Aspinall hate is performative to me. wanted to fight Jones when he became interim champ and Jones didn’t want to fight him so he sat out for a year. He goes and gets eye poked in a fight and gets a wave of hate for it. Then he vacates the belt to avoid holding up the division?
@dc_mma Jon, GSP, Anderson, & DJ had long, dominant reigns in one weight class. Islam only had 5 title wins at 155 but broke the defense record. If he keeps defending at 170 against this new wave of contenders, does active 2-division dominance outvalue 1 long reign in your opinion?
If Ilia retired after the Oliveira fight, we'd be hearing the same "he was built different" arguments people use for Khabib. Retiring undefeated early is a great way to preserve your aura, but longevity is what really puts greatness to the test.
Khabib was an all-time great, but part of his mystique comes from leaving early. He retired after 13 UFC fights and 3 title defenses. An undefeated record is impressive, but we'll never know how he'd have handled the next generation of contenders and difficult stylistic matchups.