Hummmm. What side of the ‘Ilia’s not Spanish’ discussion were you on?
But you know he lost the first fight to GSP, right?
According to Menne and Monte Cox the Emirs tried to set it up for Barkalaev to win, but it didn’t work out. Some really shady stuff was going on.
That was NHB back then. Shadddddy shit at a lot of events.
Remember Barklaev and Arona getting at each other at Abu Dhabi? Two agrooooo dudes.
That was awesome.
Arona was great.
It was kind of an adventure getting paid and getting out of the country. Barkalaev knew ahead of time he didn’t have to weight in but the other were led to believe they would have to.
I was at an event where the Lions Den withdrew their fighter and subbed in Vernon fucking White. The sacrificial WW lamb was Gil Castillo who was 1-0 at the time. Castillo subbed him 
Cool. Nice surprise.
Probably my best story was happening to be at Maurice Smith’s first pro kickboxing bout. Which was for a title. I had no idea who he was at the time. some guy from Seattle.
It’s dumb as fuck when they refer to Usman as the WW GOAT. He’s behind GSP, then Hughes. His title run consisted of beating Covington x2, Masdival x2 (one on very short notice) and Burns. Good, but not the best ever.
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Sure.
But you know the point of this thread isn’t “who is better than GSP?”
right?
They both had 5 title defenses before losing the belt. Matt won the belt a second time
I’ll go with Matt at No. 2
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Hughes has more than double the fights as Usman, so yes his body was toast after the Alves knee, he was lucky he beat serra after them colliding heads but he did win. He also did win against gsp, pulling a winning armbar isn’t like Hamils win vs jones.
Also Hughes and gsp only had 5 fights in-between the 1st and 2nd fights, not like a ten year gap where gsp learned so much more. Hughes beating the worst UFC champ of all time earns the 2nd spot behind gsp even though gsp lost to that worst champ of all time, serra. This conversation is fun but I’d like to hear who everyone thinks is the worst champ in UFC history, obviously serra comes to mind for me.
Hughes was an all time great. Legendary, amazing performances. Some things to consider perhaps; of the two one of them lost twice in their prime to what would be considered a “journeyman” of the sport even if said journeyman had his number and also lost the WW title in their prime to a fighter coming up from a lighter division. Again in context, even if that fighter was a beast and for a time also an all time great.
Hughes vs Khabib would have been awesome.
Hilarious seeing everyone turn their back on Marty being the ww goat. They were all proper cunts about anyone denying it, including Dana lol
Gsp and Hughes
- GSP
- Hughes
- Usman
- Lawler
- Woodley
#1 is obviously gsp, I definitely have Hughes at #2 also. I’m honestly not even sure if I have usman at 3 there’s a few guys who could make an argument.
His whole title reign was against Colby and masvidal. Colby was pretty good but he lost every big fight he ever had and masvidal had longevity but was never close to elite. He got a title shot because of popularity from the lucky knee against askren and beating fellow journeyman Diaz.
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