Debate over UFC's greatest fighters: Khabib and McGregor absent from top-10 list

Russian analyst Kalugin responded to Vlad Matveev's top-10 greatest UFC fighters list, expressing surprise that Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor were excluded while fighters like Daniel Cormier, Alexander Volkanovski, and Randy Couture made the cut. Kalugin argued that greatness should include not just titles and opposition quality, but also broader impact such as global popularization of MMA, peak performance dominance, commercial draw, and records. He proposed his own top-10 with Jon Jones first, followed by Georges St-Pierre, Khabib, McGregor, and others. Kalugin emphasized that Khabib and McGregor's influence on expanding MMA geographically and inspiring new fighters puts them ahead of some fighters with longer title reigns. He acknowledged the subjectivity of such rankings while defending the importance of considering a fighter's total impact on the sport beyond just competitive achievements.