P4P No.1 by year (1993-2010)

Thought this would be an interesting thread to get a little debate going; give your opinion on who the pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet was, for every year starting from '93.




My list.


1993 - Royce Gracie

1994 - Royce Gracie

1995 - Royce Gracie

1996 - Bas Rutten

1997 - Bas Rutten

1998 - Bas Rutten

1999 - Igor Vovchanchyn

2000 - Wanderlei Silva

2001 - Wanderlei Silva

2002 - Wanderlei Silva

2003 - Fedor Emelianenko

2004 - Fedor Emelianenko

2005 - Mauricio Rua

2006 - Fedor Emelianenko

2007 - Fedor Emelianenko

2008 - Georges St-Pierre

2009 - Georges St-Pierre

2010 - Georges St-Pierre




This is just my opinion, agree/disagree? What about yours?

1993 - Ken Shamrock
1994 - Ken Shamrock
1995 - Bas Rutten
1996 - Bas Rutten
1997 - Frank Shamrock
1998 - Frank Shamrock
1999 - Frank Shamrock
2000 - Mark Coleman
2001 - Wanderlei Silva
2002 - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
2003 - Fedor Emelianenko
2004 - Fedor Emelianenko
2005 - Fedor Emelianenko/Shogun Rua - Impossible to separate them IMO
2006 - Mirko CroCop
2007 - Rampage Jackson
2008 - BJ Penn
2009 - Fedor Emelianenko
2010 - Anderson Silva

Sakurai had the best 1999, Sakuraba had the best 2000.

i agree with anfield 100% although id rather not on the spider 2010 but who else can go there.

sunthunder wrote:Sakurai had the best 1999, Sakuraba had the best 2000.

Fair points.

Sakurai went 7-0 in 1999 but he didn't beat anyone of note. I went with Shamrock on the back of the Tito fight and because, for me, Shamrock would have destroyed Sakurai at the time.

Sakuraba had a great year, 6-1 but i went for Coleman based on the GP. Saku beat 3 Gracies that year, but two are average MMA fighters and the other was Royce who was passed his best and he didn't really beat him. Also, for me, Coleman would have killed Saku had they fought.

how did Royce not really lose to Saku? he set the rules of the fight, then his corner chucked the towel in.

Also, how was ken shamrock better than Royce in '93 or '94?

because between ufc and pancrase shamrock went 15-2 in 2 years. he was also the worlds dangerous man

well its not really easy to say, by year, but i will do it like this instead (sorry to be awkward).
alot of guesswork here!

may aswell start with:

Ken Shamrock
-(1993-11-12)
Royce Gracie
-(1995-04-07)
Bas Rutten
-(1999-05-07)
Hayato Sakurai
-(2000-05-01)
Kazushi Sakuraba
-(2001-03-25)
Wanderlei Silva
-(2002-08-28)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
-(2003-03-16)
Fedor Emelianenko

yeah but Royce beat him and drew with him....
Never been too sure whether I count early pancrase as true MMA what with all the open hand strikes, rope breaks etc. and whatnot. thats probably just my personal opinion though.

by the way Anfield, its not really relevant that Frank Shamrock would have beaten Sakurai, since although Shamrock has since fought at middleweight, at the time he was heavyweight and light heavyweight.

same goes for Coleman and Sakuraba.
this is p4p #1 not absolute #1


edit: Saku beat Royce, REALLY.
no question.

[quote="the_king]he was also the worlds dangerous man [/quote]

I do agree that he was in the zone and about to snap

Yeah I don't really think Shamrock's 1999 was all that great. It was a draw with Tamura and the Tito fight. Tamura of that period is incredibly under-rated, and even though Sakurai's level of competition isn't that great, 7-0 is still great. You can also make a case for Sakurai in 2000 as he went through Kato, Azeredo and Trigg. Kato and Trigg were high in the top 10 at 167lbs at the time.

Sakuraba had the better p4p year in 2000 for me. Coleman's wins aren't all that amazing considering size of opponent and style match-up. Satake was debuting and ended up with a 1-8-1 record, Shoji was undersized, Fujita's corner threw in the towel essentially immediately. Igor was his only really good win.

Saku had Mezger, Royce, Ritch, Renzo and Royler. And he essentially fought Igor to the draw and his corner threw in the towel when the judges demanded an over-time round.

its nearly impossible to agree p4p fighters since most of the top guys never meet. its fair to say ufc is top promotion now but 1999-2005 pride had very good fighters,

Albion_Oakley wrote:how did Royce not really lose to Saku? he set the rules of the fight, then his corner chucked the towel in.

Also, how was ken shamrock better than Royce in '93 or '94?

