Respect for Oliveira

I'm ranking Oliveira above Volkanovski because of the gauntlet Charles has run over the last two years. Ferguson, Chandler, Poirier, and Gaethje are all absolutely elite guys, and he's beaten them all resoundingly. No disrespect to Alex, but three of his last five wins have been over one guy - one very good guy, but just one guy.

And, yeah, I dropped the Mouse in at #10. He's a fighter's fighter, right down the line.

* Edited at 09.02.2022, 3:33 PM ET *

Oliveira is easily the #2 Lightweight all time. Some might even put him ahead of Khabib. Heck, five years from now he might have a significantly better resume if he can defeat the next generation of Lightweights (Gamrot, Ismaugulov, Tsarukyan, Fiziev, etc.), or at least a couple of them.

That being said, Max Holloway is IMO better than anyone Oliveira has fought, and Volk has defeated him thrice now. It's insanely hard to three-peat a guy because all of that Octagon exposure will help him hone in on your weaknesses. Plus people get older. Yet Volk's third win over Holloway was his most dominant. That's impressive to me. 

I'm rooting heavily for Charles and wouldn't mind seeing him fight Volk to settle this argument, although Lightweight and Featherweight are so stacked that such a fight would hold up the divisions for some time if it happened. @Stu who you got in a head-to-head matchup?

To your point about three fights over one guy, I think trilogy fights  and immediate rematches are wildly overrated and should occur less often. Not that they occur too often - both fighters have to be very high level for that to even be discussed. But with Holloway-Volkanovski III having just happened over the summer and both Figgy-Moreno IV and Teixiera-Prochazka II on the horizon it seems like the frequency of such fights is increasing. I prefer to see champs get fresh meat. 

I put Oliveira at the top for the same reason. He has beaten several elite fighters in his division.

When you think about it, it's really not Volkanovski's fault that he doesn't have variety in his challengers.

"When you think about it, it's really not Volkanovski's fault that he doesn't have variety in his challengers."


That's absolutely true, especially when Holloway is one of the most popular guys in the sport - it made perfect sense to make those fights. 


Ranking Oliveira above Alex isn't a slam on the featherweight champ by any means - it's more a tribute to Charles' incredible progress since 2017 after beginning his UFC tenure with an 8-8 record. The man holds the promotional record for finished fights and he's only 32 - younger than Alex. He's on an 11-win streak now, and eight of those wins have netted him Performance of the Night. That's damned impressive. 

* Edited at 09.02.2022, 6:48 PM ET *

@gwin, I'll take Charlie Olives in the real world, not least because of the size difference.