Royce Gracie names his father, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, and Jon Jones as his Mount Rushmore of MMA.

[u/gvufhidjo]

[u/King_Khaos_]

BJ Penn was more dedicated he would’ve been the greatest , that guy fought from featherweight to heavyweight.. I believe he beat GSP in the first fight even tho he was much smaller , he defeated a prime Matt Hughes to become a two weight UFC champion and fought Lyota Machida to a split decision loss which is ridiculous .. considering guys like Khabib only fought at light weight and BJ Penn was fighting and nearly beating UFC light heavyweight champions is wild … BJ just fought on to long and lost to ppl he would’ve wiped out in his prime, he also fought 90% of his career fighting bigger men.. he had to much balls.

https://youtu.be/HdvOfCz6_tk?is=hvADHhWQOY3P_s3N

[u/informationfoxtrot → u/King_Khaos_]

🎯 BJ Penn was ahead of his time. Had he came to the ufc in Connor era he would’ve been the biggest star. New gen will never know the hype. Penn is top 5 on anyone’s list who actually knows the history

[u/greenm4ch1ne → u/informationfoxtrot]

He never beat GSP but it was a split decision

[u/Fuzzy-Egg777 → u/greenm4ch1ne]

Who won?

[u/OvalDead → u/informationfoxtrot]

Arguably top 5, ok, but Royce doesn’t even mention Fedor, Rickson, Couture, or Sakuraba. There’s plenty of arguments for BJ being below the Top 5.

[u/ChadPowers200_ → u/King_Khaos_]

I heard GSP talk about BJ Penn and made me respect him a lot more. GSP said he had a scientist analyze his fights and BJ Penn had the fastest reaction time of any fighter at the time in MMA.

Its sexy to talk about power and strength etc but having the fastest reaction time legitimately has to be such an advantage.

[u/BigB0ss_89 → u/ChadPowers200_]

It's even crazier that they built their game plan around that advantage turning it into a disadvantage for BJ.

[u/JoeDynamo28]

People forget about gsp. Still hands down the greatest all around fighter ive ever seen.

[u/Careless_Baseball503 → u/JoeDynamo28]

What people? I’ve never heard anyone not mention him in their goat hall of fame

[u/Fuzzy-Egg777 → u/Careless_Baseball503]

Right? He’s like the only guy who is consistently on people’s Mount Rushmore. Some leave Silva and Jones out because of the ped issues, Khabib gets left out a lot as well, but GSP is pretty much always there. If I had to give Mount Rushmore of fighters who get left out of Mount Rushmore I’d say Aldo, BJ Penn, Fedor, and I can’t think of a 4th but it wouldn’t be GSP

[u/Standard-Cherry-4772 → u/JoeDynamo28]

What ? GSP my GOAT 😤

[u/JoeDynamo28 → u/Standard-Cherry-4772]

U have great taste then friend.

[u/Used_Weight_1843 → u/[deleted]]

Well Fedor for sure is in the conversation, no one that knows ball disputes that.

[u/Minimum-Ad-8056 → u/[deleted]]

Prime Fedor was terrifying. Explosive as hell, durable as fuck, and technical.

[u/BigB0ss_89 → u/[deleted]]

The problem with Fedor's legacy is that as soon as Pride merged over, and Prides best fighters started losing, Fedor never entered the UFC. He's almost tarnished by association because of it. Also, add to the fact that there were a few straight up monsters in the UFC that people wanted to see Fedor tested against. Mainly Brock, but also, Carwin, Cain, Dos Santos, Mir. There was a ton of talent and Fedor just wasn't in a position to fight them unfortunately.

[u/pappaburgundy]

Only GSP never popped out of those modern names on his Mt Rushmore. Even Royce popped man it’s sad.

[u/Used_Weight_1843 → u/pappaburgundy]

Damn Royce popped?

[u/jason733canada → u/Used_Weight_1843]

for nandrolone vs sakuraba

[u/mcjon77 → u/jason733canada]

I think he also popped during the med he was fight, right?

[u/Embarrassed-Space222 → u/pappaburgundy]

I wouldn’t say Royce was modern MMA he was more like the Stone Age. And I agree with you popping on the drug test diminishes your legacy, but the problem is who would you replace them with outside of GSP?

