The best ever is so obviously Conor McGregor.

The combination of stoppages, PPV buys, social media mentions, crossover appeal - it seems foolish to bashfully boast that a guy who didnt even headline the PPV in which he broke the record is somehow the GOAT in a sport where "the right fight" is routibely passed up for the "money fight" - its just a silly argument. Conor McGregor is far and away the best ever MMA athlete. Its not even close either. The amazing thing is hes smack dab in his prime. He probably has a good 5 uears of being an elite MMA athlete left in him if he so chooses, although I highly doubt the motivation will still be there even 2.5 years from now, much less 5.

But if he was so motivated to keep performing...holy ****.

EDIT: Whoops, possible I misunderstood here. I do believe DJ is the best pure fighter of all time. So if thats what Dana meant, I agree.

Although, if you were to ignore steroids and assume everyone is on PEDs (which I do assume)- it might be Bones Jones right

Hey serious question. I know that conor has taken short notice fights on multiple occasions, or opponent changes w/e. My question is has demetrious johnson taken anything on short notice, or has he faced an opponent change at the last minute and taken the fight?

It depends on your criteria for greatest.

Fedor is clearly the greatest in my mind, but not in UFC. Good chance Miocic is the greatest if he defends a few more times. This is because for me when deciding greatest it's who would beat the other guys and with weight classes non HW's need not apply.

I then have P4P greatest. Which is probably Jon Jones or Anderson Silva but DJ is closer than a lot of people give him credit for due to his lack of draw.

If you are talking superstars then obviously McGregor is the greatest but in a fighting sense obviously not close yet.

this

McGreggor has 2 belts, I would like to see him defend at least 1 of them before he gets goat talk. Don't care which one, just 1 title defense is all I ask.

More I think about it, I think Nate is overplaying his hand here. He doesn't really have that much leverage. Maybe some of his leverage is the fact he truly doesn't give a **** unless he gets his way, but McGregor is the draw.

At this point how much more does Nate/McGregor even sell than Ferguson/McGregor? It isn't like Nate was selling PPV's left and right before the McGregor fight. And Ferguson has a legit claim as a #1 contender and he's actually fought once in the last 15 months.

I feel like a Nate fight probably only sells a few hundred K more PPv's than a Ferguson fight at this point. Although, I think McGregor is going to be smart about this stuff going forward so he probably would prefer Nate who is the easier fight.

How does Nate even pass neurological tests? He is barely coherent at this point.

If you take the resume of wins, no one surpass Fedor and GSP or dominated liek anderson sylva ( hell he was knocking people with jabs..)
And i put sylva way ahead of DJ, at least Anderson even fought in higher weight class and still demolish them while DJ even refuse guys going down in his weight class to fight him, i mean wtf...

Beside maybe benedivez ( that still lost vs Cruz), who was really any champion caliber that DJ beat ( btw as soon DJ fight champion caliber he lose (cruz) or run (TJ))...

I think DJ is a great fighter but when you speak about goatish, no way in hell..

Conor both does and doesn't do steroids.

Definitely makes him GOAT.

I will be pretty disappointed if his next fight isnt vs Ferguson.

It only matters whether or not roids matter to you. I think the joke, such as it is, is that Conor slappies wouldn't care.

Here is Nate's leverage: He is the preferred opponent by Conor. Completes the trilogy therefore potentially erasing the loss for real. Less dangerous opponent. Conor gets what he wants.

You forgot champ champ on that image

Should be Ferguson then if he wins Khabib. If fans were smarter those fights should be huge, far bigger than Nate trilogy.

The reason the Nate trilogy far outweighs the Ferguson foght is very simple if you just look at it from a simple view.

The greatest boxer in the history of boxing just fought Conor McGregor in a boxing match. Did he just come out and outbox him like youd assume hed do? No. He openly admitted to playing defense and hoping Conor "punched himself out." And then, only when it was evident he was gassed, did Floyd attack Conor. Nate Diaz took the exact same approach in both of his fights vs Conor. He is so incredibly skilled my only chance is to save stamina and outlast him.


Thats literally the only way you can beat Conor. The greatest boxer in history wasmt even confident enough tooutbox him. So, it makes it where only guys who have a chin and stamina make for intriguing fights vs Conor.

Eddie Alvarez had stamina for days but got absolutely demolished vs Conor because he couldnt take the smacks. Thats what a Ferguson fight would be. 8 minutes of Conor smacking Ferguson arounduntil he ultimately cant take it anymore. Thats not gonna be good for us asviewers.


What will be good is a warrior like Nate with length who is willing to suffer brain damage for our viewing pleaisre and walk thru the shots to put up a fight.

The trilogy is the fight to make.

Fedor confirmed Conors next opponent

f Khabib, first he has to prove he can make 155 pounds and then fight someone relevant maybe more than once every 2 years.

Put nate vs khabib on the same card as mcgregor vs ferguson. Imo nate is well known among casual fans because he fought mcgregor and headlined/fought on the free fox cards alot. khabib beating nate as stupid as it sounds legitimizes him with the casuals for a fight with conor. Nate wins and trilogy set up perfectly. Of course everything goes to **** if mcgregor loses

Don't see why Nate would do that. He's probably like 20% to win that fight and it hurts his leverage with McGregor after.

I think eventually Nate and UFC figure it out and he fights McGregor next if I had to guess.

Nate has no reason to accept any non-Conor fight

THen create history and have ferguson and khabib on the conor vs nate card. First time ever the real belt and interim belt for the same weight class defended on same card

Much better idea. Makes sense.

That would be idiotic. If the champion and interim champion are both available, they should be fighting each other. No exceptions.