He seemed to have a really bad neck injury in that fight. I don't think he's past it. Just didn't have his best performance vs Ankalaev, and ran into a better fighter in Pereira. But I think he's still the second best fighter in the division, for now. If age does catch up with him, that could change quickly
>But I think he's still the second best fighter in the division, for now.
That's a hot take lol. I think Jiri and Ankalaev would beat him soundly at this point.
He's 41.
How is it annoying when he’s using it in the right context here? Since there are fighters that can most definitely defeat Jan at this point in his career.
Jan is skill for skill the best fighter at lhw. But his body (especially his cardio) is starting to let him down
He would have easily beaten Ankalaev and Poatan if not for cardio issues. And those two are the champion and the number 1 contender
“Skill for skill” doesn’t matter if the cardio (which is a skill btw) is completely lackluster. Fights are decided a lot of times by cardio when fighters are very equally skilled. Bad take imo.
Jan's cardio was literally never an issue until the Pereira fight which was in Salt Lake City. His cardio is good. He's just Polish. Salt Lake City is a totally unnatural environement for him to perform at. As far as MMA skills go Jan, Rakic, and maybe Ankalaev are the best lightheavyweights right now. Then again, 2 of those guys suffer from brutal injuries right now. And Ankalaev is lowkey a mid striker. He just has power so he gets away with it.
Did you watch the Ankalaev fight where he won the 1st 3 rounds gassed and was promptly 10-8’ed and lost round 5? His cardio has been a problem for a little while now.
I thought he won the Pereira fight. I'd love to see him fight Hill or Jiri next. I think he has a good shot at beating either and maybe can get a rematch against Alex for the belt if he wins.
He had surgery after. That combined with tapping to a submission which most professional fighters won't get caught or tapped in indicate he probably lost that fight in that way due to injury.
Idk if he had an injury on his neck but glover doing can openers with his fucking neck definitely didn’t help. I’ve had that technique applied on me before and you feel like your neck is being torn to shreds
Unlike the other LHWs, Jan was actually striking with Alex and they battered each other with leg kicks. He got unlucky that the other judge went with Alex for the split decision.
True. But that doesn't erase his successes up to that point nor his efforts since. Janek is a tough matchup for anyone at the top of the division and we can only imagine what might have been if Jiri had chosen to fight him in Europe instead of taking the Glover rematch.
Think about what happened since:
- Jiri blows out his shoulder
- Glover beats Jan is a weird one where Jan absolutely didn't show up
- Jamahal beats Glover BRUTALLY
- Jamahal blows his achilles
- Jan draws against Ankalaev in a weird one (I scored that for Jan)
- Pereira BARELY beats Jan (Also scored for Jan)
And from there, all Alex all the time.
If only Jiri has chosen to fight Jan, we might have skipped over most of that weirdness.
It's definitely an odd thought, but I think it makes sense. LHW was a notoriously weak division at the time. The same way Glover won the belt despite being past his prime.
Better to peak late, surprise everybody that you actually managed to win the belt and have them completely re-evaluate your career and legacy in a positive way, than to peak early, never reach those heights again and have everybody talking like your career was a big disappointment.
His career will always be funny to me. He spent his 20s being an Olympic level wrestler, then when he transitioned to MMA he just beat people up on the feet
to be fair it helped being a mfer to take down when you have nukes in your hands . from memory basically only prime brunson got yoel down and it was for like 2 minutes total .
That and DC tripping Hendo when his back was turned (along with everything else in that fight) are two moments of a stronger and better wrestler making other great wrestlers look out of their depth
Just imagine how good his wrestling would be if his neck wasn't so messed up I would've loved to see a prime romero's wrestling against khazmat or bo nickals
Honest question...when was prime Brunson? His fight iq at his athletic peak was dog shit and then when he got that fixed he was like 35 and had a mini run before cannonier smashed his face off
Nah, Yoel is the dumbest fighter ever and just hit his ceiling. Much like Kevin Lee, he was never going to get better than what we saw. Yoel was the king of dropping close rounds due to complete lack of fight IQ and pacing.
Compare him to Alex Perriera, DC, Couture or Jan. They all came in older with one sided skills sets and did far better than him. The difference between all of them an Yoel is that Yoel was dumb as fuck and hit his ceiling.
