RealGM

Who was best and most dominant at the peak of their power? Who do you pick in hypotethicall match with MMA rules with unknown alien fighter of his weight class? And rank them please.

I can't not pick Fedor, he spent his career fighting above his weight class and was just a complete fighter. He was ridiculously quick, savagely powerful, had an indestructible chin, had great head movement, incredible grappling ability and never rattled.

Especially with the of his weight class part, Fedor was a 205er who just didn't cut any weight and fought at HW because he could. Where guys like Jones, Shad, Forrest, cormier, etc. cut down to 205, Fedor just kept kicking all sorts of ass. Put Fedor in a battle with 205ers and he could easily end up charged with manslaughter.

I rank them:

Jones
Fedor
Silva
GSP

This is basically the same debate as the other one. Its going to be some combination of Fedor, GSP and Silva in the top 3 spots. They are the only ones who deserve it. Then people will knitpick to determine the particular order these guys are ranked. I don't think Jon Jones deserves to be up there yet. The first time he met up with someone of similar age and size he struggled. It makes me question how much of his dominance came from being the younger and much bigger guy.

Fedor doesn't get points for being too lazy to cut to 205.

It has nothing to do with laziness, but I agree that he doesn't get extra points for it. cbr has discussed in the past how it was advantageous for him to be heavier, and it makes sense to me. Also, he enjoyed a speed advantage at HW that he wouldn't have at LHW. Rashad came out and said recently that he wants to stay at 205 because he is the fastest guy, and he'd prefer that than being a little bigger but having that quickness negated at 185. Fedor certainly benefitted from a speed advantage as well.

Not to mention HW sucks and always has. Sure, he would have knocked some LHW heads off, but I'm not convinced he would have ruled that division for as long as he did HW. Although to go as long as he did fighting such big guys without ever getting finished is certainly impressive.

I wish more fighters would forego cutting ridiculous amounts of weight.

REDDzone wrote:It has nothing to do with laziness, but I agree that he doesn't get extra points for it. cbr has discussed in the past how it was advantageous for him to be heavier, and it makes sense to me. Also, he enjoyed a speed advantage at HW that he wouldn't have at LHW. Rashad came out and said recently that he wants to stay at 205 because he is the fastest guy, and he'd prefer that than being a little bigger but having that quickness negated at 185. Fedor certainly benefitted from a speed advantage as well.

Not to mention HW sucks and always has. Sure, he would have knocked some LHW heads off, but I'm not convinced he would have ruled that division for as long as he did HW. Although to go as long as he did fighting such big guys without ever getting finished is certainly impressive.

I wish more fighters would forego cutting ridiculous amounts of weight.

You think middleweight division during Spider prime was better than Fedor division?

Gregoire wrote:

REDDzone wrote:It has nothing to do with laziness, but I agree that he doesn't get extra points for it. cbr has discussed in the past how it was advantageous for him to be heavier, and it makes sense to me. Also, he enjoyed a speed advantage at HW that he wouldn't have at LHW. Rashad came out and said recently that he wants to stay at 205 because he is the fastest guy, and he'd prefer that than being a little bigger but having that quickness negated at 185. Fedor certainly benefitted from a speed advantage as well.

Not to mention HW sucks and always has. Sure, he would have knocked some LHW heads off, but I'm not convinced he would have ruled that division for as long as he did HW. Although to go as long as he did fighting such big guys without ever getting finished is certainly impressive.

I wish more fighters would forego cutting ridiculous amounts of weight.

You think middleweight division during Spider prime was better than Fedor division?

Fedor faced his fair share of cans or one dimensional fighters in Japan.

Fedor and Silva had the much easier divisions between the three, but GSP didn't have the finishes that the other two did.
Jones is two-three fights away before joining this convo. His next fight, Gustov rematch and Cormier.
He wins those, and he's got an argument for goat because those are three really, really tough matches.

CPT wrote:Fedor doesn't get points for being too lazy to cut to 205.

Reddzone

It has nothing to do with laziness, but I agree that he doesn't get extra points for it. cbr has discussed in the past how it was advantageous for him to be heavier, and it makes sense to me. Also, he enjoyed a speed advantage at HW that he wouldn't have at LHW. Rashad came out and said recently that he wants to stay at 205 because he is the fastest guy, and he'd prefer that than being a little bigger but having that quickness negated at 185. Fedor certainly benefitted from a speed advantage as well.

Not to mention HW sucks and always has. Sure, he would have knocked some LHW heads off, but I'm not convinced he would have ruled that division for as long as he did HW. Although to go as long as he did fighting such big guys without ever getting finished is certainly impressive.

I wish more fighters would forego cutting ridiculous amounts of weight.

If Fedor doesn't get points for being "too lazy" to cut weight then other fighters shouldn't get credit for being too undisciplined to fight at a more natural weight class. By not cutting weight Fedor retained a handspeed advantage over opponents but by not fighting at 205 he put himself in a position where he can be at a severe strength disadvantage. Those who cut massive amounts of weight to fight in a lower weight class want a strength advantage and are willing to sacrifice speed and the possible effects of weight draining to get it. Considering how many people choose to cut weight as opposed to being lazy and not cutting weight it makes it fairly obvious which is more advantageous.

Fedor and Silva never faced same amount of top fighters like Jones in a row.