I think most divisions have a consensus best ever, or at least a short, short list. But when i think of LW, it feels like a revolving door and no one has dominated long enough to be the consensus #1.
Penn comes to mind, but Pulver beat him, he drew with Uno, won a few ‘meh challengers’ before running into Edgar, and then never reached greatness again.
Edgar, Showtime, Sherk, Anjos, McG, etc. All short lived.
I thought Benson Henderson was going to be a long lived king, but he didnt last long enough to claim all time dominance.
I think the natural conclusion is Khabib, but even he only defended the belt 2x. Maybe you could say he was the best, but he didnt have a GSP, Anderson, Bones, Mighty Mouse reign.
Charles Oliveira was a good champ and fun to watch, but also ended before lengthy dominance.
Add in Pride / Japanese and who there could be at the level? Gomi? I loved the fireball kid, but he wilted vs UFC competition.
So…who you think is the most dominant so far? Do you think LW will ever have that long term King?
Khabib. But the bar is pretty low. We’ve never seen a long term champ in that division. I think he could have gotten a few more title defenses and made his position much more secure but cant give him credit for what he didnt do.
It’s khabib, he never even really lost a round. They gave mcgregor the third for not getting taken down and wore gathge out and exhausted him and had him backing up and throwing wild over hands.
The most impressive performance I’ve seen at lightweight may have been dos anjos vs Pettis but khabib is certainly the most dominant LW of all time.
I’m a fan of actual fighters who get in there and lay it on the line no matter what. I’ll always have Penn above Khabib, who avoided a fight whenever he could
Penn finished his career with close to as many losses as wins. I’m pretty sure Penn lost more fights in the UFC than he won by the time he retired. That’s absurd.
What do you think would have happened if they fought each other?
That’s like saying Kevin randleman was better than Cain Velasquez. That’s just crazy talk
You can’t hold the end of a fighters career against them if they stick around too long though if you are wanting to talk about who they were in their prime and what their abilities were.
The fact that Chuck fought after he lost his chin and got KOed by Franklin in 2010 and Tito in 2018 has nothing to do with and takes nothing away from the fact that between 1999 and 2006 Chuck was one of the very best LHWs on the planet and he won and defended the UFC title in that time. If Chuck retired as early as Khabib did he would have retired at 11-1 and not even entered PRIDE yet or won the title.
Just saying, what happened with Chuck or Penn or anyone who fights well past their prime does not erase what they did in their prime.
From 2002 to 2009 there was not a fighter on the planet who could beat Penn at LW. In that time he went 9-0-1 at LW, won and defended the UFC LW belt, won the UFC WW belt, beat Rodrigo Gracie at MW right after Rodrigo beat Sakurai, beat Renzo at LHW (who himself had beat UFC HW champs) and he almost beat the WW GOAT GSP at WW and he almost beat Machida at HW before Machida went on to win the LHW belt. Hell, Penn was very close to winning the LW title in just his 4th pro fight.
Its pretty difficult go compare the careers of Khabib and Penn when one guy retires at 32 and the other guy retired at 40. One guy stayed in his division and cut huge weight while the other guy went and looked for the toughest fights he could find up at WW, MW and even HW.
Just two very different types of careers. I’ve never heard a fighter dismiss what Penn did between 2002 and 2009.
I think Khabib would beat everyone so my pick is solely off longevity/resume.
Eddie Alvarez. 2X lineal champ. 30-8-2 now, 28-5 before losing the UFC title.
Was 18-2 when he won the first Bellator tournament to be lightweight champ and already had good wins over Kawajiri (shooto champ and fight was a DREAM title eliminator) and Aaron Riley for the Bodog title. Goes on to avenge his losses to Aoki and Chandler, beats Pat Curran, Josh Neer, Pitbull, and Roger Huerta. Missteps in his UFC debut before beating former Strikeforce champ Melendez, UFC/WEC champ Pettis, then beats RDA for the title who looked unstoppable at the time. Was already in his 13th year as a pro when he lost to Conor and has slid from there, still KOing Gaethje (former WSOF champ) and Eduard Folyang since then.
Yes Khabib would beat Eddie bla blah bluh but Eddie beat all the relevant champs from other orgs before the UFC had the monopoly they do now. He’s the GOAT lightweight imo.
It’s interesting how one can choose to spin things. You could say something insane, like:
“beat Renzo at LHW (who himself had beat UFC HW champs)”
Or you could paint a far more accurate picture and say
“beat Renzo in 2005, after Renzo had lost 5 of his previous 6 fights, half of them against literal barely trained japanese pro wrestlers, one of whom had a 1-3 MMA record when he fucking WASHED Renzo so bad that Renzo’s best offensive attack was spitting at the guy like a punk ass faggot”
Isn’t it funny how the guy is so quick to dismiss BJ’s losses on his downslide, but if he wants to big up BJ’s resume, we’re gonna emphasize his wins over washed up fighters? LOL
He also became champion beating Al Iaquinta and fought nearly zero MMA wrestlers. In other words, majority of his fights were against favorable matchups. That needs to be considered.
Who was in khabib’s division that could wrestle with him. Guys like Gregor Gillespie were getting knocked out by Kevin Lee. Khabib beat everyone in the division.
Al iaquinta was a replacement for max halloway. People were delusional enough to think halloway had a chance. Khabib easily cleaned out the division.
Honestly, khabib would probably beat edwards, he would be Alex Perriera, and would most likely beat jiri prochezca.
The guy is one of the best to ever do it. He barely lost a round.
What is Khabib’s best win? Gaethje? Poirier? McGregor?
The new crop that can wrestle beats all these guys as well. Khabib left early for a very calculated reason. I don’t blame him, but he’s lost a lot of credit for it.
