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1
- Antônio Rogério Nogueira
- "Minotouro"
- 23-10-0
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Honestly he barely lost to Rua in 05, had he won he no doubt would have beat Arona to win the tournament. It's a shame Rogerio will likely never hold a major title.
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2
- Kazushi Sakuraba
- "The Gracie Hunter"
- 26-17-1, 2 NC
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Dominant in early PRIDE. First person to really seem better than the Gracies in not just strength, but skill.
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3
- Yves Edwards
- "Thugjitsu Master"
- 42-22-1, 1 NC
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One of the best lightweights of all time, but he ruled before the division had a belt.
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4
- Mirko Filipović
- "Cro Cop"
- 38-11-2, 1 NC
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He was great, but just never as good as Nogueira or, mainly, Fedor, despite putting up amazing fights to both of them. He really could have won a rematch with either of them if he fought a perfect fight.
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5
- Genki Sudo
- "Neo-Samurai"
- 16-4-1
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6
- Jon Fitch
- 32-8-2, 1 NC
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Sadly, he will never be number one.
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7
- Kenny Florian
- "KenFlo"
- 14-6-0
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Kenny has always been good, on the cusp of greatness, he just isn't really "great". We see flashes of it in some of his fights (Guida especially) but he can never really put it all together.
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8
- Mark Hunt
- "Super Samoan"
- 13-14-1, 1 NC
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9
- Igor Vovchanchyn
- "Ice Cold"
- 55-10-1, 1 NC
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10
- Mark Kerr
- "The Smashing Machine"
- 15-11-0, 1 NC
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He won two UFC tournaments, not sure if he qualifies for this list, but I'm including him anyway. He was tremendous in early PRIDE and looked to be a real force. He was likely to win the 2000 PRIDE GP, before the upset loss to Fujita, then after that he really fell off the wagon. It's a shame, really.