Ever since fighters have been passing into retirement, leaving behind their legacies to be appreciated, pondered and scrutinized, one of the most recurring questions is based around fights between men who are separated by time.
As fight fans, we need to have questions answered; it’s one of the reasons why consistent fighters have both fans and detractors in abundance. The fans believe most of the questions have been answered and the result is perfection in the form of their man, while the detractors say “not so fast,” and they continue to watch believing that one question remains, and when it is answered, that man will fall.
Of course, much of it is name recognition and the style vs. style debate, but all of it comes back to the fact that the question itself is transcendent: generation gap be damned, the question will be asked, and the answer debated until we are all tired and move on to the next hypothetical fight.
Still, we can take comfort in knowing we are not the only ones asking the question—the fighters do it as well; how could they not compare themselves to the greats of times past?
In that spirit, here are 12 fights that ponder the question.