Cammo Counts Down The Top 100 MMA Fighters of All Time

[Cammo101]

#25 - Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk



http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Sean-Sherk-277

Sean Sherk is a former UFC Lightweight champion and longtime Welterweight contender. He has a career record of 36-4-1, and a UFC record of 8-4. Sherk's 4 loses have come to elite fighters BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre, Frankie Edgar, and Matt Hughes. He holds victories over Nick Diaz, Kenny Florian, Karo Parisyan twice, Evan Dunham, and Tyson Griffin.

[Bernman]

Oh God, of course not. He'd get run through by everyone.

Matt Hughes took down an old but not broke Royce and smashed him, he could have beaten him in a bunch of different ways with zero problem too.

But it's so unfair to imagine 1998 Royce today and therefore to not give HIM a chance to adapt. Simple pieces of knowledge like how to cage walk, not to mention outright training techniques, and what you can do to counter this or that in your opponent, or which martial arts to "mix", which skill-sets, kicks, etc. Immeasurable amounts of things that everyone else knows from the sum of 15 years of MMA training culture, he wouldn't have access to.

All of today's fighters have benefited from the rising of the tide, something well beyond their personal contributions. In no way should they then be credited for that or Royce discredited.

It's why that standard shouldn't hold.

I think that's a fair point that in this era, he'd have better training and more impetus to adapt, so he'd likely improve in the other areas, especially with the attitude he had.

I think it's also fair to say that he had some physical limitations which would have put a cap on how good he could have become in the other eras.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Even though he'd be a no brainer to be on the mount rushmore of MMA because of the impact he had, on a ranking of top mixed martial artists of all time, I have a hard time placing him among recent elites. But anywhere outside top 20 or 30, I can see that. He could have been very good in this era with the proper training. Just not great.

[CPT]

Completely forgot about Sherk. Which means he's probably way too high.

Impressive record, but he's just not that important of a figure in MMA history.

The more I think about it, the lower I feel like he should be. As an all-time LW, I don't think he's ahead of Gomi, Edgar, Bendo.

Again, UFC Championship is nice, but when you get it by beating Kenny Florian and defend it (kinda) against Hermes Franca, I don't know if it can count for that much.

[REDDzone]

I'm still appalled that Evan Dunham is in his win column.

[CPT]

I'm still appalled that Evan Dunham is in his win column.

Agreed. I'm usually on the side of "everyone finds themselves on the wrong end of a decision at some point; in the record books, a win is a win," but if that fight is one of your five best wins, you're probably not one of the 25 best to ever compete in the sport.

[kdawg32086]

I'm still appalled that Evan Dunham is in his win column.

Agreed. Out of the hundreds of thousands of people who saw that fight, only two people thought he actually won. With that said, based on record and accomplishments, I can't really argue against Sherk here. I may think its too high, but I honestly can't formulate a decent argument for why.

[Cammo101]

#24 - Rich Franklin



http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Rich-Franklin-392

Former UFC Middleweight champion, Rich Franklin has fought a who's who of MMA names. He has a career record of 29-7-1, with a UFC record of 14-6. Franklin holds victories over Yushin Okami, Evan Tanner twice, Ken Shamrock, Wanderlei Silva twice, and Chuck Liddell. Almost as impressive as his wins are his career losses. Aside from his recent knockout loss to Cung Le, Franklin's only losses had come to elite fighters Forrest Griffin, Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson, Anderson Silva twice, and Lyoto Machida. Not a list to feel too terrible about.

[CPT]

#24 - Rich Franklin



http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Rich-Franklin-392

Former UFC Middleweight champion, Rich Franklin has fought a who's who of MMA names. He has a career record of 29-7-1, with a UFC record of 14-6. Franklin holds victories over Yushin Okami, Evan Tanner twice, Ken Shamrock, Wanderlei Silva twice, and Chuck Liddell. Almost as impressive as his wins are his career losses. Aside from his recent knockout loss to Cung Le, Franklin's only losses had come to elite fighters Forrest Griffin, Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson, Anderson Silva twice, and Lyoto Machida. Not a list to feel too terrible about.

Here's the guy I've been waiting for. Made it all the way to #24. Too high, IMO. We might only be talking 5-10 spots or so, but at this point, those spots mean a lot. It seems like he lost more big fights than he won, and I don't think he was ever the consensus best in his weight class. Maybe for a brief period in 2005, depending on what Hendo was doing at the time, but he was mostly a product of the UFC hype machine, as wins over Nate Quarry and David Loiseau don't make you the best MW in the world.

I don't want to bash him completely, because I like him a lot, and he clearly belongs pretty high on this kind of list, just not this high.

[NZB2323]

I don't know about that. For a while Rich Franklin was considered the best at 195 pounds.

[REDDzone]

Franklinweight!

[SDM]

I think you mean Vitorweight.

[cowboyronnie]

What a human being Rich Franklin is. Such a class act and so damn uncomplaining tough. If I could fully imbibe the worldview of any fighter in MMA, it would be him. His motivation, whatever the Hell it is, I would just love to understand. What he tells himself to get up for training, fighting, I would love to know.

Re: his position...consider how long he's been a factor in the UFC.

[REDDzone]

TRTVitorweight!

[REDDzone]

What a human being Rich Franklin is. Such a class act and so damn uncomplaining tough. If I could fully imbibe the worldview of any fighter in MMA, it would be him. His motivation, whatever the Hell it is, I would just love to understand. What he tells himself to get up for training, fighting, I would love to know.

Re: his position...consider how long he's been a factor in the UFC.

They've been shipping him all over recently too. Need a MW to fight Cung in Asia? Rich will do it. Need a MW to fight Wand in Brazil? Rich will do it.

[kdawg32086]

I don't think it's too high for Franklin at all. In his prime, the guy was 26-3 (lost to Machida and Anderson Silva x2) and then lost a very close fight to Hendo, where many felt that decision could have gone either way. That was probably the end of his prime (using 35 as approx cut off). I'm not going to discredit someone's legacy because of fights they lost in their late 30's, so the losses to Griffin and Le have about the same weight for me as all of the losses guys like Liddell and Hughes had near the end of their careers. If I wouldn't drop Liddell and Hughes for declining with age, I can't really drop Franklin for it either.

[Cammo101]

#23 - Vitor Belfort



http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Vitor-Belfort-156

Former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, UFC 12 tournament champion, and Pride Standout, Vitor Belfort has long been one of MMA's elite. The first true elite striker in MMA history, Belfort overwhelmed most of his early competition. He holds a career record of 22-10, with all 10 losses coming to fighters on this countdown list. He holds victories over Wanderlei Silva, Randy Couture, Matt Lindland, Rich Franklin, and Michael Bisping.

[REDDzone]

and he almost got teh armbur against teh jon jones

[Cammo101]

and he almost got teh armbur against teh jon jones

Which is a top 25 accomplishment in and of itself.

[CPT]

Randy Couture (and the LHW championship) were because of the eye poke, right?

I still think he deserves this spot, but that wipes out two of his major accomplishments.

[REDDzone]

It was slicing the eyelid, not an eyepoke. Not to argue semantics, just not sure if it makes a difference because I think the latter is illegal whereas Vitor won the fight legally in reality (I think).