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Who are your top five heavyweights of all time as of today, June 15, 2015?
RICH HANSEN, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
In no particular order, the top four are Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Cain Velasquez.
Number five is a little murky; could be Andrei Arlovski, Mirko Cro Cop, Josh Barnett, Randy Couture, even an old timer like Mark Coleman or Mark Kerr. I'll slot Cro Cop in at number five. He lost to Fedor. He lost to Nogueira (and those were two of the great fights of all time). He beat Barnett three times. From there, a list like this is subjective, and I like to think he would have beaten the rest of the guys in contention for this spot (and yes, I know he beat Coleman).
4.) Cain Velasquez - Yes, I know he destroyed Nogueira. But prime Nogueira has a stronger record of success than prime Velasquez. Velasquez has had a dominant run in the UFC, collecting scalps like Brock Lesnar, Antonio Silva (2x), and Junior dos Santos (2x, with 1 loss). His loss to Werdum leaves a lot of unanswered questions; chief among them being: Did injuries rob him of his prime? I suppose when he fights again (at sea level, please), we'll have a little more clarity.
3.) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - His fight with Cro Cop in 2003 was the fight of the year for that year, and might be my favorite PRIDE fight of all time. He holds wins over Coleman, Herrig (3x), Schilt, Sapp (when that meant something), Henderson, Rodriguez, Cro Cop, Kharitonov, Werdum (before Werdum was THIS Werdum, admittedly, but still), Barnett, Sylvia, and Couture. There's no Fedor on that list, which is the only thing keeping down even this low. No HW during the halcyon days of PRIDE was more fun to support.
2.) Fabricio Werdum - Yes, he beat Fedor. Yes, he was the first person to legitimately beat Fedor. Yes, head to head counts. But he also has five losses during his prime years. Fedor might have been in his prime when Werdum beat him, or he might have been winning fights leading into the Werdum fight that were Fedor not in his prime, and Werdum was the guy who showed the whole world that Fedor was backsliding. It's all subjective. I am in the camp that Fedor's decline began in 2007 or 2008, and Werdum beat a version of Fedor that just wasn't quite the same as the most prime version of himself. But take nothing away from Werdum. He's submitted Fedor, Nogueira, and Velasquez. That alone is compelling enough of an argument to make him #1 on many a list. And I can't argue against that, really. His only losses are to guys who were in the cream of the crop when they fought (Sergei Kharitonov in 2005, Nogueira in 2006, Arlovski in 2007, Junior dos Santos in 2008, Alistair Overeem in 2011). Remember your feelings on Werdum after the Arlovski fight. Did you think he'd be one of the greats of all-time after that? Same for the butt-scooting Overeem fight. The persistence and tenacity this man has displayed since 2007 is nearly unprecedented.
1.) Fedor Emelianenko - Come on.
DAYNE FOX, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
1. Fedor Emelianenko. For a solid decade, he fought the best that the division had to offer and turned away each and every one of them. Heath Herring, Big Nog, Mirko Cro Cop, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Mark Hunt, Tim Sylvia, and Andrei Arlovski were all turned away when they were at or near the top of their games. It wasn't until well over 30 fights that he suffered his first legitimate loss, in which time anyone would accumulate massive amounts of damage. No one else has a period of time at the top nearly as long.
2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Big Nog was the king of heavyweights before Fedor dethroned him. Minotauro beat many of the same names Fedor did such as Coleman, Herring, Cro Cop, and Sylvia. Other notable names were Ricco Rodriguez, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, and Randy Couture. I would say that Nogueira's list is actually a bit more impressive, but the fact he couldn't ever get over the hump of Emelianenko relegates him to the second position. He has quite a few losses on his ledger, but that is largely due to him fighting well past prime and racking up possibly the most damage anyone has accumulated over the course of their career.
3. Fabricio Werdum. Werdum could move further up the list if he can produce a lengthy reign. How far up I can't say, but obviously there isn't much further he can go. Werdum has had a long career and is peaking right now at the age of 37, making him a bit of an outlier on this list in that his peak is coming at a later age. He also has something the others on this list don't have... victories over three others on the list: Emelianenko, Nogueira, and Velasquez... all by submission. Other notable wins for him are Tom Erickson, Alistair Overeem, Gabriel Gonzaga, Bigfoot Silva, Roy Nelson, Travis Browne, and Hunt. While his list is a bit short, it still has the potential to grow.
4. Cain Velasquez. He avenged the first loss of his career in brutal fashion, dominating Junior dos Santos over the course of almost 50 minutes in two fights. He owns other victories over Ben Rothwell, Cheick Kongo, Big Nog, Brock Lesnar, and Bigfoot Silva. Though his list is easily the shortest, the fashion in which he has beaten them is easily the most dominant out of any of the others have been able to do on a consistent basis. Injuries seem to be the biggest obstacle in his career. Like Werdum, he could still climb the list. If he can avenge his loss to Werdum, it is a guarantee that he will.