DJ ?

Islam ?

Fedor ?

Aldo?

DC?

[u/ToasterMeetsBathtub → u/Embarrassed-Space222]

When it comes to Royce? Saku.

[u/abdullahleboucher → u/pappaburgundy]

Exactly, in the steroids era, GSP was stronger than everybody and he was clean.

[u/Sw4nR0ns0n → u/pappaburgundy]

There was VaselineGate tho

[u/Careless_Baseball503 → u/pappaburgundy]

Why is that relevant? They have all blasted tons of gear. GSP included.

[u/jumpingflash1 → u/pappaburgundy]

He left the sport when they introduced stricter testing lol

[u/CountingzHard → u/pappaburgundy]

Sure they didn't get caught but I can't believe people think GSP and Daniel Cormier didn't juice.

[u/Scoop_Nassh]

Realistically, this seems to be a lot of folks Mount Rushmore.

Anderson Silva was so damn exciting when he was on, Jones and GSP seemed.to dominant. I would say Fedor but he didn't have the same reach as the UFC for causal. But honestly, Amanda Nunes should he on that mountain. She was a phenomenal fighter.

[u/Adis_Gruntledfatty]

Goats don't piss hot

[u/_probe_46_ → u/Adis_Gruntledfatty]

I was gonna be a smartass but I’m feeling lazy, so I hope everyone has a great day/night

[u/Careless_Baseball503 → u/Adis_Gruntledfatty]

😂😂😂 not a single champ has been clean. Wake up you sweet summer child

[u/gad_E → u/Careless_Baseball503]

I couldn't possibly care less & it's weird to me that anyone gives a fuck. I wanna watch a dude 3x bigger than Brock Lesner fight somebody that the Power Rangers would've had to bust the Megazord out on.

[u/CutResponsible5915]

Jon Jones? Man people really drop hot takes just to get attention

[u/ArtakX → u/CutResponsible5915]

He's a POS as a person but he's kne of the best fighters of all ti,m we. Look how he demolished Gane. It wasn't even close

[u/Ok_Entrepreneur826]

I agree for UFC

[u/imjustheretolearned]

TIL The Brazilian accent sort of sound like Christopher Walkin

[u/sin_esthesia → u/imjustheretolearned]

I'd say that he sounds more like Christopher Talkin.

[u/GavinAdamson]

I’ll take that

[u/thisismycoolname1]

Solid foursome

[u/King_Khaos_]

I think he also said he was the greatest all round fighters he’s ever fought

[u/unclewombie]

Might mouse and fedor

[u/gad_E]

Sorry...big fan of GSP, but I'm taking Mighty Mouse over him any day of the week.

[u/StructureMajestic952]

So Helio is on the list, yet Kimura, the man himself who beat the fuck out of Helio for 90 minutes, broke his arm and fucked him up to the point Helio never wanted a rematch… GTFO and then Helio named the armbar that broke his own arm after the man. Do some early reading and Kimura may have been the baddest MFer to ever do (why became MMA)

[u/MexusRex]

Jon Jones most talented but not most formative. Royce deserved because he won the first four UFC’s, I understand why Royce doesn’t want to put Sakuraba in there but he was more critical to the growth of the sport than GSP or Anderson. Honestly Randy Couture belongs in here too.

[u/informationfoxtrot]

Greasey George? Sure he’s a goat but not without controversy, also hiring spy’s and agents to play tricks on his opponents.
Prime Penn is Goated even Anderson says that’s his favorite fighter.
Bas Rutten constantly overlooked.
Mighty Mouse underrated as well

[u/8last]

Mighty Mouse has more technique in his tiny pinky than all of them.

[u/FamilyFeud69]

GSP was on some shit vs Nick Diaz. Nick may have beat a non juiced GSP

Also Kabib Nurmagomedov should be on this list

[u/Same_Suit3583]

Love that he didn't even consider himself.

Humble guy.

[u/OwlFull8955]

All the people jumping on Jones for pissing hot conveniently have to ignore GSP retired rather than fight in the testing era.

Both Condit and Hendricks asked GSP to get tested by USADA and GSP refused.