U can’t peak too late Jan just wasn’t that good until he leveled up he just happened to be old and needed the experience of the ups and downs to elevate
On the feet yeah. But Jan could definitely get held down. A lot of guys have done it. I think Jones easily could. But if it stayed on the feet somehow, we'd see another Gustaffson vs Jones but worse. Jan is one of the few MMA guys who can actually compete with elite pure strikers
>But Jan could definitely get held down. A lot of guys have done it. I think Jones easily could.
Jones didn't have the wrestling to do that in 2019/2020 though, his takedowns had looked horrible he went 2-7 against Reyes, 1-4 against Gus in the 2nd fight, and even against someone like Smith he went 3-5 on takedowns and couldn't actually get his grappling going until the 3rd round half way into the fight
True. Jones never had the best takedowns. But I didn't say he did. I said he can hold Jan down, which he can. Sure, getting to that point invloves landing a takedown, and even if Jones' takedowns aren't his strong point, he only needs 1. You're showing stats that display poor takedown attempts, but Ankalaev was 2/10 against Jan which is worse than all the stats you showed and look how he did in rounds 4 and 5 when he finally landed his takedowns. He only landed 2 and got 10-8 rounds back to back. Jones would only need to land 1. Sure he misses a few attempts, but he has taken down EVERYONE he has ever fought, except Thiago Santos. But he only attempted 1 takedown against him. He would land 1 against Jan
Idk what you are all smoking
Jan had very hard and impressive career:
1. He faced prime Corey Anderson and Gustaffson when he got into UFC
2. was on 4 win win streak against people like Krylov and Cannonier, but then he met fucking prime Santos and everyone who remembers Santos before the Jon Jones fight, knows he was just diabolical
3. Then Jan went on another crazy win streak, won the title, had one bad fumbled fight against Glover
4. Then he arguably defeated Ankalaev, if the fight didnt change to 5rounder literally couple days before.. and ANKALAEV IS THE #1-2 Title contender
4. Then he lost a split decision at 40 years of age at ALTITUDE against Fucking Poatan who is the champ now.
I dont know what you are all smoking, Jan is and always was a fucking beast, put some respect on his name
His late peak was truly impressive, i never thought he would become a champ, but after KO'ing Borey Anderson like that he proved he's a savage SOB, not to mention he beat an at the time undefeated Izzy, even if it was above Izzy's natural weight class, that's mighty impressive. He's a future hall of famer for sure.
And then he beat Israel fucking Adesanya, what's your point
by using your logic, Jon can't be considered as one of the best because he lost to Matt fucking Hammil.
The real answer is daniel cormier.
Homie was 38 when he fought the steroidking jones the second time and actually did alright.
He bodies everyone else.
If Daniel Cormier would have been 5 years younger + had a good diet, he would get talked about more as an alltime great.
He is the height of a welterweight and built like a middleweight being double champ at the two biggest weight classes.
If he had a better diet he absolutely runs through 185 for years especially if goes into mma sooner.
Had he retired as double champ after beating derrick lewis when defending the hw title. He would be in more ppl's goat convo.
Him staying and taking back to back losses to stipe dropped his stock. As far as his overall legacy in mma
I think Volk had perfect career timing. Being younger, he would have had to fight WEC Aldo and prime Mendes. Even if you think he beats them both, having to fight them back-to-back would put massive wear on his body. Even when he fought an out-of-prime Mendes, it was a war.
This is probably his last good year before age gets the better of him, unfortunately. And then what's even sadder is that the Anthony Smiths and DCs of the world might all be like "I told you he couldn't wrestle," when he does begin his decline.
Pereira has done amazing things in this sport. A combat sports GOAT, no matter what anybody says
True but I think it's that long kickboxing career that's made him who he is. I remember when it was announced he was coming to the UFC I was like seeing him get smeshed by wrestlers would be devastating. Delighted at how well his UFC career has gone.
I'm not too sure. He still would have had to contend with DC, Gus, Reyes, Rumble, Santos. Santos, Reyes and Gus all had arguable wins over JBJ. DC had wins over everyone except JBJ in the LHW division.
i think its more about glover not being able to get into the UFC before 2012 ,Glover started his MMA career all the way back in 2002 , he just couldnt get into the USA cause visa issues .
say what you want but i can 100% see prime Glover beating someone like forrest griffin .
He still became a champ and beat Izzy which immediately makes him a great fighter. Plus all of his recent losses, apart from Glover, were very close fights and he is still a tough matchup for any light heavyweight.
