The famous Brazilian jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts instructor John Danaher recently listed his greatest mixed martial artist of all time.
John Danaher shared his list during his recent appearance on the ‘Lex Fridman’ podcast. In that episode, Danaher was featured along with UFC veteran Georges St-Pierre, submission grappler Gordon Ryan, and of course the podcast host Lex Fridman.
The topic of the podcast revolved mainly about grappling but they also spoke about MMA at length. The 54-year-old then talked about the three best MMA fighters in his opinion.
“The three greatest mixed martial artists I’ve ever seen in my life are Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Jon Jones. The three had some interesting similarities and differences.”
He said that those three fighters had no losses in some way.
“All three beat every single person they have ever faced. I know Jon Jones had a loss officially by DQ, but no one believes that was a loss. Georges does have two losses, but he defeated those two in rematches. Khabib has no losses.” said Danaher.
Jon Jones was disqualified during his fight with Matt Hamil in 2009 after he delivered an illegal elbow. GSP lost to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra in 2004 and 2007. Khabib is undefeated throughout his professional MMA career.
“All three have had the ability to dominate the direction of the fight. When they want to go down, it goes down. When they don’t want to go down, it doesn’t. That’s why I put such a heavy emphasis on the idea that MMA champions must have the ability to change the direction of the fight.” said Danaher
John Danaher also explained that it’s hard to determine which is the best among GSP, Jon Jones, and Khabib Nurmagomedov. He said the answer depends on the criteria. It only makes sense as the three fighters fought in different divisions.
“As to which of the three is the best, it’s kinda come down to criteria. Which answer you give as to which of the three is the greatest of all time will come down to the criteria that you use. Okay. Does it mean undefeated? Is it the quality of their opponents? I think you have to give it to Georges for that criteria. If it’s by not being defeated you should give it to Khabib. Arguably you can say the same to Jon Jones as his one loss was by DQ.” explained Danaher.
Ezra Samuel is a passionate freelance writer with a particular love for covering MMA news. His interest in the sport dates back to his college days, and he has since established himself as a respected voice in the MMA community. Over the years, Ezra has contributed his writing to a variety of digital outlets, including the popular site calfkicker.