Former welterweight contender Ben Askren has explained why Conor McGregor did not make his list of the greatest fighters in mixed martial arts history. This past weekend the Irish superstar started a huge debate in the MMA world as he released his list of the best fighters of all-time. McGregor picked four fighters who he believes stand out from the rest.
At the top of that list was middleweight legend Anderson Silva who was closely followed by McGregor himself. In third was former two-weight champion Georges St-Pierre and in fourth was current light-heavyweight king Jon Jones.
This caused much discussion among fans and fighters who were quick to offer their opinions on the McGregor GOAT list and offer up their own. Askren released his own seven-man list of MMA greats yesterday and it had one obvious omission, he wrote on Twitter.
“7 People in discussion for MMA GOAT. Some have much better cases than others, but all have cases. Fedor [Emelianenko] and BJ [Penn] would have had cases had they retired earlier. GSP [Georges St Pierre], Anderson [Silva], DJ [Demetrious Johnson], Khabib [Nurmagomedov], Jon Jones DC [Daniel Cormier], and Henry [Cejudo].”
Ben Askren Says Conor McGregor Isn’t An MMA Great
A fan asked Askren why McGregor didn’t make his list. ‘Funky’ claimed the fact ‘Notorious’ never defended a title and lost to Nate Diaz rules him out of the GOAT debate, he wrote.
“Conor never defended either of his belts and loss to Nate Diaz takes him out of conversation.”
The former ONE and Bellator champion went on to speak about dual weight UFC champion Amanda Nunes who he notes is the best female to ever do it despite the fact she didn’t make his exclusive list.
“Nunes is the female GOAT by a mile,” Askren wrote.
Do you think Ben Askren is right to leave Conor McGregor off his GOAT list?