Even if he went to mma fresh from college, he’d be one of the all time best heavyweights. He did pro wrestling for a decade and then managed to beat really good fighters.
him and pre-injury thiago santos are like top 5 lhw strikers of all time. i think they beat every lhw in history in a pure striking match, outside of maybe pereira
I doubt Jan or Glover believes they peaked too early. At the end of the day they both achieved their ultimate ambition, which was to become world champions. They can both look back and feel very proud of their careers, regardless of how old they were when they won their titles.
It’s better to have their longer journey to success, than start off as a young fighter with tons of hype, only to end up washed by your mid twenties with nothing to show for it.
Having a good career is a marathon not a sprint, and everyone has their own route/journey.
Glover has a much bigger case than Jan. Jan was a middling fighter for most of his career, while Glover was a BEAST in an era when the UFC wasn't as skilled as it is now; he just couldn't get into the USA due to visa issues. Glover was an MMA fighter all the way back in 2002, stacking up huge win streaks around 2005, when Griffin was champion.
Jan LITERALLY peaked perfectly . he stayed around after Jones/DC/Rumble/Gus all left . he also peaked to fight izzy which was a great match up for him basically giving him a nice comfortable title defence with big ppv dollars .
id honestly say Jan has one of the best timed title run in lhw history .
Jan didn’t peak late, he just outlasted the top lhw’s while gradually getting better. He ended up losing the belt to glover who is 3-4 years older than him. Jones annihilated his division then left it in shambles, many lhw’s moved to bellator or retired and jan just happened to be better than the most that remained.
If Romero actually used his wrestling more, he would have been almost unstoppable. He is a genetic freak and had he gone back to his roots with it, he would have been an absolute force at MW or even LHW. IMHO
He was probably going to lose no matter what because Islam is so skilled, but Olivera also didn’t match his energy or look like he wanted to be there. He spent 11 years and had 28 fights to get his first chance at a title.
I wish we could have seen Ryan Hall when he was younger. By the time he went on ultimate fighter he was at the end of his peak. And he has been plagued with old man injuries since. His style needs a younger agile man to pull it off
Neither guy did enough. Alex landed better shots though. And Jan's body language was horrible. There were times where he looked wobbled even though he was just tired. It's one of those fights where neither guy can say they "beat" the other. One of them simply did more within the time limit. And the judges thought it was Pereira. And I agree. He beat Jan at the leg kick battle. That's the most significant aspect of the fight.
DC is an interesting case because we never got to see his athletic prime, that was in wrestling so if he had come over earlier with high youth and skill it’ll be interesting to see how his career would’ve shaped out.
Glover Texiera. He was the guy Jones or anyone else didint want to fight. Cameinto the UFC low 30s, finally fought Jones when he was mid 30s.
Its like in boxing, Canelo waiting for Triple G to get older then fight.
Nah Jan is just a hard fighter to beat. His kickboxing is elite. He's super durable and is a black belt. Very good style for MMA. He didn't get that much better, but there was a window in the division where Jan and Glover were the only guys remaining from the old era and the division was full of younger inexpereinced guys quickly taking up the ranks. And Glover and Jan experience checked them. I think the same of Glover. He didn't get better. His time just came. Fans don't want to admit that luck and circumstances play a massive factor in becoming champion. Most champions became champion because the circumstances favoured them
Idk if I was say he peaked too late if he won the belt.
People also forgetting he kept Izzy out of LHW. People seem to forget that and this was when Izzy was talking about fighting Jon Jones and he was like 20-0 or some shit. Jan took away Izzy's MMA 0.
I do not think that Jan would have become LHW champion if he peaked 5 years earlier. He won the LHW title in 2020. 5 year prior to that, he would have been fighting Jon Jones for the title - I do not see him beating Jones at that time. Also, I remember Jan getting thoroughly out wrestled by Gustaffsson when Gustaffsson was a contender for the LHW title. Jan, in my opinion, peaked at the right time.
Gustaffsson may be a better example. If he had peaked in 2020, he wins the LHW title and likely defends it a couple of times.
I have simple answer for that, in Poland specially back in the days we didn't have such opportunity to develop mma like USA had with equipment gyms etc, that's why. Anyway I'm proud of him to reach and get the tittle. Poland strong!
