barney Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 Off top or my head... Fedor's best opponents: Randleman Nog Cro Cop Arlovski Without googling records, pretty sure both Khabib and Tony have been in much more competitive fights. Evolution to the game. Different level then it was in the 90's. PRIDE was very... iffy... at times. Cro Cop head kicking a dude in a mysterio mask and freak show fights... let's not forget the let em juice to the gills WWF rules mentality. Fight fixing and padding records wasn't above that org (or UFC... see Silva vs Griffin, Jones vs Sonnen) Still, Fedor probably GOAT @ HW. Nobody else really went streaking vs top comp. Forgot Arona, Coleman, Babalu Sobral Semmy Schilt wasnt actually a pushover, and Heath Herring was 20-7 at the time coming from a win against Vovchachyn... There is also Hunt, Lindland, Sylvia... Yeah, sure, you can look at his cartel NOW and say "Pfff, bunch of nobodies"... But lets remember MMA was a lot less Mixed back in the good old days, also the Ring is a whole different game... You can say the same of Khabib, upt to RdA, Nurme only beat a bunch of whos or old geezers. Tavares did more 4 fights (3-1) and retired. Tibau was already old, inconsistent after that fight at best and its been 2 years since his last fight. Trujillo? Inconsistent and arrested for child molesting... Haley lost 3 in a row and got fired... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damndaniel Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 They are all great, Fedor, Khabib and Tony. You can make a case for any of the 3. Only problem with Tony's argument is he lost to Michael Johnson, who Khabib dominated. But Michael Johnson is underrated, and I do think Tony would win a rematch. But can't really ignore that or make excuses for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barney Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 Thats exactly what I am saying. They are all "Meh, he only fought nobodies" until they start dominating the big leagues. And then all of the sudden "DAMN HE IS THE BEST I ALWAYS KNEW".Lyoto was like that until the title shot. Jones was like that until the title shot... I used to say the same thing about McGregor, bit my tongue (even tho Im at the hating bandwagon). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stpierrecanada Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 They are all great, Fedor, Khabib and Tony. You can make a case for any of the 3. Only problem with Tony's argument is he lost to Michael Johnson, who Khabib dominated. But Michael Johnson is underrated, and I do think Tony would win a rematch. But can't really ignore that or make excuses for it. The Johnson loss for Tony is waaaay in the past, you can’t really count that against Tony, it was also a closer fight then the scorecards read. It was years and years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator001 Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 Off top or my head... Fedor's best opponents: Randleman Nog Cro Cop Arlovski Without googling records, pretty sure both Khabib and Tony have been in much more competitive fights. Evolution to the game. Different level then it was in the 90's. PRIDE was very... iffy... at times. Cro Cop head kicking a dude in a mysterio mask and freak show fights... let's not forget the let em juice to the gills WWF rules mentality. Fight fixing and padding records wasn't above that org (or UFC... see Silva vs Griffin, Jones vs Sonnen) Still, Fedor probably GOAT @ HW. Nobody else really went streaking vs top comp. agree 100% Also lets not forget sheer numbers of fighters. When i fought, heavyweights never had enough guys to fight, there just wasnt enough competitors. Lightweight, welterweight always had way too many competitors Lightweight/welterweight is where the largest amount of fighters are and its not close. heavyweight is where the least amount of fighters so logically a good recored at LW is worth a lot more than at HW (taking into account level you are fighting at) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damndaniel Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 The Johnson loss for Tony is waaaay in the past, you can’t really count that against Tony, it was also a closer fight then the scorecards read. It was years and years ago. When do we start counting wins and losses then? Only fighters last 5 fights or their entire body of work? Im going by UFC careers, since its where the most consistent and legitimate competition is for fighters these days. Khabib joined the UFC in 2012, and is 12-0. Tony joined in 2011 and is 15-1 in the UFC. Both guys are outstanding. Overall, Khabib is 28-0 vs Tony is 25-3. I can look the other way for wins and losses before the UFC since level of competition is inconsistent, or consistently poor and guys are often very young in their careers. But I think its fair to count a loss that happened in the UFC, Tony's 4th fight in the org, at 28 years old. Has he gotten better since then? Of course! Would he win a rematch? Id bet on it for sure! But looking past a UFC loss when it wasn't a fighters debut and he was 28 years old... Not saying he is bad or overrated at all, but Khabib has been flawless in comparison. This is not even to say Khabib would beat Tony, or Tony isn't a p4p top 5 fighter. But he lost in the UFC before and he has lost outside the UFC. Khabib has never lost, in or out of the UFC. If they retire tomorrow, Khabib would have to be ranked over Tony... At least I would think. But its all subjective until they fight. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator001 Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 you are correct daniel but all who are the best arguments are academic and dont mean anything unless they fight. Even when fighting sometimes it is not clear for example Conor v aldo. Conor won no doubt and it went exactly as he said he planned it (note that would have been one of many scenarios he trained for), but on the other hand anyone can catch anyone at the right time, the fight doesnt define who is the better fighter it just shows that conor got him that time with a flash ko. Look at Yair vs the zombie, I dont care if Yair uses that backward elbow in training 1000 times a week, I guarantee in a fight it would land maybe 1 in a few hundred times and even then most of them times it wouldnt have done anything. The record says ko, he legitimately threw it, and he was getting beaten for all but the last 10 seconds of the fight. Who is the best fighter?? Good luck with that. Best we can do is look back at fighters once their careers are over and then compare but of course even then we are wrong 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rambo Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 Yair is a sheisty lil fucker for that fight vs Zombie. Felt like him always trying to hug, embrace, stall to show respect, was BS. Felt bad for Zombie being nice and not Mayweather'ing him for that shit. Yair did so much "pause action hug me brother" bs. Felt like he was tired and stalling to recover. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mannetosen Posted April 10, 2020 Report Share Posted April 10, 2020 I haven't actually watched Tony vs MJ since it happened, but iirc Tony got his arm broken in the first round and still fought a surging MJ to a competitive decision so there's that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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