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There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to the never ending debate about who is the greatest of all time in any sport.
A majority of fans may believe that Michael Jordan holds that crown in the sport of basketball but there will still be others who feel like LeBron James has done enough already or will surpass him by the time his career is finished.
In the sport of mixed martial arts, that same debate happens constantly whenever the ‘greatest of all time’ discussion comes up but the argument is a little tougher in the women’s divisions.
While Ronda Rousey had a dominant run through the biggest part of her career and Megumi Fujii will always be considered an icon of women’s fighting, UFC analyst and color commentator Jimmy Smith says there’s no debate in his mind when he’s asked who is the greatest of all time in the women’s division.
According to Smith, the discussion starts and stops at UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg.
“I think [Cyborg] is [the best ever] personally,” Smith told MMAWeekly ahead of UFC 222. “We’re not used to seeing somebody this good at this high of a level who just destroys the competition every, single time she fights. I mean Holly Holm was the toughest test she’s had in a long time and I think she passed with flying colors in that fight. It went the distance, but I thought she really, really dominated that fight. She looked absolutely fantastic.
“I think she’s the best female fighter of all time.”
While Cyborg had run roughshod over most of the fighters willing to oppose her over the past decade, former UFC champion Holly Holm definitely presented her toughest challenge when they met this past December.
Cyborg is best known for her aggressive style where she typically can just bull rush through an opponent but facing a former boxing champion like Holm required a different approach. That’s when Cyborg showed off her technical skills to go along with that raw aggression as she did far more damage over the course of five rounds to earn the victory.
That win in particular is a reason why Smith is even more resolute in his declaration that Cyborg has done enough in her career already to be considered the greatest of all time.
“I think there were people who would question her gas, question her heart, how she would deal with getting frustrated in a tough fight. We saw she didn’t have problems with any of those things,” Smith said about Cyborg. “Being a finisher who kind of blows everybody out of the water, people love the highlight reel, but as the champ, you have to prove you can beat everybody. I think she was able to prove she can go 25 hard minutes.
“She never got mentally or physically out of the fight. And that shows a lot about her ability and her character as a champion.”
Cyborg will have a chance to add onto her legacy on Saturday night when she goes for the second defense of her UFC women’s featherweight title as she faces newcomer Yana Kunitskaya in the main event for UFC 222 in Las Vegas.
This article first appeared at News – MMAWeekly.com
