Georges St. Pierre won his 8th straight fight on Saturday. While he’s been absolutely dominant over that stretch (He’s won 30 consecutive rounds) people argue that his lack of finishes have hurt his stock as the best in the world. While I’m not here to argue that he is the greats mixed martial artist of all time, I think its only fair that we compare his rate of finish to those of the two other men most often called the best in the world – Fedor Emelianenko and Anderson Silva.

GSP is 29 and 1/2 years old so I broke down Silva and Emelianenko’s careers through that age. Since Silva had less experience at that age, I also broke down the rate of finish through each fighter’s 21st victory.

GSP’s Decisions – 8 out of 21 Victories
December 2010 against Josh Koscheck
March 2010 against Dan Hardy
July 2009 against Thiago Alves
August 2008 against Jon Fitch
August 2007 against Josh Koscheck
March 2006 against BJ Penn
April 2005 against Mayhem Miller
January 2004 against Karo Parisyan

Fedor’s Decisions 7 out of 30 Victories:
August 2005 against Mirko Cro Cop
December 2004 against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
——- 21st victory——
March 2003 against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
June 2002 against Semmy Schilt
October 2001 against Ryushi Yanagisawa
October 2001 against Renato Babalu Sobral
December 2000 against Hiroya Takada

Fedor would have been 29 1/2 in March 2006. All Fedor’s decision victories came before he was 29 1/2. In his first 21 wins he had 5 decision victories.

Anderson Silva’s Decisions – 7 out of 27 Victories
April 2010 against Demian Maia
April 2009 against Thales Leites
—– 21st victory ——-
September 2004 against Lee Murray
June 2004 against Jeremy Horn
September 2002 against Alexander Otsuka
August 2001 against Hayato Sakurai
March 2001 against Tetsuji Kato

Anderson Silva was 13-3 and had yet to make his UFC debut by September 2005 when he would have been 29 1/2. He had already had 5 of his decision victories by then.

Through 29.5 Years
Fedor Emelianenko –  69.5%
Georges St. Pierre – 61.9%
Anderson Silva – 61.5%

Through 21 Victories
Fedor 76.1%
Silva 76.1%
GSP 61.9%

Career
Fedor 78.1%
Silva 77.4%
GSP 61.9%

So there you have it, Fedor is the greatest fighter ever. At least if you go strictly by the numbers. There is still a lot to argue about when it comes to quality of opponent. How many of Fedor’s stoppages were against vastly inferior opponents? And what does this say about the career of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who Fedor couldn’t finish in three fights (68.7% finishes in 32 career victories)? And what about Anderson Silva’s 4 loses which all came outside the UFC?

The numbers don’t quite match up to Silva and Fedor, but GSP hasn’t been in real trouble in a fight in years. However, his recent streak of dominating decisions does make his resume look less impressive. Just because he hasn’t been “finishing” fights doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been dominant. As of right now, GSP is definitely one of the best ever. These numbers just show that he still has a chance to cement himself as the best ever.

To add some more context, 24-year-old Jose Aldo has gone to decision just 4 times in his 18 career victories for 77.7% finishing rate. 23-year-old Jon Jones has gone to decision twice in 11 victories for 81.8% stoppage rate. 28-year-old Cain Velasquez has gone to decision just once in his spotless career for 88.8%.

[GSP and Leonidas via Getty]