Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Light Heavyweights

Welcome again folks, this time to Sherdog's list of the ten greatest light heavyweights ever. This was compiled based on a weighted poll of 12 Sherdog contributors, and I will note where my own views deviated considerably from the consensus. Personally though, the appeal of any such lists isn't the exact order or who was included or excluded, but the actual discussion of each entry. Anyone can come up with a list with no further commentary and it's no more “right” than another. However, the best such lists have entertaining and informative explanations, which is the goal I hope to accomplish.

A word about criteria: The main measure for this list was greatness for one’s era and how long that era lasted. Ranking historical fighters based on who would beat whom doesn’t make sense, since the sport as a whole keeps improving and evolving. If this was purely about who would win against the others most of the time, current Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder Jiri Prochazka would be in the top three and Randy Couture wouldn't be included at all. However, that doesn't take historical context into account. Nevertheless, fighters from earlier eras may be penalized for competitive their division was—or was not. There were fewer decent fighters in the 90s when compared to even the 00s, let alone today.

The “bubble list” of light heavyweight greats who received at least one vote from the panel, but not quite enough to break the Top 10, included: Dan Henderson, Frank Shamrock, Alexander Gustafsson and Vitor Belfort.

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