5. Mirko Cro Cop. This last spot wasn't as clear as Junior dos Santos, Josh Barnett, and Randy Couture all had resumes to contend for this place, but Cro Cop won out due to the imagery of "right leg hospital, left leg cemetary" that evoked fear in his opponents that has never been matched. He never beat either Fedor or Big Nog, but gave them competitive fights and racked up wins over Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Barnett, Randleman, Coleman, and even a recent win over Gonzaga. His third win over Barnett earned him the 2006 Pride Open-Weight Grand Prix Championship. Only Coleman has won a similar tournament.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Fedor Emelianenko is #1, Fabricio Werdum is #2. After that, I don't care. I guess I would go with Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and maybe Josh Barnett. All I care about is the top two guys because they've both made their claims. Fedor goes above Werdum because I think Fedor was slipping when Werdum subbed him. Plus, everyone gets caught at some point. I just don't think that, other than Fedor and Werdum, there are enough guys who have distinguished themselves as being above all others. For instance, where do you put Frank Mir? Andrei Arlovski? Tim Sylvia? Does Mirko Cro-Cop count? What about Dan Severn? Mark Coleman? Don Frye? I could go on and on listing guys from the past? Where do Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos rank? It's not that I don't care about the division, but if you're not #1 or #2, what difference does it make? Plus, in this case, there's so many names you have to consider for the bottom half of this top five that it becomes a headache.
BRAD WALKER, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
1) Fedor Emilianenko - Fedor's steak of murdering heavyweights in Pride and then Strikeforce is unmatched and will never be replicated or duplicated. People just don't win that many fights in a row in major promotions anymore. In his prime he could have destroyed anyone he had fought and did so with ease.
2) Cain Velasquez, yes he's going to be above those who defeated him but there's no denying that his two losses are both unspeakably freakish and relating to injury or rust. Velasquez dethroned wrestling King Brock Lesnar to attain his first title and become a legend regardless of what the future holds.
3) Randy Couture. No one held down fighters like The Natural and beat them senseless in the process. After the evolution of larger fighters with better skill sets he faded away gracefully but in his day the only legit opponent he never got to face or defeat was Fedor. Couture will always be a legend and King in the division.
4) Fabricio Werdum. The man who has beaten two of the fighters ranked above him is a killer, with his new skill set including improved Muay Thai and some of the best BJJ the MMA world has ever seen. He submitted both Velasquez and Fedor. He has limits, though. He has been beaten and will be again, and given his age in the current game I don't think the title sits on his waist for very long.
5) Brock Lesnar. HATE ME! Go ahead! But you can't deny that as far as athleticism and speed go in the division as well as pure wrestling he can't be beat. He unfortunately had his career shortened and stifled by illness and injuries but he would have as a healthy 22 year old going into UFC instead of WWE been a God amongst men. Lesnar is and was a beast, cutting to make weight and having such a fantastic size advantage against the opposition in today's UFC he would easily make a top five of healthy and became one of the few champions to defend the belt more than once and also unified it twice.
MICHAEL BANE, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
1. Fedor Emelianenko: From 2001 to 2010, Emelianenko was basically undefeated. While you can argue that his 31-1(1) record to that point may have been against sub-par competition, he held wins over some of the best of that era. Fedor was a true Mixed Martial Artist, stopping 26 opponents in his 34 victories with a healthy does of both knock-out wins and submissions. He was also probably a bit ahead of his time. Much like Daniel Cormier had an every-man physique, Fedor might have been better served dropping 15 lbs, and then dehydrating the rest to 205 lbs. during the time when MMA became a much bigger deal. His dominance, particularly in Pride, as a smallish heavyweight over such a long period of time make him a clear number one on this list.
2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Another smaller heavyweight (his identical twin is fighting at light heavyweight for crying out loud) who did most of his defining work in Pride, it's easy to forget how good Nogueira really was as we watch him hanging on a bit too long at his age in the UFC. That isn't to say he didn't make waves in the UFC as well, capturing the Interim Heavyweight Championship in 2008 and beating Hall of Famer Randy Couture in 2009's Fight of the Year. For around the first 30 fights of his year, there was really no one that could stop Big Nog, other than the previously mentioned Fedor. Nogueira was a pioneer, and one of the best heavyweight submission artists to ever fight.
3. Fabricio Werdum: At 37 years old, this guy is still somehow getting better. His victory list is a veritable Who's Who of MMA heavyweights. The first man to submit the GOAT in Fedor, and also the first man to submit a guy who was starting to creep into the greatest heavyweight conversation in Velasquez. In addition to his unrivaled submission work, he's now out-struck many strikers, and is as good at anyone in almost every facet of the MMA game. He's only lost once since 2009, that loss being one of the worst fights in recent memory where he constantly laid on his back against Alistair Overeerm. It was a fight he arguably won as well, given that he out-struck the Reem. If he can rattle off an impressive stretch here at the end of his career, he might find himself higher on the list.
4. Mirko Filipović: Things get a little bit harder here, as there's no one truly separating themselves out of a pool of fighters. Cro Cop had an amazing and exciting run in Pride. You want to see something fun? Watch highlights of him annihilating people with both hands and feet on YouTube. Cro Cop was exciting, and developed quite the following, so much so that the UFC still continues to employ him after his 40th birthday because he can draw fans. While he's definitely past his prime, what he brought to the table in his best years was about as fun and dominating as anything the sport has seen.
5. Cain Velasquez: Before losing to Werdum, Velazquez was being possibly touted as a Greatest of All Time candidate. While we can chill on the GOAT talk for now, the fact it was being mentioned is a testament to how truly viscous and scary his career has been. Prior to UFC 188, outside of a single punch behind the ear when he had a messed up knee, Cain had never really been hurt or threatened. At 32 years old, he still has a few years left, and with only 15 fights under his belt, his lack of damage and mileage could allow him to add some impressive wins to his record. Injuries have tended to be harder for Cain to beat than actual opponents, so here's hoping he has a healthy career going forward and fulfills the potential he has to be one of the best.
Hard to leave off: Randy Couture, Bas Rutten.
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