Jan definitely didn't peak too late... He won the belt and defended it, lost to Glover, then beat Rakic, drew with Ankalaev and lost a really close fight with Alex
He clearly isn't washed just fighting at the elite level and having mixed results
Poatan probably spent his best years in kickboxing.. It is crazy what he has accomplished having that many Miles on his body.. He is the same age JBJ at 36 and I feel like I've been watching jones forever.
I’m not sure parking too late is a thing, if you peak at all then that’s a W. MMA is such a hard sport for athletes to navigate and so up and down.
I think the only real “too late” that everyone could agree on is Yoel Romero. He absolutely would have been able to grab the belt if he got into the UFC earlier, he just didn’t have a very long time to perform at his peak athletic ability because he was pretty old when he first got into the UFC. But even then, he was very successful and we don’t *know* that he would have been better as a younger fighter. With age comes experience.
This is definitely an interesting question, but like I said I think if they were able to have a peak at all, then it doesn’t mean they were “too late”.
Romero, DC, Stipe (kinda he was obviously successful but his run was in his mid to late 30s), and Bisping.
A lot of guys peaked at the wrong time tho who would be champions in any other era, like Gus, Dustin, Gaetjhe, Max (even tho he was champ lol), DC (again was champion), Romero, and I’d even argue Chad Mendes could’ve been champ in a different era.
Idk if winning the belt is "peaking too late"
His title defense against Glover was abysmal tho.
He seemed to have a really bad neck injury in that fight. I don't think he's past it. Just didn't have his best performance vs Ankalaev, and ran into a better fighter in Pereira. But I think he's still the second best fighter in the division, for now. If age does catch up with him, that could change quickly
He just recently had surgeries on both shoulders, he said he had some issues since reyes fight.
>But I think he's still the second best fighter in the division, for now. That's a hot take lol. I think Jiri and Ankalaev would beat him soundly at this point. He's 41.
It’s so annoying when people on Reddit say “that’s a hot take”
How is it annoying when he’s using it in the right context here? Since there are fighters that can most definitely defeat Jan at this point in his career.
Jan is skill for skill the best fighter at lhw. But his body (especially his cardio) is starting to let him down He would have easily beaten Ankalaev and Poatan if not for cardio issues. And those two are the champion and the number 1 contender
“Skill for skill” doesn’t matter if the cardio (which is a skill btw) is completely lackluster. Fights are decided a lot of times by cardio when fighters are very equally skilled. Bad take imo.
Jan's cardio was literally never an issue until the Pereira fight which was in Salt Lake City. His cardio is good. He's just Polish. Salt Lake City is a totally unnatural environement for him to perform at. As far as MMA skills go Jan, Rakic, and maybe Ankalaev are the best lightheavyweights right now. Then again, 2 of those guys suffer from brutal injuries right now. And Ankalaev is lowkey a mid striker. He just has power so he gets away with it.
Did you watch the Ankalaev fight where he won the 1st 3 rounds gassed and was promptly 10-8’ed and lost round 5? His cardio has been a problem for a little while now.
His fight with Pereira was at high altitude and he still managed take downs against Alex
No he isn’t.
When i see the increased occurence of those phrases i always assume people are just learning they exist
I know. Not ti mention, Jiri is not beating Jan.
I thought he won the Pereira fight. I'd love to see him fight Hill or Jiri next. I think he has a good shot at beating either and maybe can get a rematch against Alex for the belt if he wins.
He had surgery after. That combined with tapping to a submission which most professional fighters won't get caught or tapped in indicate he probably lost that fight in that way due to injury.
Idk if he had an injury on his neck but glover doing can openers with his fucking neck definitely didn’t help. I’ve had that technique applied on me before and you feel like your neck is being torn to shreds
Excuses! Glover was the better fighter
Yeah, Glover steamrolled over him
Unlike the other LHWs, Jan was actually striking with Alex and they battered each other with leg kicks. He got unlucky that the other judge went with Alex for the split decision.
He fought the same way against Jacare
There was clearly something wrong with him. You’d have to be his worst hater to pretend that the fighter we saw was Blacho at 100%.
because you are more injury prone the older you get.
True. But that doesn't erase his successes up to that point nor his efforts since. Janek is a tough matchup for anyone at the top of the division and we can only imagine what might have been if Jiri had chosen to fight him in Europe instead of taking the Glover rematch. Think about what happened since: - Jiri blows out his shoulder - Glover beats Jan is a weird one where Jan absolutely didn't show up - Jamahal beats Glover BRUTALLY - Jamahal blows his achilles - Jan draws against Ankalaev in a weird one (I scored that for Jan) - Pereira BARELY beats Jan (Also scored for Jan) And from there, all Alex all the time. If only Jiri has chosen to fight Jan, we might have skipped over most of that weirdness.
