John Danaher is one of the most successful BJJ coaches around and he recently shared who he thinks are the 3 best MMA fighters of all time. Although he is known primarily for his incredible grappling knowledge and his team of elite BJJ competitors at New Wave Jiu-Jitsu, he has also spent many years coaching MMA fighters as well. He has worked alongside many talented MMA fighters and has helped one of his star pupils, Garry Tonon, transition to the sport successfully too. He has firsthand experience of just how good many of these fighters are, so he’s in a unique position when it comes to picking the best ever.
The sport has existed for decades at this point though, so there are quite a few elite MMA fighters out there who could be considered one of the best ever. For that reason, anyone’s choices are going to be considered controversial by some and Danaher’s choices are no exception. The first name he mentioned is actually one that he has trained personally for many years, Georges St-Pierre. He served as one of St-Pierre’s cornermen for many years and St-Pierre still attends his classes to this day, even after retiring. This is also one of the least controversial choices as well, because St-Pierre had an incredible run as the UFC welterweight world champion and a legendary comeback to win the middleweight title.
He also picked the current UFC heavyweight world champion Jon Jones; another choice that should come without much argument. Jones is another double champion and although he isn’t as active as he used to be, he beat multiple generations of elite fighters during his light-heavyweight title-reign. His final selection was Khabib Nurmagomedov and although he is the only one who didn’t win titles in two weight classes, he did have an excellent run as the lightweight champion. He’s also the only man on this list who was able to retire with an undefeated professional record; which is one of the biggest points in his favor in this argument.
John Danaher didn’t just pick the 3 best MMA fighters of all time though, he also named some of the other fighters who just miss out on a position there. Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko were probably the most controversial omissions from his list and he did take the time to mention both of them, along with Kazushi Sakuraba as well. He also made a point of talking about BJ Penn, another man who was able to win UFC titles in two different weight classes during his career. Although Penn didn’t end up with a record that was as impressive as the others, Danaher explained that his talent shone just as bright.
Jake Shields shared the footage of John Danaher naming his picks for the 3 best MMA fighters ever in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
