Can Leon surpass Usman?

[LindyBrah]

Entirely depends on his future activity. If he beats Belal and Shavkat he absolutely bests Woodley's reign as champion. Hughes and Usman are neck and neck legacy wise.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Potentially yeah.genuinely believe Shavkat is thre guy though.

 

[StonedLemur]

Don't you think Usman surpassed Hughes tho? Hughes had more title defenses but Usman beat better comp, imo.

No he didn't surpass him sir.
You can't say a guy that defends his belt 5 times surpasses a guy thats done it 9 times.

Hindsight is 20-20 as they say, but Hughes has more defenses.

You wouldn't say Floyd Mayweather is better than Sugar Ray Robinson.

 

[mkt]

Don't you think Usman surpassed Hughes tho? Hughes had more title defenses but Usman beat better comp, imo.

You have to judge each fighter in their own era. If not, current fighters are almost always "better" due to their competition. But Hughes faced very legit competition for the early 2000s (GSP, Carlos Newton X 2, BJ and Sherk--both were very good fighters though small for WW, etc.)

 

[mkt]

No, not even close. He has two title defenses, both by UD. He's #5 at best right now. I think a wrestler will beat him before he overtakes Usman/Hughes or even gets close to GSP. But we'll see. Imagine he fought Shavkat last night or a younger/better version of Colby or Usman who used a more aggressive wrestling gameplan starting in Rd. 1.

 

[mkt]

Masvidal would whoop any of those guys get serious

Masvidal gotten taken down and outwrestled by a 40-year old Maia. Granted, Maia is great at BJJ but he's not an elite wrestler. Colby, Usman, Woodley, etc. all forced him to stand but he took down Jorge with ease. Hughes and maybe even Newton would 50-45 Masvidal like 9 times out of 10.

 

[Hdfi]

Probably not. Shavkat is coming soon...

 

[mkt]

You wouldn't say Floyd Mayweather is better than Sugar Ray Robinson.

Or Sugar Ray Leonard for that matter. There was MUCH better competition in Leonard's day (Hearns, prime Duran, Hagler, Aaron Pryor, etc.) and Leonard kept moving up weight to fight better and better guys. Mayweather took the comfortable route and avoided the few best fighters of his era when they were in their primes.

 

[mkt]

GSP wasn't a finisher and he's the GOAT. I don't think finishing ability is relevant. Length of reign and competition beat is what matters.

There's also a difference in having like 8 or 9 dominant UD wins vs. 2 UD wins.

 

[BangBang]

GSP wasn't a finisher and he's the GOAT. I don't think finishing ability is relevant. Length of reign and competition beat is what matters.

Yeah and no if title defences of course though I know that’s what you mean also, if I am so bold.

 

[StonedLemur]

Or Sugar Ray Leonard for that matter. There was MUCH better competition in Leonard's day (Hearns, prime Duran, Hagler, Aaron Pryor, etc.) and Leonard kept moving up weight to fight better and better guys. Mayweather took the comfortable route and avoided the few best fighters of his era when they were in their primes.

I hate Leonard as im a huge Hagler and Diran fan lol.
I totally get your point though, and you're right of course.

Recency bias is high on this site.

At least we're old enough to remember sir.

 

[OldBoy91]

Yeah and no if title defences of course though I know that’s what you mean also, if I am so bold.

Yeah I agree, by length of reign I mean defend the title many times over a long period.

 

[OldBoy91]

There's also a difference in having like 8 or 9 dominant UD wins vs. 2 UD wins.

Sure. I'm not comparing Leon to GSP, he has a long way to go.

GSP did have an advantage in that he fought in an era when you could come in and fight for the belt at age 24 with 2 wins in the UFC.

Now you can come in to the UFC in your early 20s and have to win 8 or 9 in a row and end up not fighting for the belt till your 30s. Which obviously limits how many title defenses you are able to out together.

 

[chinarice]

Sure. I'm not comparing Leon to GSP, he has a long way to go.

GSP did have an advantage in that he fought in an era when you could come in and fight for the belt at age 24 with 2 wins in the UFC.

Now you can come in to the UFC in your early 20s and have to win 8 or 9 in a row and end up not fighting for the belt till your 30s. Which obviously limits how many title defenses you are able to out together.

Lucky for these newer guys not getting pushed that fast because most of them would have more losses on their record if they got pushed at the rate Georges did.

 

[OldBoy91]

Lucky for these newer guys not getting pushed that fast because most of them would have more losses on their record if they got pushed at the rate Georges did.

Yeah maybe. Point is we will never know because these days the roster is like 2000 fighters deep.

In GSP's time there were maybe 20 guys in the whole division, 25 tops.

Now you have to win 5 straight to even have a crack at breaking the top 15.

 

[kalabula]

Edwards might be even more boring then snoozeman

Leon vs Belal might be the most boring title fight in history

Just let shavkat fight for title to finally have an exciting finisher as WW champ

Who knows. Sometimes boring on paper means exciting in the cage. Definitely didn’t last night. But ya never know.

 

[Chillez]

GSP
Hughes
Usman
Edwards
Woodley

Same list as mine! Well done

 

[Fight Professor]

He needs to surpass Woodley first. Wonderboy, Maia and Till > Majority decision over Usman and a sparring match with shook Colby.

 

[TOMFDJYEDH]

 

[RonDante]

Don't you think Usman surpassed Hughes tho? Hughes had more title defenses but Usman beat better comp, imo.

I think he surpassed him but only barely, my reasoning is that until a week ago I thought colby beat rda although I had my suspicions, then I go back and watch it and I don’t think that anymore, so then you go back a fight to Kim who retired right after, and I didn’t watch Kim’s fight before but according to MMADecisions 16 out of 20 media members and majority of fans gave the fight to saffiedine, I’ll have to watch it but if it’s true it means colbys last win against a fighter coming off a win was Bryan barbarena exactly 7 years ago to this day. That plus masvidal not really actually being that good, but plus some non title wins over okay opposition means I barely, barely have him ahead of hughes due to a better era of competition and less losses