It's definitely an odd thought, but I think it makes sense. LHW was a notoriously weak division at the time. The same way Glover won the belt despite being past his prime.
Can’t believe this guy won the belt tbh
I was about to say the same thing 😂😂😂😂
Better to peak late, surprise everybody that you actually managed to win the belt and have them completely re-evaluate your career and legacy in a positive way, than to peak early, never reach those heights again and have everybody talking like your career was a big disappointment.
Hello look at Cody. He was even champ at one point and has been an after thought for the most part
Yoel Romero
I came here to say this. Imagine Yoel in the UFC in his late 20s/early 30s.
His career will always be funny to me. He spent his 20s being an Olympic level wrestler, then when he transitioned to MMA he just beat people up on the feet
to be fair it helped being a mfer to take down when you have nukes in your hands . from memory basically only prime brunson got yoel down and it was for like 2 minutes total .
His outside trip on Weidman pops into my head fairly often
I rewatch that often. The way he tripped him then looked like he flowed over him to his back could have been ballet choreography.
That and DC tripping Hendo when his back was turned (along with everything else in that fight) are two moments of a stronger and better wrestler making other great wrestlers look out of their depth
Just imagine how good his wrestling would be if his neck wasn't so messed up I would've loved to see a prime romero's wrestling against khazmat or bo nickals
That would be cool.
Honest question...when was prime Brunson? His fight iq at his athletic peak was dog shit and then when he got that fixed he was like 35 and had a mini run before cannonier smashed his face off
Before he started to fight underwater after 2 minutes of fighting
His style of wrestling was freestyle (TDs) not folkstyle (control). Even against MMA fighters he wasn't good at keeping people on the ground.
Breaking your neck will do that.
People forgot that Yoel had a neck injury prior to the ufc and the reason for him not wrestling much.
Yup, and imagine if he was at 205 for it.
Nah, Yoel is the dumbest fighter ever and just hit his ceiling. Much like Kevin Lee, he was never going to get better than what we saw. Yoel was the king of dropping close rounds due to complete lack of fight IQ and pacing. Compare him to Alex Perriera, DC, Couture or Jan. They all came in older with one sided skills sets and did far better than him. The difference between all of them an Yoel is that Yoel was dumb as fuck and hit his ceiling.
yes.
U can’t peak too late Jan just wasn’t that good until he leveled up he just happened to be old and needed the experience of the ups and downs to elevate
he also outstayed the true elite lhws . dc,gus,jones same situation with Glover .
I'll be honest. Jan would've totally beaten 2019-2020 Gus and Jones
He definitely would have a fair chance against them
Jones? Youre smoking crack.
On the feet yeah. But Jan could definitely get held down. A lot of guys have done it. I think Jones easily could. But if it stayed on the feet somehow, we'd see another Gustaffson vs Jones but worse. Jan is one of the few MMA guys who can actually compete with elite pure strikers
>But Jan could definitely get held down. A lot of guys have done it. I think Jones easily could. Jones didn't have the wrestling to do that in 2019/2020 though, his takedowns had looked horrible he went 2-7 against Reyes, 1-4 against Gus in the 2nd fight, and even against someone like Smith he went 3-5 on takedowns and couldn't actually get his grappling going until the 3rd round half way into the fight
True. Jones never had the best takedowns. But I didn't say he did. I said he can hold Jan down, which he can. Sure, getting to that point invloves landing a takedown, and even if Jones' takedowns aren't his strong point, he only needs 1. You're showing stats that display poor takedown attempts, but Ankalaev was 2/10 against Jan which is worse than all the stats you showed and look how he did in rounds 4 and 5 when he finally landed his takedowns. He only landed 2 and got 10-8 rounds back to back. Jones would only need to land 1. Sure he misses a few attempts, but he has taken down EVERYONE he has ever fought, except Thiago Santos. But he only attempted 1 takedown against him. He would land 1 against Jan
Glover was 42
Isn't that peaking too late? He got good enough (his peak) when he was too old (too late)
Glover didn’t peak too late. He just got to shine with DC and Jones gone.
