You need to be “Champ Champ” to be part of GOAT discussion; it is the hardest achievement

[SpiderCrawl]

Anderson was robbed of the chance to be a champ champ. Easily could have been in his time.

 

[omawho402]

Only if you go up. Going down and beating on smaller fighters isn’t admirable

I mostly agree. It is admirable to be disciplined to make the weight cut, nutrition, and work out needed to fight the lower weight class successfully though. Going down in weight can be very challenging in certain ways.

 

[VinceArch]

You know, that TS is gay right? Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just, you know.

A gay troll? The potential trolling onto him is limitless.

 

[Shaddows]

There have been many people who tried to become champions in two weight divisions in the UFC and failing.

There are also a bunch of champions that became champion in one division but tried and could not become achieve championship status in two weight classes:

1) Israel Adesanya
2) Lyoto Machida
3) RDA
4) TJ Dillashaw
5) Dustin Poitier (interim at 155 but failed at 145)
6) Robert Whittaker
7) Frankie Edgar
8) Demeterious Johnson ( got pwnt by Cruz)
9) Jose Aldo
10) Luke Rockhold
11) Chris Weidman
12) Anderson Silva ( got smothered by DC )

These are all people that have in 2 or more divisions but was only able to become champ in one of them. They either were not able to take on bigger man or smaller men.

Not to mention too many fighters scared to even try. Champ Champ status is rare, so rare only a few modern fighters can lay claim to it.

Amanda Nunes
Henry Cejudo
Daniel Cormier
Conor “Notorious” McGregor”
GSP

These are the GOAT level fighters.

Sorry, but Silva did not go for 2 belts.
He saved an event by fighting DC on 2 days notice.
The belt was not on the line

on that note, the answer is a resounding NO.
2 belts are meaningless.
Fedor does not need a second belt to validate what he did. Neither does Jon, Silva, Khabib, MM or anyone else in GOAT discussions.

Matter of fact, this is one of the dumbest items for GOAT selection, since HW's can't go up and it also depends on Dana allowing it to happen (Dana refused Aldo when he wanted to move up and fight Pettis for the LW belt... one year later he allowed Conor to do just that).
That's not even going into more detailed discussion, for example, the fact GSP did not unify the belt, or Conor not defending even once either belts, or did they even deserve to get a title shot on that other division?

 

[HHJ]

It’s def up there. There’s been what like only 6 people in the history of the UFC to hold two belts?

it’s an impressive thing to have on your resume.

Yeah but how many more would there be if they let everyone do that? They pick who they want who is allowed to do it.

 

[Gamer2k4]

If it's so hard, why did everyone start becoming a champ-champ once the UFC opened the door for it with Conor in 2016?

The fact is that being a double champion only means you were in the right place at the right time. The real accomplishment is defending the title repeatedly, taking on all challengers even as you decline and they get better. There have been more double champs (5) than champions with double-digit defenses (2, or 3 if you count Jones), which leads me to believe the latter is the far more impressive achievement.

 

[HHJ]

Only if you go up. Going down and beating on smaller fighters isn’t admirable

You lose something in cutting too much weight too.

 

[kellier]

So BJ and McGregor have better legacies than Silva or GSP?

By that logic, DC trumps Jones...

There's some holes there man

 

[Guffman]

Only if you go up. Going down and beating on smaller fighters isn’t admirable

This seems to be the conventional thinking, but I don't see it. If you can make the weight, you have a right to compete in the division, simple as that. Going from WW to LW and being successful is going to be no easy task for the bigger WW's, for example. Val going down to SW and beating the best in the best women's division when she's fought successfully at BW would be a hell of an achievement, IMO.

 

[kellier]

Not to mention the UFC was staunchly against superfights until McGregor ushered in a new era for money fights. Mainly because they didn't want to acknowledge that dominant champs had cleaned out their divisions

Now we have champs with 2 defences moving up to fight champs with no defences. It's a feast or a famine

 

[Unfinished]

Its price fighting whoever makes the most money trough fighting has the greatest achievement.

 

[RemyR]

Yeah but how many more would there be if they let everyone do that? They pick who they want who is allowed to do it.

yeah that’s a fair point. They definitely play favorites.

 

[Guffman]

Its price fighting whoever makes the most money trough fighting has the greatest achievement.

Spellcheck, MF, use it.

 

[FKAri]

Only if you go up. Going down and beating on smaller fighters isn’t admirable

Not at all.
If you go down and do well that means you were "up" this whole time. So it's even MORE admirable.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

People actually up in this thread thinking "rare = good." Congrats, you are almost as smart as crows.

Do me a favor and just try to quantify the difficulty in terms of how a champion in any neighboring division is automatically a harder challenge than any potential challenger of your own.
ESPECIALLY quantify it for when you're no longer the champ of your current division; where, just because you won the belt before, a champ of a different division is automatically harder than your own division's current champ.

Think about that for just 15 seconds and this thread is stupid.

 

[r-harper-1]

No ....some guys get to attempt it due to popularity ....it’s as overrated as title defense

 

[empsim]

No.

Dominant champ changing weightclass and dominating there too, would matter in GOAT discussion. Cherry picked "superfights" don't.

 

[MaulingMyClown]

The Original...thanks, you beat me to it...I would say Couture as well even though he didn't hold them at the same time.

 

[Hypetrainofthemonth]

So BJ and McGregor have better legacies than Silva or GSP?

By that logic, DC trumps Jones...

There's some holes there man

GSP has the best resume BY FAR, then, not only a divisional GOAT, but a 2 division champ, AND went up in weight.

Don't even being up Bisping, he re-entered USADA when Like was MW champ, and was actually scheduled to fight tyron for the WW title again.

 

[StoneWT]

Not really. A lot it has to do with being in the right weight class. If you're in a lower weight class like 155 or below, you're going to have an easier time in general than someone that is bigger due to closer weight classes and more opportunities.