Royce had 3 fights in 93, two against guys who didn't know what they were doing and the other against an injured Shamrock.

Shamrock went 5-1 and beat better opposition.

in 94, Royce went 8-1, Shamrock went 10-2 and again, fought better opposition, Bas Rutten for example.


Royce and Saku was a glorified draw. 90 minutes of fightin, neither man won. Royce's corner threw in towel on the tournament. they knew that fight was unlucky to end any time soon and even if it did Royce was in no fit state to fight again after it so they took the loss, but Saku didn't beat him.

[quote="Anfields5thKing"]

Albion_Oakley wrote:

Royce and Saku was a glorified draw. 90 minutes of fightin, neither man won. Royce's corner threw in towel on the tournament. they knew that fight was unlucky to end any time soon and even if it did Royce was in no fit state to fight again after it so they took the loss, but Saku didn't beat him.

I dont see it that way, in my eyes saku totally outlasted him and he yielded

Royce had no meaningful offense, Sakuraba pounded the crap out of Royces legs and broke his foot. Saku won. I don't know anyone who has ever tried to take that achievement away from Saku.

Albion_Oakley wrote:yeah but Royce beat him and drew with him....
Never been too sure whether I count early pancrase as true MMA what with all the open hand strikes, rope breaks etc. and whatnot. thats probably just my personal opinion though.

If it hadn't been for Pancrase there would have been no MMA.

sunthunder wrote:Royce had no meaningful offense, Sakuraba pounded the crap out of Royces legs and broke his foot. Saku won. I don't know anyone who has ever tried to take that achievement away from Saku.

I don't particularly care. The fact is that Saku couldn't beat him and had to rely on the corner stopping the fight. simple as.

If there had been judges for that fight, it would have been an utterly lop-sided decision for Saku. Does the same logic apply to any corner stoppage? Santiago-Misaki 2 for example?

Anfields5thKing wrote:

Albion_Oakley wrote:yeah but Royce beat him and drew with him....
Never been too sure whether I count early pancrase as true MMA what with all the open hand strikes, rope breaks etc. and whatnot. thats probably just my personal opinion though.

If it hadn't been for Pancrase there would have been no MMA.

Well yeah I can see that point of view but like I say, just my opinion, I would see it more as a precursor. You could say "without antoni inoki there would be no MMA", but I doubt anyone would agree lol

manschesthair_utd wrote:by the way Anfield, its not really relevant that Frank Shamrock would have beaten Sakurai, since although Shamrock has since fought at middleweight, at the time he was heavyweight and light heavyweight.

same goes for Coleman and Sakuraba.
this is p4p #1 not absolute #1


edit: Saku beat Royce, REALLY.
no question.

At the time Saku fought at all weight classes and could have fought Coleman. IMO Coleman would have destroyed him. Same goes for Shamrock. When judging P4P i base it on if both fighters were in the same weight class who would win. For me, Shamrock was also 185-190 and not all that much bigger than Sakurai and would have beaten him.

guys the topic was on 1993 - present

Albion_Oakley wrote:

Anfields5thKing wrote:

Albion_Oakley wrote:yeah but Royce beat him and drew with him....
Never been too sure whether I count early pancrase as true MMA what with all the open hand strikes, rope breaks etc. and whatnot. thats probably just my personal opinion though.

If it hadn't been for Pancrase there would have been no MMA.

Well yeah I can see that point of view but like I say, just my opinion, I would see it more as a precursor. You could say "without antoni inoki there would be no MMA", but I doubt anyone would agree lol

Only he would agree! haha!

sunthunder wrote:If there had been judges for that fight, it would have been an utterly lop-sided decision for Saku. Does the same logic apply to any corner stoppage? Santiago-Misaki 2 for example?

The rules of the fight were, you have to KO your opponent or make him tap. Did Saku make Royce tap or did he KO him? No. It's not the same as any other corner stoppage.

Anfields5thKing wrote:

manschesthair_utd wrote:by the way Anfield, its not really relevant that Frank Shamrock would have beaten Sakurai, since although Shamrock has since fought at middleweight, at the time he was heavyweight and light heavyweight.

same goes for Coleman and Sakuraba.
this is p4p #1 not absolute #1


edit: Saku beat Royce, REALLY.
no question.

At the time Saku fought at all weight classes and could have fought Coleman. IMO Coleman would have destroyed him. Same goes for Shamrock. When judging P4P i base it on if both fighters were in the same weight class who would win. For me, Shamrock was also 185-190 and not all that much bigger than Sakurai and would have beaten him.

I don't know, Sakurai is a lightweight who doesn't like to cut, Shamrock is a middleweight. If they were the same size, Sakurai would beat Shamrock imo.