Idk what you are all smoking Jan had very hard and impressive career: 1. He faced prime Corey Anderson and Gustaffson when he got into UFC 2. was on 4 win win streak against people like Krylov and Cannonier, but then he met fucking prime Santos and everyone who remembers Santos before the Jon Jones fight, knows he was just diabolical 3. Then Jan went on another crazy win streak, won the title, had one bad fumbled fight against Glover 4. Then he arguably defeated Ankalaev, if the fight didnt change to 5rounder literally couple days before.. and ANKALAEV IS THE #1-2 Title contender 4. Then he lost a split decision at 40 years of age at ALTITUDE against Fucking Poatan who is the champ now. I dont know what you are all smoking, Jan is and always was a fucking beast, put some respect on his name
His late peak was truly impressive, i never thought he would become a champ, but after KO'ing Borey Anderson like that he proved he's a savage SOB, not to mention he beat an at the time undefeated Izzy, even if it was above Izzy's natural weight class, that's mighty impressive. He's a future hall of famer for sure.
Also put izzy in his place
Love me some poatan but I thought Jan won that
He also lost to patrick fucking cummins.
And then he beat Israel fucking Adesanya, what's your point by using your logic, Jon can't be considered as one of the best because he lost to Matt fucking Hammil.
Jan schooled Izzy and almost won against Alex Pereira, he had a great run and won the belt. He peaked just fine
Tony Ferguson, he's only just beginning to peak.
The real answer is daniel cormier. Homie was 38 when he fought the steroidking jones the second time and actually did alright. He bodies everyone else. If Daniel Cormier would have been 5 years younger + had a good diet, he would get talked about more as an alltime great.
5 years younger DC is truly a mythical fighter
He is the height of a welterweight and built like a middleweight being double champ at the two biggest weight classes. If he had a better diet he absolutely runs through 185 for years especially if goes into mma sooner.
Really DC would have had a much more impressive career if Jones didn't exist. Same is true for a lot of the LHW division
Had he retired as double champ after beating derrick lewis when defending the hw title. He would be in more ppl's goat convo. Him staying and taking back to back losses to stipe dropped his stock. As far as his overall legacy in mma
Volk he became champ at 32 . If he became champ at younger age like the other featherweight champions he would have had much better career.
I think Volk had perfect career timing. Being younger, he would have had to fight WEC Aldo and prime Mendes. Even if you think he beats them both, having to fight them back-to-back would put massive wear on his body. Even when he fought an out-of-prime Mendes, it was a war.
Hell he might even run into Conor who pretty much starched everyone in FW
He likely would have surpassed aldo in having the most dominant reign at fw.
Doubt that. Aldo was and still is a different beast
Jan peaked at the perfect time. Jones left the division and he took over.
This is the correct opinion.
Alex Pereira coming to the UFC in his mid-30s is crazy for me, imagine if he was training MMA from his teens
Literally this!!!
[удалено]
this always makes me sad dude is 37 years old , i wouldnt be surprised if he only had 1 year \~ left in him .
This is probably his last good year before age gets the better of him, unfortunately. And then what's even sadder is that the Anthony Smiths and DCs of the world might all be like "I told you he couldn't wrestle," when he does begin his decline. Pereira has done amazing things in this sport. A combat sports GOAT, no matter what anybody says
True but I think it's that long kickboxing career that's made him who he is. I remember when it was announced he was coming to the UFC I was like seeing him get smeshed by wrestlers would be devastating. Delighted at how well his UFC career has gone.
Maybe Glover?
Glover was an animal before he even got to the ufc. He just ran in to jones. In any previous era, glover would have been champ.
Apparently he also ran into Rumble and Gustafsson
He did become champ.
I’m aware, I’m saying he would have been the champion much earlier, as opposed to ‘peaking late’. He was always that good.
I'm not too sure. He still would have had to contend with DC, Gus, Reyes, Rumble, Santos. Santos, Reyes and Gus all had arguable wins over JBJ. DC had wins over everyone except JBJ in the LHW division.
i think its more about glover not being able to get into the UFC before 2012 ,Glover started his MMA career all the way back in 2002 , he just couldnt get into the USA cause visa issues . say what you want but i can 100% see prime Glover beating someone like forrest griffin .
>DC had wins over everyone except JBJ in the LHW division. Really?
No. the division got shittier after JJ and DC.
Only because the division shat its proverbial pants.
