Buttah304 wrote:Is this AP run one of the best in UFC history? Sort of speechless as to what he’s done in less than 2 years.
It's incredible in terms of how fast he's made a run to being a double-champ. But I think the KO loss to Izzy takes it down a notch from the all-time great runs. My favorite fighter success streaks are:
1. Jon Jones' run to LHW and first title-reign. This one included a bunch of former champs who were at the top of the sport.He beat, Griffin, Rampage, Rashad, Machida, Rua, Belfort, and DC all in a single run. That's 7 former champs with HoF credentials (and there were other opponents in between those fights).
2. Jose Aldo's 10-year undefeated run. This is more of a "you had to be there" one, but Jose Aldo dominated 145 lbs in a manner that I don't think any champion has owned their division before or after. He'd tie the longest title-defense streak if they counted his WEC title run from before the UFC had a FW division.
3. Anderson Silva has the second-longest title defense streak. Plus, similar to Aldo, he DOMINATED. During that streak, he also became pretty much the first fighter to bounce up and down divisions by beating up James Irvin and Forrest Griffin.
4. GSP's 9-fight win streak included a record for consecutive rounds won. He was defending the belt and opponents couldn't even win a single-round off him. Plus, he never failed a drug test which Silva and Jones did.
5. Conor McGregor beat Max Holloway, Dustin Poirier, and Chad Mendes. Ended the Jose Aldo 10-year run. Then became first double-champ by smoking another all-timer in Eddie Alvarez. Plus, I'd include getting to box Mayweather in this since that was another first for an mixed martial artist even though Conor lost.
6. Demetrius Johnson has the longest title-defense streak, but slips because the strength of opposition isn't as good as the rest.
7. Matt Hughes' title run was the first dominant champ run, and includes a bunch of the best fighters of his era including a win over young GSP, Royce Gracie, Sean Sherk, and BJ Penn who all held UFC gold.
Then I'd put Pereira around 8 with competition from Max Holloway's run-up to the FW belt and Stipe's run through all the best UFC HWs of all time. But MP's got a chance to stack his resume with even more wins to move up the list.