. Marinovich Penn could wrestle and everything.
Good list. I can’t agree with ranking Conor highly. Too few accomplishments at the weight.
conor is gonna fight tony, then fight boxing, he will never beat khabib,
barboza is way tougher and gritty than conor on any day
I agree butConor has better one punch power…everyone who fights Khabib, their only chance of beating him is knocking him out…Barboza is a more well rounded striker than Conor and couldn’t do much…I think Khabib crushes Conor 8 out of 10 times…
Skillwise top 5 atleast, but he needs to stay healthy and he will dominate the division. Hoping for Conor to defend or stripped in 2018 and Khabib getting what he deserves, can't wait to see how it goes down
conor is gonna fight tony, then fight boxing, he will never beat khabib,
barboza is way tougher and gritty than conor on any day
I agree butConor has better one punch power…everyone who fights Khabib, their only chance of beating him is knocking him out…Barboza is a more well rounded striker than Conor and couldn’t do much…I think Khabib crushes Conor 8 out of 10 times…
Barbican is nonwhwere near as well rounded as Conor. Barboza has HL finishes against top 15 opponents where as Conor destroys champs in seconds and rounds. Stop overrating Barboza it’s been going on for for far to long
1) BJ Penn
2) Benson Henderson
3) Frankie Edgar
4) Tony Ferguson
5) Takanori Gomi
6) Rafael Dos Anjos
7) Sean Sherk
8) Conor McGregor
9) Anthony Pettis
10) Khabib Nurmagomedov</span></span></p>
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<span class="User-170554" id="userPost61525900"><span class="User-213807" id="userPost61523877">I put Ferguson so highly because of 10 straight wins in UFC @ 155 lbs. the era he competes in being stacked and more modern and how well he would do head to head in conceptual fantasy matchups with other great LWs. Khabib can't be ranked super highly because of the weight issues and inactivity, plus he hasn't won a world title yet. </span></span></div>
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<span class="User-170554" id="userPost61525900"><span class="User-213807" id="userPost61523877"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="User-170554" id="userPost61525900"><span class="User-213807" id="userPost61523877">Gomi sinks down due to quality of opposition as time goes on and repeatedly losing even if it's post prime hurts a legacy. He came over to the UFC and got finished repeatedly, Florian took him out in his UFC debut even. </span></span></div>
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<span class="User-170554" id="userPost61525900"><span class="User-213807" id="userPost61523877"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="User-170554" id="userPost61525900"><span class="User-213807" id="userPost61523877">Conor would have to rank up there based on his presence/impact and potential having been a two weight concurrent Champion that stopped Aldo's streak and he made Alvarez/Poirier/Holloway look awful. Sherk is overlooked and prime Benson will never get the respect he deserves because of poor Bellator performances and not being the most exciting Champ.</span></span></div>
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<span class="User-170554" id="userPost61525900"><span class="User-213807" id="userPost61523877"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="User-170554" id="userPost61525900"><span class="User-213807" id="userPost61523877">Peak Penn is an issue with that jab, ground game and bloodthirst. Marinovich Penn could wrestle and everything. </span></span></div>
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<span class="User-170554" id="userPost61525900">Good list. I can't agree with ranking Conor highly. Too few accomplishments at the weight.
Prime Benson was a monster.</span></blockquote>
I tried to mix in ability/skillset and how well they would do in head to head matchups along with accomplishments.
I understand he probably should not be top 10, I just really believe in Conor's fighting talent. I think Eddie Alvarez would probably be in a similar spot to where I put Conor and we saw their head to head clash.</p>