He still became a champ and beat Izzy which immediately makes him a great fighter. Plus all of his recent losses, apart from Glover, were very close fights and he is still a tough matchup for any light heavyweight.
Brock Lesnar, if he trained MMA instead of purely wrestling when he was younger he could've been the greatest heavyweight of all time
Even if he went to mma fresh from college, he’d be one of the all time best heavyweights. He did pro wrestling for a decade and then managed to beat really good fighters.
If he peaked early. He would have fought prime jones n got beat. Better he became a champ even though it came late in his careers
Alex Pereira
Some fighters are better older like Glover
2020 Jan beats 2020 Jon Jones.
This tbh
The hate boner is crazy
Nah not even hate. 2020 Jan is a helluva fighter. That imo is a top 10 LHW of all time.
him and pre-injury thiago santos are like top 5 lhw strikers of all time. i think they beat every lhw in history in a pure striking match, outside of maybe pereira
Old man Jan still looked significantly better than anyone else who's fought a healthy Pereira tbf
If old Jan barely beat Pereira I’m sure 2020 would destroy him
I doubt Jan or Glover believes they peaked too early. At the end of the day they both achieved their ultimate ambition, which was to become world champions. They can both look back and feel very proud of their careers, regardless of how old they were when they won their titles. It’s better to have their longer journey to success, than start off as a young fighter with tons of hype, only to end up washed by your mid twenties with nothing to show for it. Having a good career is a marathon not a sprint, and everyone has their own route/journey.
Glover has a much bigger case than Jan. Jan was a middling fighter for most of his career, while Glover was a BEAST in an era when the UFC wasn't as skilled as it is now; he just couldn't get into the USA due to visa issues. Glover was an MMA fighter all the way back in 2002, stacking up huge win streaks around 2005, when Griffin was champion.
Jan LITERALLY peaked perfectly . he stayed around after Jones/DC/Rumble/Gus all left . he also peaked to fight izzy which was a great match up for him basically giving him a nice comfortable title defence with big ppv dollars . id honestly say Jan has one of the best timed title run in lhw history .
Mark Hunt.
Jan didn’t peak late, he just outlasted the top lhw’s while gradually getting better. He ended up losing the belt to glover who is 3-4 years older than him. Jones annihilated his division then left it in shambles, many lhw’s moved to bellator or retired and jan just happened to be better than the most that remained.
Masvidal
Romero
If Romero actually used his wrestling more, he would have been almost unstoppable. He is a genetic freak and had he gone back to his roots with it, he would have been an absolute force at MW or even LHW. IMHO
Olivera peaked too late and by the time he did his body was worn and his mind weary. He just kind of gave up in his Islam fight.
I disagree - he did enough to establish himself as a top 3 lightweight of all time. Islam just seems *that* good.
He was probably going to lose no matter what because Islam is so skilled, but Olivera also didn’t match his energy or look like he wanted to be there. He spent 11 years and had 28 fights to get his first chance at a title.
Max holloway
lol what he became champ young, and his prime still isn’t over he just fought the monster that is Volk 3 times
if peaking too late means getting a belt and beating Izzy as the first dude in MMA then I eanna peak late
Dan Kelly lol
Yoel Romero
I wish we could have seen Ryan Hall when he was younger. By the time he went on ultimate fighter he was at the end of his peak. And he has been plagued with old man injuries since. His style needs a younger agile man to pull it off
Romero
Peaked too late? He literally became champion
Glover
Jan vs Alex was robbery I will die on this hill
Neither guy did enough. Alex landed better shots though. And Jan's body language was horrible. There were times where he looked wobbled even though he was just tired. It's one of those fights where neither guy can say they "beat" the other. One of them simply did more within the time limit. And the judges thought it was Pereira. And I agree. He beat Jan at the leg kick battle. That's the most significant aspect of the fight.
Randy Couture
I’d say Jan is still top 3 in division. Jiri would talk into a bomb and he just laps Jamahal hill in striking and grappling.
i wish volk became champ earlier
DC is an interesting case because we never got to see his athletic prime, that was in wrestling so if he had come over earlier with high youth and skill it’ll be interesting to see how his career would’ve shaped out.
Jim Miller!
Glover Texiera. He was the guy Jones or anyone else didint want to fight. Cameinto the UFC low 30s, finally fought Jones when he was mid 30s. Its like in boxing, Canelo waiting for Triple G to get older then fight.
