In this week’s mailbag, I got a question that has been a hot topic since Alexander Volkanovski defeated Diego Lopes on Saturday at UFC 325 to defend his featherweight title: Who is the featherweight GOAT? I started to answer it for the mailbag, but then it spiraled, so I figured I’d address this on its own and do the mailbag later.
Settle the FW GOAT. Who wins, prime Aldo or prime Volk?
First off, these are two different questions. Who is the greatest of all time and who is the best of all time can overlap, but we’re talking about two different things, really. “Best” is a little more subjective and is talking about the peak of ability. “Greatest” also has some subjectivity, but is primarily concerned with accomplishment over the length of a career. Very few people would argue that Babe Ruth is a better baseball player than Shohei Otani (at least I hope not because that’s obviously ludicrous), but no one would dispute that Ruth is a greater one. And that’s the thing I think a huge swath of MMA fans don’t seem to understand.
Jose Aldo is the featherweight GOAT. I don’t think it’s disputable at this point, though it’s getting close. Let me break down some numbers.
*The UFC’s decision to act like WEC didn’t exist is puzzling. It was the premier organization for fighters under 155 pounds at the time, and it was OWNED BY THE UFC, such that when they finally gave up on it, they just gave those champs belts. We are, correctly, treating WEC fights as UFC fights, because they functionally were.*
Jose Aldo has an 18-4 record at featherweight, with 11 title wins, and 11 stoppages (four in title fights). Those 11 title wins tie him for fourth all-time, with Anderson Silva, Amanda Nunes, and Valentina Shevchenko. He held the featherweight title for 2,379 days consecutively, second all-time behind Anderson Silva at 2,457 days. If you add in his second reign, that bumps the number up to 2,708 days, behind only Jon Jones for combined days as UFC champion (there’s an asterisk here, depending on how you want to count Amanda Nunes’s reign across two divisions simultaneously, but as champion, she held one or more titles for 2,538 days total). He also has nine successful title defenses, tied for fourth all-time with Georges St-Pierre, and that moves to third all-time when talking about consecutive title defenses.
Alexander Volkanovski has a 14-1 record at featherweight, with eight title wins, and four stoppages (two in title fights). Those eight title wins tie him 10th all-time, with Israel Adesanya. He held the featherweight title for 1,526 days consecutively, which is eighth all-time, and if you add his current reign to the mix, that totals 1,822 days (and counting), which puts him still in eighth place. He has five title defenses during his first reign, which is tied for eighth all-time with six other fighters (Matt Hughes, Tito Ortiz, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Amanda Nunes, Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya), and adding in his second win over Lopes moving him to six title defenses, Volk is seventh all-time (though there’s also an Amanda Nunes asterisk here).
Simply put, one of those résumés is better than the other. Volkanovski has narrowed the gap, but he hasn’t caught Aldo. Not yet.
Because he objectively has not matched Aldo’s numbers, the case for Volkanovski as GOAT rests on two key arguments. First, he beat Aldo. But that doesn’t exactly pass muster, as no one is calling Ilia Topuria the featherweight GOAT (at least I sure hope they aren’t). Again, greatness isn’t the measure of one moment in time, but the balance of a career. Yes, Volk beat Aldo, and yes, Volk is probably a better overall fighter than Aldo, because that’s how time works — things get better. But this is not a good argument for Volk having accomplished more than Aldo.
Second, is the strength of schedule, and this one is perhaps the most frustrating argument of them all, because it’s basically entirely dependent on recency bias. Volkanovski beat Max Holloway three times, which is exceptional. But Aldo also has several great wins — Chad Mendes x2, Frankie Edgar x2, Urijah Faber — and his “bad ones” are not nearly as bad as his detractors make them out to be. I have been a fan of this sport for over 20 years at this point, and I promise you that in 15 years, some new fans will come in and say Volkanovski’s wins over Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes and Korean Zombie are weak, the same way current fans dismiss Aldo beating Korean Zombie and Ricardo Lamas, and Kenny Florian. That’s just how this game goes. If you aren’t a Hall of Famer, the future generation is going to call you a bum. Circle back in 10 years and see how right I am. That’s the reason title fights matter so much is because they are, unequivocally, good wins. You don’t fall into title shots (well, Lopes kinda did this second time, but even still), and Aldo has more.
Nevertheless, people are still adamantly making the case for Volkanovski because that’s just how things go in this sport. There’s a concerted effort to crown every new thing as the greatest ever. I’m old enough to remember when Max Holloway was declared FW GOAT by some, and that case is laughable if you look at Holloway’s numbers. Not to mention the push to declare Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya as the respective GOATs of their weight classes, which is again, ludicrous. It’s just very difficult for MMA fans to appreciate generational greatness without declaring it all-time greatness, particularly when a lot of those fans weren’t there for the previous run.
If Volk fights and beats Movsar Evloev or Lerone Murphy, it becomes a legitimate toss-up, and if he adds two more title defenses, the argument is probably dead. But even if he doesn’t get there, that’s not a condemnation of Volkanovski, the same way that saying Alexander Ovechkin isn’t as good as Wayne Gretzky isn’t some slight on Ovi. It’s a testament to how exceptional Aldo was during his career. I wish most of y’all had been there for the ride.
As for the other part of the original question, with both men at their absolute peaks, I favor Alexander Volkanovski, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it. Volkanovski is the best fighter of his generation, and his generation came after Aldo’s, which suggests Volk wins. Also, when they did fight, Aldo was past his prime, but Volk was yet to hit his, so that’s another point for Volk. Still, Aldo, at his peak, was a much better athlete than Volk, which gives him a chance, because if guys like Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes can scare you, prime Aldo can, too. But, prime vs. prime, I think you have to favor Volk’s ability to adjust mid-fight and have counters for Aldo’s offense. But man, that would be a technical masterpiece of a fight.
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