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Best fighter not in the UFC

3K views 35 replies 23 participants last post by  joshua7789 
#1 ·
Who do you think are the best fighters per division that are not in the UFC?

HW Fedor
LHW Mousasi
MW Filho
WW Sheilds
LW Josh Thompson
 
#2 ·
u pretty much nailed it...but fighter i see making this list...bret rogers and king mo now proven but has tons of potential. As for rogers might be garbage but he is has a win against Andrei Arlovski which should let him crack the top 10 of hw. His first lost will be to fedor who is hands down the best hw in the world.
 
#3 ·
This is one of those threads that ends right with the first post :), like marc said u pretty much nailed it. Though MW it might be nice to see Manhoef too, Filho had looked pretty bad lately and I'm not sure he can hang with elite wrestlers. And I'd actually give Manhoef a big chance with Silva since it'd pretty much be a standup war and Manhoef is almost as deadly standing up as Silva. Yes I'm aware Filho subbed Manhoef, but style wise Manhoef/Silva would be a much more interesting fight.
 
#5 ·
The more I watch Manhoef, the more I think Silva would decimate him. Don't get me wrong at all, Melvin is awesome, but hes a technical brawler with serious power. He leaves him self open for counters. His TDD and ground game are very poor.

He has a bad habit, of never moving backwards. Now for an aggressive fighter this is great. But when you're fighting a guy like Anderson. You want lateral movement and not to just wild engages. You have to create your openings. Manhoef will not do that. He comes forward guns blazing. His cardio has always been a bit of a question mark as well.

The other fighters who share the same philosophy as Manhoef, (though I must admit not to the same extent he does) are. Griffin/Leben/Irvin and Rich Franklin and Hendo (to a lesser degree) All of them got dealt with very quickly. I see Manhoef vs Silva being probably one of the best examples of counter-striking you're ever likely to see.

All that said, I do love watching Manhoef and I really respect his attitude and reason for why he fights. He's a sick dude!
 
#9 ·
You're probably right, wild aggressive brawler meets master of counterstriking probably means goodnight brawler.

At the same time, none of those other guys you mentioned really reflect on what would happen to Manhoef. Those guys were so freakin SLOW, it was painful to watch them try to stand with Silva. Griffin with his slow overrated brawling lacking any power, Hendo with his see it coming from a mile away overhand right, Leben with his chin up run forward windmilling, and Irvin just being a B-level fighter to begin with.

Manhoef is FAST, really fast. Silva has been able to dodge and counter effortlessly against slow lumbering trucks... I'd like to see him pull that Matrix dodge shit against the whirlwind blur of Manhoef. Silva would still probably take it, but It'd be a fun fight for sure.

Doesn't really matter though I guess; even if the UFC managed to sign Manhoef, Silva would probably retire way before Manhoef climbed the ladder.
 
#12 · (Edited)
This.

Would take him over Shields or Fihlo. Way underrated in the rankings, and brings the fight to everybody he meets. I honestly believe he has a good chance to beat ANDYBODY he steps in the cage with. Even if he were to get beat by GSP or Andy in their respective divisions, it would probably be fight of the year material. If only he could quit the tweeds long enough to pass a test.

Let the negs begin...
 
#8 ·
Fedor and Mousasi are two of the best fighters in the world..

Sadly enough though they aren't in the UFC :( But there have been rumers of Dana White reaching out to Mousasi and we all know the saga with Fedor and the UFC..
 
#26 ·
I agree I dont think his standup is good enough and the UFC LW division is filled with really strong wrestlers that have really good sub defence. Aoki may be one of the best on the ground but I still dont think that will be enough to beat the top UFC guys, his standup just isnt where it needs to be.
 
#28 ·
a lot.

fedor, mousasisauisa, babalu, kiwiri, hanson, aoki, shields, miller, nick diaz, alvaraz and im forgetting someone.

a year ago i would have included frank shamrock/gomi and others to teh list : /
 
#29 ·
Aoki would get killed in the UFC, I'd love to see him in a ground war with a guy like BJ but it would never happen, Aoki has crap stand up and crap wrestling, he has a great ground game but the guys in the UFC have much better wrestling and I don't think he would be able to get the fight to the ground. As far as lightweights go I think Eddie Alvarez would be the best fit but in all honesty I think the UFC LW's have been overlooked for a long time as they are much more well rounded than the top LW's outside the UFC.
 
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#33 ·
OMG I for Joachim Hansen! Him and Alvaraz. Yes, Aoki does have crap stand up and wrestling, but although I'm sure he'd never hold the title, he'd have some great fights in the division. Him vs Florian, Diaz, and Sanchez would all be great fights to see.
 
#34 ·
You know what is funny about threads like this is that it really wouldn't have been that long ago that Big Ben Rothwell would have been at the top of more than a couple lists in a thread like this and yet after dropping a fight to Arlovski he has really fell from grace and now that he is in the UFC he really seem to be going unnoticed.
 
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