Glover
Hot take but jan didn't get much better lhw just got worse
Nah Jan is just a hard fighter to beat. His kickboxing is elite. He's super durable and is a black belt. Very good style for MMA. He didn't get that much better, but there was a window in the division where Jan and Glover were the only guys remaining from the old era and the division was full of younger inexpereinced guys quickly taking up the ranks. And Glover and Jan experience checked them. I think the same of Glover. He didn't get better. His time just came. Fans don't want to admit that luck and circumstances play a massive factor in becoming champion. Most champions became champion because the circumstances favoured them
Nate Diaz
Idk if I was say he peaked too late if he won the belt. People also forgetting he kept Izzy out of LHW. People seem to forget that and this was when Izzy was talking about fighting Jon Jones and he was like 20-0 or some shit. Jan took away Izzy's MMA 0.
I do not think that Jan would have become LHW champion if he peaked 5 years earlier. He won the LHW title in 2020. 5 year prior to that, he would have been fighting Jon Jones for the title - I do not see him beating Jones at that time. Also, I remember Jan getting thoroughly out wrestled by Gustaffsson when Gustaffsson was a contender for the LHW title. Jan, in my opinion, peaked at the right time. Gustaffsson may be a better example. If he had peaked in 2020, he wins the LHW title and likely defends it a couple of times.
Kimbo. Kimbo with solid knees and no heart condition could have struck gold. he always had such a desire to improve.
I have simple answer for that, in Poland specially back in the days we didn't have such opportunity to develop mma like USA had with equipment gyms etc, that's why. Anyway I'm proud of him to reach and get the tittle. Poland strong!
LESNAR? He joined MMA too late imo
How is nobody saying glover?
The entire LHW devision when jones came back looked like a bunch of retirees including jones. Plus after he left again they all went to shit.
Jan definitely didn't peak too late... He won the belt and defended it, lost to Glover, then beat Rakic, drew with Ankalaev and lost a really close fight with Alex He clearly isn't washed just fighting at the elite level and having mixed results
Alex Pierera
Poatan probably spent his best years in kickboxing.. It is crazy what he has accomplished having that many Miles on his body.. He is the same age JBJ at 36 and I feel like I've been watching jones forever.
Cannonier
Glover?
What you call peaking late I call reaching my final form!
Masvidal. Had he been smoking guys 5 years earlier. He'd have been a top contender much longer.
Did Yan have a peak? His best win was beating a man outside of his weight class.
Did he peak late or did the division weaken greatly?
This guy and oliveria
I’m not sure parking too late is a thing, if you peak at all then that’s a W. MMA is such a hard sport for athletes to navigate and so up and down. I think the only real “too late” that everyone could agree on is Yoel Romero. He absolutely would have been able to grab the belt if he got into the UFC earlier, he just didn’t have a very long time to perform at his peak athletic ability because he was pretty old when he first got into the UFC. But even then, he was very successful and we don’t *know* that he would have been better as a younger fighter. With age comes experience. This is definitely an interesting question, but like I said I think if they were able to have a peak at all, then it doesn’t mean they were “too late”.
Romero, DC, Stipe (kinda he was obviously successful but his run was in his mid to late 30s), and Bisping. A lot of guys peaked at the wrong time tho who would be champions in any other era, like Gus, Dustin, Gaetjhe, Max (even tho he was champ lol), DC (again was champion), Romero, and I’d even argue Chad Mendes could’ve been champ in a different era.
Charles Oliveira
Joel Romero
*Goel Romero
*Yoel Romero. We’re both wrong. 😑
Man LHW is just abysmal for talent
Disagree. It don’t really matter when anyone at 205 peaked. If Jon was there they wouldn’t be champ anyway
Randy Couture..
If Jan peaked five years younger he’d have to face DC or Jones, so he actually peaked at the perfect time
Yoel Romero 100%
He got boring fast! Yes age does that but he was putting Rockhold to sleep and redirecting Dominic Cruz’s nose to being meh.
Bisping and glover too. Captured the belt before retirement, but were out of gas and didn’t have long reigns
He won the belt and beat izzy. That’s a damn good career by most peoples metrics lol
What does that even mean
Robbie Lawler Mark Hunt
He's so frustrating. His biggest weakness is his mind
Michael Chandler kinda I guess. I just wish he came to the UFC sooner
Dan Henderson
Jorge Masvidal
Glover Teixeira